PRESS RELEASE
Quincy, MA, June 15, 2022 – The NFPA Fire & Life Safety Policy Institute has released the 2021 Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem™: Year in Review report. This latest edition looks at the tragedies, losses, and successes of the past year and highlights where attention and resources are needed to improve safety across the globe.
According to the report, 2021 was a year of modest improvements and tragic setbacks around the world. The installation of fire sprinklers in public housing slowed because of a lack of funds; significant resources, which became available to mitigate catastrophic wildfires, was still not enough to save the thousands of homes lost to wildfires; and officials in Taiwan called for fire safety inspections for all older apartment buildings but only after 46 people died in a horrible fire.
Fire and life safety deaths, injuries, and losses may be unexpected, says the report, but they do not happen by chance; they are the product of weaknesses in a community’s Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem, a framework NFPA developed in 2018 that identifies the components that must work together to minimize risk and help prevent loss, injuries, and death from fire, life, electrical, and other hazards. The Ecosystem is a key to understanding how decisions made over time can either exacerbate or control threats to safety.
“We all need this Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem to reduce risks around us, starting with governments that prioritize safety in action and resource allocation, to skilled workers who can properly implement the most up to date codes and standards, and to first responders who can capably respond and go home to their families,” said Jim Pauley, NFPA CEO and president.
- Watch our recent podcast with NFPA's Jim Pauley here.
“Catastrophic incidents worldwide continue to underscore the need to prioritize fire and life safety in policymaking and invest in a complete fire prevention and protection infrastructure. By examining the events outlined in the 2021 Year in Review report, communities can see the fault lines that enabled each calamity and use the examples to help address fractures in their own fire and life safety ecosystems to create safer areas to live,” Pauley continued.
The free 2021 Fire & Life Safety Ecosystem Year in Review report can be found, along with related resources and information, on the NFPA Ecosystem webpage. Of note, it is also available in Spanish and now offered for the first time in Arabic.
For more, please visit the NFPA press room.
About NFPA
Founded in 1896, NFPA® is a global self-funded nonprofit organization devoted to eliminating death, injury, property and economic loss due to fire, electrical and related hazards. The association delivers information and knowledge through more than 300 consensus codes and standards, research, training, education, outreach and advocacy; and by partnering with others who share an interest in furthering the NFPA mission. For more information, visit www.nfpa.org. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed online for free at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.