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Fire and Life Safety Priorities

Reduce deaths from structure fires to zero and limit property damage from structure fires to the area of origin.

• Advocate for complete automatic fire sprinkler protection of all new occupied construction, including one-and two-family dwellings.
• Advocate for the fire sprinkler retrofit of existing high-rises, institutional, and other high risk/high consequence occupancies.
• Support efforts to educate the public on  the benefits of fire sprinkler protection.
• Support efforts to educate Code Officials on the benefits of fire sprinkler protection.
• Advocate for the elimination of codes, laws or policies that discourage the cost effective installation of fire sprinkler systems.
• Educate the public on the benefits of installing and maintaining smoke alarms in existing residential occupancies.
• Advocate for smoke alarm protection to be provided in new residences to include interconnected smoke alarms on each level, smoke alarms outside of each sleeping area as well as in each bedroom.
• Support research efforts that will yield scientific data that can be used to address critical fire safety concerns.
• Actively participate in model code development work in order to achieve the Section's fire safety goals and objectives.
• Improve the quality and quantity of code development proposals developed by the FLSS.
• Advocate for a comprehensive agreement between NFPA and ICC regarding each association's role in the codes and standards development.

Reduce firefighter fire ground deaths to zero

• Educate firefighters as to the benefits of fire sprinkler protection in reducing firefighter deaths.
• Advocate for complete automatic fire sprinkler protection of all new construction, including one-and two-family dwellings
• Advocate for the fire sprinkler retrofit of existing high-rises, institutional and other high risk/high consequence occupancies.
• Advocate for the retrofit of cost effective building systems, processes and maintenance strategies in existing buildings that will reduce firefighter risk exposure during emergency operations.
• Support efforts to educate firefighters as to realistic building performance and risk vs. return assessments during manual fire suppression operations.

Change the organizational culture within fire departments so that a greater priority is placed on fire prevention and life safety

• Advocate for the development of technical data regarding the effectiveness of fire prevention and life safety programs.
• Educate members of the fire service as to benefits of a fire prevention focused approach to risk mitigation.
• Develop positive  relationships with the National League of Cities, International City/County Managers Association,  International Association of Firefighters and other organizations that can assist us in reaching our goals.
• Advocate for the development of a standard for fire prevention resource deployment.
• Encourage fire prevention and life safety officials to participate in national certification programs.
• Advocate for a nationally-recognized accreditation program for fire prevention bureaus.
• Advocate for appropriate funding of the U.S Fire Administration, to include fire prevention and public education programs as well as fire prevention, management, and leadership training at the National Fire Academy.
• Advocate for greater fire service participation in code development processes and representation on code development and technical committees.

Create an environment where the public is made aware of the fire problem and their role in fire prevention

• Develop a coalition of like-minded organizations that will participate in a program to respond in the immediate aftermath of a significant incident with media materials, taking advantage of the teachable moment following these tragedies.
• Develop an online library of materials and resources that fire departments can use, free of charge, in reaching out to their jurisdiction emphasizing the role that the public has in fire prevention.
• Develop monthly, nationwide campaigns focusing on different aspects of fire safety, life safety and fire prevention.