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BSM Week 3 Raises Awareness of Backyard Safety |
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FEMA Supports the 33rd Annual Building Safety Month This May, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is supporting the 33rd annual Building Safety Month to promote the importance of high building standards, protecting the environment, and saving energy. For the third consecutive year, President Obama has proclaimed May as National Building Safety Month to underscore that safe building codes and standards have an essential role in decreasing the impacts of disasters. |
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New York Chapters Conduct 6th Annual Lobby Day with State Lawmakers The New York State Building Officials Conference (NYSBOC) and the New York Fire Marshals & Inspectors Association (NYSFMIA) conducted their 6th Annual Lobby Day last week with lawmakers from the New York State Senate and Assembly. Chapter representatives met with Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Senators David J. Valesky and George Latimer, and Assembly members Claudia Tenney, Daniel Stec, Sam Roberts, Phil Steck and David Gantt to promote Building Safety Month and the importance of developing, adopting and enforcing building safety codes to help protect citizens and communities in the state.Later in the day, the NYS Senate passed a resolution that commemorates May as Building Safety Month. Pictured are, from left: NYSBOC 1st Vice President Ed Cusato, NYSFMIA Vice President Keith Fennelly, Building Inspectors of Nassau County President Jim Gilhooly, NYSBOC Past President Dan Casella, Senator Skelos, NYSFMIA President Jeff Wilkinson, NYSBOC 2nd Vice President Don Mekulik, Capital District Chapter of NYSBOC President and NYSBOC Legislative Chairman Robert Cordell, and the Code Council's Dorothy Harris. |
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| ICC Commemorates Milestone in Construction Codes Forty years ago, code officials first included smoke alarms in construction codes as a life-saving measure. It was 1973 when smoke alarms were first required in the construction codes known today as the I-Codes, published by the International Code Council. To salute this life-saving milestone, the Code Council has dedicated the first week of Building Safety Month 2013, May 6-12, sponsored by the Air Movement and Control Association International, to fire safety and awareness. Smoke alarms have saved countless numbers of lives by alerting people to fires in homes and other buildings. Continue reading story |
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| First Governor to Sign Building Safety Week Proclamation Passes Away at 95 Former Indiana Governor Otis R. Bowen, who in 1980 was the first governor in the United States to sign a Building Safety Week proclamation, passed away May 4 at the age of 95. After serving two terms as governor, Bowen later became the first physician appointed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, serving under President Ronald Reagan. Read more. According to Robert C. Wible, Senior Project Manager at FIATECH and former Executive Director of the National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards (NCSBCS), Building Safety Week originated within the NCSBCS Education and Qualification Committee at a meeting held in Portland, Oregon, in the summer of 1979. "The concept emerged out of a discussion between AIA's Jim Dowling, then Oregon State Building Official and chair of the E & Q Committee, Trevor Jacobson and myself and was put before the E & Q Committee upon which sat representatives from the Council of American Building Officials (CABO) and each of the three ICC model code legacy organizations," Wible explained. International Conference of Building Officials Member and NCSBCS Delegate Don McCrae took the concept home to Indiana and Governor Bowen. The proclamation was signed during the first-ever Building Safety Week celebration that was held in April 1980. |
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| IBHS Stresses Importance of Building Codes As Part of National Building Safety Month During Disaster Safety and Mitigation Week (May 13-19) — which is part of National Building Safety Month — the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) touted the importance of state enactment and enforcement of modern building codes. "Severe weather events cause billions of dollars in property damage and economic losses every year," said Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO. "The supplementary disaster aid is designed to incentivize states to do the right thing by adopting and enforcing strong building codes, which would help their citizens, businesses and communities during the recovery process following a disaster. "We know that modern building codes would significantly improve our nation's safety and resilience over time, which ultimately will reduce taxpayer costs from natural disasters," Rochman added. Earlier this month, the federal Safe Building Code Incentive Act (SBCIA) was introduced in the House of Representatives (H.R. 1878) and Senate (S. 924). The SBCIA provides qualifying states with an additional four percent of funding available for post-disaster assistance if they utilize nationally recognized model building codes. Specifically, states would need to adopt and enforce the International Residential Code (IRC) from either of the most recent two updates (2012 or 2009). Twelve states currently would qualify for the additional four percent in disaster aid under SBCIA: California, New Jersey, District of Columbia, New Mexico, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, Utah, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan and Washington. A number of other states could qualify with relatively minor changes to their building code systems. The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) commissioned a recent study to specifically examine the impact of the SBCIA and states adopting and enforcing statewide building codes. The study, which focused on hurricane and wind damages, revealed that since 1988, $125 billion in FEMA grant funds have been issued related to natural disasters. If buildings exposed to these disasters had been built to model codes, the study found that disaster aid could have been reduced by nearly 20 percent, or $13 billion. During post-disaster field investigations, including one conducted following Hurricane Charley, which struck Florida in 2004, IBHS found that homes built to modern codes with increased wind resistance were 40 percent less likely to be damaged and the repair costs were 60 percent lower. "By encouraging the adoption and enforcement of strong building codes through measures like the SBCIA, lawmakers can save lives, promote long-term fiscal stability, reduce public sector response and recovery costs, protect the environment, and create a more resilient society." |
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The upcoming Memorial Day holiday signals the beginning of outdoor fun, especially in the backyard. Building Safety Month 2013 reminds everyone to take measures to avoid unsafe conditions in the backyard. The educational public safety campaign also recognizes the important work of code officials who keep the public safe by ensuring homes and other structures are built in compliance with construction safety codes.