How I Stumbled Into Fire Protection Engineering IX: Making A Special Exception For A Client

Posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

After two and a half years in Montgomery issuing prescriptions to reduce fire risks for over 250 different buildings, I wasn’t learning anything new anymore. My employer understood that I needed to move on, or move out. If they had something for me to do, great. If not, I was going to seek employment elsewhere. Fortunately, they moved me to Atlanta as a supervisor in 1980. I was one of five supervisors in the Atlanta regional office. There were five engineers under me to handle the Atlanta metro area....read the full article

The Case Of Mysterious Pipe Corrosion

Posted on Friday, May 27th, 2011

A few months ago, we were approached by a pharmaceutical client because another expert recommended a treatment that would have done nothing to eliminate the actual cause and would have created recurring additional O&M costs with no benefits. Our diagnosis of the issue succeeded where the other experts failed. The successful diagnosis eliminated the cause of the problem and resulted in a future cost avoidance of at least $30,000....read the full article

What Do Drs. and Fire Protection Engineers Have In Common?

Posted on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Visiting a doctor who always has the right treatments makes perfect sense to us. Yet, most of us don’t realize that fire protection engineers also have specialties just like doctors. Their treatments can vary from the absurd, like a body cast for an elbow fracture, to the more reasonable, like physical therapy and medication. In extreme examples, hiring the wrong fire engineer could result in the fire solution equivalent of an eye exam for a fractured elbow. You could pay thousands, or even millions, more than what may be necessary. You should be able to expect an accurate diagnosis and treatment from your fire protection consultant. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen....read the full article

How I Stumbled Into Fire Protection Engineering VIII: After WPI – Fire Insurance Prescriptions

Posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2011

Issuing Fire Insurance Prescriptions was my first job right after graduating from WPI. I was in a year long formal training program in Montgomery, Alabama. Up to this point, the engineer training me was the sole occupier of the Montgomery territory. He wanted to go into a new territory and do something bigger, broader, and all-around different. The insurance company had told him, “As soon as you train a replacement, you can leave.” - I was his ticket out....read the full article

How I Stumbled Into Fire Protection Engineering VII: The Method Of Evaluation

Posted on Thursday, May 12th, 2011

I developed an approach to evaluate the sprinkler system for our MQP. It was graphical and statistical – and remember – this was way before the use of computers was common....read the full article