NFPA Journal - Spring 2022 - 15

types of foam, and which ones contain
which chemicals and which don't, "
Daelhousen said. " But the push against
foam in general in recent years, combined
with the fact that alternative
protection methods have emerged for
hangars, created the perfect storm
of factors to put this change into the
2022 edition. "
Instead of only requiring foam protection
in hangars, the 2022 edition
of NFPA 409 now lets users decide
what system would work best after a
professional approved by the authority
having jurisdiction conducts a risk
assessment for the space. " It allows
people to use some judgment, " said
Daelhousen.
One prescriptive method of protection
committee members specifically
referenced in the new edition of the
standard is known as an ignitable
liquid drainage floor assembly, which
combines a water-based fire suppression
system like fire sprinklers with a
fuel-drainage system on the floor. " It
achieves the same performance goal as
a foam system
in getting rid of
the fire hazard,
which in an
aircraft hangar
would be a
leak of fuel and
burning pool
of fuel on the
ground, " Daelhousen
said.
NFPA.ORG/
BEYONDFOAM
Watch security
camera footage of
an aircraft hangar
in Charlotte, North
Carolina, filling
with foam in 2017.
Read two studies
about foam
fire suppression
system discharges
in aircraft hangars.
Building on the University of Maryland
research from last year, the Fire
Protection Research Foundation, the
research affiliate of NFPA, recently
released a study that further examines
non-foam protection methods
for aircraft hangars, including drains,
sprinklers, water-mist systems, and
more.
" Similar to the previous research,
we also looked at fire incident and
accidental discharge data-finding,
for instance, that accidental foam
discharge was about four times more
likely than discharge because of a
fire-but our primary focus was looking
at alternative methods of hangar
protection, " said Victoria Hutchison, a
project manager at the Foundation.
RESEARCH
UNMET NEEDS
Latest needs assessment
report highlights deficiencies
in training and other US fire
service resources
By Angelo Verzoni
F
ire departments across
the United States are
being asked to do
more-from wildland
fire suppression to
responding to active shooters to caring
for COVID-19 patients. Yet many
departments lack the resources and
training to successfully take on these
responsibilities.
That was one major finding from
NFPA's Fifth Needs Assessment of the
US Fire Service report, which was published
in December and included the
responses of nearly 3,000 fire departments
that were surveyed by NFPA in
2020 and 2021.
" Firefighters are engaged in an
ever-expanding scope of activities and
are responding to new emergencies
on a continual basis, " said Ben Evarts,
a data collection and research manager
at NFPA, who helped compile the
report. " The first responder role that
firefighters played on the frontlines of
the COVID-19 pandemic reflects just
one recent example of the myriad ways
fire departments are relied upon to
protect and serve their communities. "
The report, however, indicates that
many departments are not equipped to
handle some of these roles. Nearly half
of all departments surveyed, for example,
said they couldn't provide all of
their responders with medical personal
protective equipment (PPE)-a critical
component for safely responding to
calls during a pandemic.
Training was another area where
departments reported significant
unmet needs.
" Across every response type in the
survey, from structural firefighting to
active shooter responses, there were
fire department personnel reported as
being responsible for responding to
incidents for which they have not been
formally trained or certified, " the report
says. Nearly 70 percent of departments
that reported being responsible for
wildland fire operations, for instance,
said they had personnel who aren't formally
trained to handle wildfires. For
departments that said they responded
to active shooter events, about a third
reported having untrained staff.
Initiated by the terrorist attacks on
9/11, NFPA's past fire service needs
assessments were released in 2002,
2006, 2011, and 2015. Read all of those
reports, as well as the most recent one,
at nfpa.org/needsassessment.
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 15
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NFPA Journal - Spring 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Spring 2022
