In conversations with both friends and people I have met through emergency calls with the fire department, I often observed that a lot of people never give a second thought to that little lifesaver mounted on the ceiling or the wall of their home. That little lifesaver is the smoke detector.
On average, a fire department responded to a fire somewhere in the United States every 23 seconds in 2024. A civilian was fatally injured in a fire every two hours and 14 minutes Read More
Stairs that contain three or fewer risers are considered short flight stairs according to safety standard ASTM F1637-21: Standard Practice for Safe Walking Surfaces. Single step transitions are also considered a short flight stair. Short fight stairs can be particularly hazardous for pedestrians due to the lack of visual cues signifying an elevation change. Unexpected changes in elevations can cause pedestrians to misstep and fall. Read More
It’s that time of year again. Freezing rain, flurries of snow that don’t stick around, and mornings using a spatula to scrape dreaded ice off our windshields. I’ve lived in the south most of my life, and I know the combination of excitement and dread that my compatriots and I are likely to face during the winter months. Let’s face it, we may know how to cook pulled pork, but when it comes to freezing temperatures most of us don’t have much experience! Read More
Selecting the best or most effective way to reduce or eliminate risk from a particular machine hazard is an extremely important process. It can mean the difference between someone going home and hugging their wife and children…to never going home again. The hazard control hierarchy (see figure below) is an available tool that illustrates what is known to be most effective to least effective when it comes to eliminating machine hazards or reducing the risk from those hazards to an acceptable level. Removing the hazard by designing it out is by far most effective. Read More
People have too much “stuff”. Manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, and commercial enterprises all carry inventory of “stuff”, too. According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) own statistics, in 2018, the US had over 17.4 billion ft2 of warehouse and storage. Growing from just 13 billion ft2 in 2012, warehouse and storage space is the fastest growing and now the largest use of commercial space in the US, overtaking office space for the first time in modern history.
Almost every one of those buildings contains storage racks. And this doesn’t include the mercantile spaces. You can go to a big box retailer and buy cereal from a lower shelf while pallets of grain or packaged drinks sit 20-30 feet above, waiting to be introduced to the customer.
There is no specific OSHA regulation for anchoring storage racks – Read More
Fire. Something about fire touches our brainstems…both good and bad! Uncontrolled fire is terrifying and deadly to be sure. But the controlled burning of wood at a campfire or in a fireplace in your home almost can’t be beat, to my mind! For that very reason, a fairly common amenity to houses nowadays is the gas log fireplace insert.
When not installed properly, these logs will generate soot. These soot particles can leave the fireplace and meander. All. Over. Your. House. Read More
Daylight saving (DST) ends on November 2, 2025, and with it the clocks will “fall back” an hour. While it is nice to gain an hour of sleep, the end of daylight-saving time also comes with a increase of vehicle crashes, injuries, and pedestrian fatalities. This phenomenon prompts the question: What is so dangerous about being a pedestrian at night? Read More
Eating and drinking establishments see an average of 7,410 structure fires per year based on a 2017 report published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The report analyzed available data from the U.S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and the NFPA’s annual fire department survey for the years 2010-2014.
In the old-timey Fire Triangle, you have heat, fuel, and oxygen. Get these three together in the right quantities, and you get fire. What if the fuel provides its own heat? That’s spontaneous combustion, or spontaneous ignition. NFPA921 defines this as “initiation of combustion of a material by an internal chemical or biological reaction that has produced sufficient heat to ignite the material.” Read More
When consulting as an expert witness, having certifications can assist in establishing your credibility and qualifications. If you’ve perused the Curriculum Vitaes of the experts at The Warren Group, Inc., you may have seen some of these letters trailing after our names. What do they mean and what organizations grant them? The following is a sampling of some of the certifications our experts have acquired: Read More
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