Welcome to FSMC eNews!

Fulton Cochran, CFCO, CBO
Chair—Governing Committee; ICC Fire Service Membership Council
Henderson, Nevada, Fire Department

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Fire Service Membership Council (FSMC) eNews! This quarterly newsletter is one of several initiatives undertaken by your FSMC Governing Committee to provide you concise and timely information about our ICC Membership Council.

We hope that this newsletter will be one of the many benefits that the Governing Committee and ICC staff can provide to you as a member of the FSMC. Thanks to Bruce Faust and his Newsletter Work Group for making this initiative a reality.

The FSMC Governing Committee held its mid-year business meeting April 20-21 in Dallas, just prior to the start of the Group B Committee Action Code Hearings. A joint meeting of your Governing Committee and the Building Officials Membership Council Governing Committee also was held March 1-3 at Guntersville State Park in Alabama. Read more about it by clicking here. You are encouraged to attend the FSMC Annual Meeting in Atlantic City, N.J., on Sunday, September 29, 2013.

As part of the ICC Annual Conference in Atlantic City, the FSMC is collaborating on two classes that are specifically made for the FSMC member. These classes are:		  
 

• Code Hearing Orientation for First Timers (3 hours) scheduled for Tuesday, October 1. This will be an interactive workshop presented by veteran code officials from all disciplines. The workshop will include an overview of the ICC code development process and an interactive forum to practice testifying on a mock code change proposal.

• New Approaches to Warehouse Fire Protection/Warehouse Commodity — Fire Protection Mismatch; A Recipe for Major Warehouse Fires (3 hours) also scheduled for Tuesday, October 1. This seminar focuses on the challenges of commodity classification and high-piled combustible storage. Seemingly benign changes or alterations to commodities can have a major impact on the ability of a sprinkler system to either control or suppress a fire. High-piled combustible storage (HPCS) is no longer limited to conventional warehouses. Experience has found that jurisdictions can find HPCS within indoor malls or in conventional strip mercantile buildings. Given that HPCS is commonly located in sprinkled, unlimited area buildings, it’s incumbent upon code officials and design professional to ensure that the sprinkler protection is properly designed, especially when dealing with high-challenge commodities like plastics, aerosols or physical-hazard hazardous materials. This seminar includes several case studies that explain what went wrong and what went right in unlimited area buildings protected by automatic sprinklers.

  
  If you think other colleagues would benefit or be interested in receiving this newsletter directly, please invite them to join the Council with this link. It’s free to any ICC Member and easy to do!