Help Preserve What Makes US Buildings Safe

I started my fire protection career over four decades ago as a fire sprinkler layout technician and the rules for designing a fire sprinkler system were in the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 13, referred to as the Red Book and pocket-sized. My instructors drilled into me that it was the Bible for fire sprinkler systems and I was to learn it backward and forward because its requirements were essential for installing systems that would operate properly and protect people and buildings.

As I used the standard, I did not understand how its content was developed and adopted. Frankly, in my naivety, I simply assumed that some really smart person or persons wrote and updated it. Later I learned about the NFPA standard-making process and now, sadly, see that system, and how it is paid for, come under continued attack.

Codes and standards created by private entities are a roadmap for success that is unequaled for fire and life safety. The widely used NFPA standard and others are created with input from any interested party, allowing all stakeholders to serve on technical committees.

Interest groups are limited to no more than 30% of committee voting members and a minimum of two-thirds of the committee must agree to enact a change. Public access is also allowed. Using NFPA as an example, the development processes are largely funded by income generated from the sale of the documents, both paper and digital.

In recent years, for-profit entities have sought to republish or commercialize safety codes without compensation. This, combined with artificial intelligence scraping, threatens to bankrupt the self-funded safety standard development system. The for-profit entities argue that when a code or standard is adopted by a jurisdiction, it becomes law and should be freely accessible. They have filed lawsuits to allow anyone to use the codes and standards in any way they see fit, including for commercial purposes. These issues are being argued in various courts and legislation is needed.

The Pro Codes Act

To create a final resolution, NFPA is supporting federal legislation to address the issue of copyright protection for privately developed codes and standards. The Pro Codes Act, which has bipartisan support and is now being considered in the House, requires that standards incorporated by reference be made available for free viewing on a publicly accessible website.

This approach ensures that anyone who wants to review standards can do so. It’s a solution that ensures the public can access the standards and rules they are expected to follow while also incentivizing the continued creation and updating of standards that are so critical to protecting public health and safety.

For more than ten years, NFPA has allowed anyone to view its codes and standards free of charge on its website. The only restriction is that one cannot download, copy and paste or print the text because of the copyright protection.

Even though there is broad support for the Pro Codes Act, passage is still a tough hill to climb as there are those who think that the copyrights do not need to be in place and that, in the end, governments can create the laws and rules for fire and life safety. That would be, in a word, disaster. One only needs to look around the world to see how poorly this works.

We need your help, and one thing we know for certain is that contacting your representatives works. NFPA has a link that is simple and allows us to reach out to our governmental representatives to support the Act. For more information on the Pro Codes Act, please visit dontchancesafety.org. To access the form to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support this critical piece of legislation, please visit votervoice.net/NFPA/Campaigns.

As my fire protection career advanced, I eventually became a partner in a consulting firm where my partner tutored me in the process for developing codes and standards. I became an NFPA member in 1990 and have been active with the development process since that time.

I believe the future of fire and life safety in the U.S. and beyond depends on passage and enactment of the Pro Codes Act. The support of everyone who wants a fire-safe world is needed.

Russ Leavitt, executive chair of Telgian Holdings, is a licensed contractor with 44 years of experience. He is immediate past chair of the National Fire Protection Association board and can be reached at rl******@*****an.com.