NFPA Journal - Summer 2024 - 8

Editor's Note by Scott Sutherland
Executive Editor, NFPA Journal
Our CRR Thing
T
wo years ago, as part of the
NFPA conference that was held
in Boston, I attended an education
session on community risk
reduction. As I waited in a convention
center function room for the session to
begin, a couple of polo-shirted guys took their
seats behind me. One was a member of the fire
service, and the other worked for a large fire
suppression system outfit.
" Didn't expect to see you at a session like
this, " one said to the other.
" Didn't expect to see you, either, " was the
response. " But I figured it was time to get my head
around this community risk reduction thing. "
Risk reduction at the community scale has
been a thing for some time now, and in recent
years NFPA has put considerable resources
toward developing tools to help communities
identify, assess, and address an array of
community risks. In 2020, NFPA released
the first edition of NFPA 1300, Standard on
Community Risk Assessment and Community
Risk Reduction Plan Development. That was
followed by CRAIG 1300®
, a digital data dashboard
designed to complement NFPA 1300 by
helping fire departments and safety officials
identify opportunities to improve safety within
their communities.
To get an idea of how prominent the concept
of community risk reduction, or CRR,
has become in the fire and life safety world,
just scan the education session offerings at
the upcoming NFPA Conference & Expo®
(nfpa.org/conference). On any given day of
the conference, there's hardly a block of time
that doesn't contain at least a couple of sessions
that can help you get your head around
what CRR is all about. Considered broadly,
the reach of CRR in the sessions extends to
many of the most urgent and complex topics
facing safety practitioners: wildland/urban
interface fires, active shooter/hostile events,
lithium-ion batteries and energy storage
technologies, climate change and natural
disasters, community members with disabilities,
home oxygen burn prevention, and
more. One of the feature stories in this issue
of the magazine addresses recent advances in
the community-scale mitigation of the risks
related to hoarding, which can intensify a
number of risks faced by first responders
in the event of a fire or other emergency. If
there's a safety challenge that affects people
throughout a community, it can be better
understood and addressed by observing it
through the lens of CRR.
Community risk reduction isn't the theme
per se of the upcoming conference in Orlando,
but considering the safety challenges that we
increasingly share-with our neighbors, our
communities, and the multitudes with whom
we inhabit the planet-it makes sense to regard
it as a de facto guiding principle, the tie that
binds us no matter what our professional disciplines
may be or what the particular safety
problems are that keep us awake at night.
We're in it together, and help may be closer
than you think.
See you in Orlando.
THE NFPA JOURNAL MISSION It is the mission of NFPA Journal to provide NFPA members and
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8 | NFPA JOURNAL * SUMMER 2024
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EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Scott Sutherland
ssutherland@nfpa.org
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NFPA Journal - Summer 2024

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