NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 98

Safety Ecosystem
The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in
London illustrates the value of the ecosystem
approach to defining risk and
determining safety breakdowns. A fire
began inside the high-rise apartment
block, then moved to the exterior of the
building. Combustible exterior cladding
allowed the fire to race up and around
the structure and find additional points
to penetrate the interior. Soon most of
the building was engulfed by fire. The
blaze gutted much of the tower and
killed 72 people. The exterior cladding
may have been the proximate cause of
the catastrophe-the cladding failed to
meet referenced fire testing standards-
but as the inquiry into the tragedy
continued, it became clear that breakdowns
in other aspects of the ecosystem
also played critical roles in the outcome.
For example, government officials
reportedly had test results from 15
years earlier showing that the type of
cladding material used on the Grenfell
Tower would fail in a fire, but they took
no steps to outlaw the material on tall
buildings. Design professionals on the
Grenfell project showed a lack of fire
safety knowledge. There were glaring
defects in workmanship on installed
fire barriers behind the cladding.
Inspectors were too over-extended
to properly ensure code compliance.
Project owners
focused heavily
on cost-saving
measures without
evaluating their
safety implications.
Government
responsibility,
use of referenced
standards, skilled
workforce, code
compliance,
investment in
safety-all of
nfpa.org/
assessment
Read more about
the NFPA Fire & Life
Safety Ecosystem.
Learn more about
the Fire & Life
Safety Ecosystem
Assessment Tool.
Learn more about
ecosystem-related
events at the
NFPA Conference
& Expo.
these elements of the safety ecosystem
had been undermined by deficiencies
that paved the way to tragedy. Grenfell
demonstrated the importance of being
able to evaluate the overall strength
of a safety ecosystem and to identify
potential weak spots before a hazard
resulted in a calamity.
That's why NFPA created the Fire &
Life Safety Ecosystem Assessment Tool,
available at ecosystemtool.nfpa.org.
Launched by the NFPA Fire & Life
Safety Policy Institute and available on
the ecosystem website, our intent was
to provide something comprehensive,
easy to use, and capable of producing
useful insights. It is designed to help
users identify safety gaps in their communities
by asking a series of yes or no
questions on the policies, practices, and
resources that support each of the eight
components of the safety ecosystem.
The tool, available in English, Spanish,
and Arabic, delivers a score of green
(excellent), yellow (good), fair (orange),
or red (poor), along with a downloadable
report. The assessment tool can't
predict the future, but it can help you
take the first steps toward addressing
existing safety gaps.
Sharpening the tool
From our experience with the tool so
far, I can report that fire-prevention
activities are the thing most likely to
receive short shrift in an assessment of
community safety capacity. But a bit of
context first.
Capacity is a broad concept-as envisioned
here, it describes the collective
LIVING WITH RISK Residents of Port Arthur,
Texas, are rescued from flooding following
Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Of the public safety
professionals worldwide who have used
the new safety ecosystem assessment tool
developed by NFPA, 40 percent say their
communities do not have land-use planning
safeguards in place to prevent development
in areas at risk from natural or man-made
hazards. GETTY IMAGES
98 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2022
http://www.nfpa.org/assessment http://www.nfpa.org/assessment http://ecosystemtool.nfpa.org

NFPA Journal - Summer 2022

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

Contents
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - Cover1
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - Cover2
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 1
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - Contents
NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - 3
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2022 - Cover3
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