NRMCA participated in National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Technical Committee First Draft meetings over six weeks in July and August. The focus of these meetings was to review public inputs and proposed changes to NFPA codes and standards related to building construction and safety, reports NRMCA's Shamim Rashid-Sumar. As part of the First Draft meetings, NRMCA collaborated with industry partners and provided technical information and debate on issues related to fire safety requirements for multi-family residential occupancies, flame propagation in combustible components of exterior walls, automatic sprinkler provisions and tradeoffs and 3-D printing of concrete structures.
Ms. Rashid-Sumar is a principal voting member of NFPA technical committees on Building Construction, Fire Protection Features, Fire Tests, Residential Occupancies and Structures, Construction & Materials. These committees oversee and maintain provisions for NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, NFPA 220 Standard on Types of Building Construction, NFPA 221 Standard for High Challenge Fire Walls, Fire Walls, and Fire Barrier Walls, NFPA 703 Standard for Fire-Retardant-Treated Wood and Fire-Retardant Coatings for Building Materials, and NFPA 5000 Building Construction and Safety Code.
The committees and panels serve as the principal consensus bodies responsible for developing and updating all NFPA codes and standards. However, the NFPA standards development process encourages public participation in the development of its standards. Interested parties may view more on how the NFPA standards development process works here.
Build With Strength is a coalition led by NRMCA that promotes standards advocacy to leverage policies promoting safety and resiliency and help place more concrete. For more information on fire codes and standards advocacy efforts, contact Shamim Rashid-Sumar at ssumar@nrmca.org.
National Ready Mixed Concrete Association