Understanding and Implementing the 16 Life Safety Initiatives - Chapter 3 - Research and Data Collection in the Fire Service

Published

July 1, 2010

Author(s)

Daniel M. Madrzykowski

Abstract

Research has a direct impact on the fire service. The research comes from a wide range of disciplines engineering, kinesiology, medicine, the military, and many others. The data for the research is also collected from a variety of sources. These sources range from scientists studying chemical properties with the ultimate goal of improving the ignition resistance of materials (basic research), to engineers developing new fire safety systems for buildings (applied research), to firefighters recording the details of their last fire call into a database (data collection). Each of these tasks is very different, but as you will learn in this chapter, the scientist, engineer, and firefighter are dependent on each other making improvements to fire safety in the built environment. Fire service personnel must gather data from a wide variety of sources to make informed decisions regarding local fire issues, equipment acquisitions, training, firefighter health and wellness, and many other topics. Some of this data is collected by agencies such as the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA ), the insurance industry, and local fire departments. Numerous organizations exist that conduct fire and fire-service-related research and investigation. Examples of these organizations include the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and many universities. Armed with the knowledge collected and stored within these various organizations, the fire service can begin to help prevent firefighter injuries and deaths.

Citation

Understanding and Implementing the 16 Life Safety Initiatives

Publisher Info

Fire Protection Publicatins (FPP), Stillwater, OK

Pub Type

Books

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Local Download

Keywords

fire service, firefighter health, firefighter life safety initiatives, firefighter safety, fire research laboratories, National Fire Incident Reporting System, National Fallen Fire Fighters Foundation

Citation

Madrzykowski, D. (2010), Understanding and Implementing the 16 Life Safety Initiatives - Chapter 3 - Research and Data Collection in the Fire Service, Fire Protection Publicatins (FPP), Stillwater, OK, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=905691 (Accessed December 13, 2024)