I was asked by the good people of Brady Books to write a blog for them. This is what happened.
http://bradybooks.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/unaffiliated-un-uniformity/
Friday, February 24, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Why I Do What I Do
I have been meaning to say this for a while, I represent no one selling a product nor any agency, just me. First off, nearly all of my adult career has been some how involved in Fire Protection. I have been and am once again a volunteer fire fighter, I have been and am once again a fire sprinkler installer (sprinkler fitter). The most loved job I have had (paid) has been as a fire protection design engineer. I have worked in the manufacturing and sales of fire sprinkler devices, I have grown up with a entrepreneur father who was a distributor of fire protection and standpipe equipment and even ran his business for a short while too. I have designed and installed special hazard suppression systems (non-water based suppression systems). I have been in buildings (as a fire fighter) where there have been sprinklers activated and in buildings (houses) without them. So, my whole life has been about fire protection. Now that that is out of the way, onward.
I am self taught. I work in a highly specialized field, also, a relatively low paying career (compared to many others). I have had opportunities to do other things that may, in the long term, have paid much better, even to the point of not living pay check to pay check, but I stuck with what I love. Lately, I have been involved in many "discussions" about sprinklers in houses. I really do get angry when I hear the argument that it is a "waste of money" and "just another pointless building code" or worse, "if I am already spending $200,000 to build a house why should I spend another $5-$6000 on something I will never use?" Even worse (to me) is my co-workers, some of them, hate their job, and are just doing it for the pay check. They could care less about what they do, even one, who has stated that he sees no point in putting them in new construction. Really? Maybe he needs to find a new career.
Well here is why *I* design/install fire sprinkler systems in nearly every type of building you can think of, INCLUDING houses. I am passionate about what I do for several reasons below are some of them.
The following are links I have found in my twitter stream:
http://marietta.patch.com/articles/sprinkler-saves-house-11-people
http://fox4kc.com/2012/02/05/fire-quickly-extinguished-thanks-to-sprinkler-system/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/17/fire-prompts-partial-evacuation-santa-fe-station-h/
I see these headlines EVERY DAY. Yes, every day. They are examples of what I do for a paid career saving lives.
I dont get paid anywhere near what my job is worth, but I still do it, every day. If just ONE of the systems I have either installed or designed does its job, just once to help people evacuate, hold back a fire or save a life, then my career will have been worth while.
There is another side to this that so many in the industry over look; sprinkler systems are NOT intended to EXTINGUISH the fire, but only to CONTAIN it so that the occupants of the building can evacuate and until we, my brethren fire fighters can get there and do our job. In reality though, many times they do extinguish fires before they can spread and become a tragedy. Here is how I see it, I would feel so much safer going into a structure fire knowing there is a sprinkler system there, and active than with out one. Sprinklers save fire fighters lives too. Here is one painful example: who remembers the Worcester Cold Storage fire from December, 1999? I do. I was on a fire dept. in the adjacent town. The building had been abandoned for MANY years. The owners CHOSE not to maintain the dry sprinkler system. 6 Fire fighters died. Had the sprinkler system been able to function, that building would not have turned into the inferno that it was.
I am searching for a second income. I will NOT leave the fire protection industry, it is too important to me and what it can do. I am a certified EMT-B, but not in the state I live, more on that one later.
Install sprinklers.
Hug a fire fighter.
If you see anything in the news about laws for mandating installing sprinklers in houses, do everything you can to support it, it may save your life or the life of someone trying to save your life.
I am self taught. I work in a highly specialized field, also, a relatively low paying career (compared to many others). I have had opportunities to do other things that may, in the long term, have paid much better, even to the point of not living pay check to pay check, but I stuck with what I love. Lately, I have been involved in many "discussions" about sprinklers in houses. I really do get angry when I hear the argument that it is a "waste of money" and "just another pointless building code" or worse, "if I am already spending $200,000 to build a house why should I spend another $5-$6000 on something I will never use?" Even worse (to me) is my co-workers, some of them, hate their job, and are just doing it for the pay check. They could care less about what they do, even one, who has stated that he sees no point in putting them in new construction. Really? Maybe he needs to find a new career.
Well here is why *I* design/install fire sprinkler systems in nearly every type of building you can think of, INCLUDING houses. I am passionate about what I do for several reasons below are some of them.
The following are links I have found in my twitter stream:
http://marietta.patch.com/articles/sprinkler-saves-house-11-people
http://fox4kc.com/2012/02/05/fire-quickly-extinguished-thanks-to-sprinkler-system/
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/feb/17/fire-prompts-partial-evacuation-santa-fe-station-h/
I see these headlines EVERY DAY. Yes, every day. They are examples of what I do for a paid career saving lives.
I dont get paid anywhere near what my job is worth, but I still do it, every day. If just ONE of the systems I have either installed or designed does its job, just once to help people evacuate, hold back a fire or save a life, then my career will have been worth while.
There is another side to this that so many in the industry over look; sprinkler systems are NOT intended to EXTINGUISH the fire, but only to CONTAIN it so that the occupants of the building can evacuate and until we, my brethren fire fighters can get there and do our job. In reality though, many times they do extinguish fires before they can spread and become a tragedy. Here is how I see it, I would feel so much safer going into a structure fire knowing there is a sprinkler system there, and active than with out one. Sprinklers save fire fighters lives too. Here is one painful example: who remembers the Worcester Cold Storage fire from December, 1999? I do. I was on a fire dept. in the adjacent town. The building had been abandoned for MANY years. The owners CHOSE not to maintain the dry sprinkler system. 6 Fire fighters died. Had the sprinkler system been able to function, that building would not have turned into the inferno that it was.
I am searching for a second income. I will NOT leave the fire protection industry, it is too important to me and what it can do. I am a certified EMT-B, but not in the state I live, more on that one later.
Install sprinklers.
Hug a fire fighter.
If you see anything in the news about laws for mandating installing sprinklers in houses, do everything you can to support it, it may save your life or the life of someone trying to save your life.
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