Revisions: How the NFPA standards review process helped bring a new extinguisher to market

摘要

IN RESPONSE TO A HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY REQUEST, the Amerex Corporation designed a UL-listed fire extinguisher that could be used safely on a fire in an occupied operating room. Such a request is not unusual. New technology or, in some instances, new twists on old technology are often developed to serve a particular fire protection need. In this case, it was a portable water-mist fire extinguisher. Nor is it unusual for NFPA to revise our codes and standards to include such technology in new editions of these documents after the technology has been introduced. In the case of the water-mist fire extinguisher, the document was NFPA 10, Portable Fire Extinguishers, Fires in health care facilities present a particularly-difficult fire problem/Not only are such facilities full of Class A combustibles, such as mattresses, and electrical equipment of all types, from hot plates in break rooms to high-tech items in the operating room, but they are far more difficult to evacuate than many other types of occupancies. And even a small fire in a health care facility may affect the patients' care and health.