I'm a charter member of the BPFPTF. We spent 2 years meeting, discussing, debating and trying to work with council to implement upgrades in code, address crappy water infrastructure, etc. in the wake of two 4-story historic bldgs burning down in 18 months. We had Nick Artim down from VT to hold a public ed session for the citizens, and I'll say a couple dozen attended- not bad in a small town.
Less than a week after the eve we formally presented our findings, a historic B&B burnt down. I'm quoting sprinklers in the re-build next week. Another building burnt down while waiting for the inspector to return the contractor's call for witnessing the hydro of the retrofit. I just heard from our chair that the Boro Council has disbanded us, we've made our report, have a nice day. The Task Group also included Dennis Gentzel, FPE, Chief Engineer of the MD State Fire Marshal's office (a Terp and Bellefonte native) and Dr Walt Schneider, a structural engineer who taught at PSU and is now director of the Centre Region Code Office. It will be interesting to see the response to the next fire fatality after nothing gets implemented. Status Quo. glc -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jim Kettler Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 9:01 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Fire Protection in Historic Buildings I received a new publication in the mail today titled "Fire Detection & Suppression for Buildings in Historic Districts". It is a joint publication with support from the PA Historical and Museum Commission, the PA Downtown Center, the Borough of Bellefonte, and the Bellefonte Preservation and Fire Prevention Task Force. Bellefonte lost two historic buildings to fire in 2004 and 2006. The booklet is a response to those losses. While I haven't read the entire publication yet, it looks well produced. The primary focus is on fire suppression - but also covers fire safety and fire detection. Here is a link to the publication: http://bellefonte.net/harb/fire-suppression-report/ Jim K. James M. Kettler, EFO, CFPS Director of Building and Codes/Fire Marshal Buckingham Township PO Box 413 4613 Hughesian Drive Buckingham, PA 18912 215-794-8836 www.buckinghampa.org _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field) _______________________________________________ Sprinklerforum mailing list http://lists.firesprinkler.org/mailman/listinfo/sprinklerforum For Technical Assistance, send an email to: [email protected] To Unsubscribe, send an email to:[email protected] (Put the word unsubscribe in the subject field)
