NORCAL FPO
FIRE PROTECTION EQUIPMENT AND DEVICES COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES

Dublin, CA
February 27, 2004

Attendees:

George Blind - Sunnyvale DPS
Randy Dysart- Cal Safe/Beacon
Dave Dewey - Daly City F.D.
Dave Downing -Millbrae F.D.
Steve Hart -NASIP
Sam Husoe - NFSA
Jaymae Wentker -Mt. View F.D.
David Secoda - Bay Alarm
Allen Sigl -Sac. Metro Fire
David Stevens - San Ramon Valley F.D.
Natalie Kurtz - San Ramon VlyFD
Bruce Chase - Fremont F.D.
Curtis Ruel - Fremont F. D.
Jim DiGRazia - CPSC
Ron Mahlman - Rolf Jensen
Russ Blair - Sac. Metro Fire
Don Newman - San Ramon Vly FD
Rob Arnest- Roseville FD

NFPA 13/72 – George Blind reported that the committee had been approached by Ginni Kripner (OSFM) and asked to conduct a review of the 2002 editions of NFPA 13 and 72. She stated that the State Fire Marshal’s Office intends on adopting these two standards in the next code cycle. Attempts to get further guidance from the State Fire Marshal’s Office have been unsuccessful

The committee has also been asked to help review NFPA 1 and NFPA 5000 to incorporate current State requirements. Committee members felt that the review of NFPA 13/72 fits better into the scope of the committee’s responsibility and should take priority. It was suggested that the review of NFPA 72 should also be coordinated with the State Fire Marshal’s Fire Alarm Advisory Committee to avoid duplication of effort. George will attempt to contact Bill Hopple to discuss the process.

NFPA 13D Standardization – The committee discussed the desire of a number of NorCal members to attempt to standardize the method of applying NFPA 13D throughout California. Jurisdictions are not using standard design criteria, which puts an unfair burden on property owners to comply with constantly varying requirements.

Steve Hart offered to design a questionnaire that could be sent to all California jurisdictions asking what each requires that is over and above the requirements found in 13D. The results would then be presented to the committee for further consideration/action.

Title 19/NFPA 25 - Steve Hart reported that the Title 19/NFPA 25 workgroup met in Woodland on February 25^th. He said that the workgroup would be attempting to get written approval from State Fire Marshal Tennant for the concept having the state adopt NFPA 25. He said NFPA had committed to producing a California version of NFPA 25 if it could be adopted.

Dave Dewey said that he was concerned that the financial impact of moving from Title 19 to NFPA 25 would be significant because of increased requirements and inspection frequencies in NFPA 25. Steve Hart said that the impacts would have to be assessed by the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

UL 300 – Randy Dysart is looking for any reported malfunction of hood and duct extinguishing systems, whether they are UL 300 compliant or not.

Standardization of Built-in Fire Protection – Steve Hart said that he would like to see the committee take on a long-term project to develop a 5 to 10-year Master Plan for standardization of built-in fire protection. He said that part of the project should be a historical chronology of standards in the state.

Elevator Regulations – During the Exchange of Ideas, it was reported that a state elevator inspector would not accept heat detectors in lieu of smoke detectors for elevator recall in a lobby area that was open to the exterior. This points out the inconsistent application of excepted standards by elevator inspectors. The committee will continue to push for reasonable application of alarm/recall requirements throughout the state.

Respectfully submitted,

George Blind / Dave Dewey - Co-chairs