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Azarang Mirkhah, P.E.
(2002) 1947 President’s Conference on Fire Prevention http://www.fitting-in.com/ozzie3.htm
Almost six decades ago
back in 1947, President Truman invited around 2,000 experts from all across
the nation, and had a three day Conference on May 6,7, and 8, focusing on
addressing the fire problem in America. The presidents of all of the
major fire organizations like the NFPA, IAFF, and IAFC were actively involved
in that Conference and in the development of the reports.
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As I have previously
indicated, back in 1998, when I was doing my Applied Research Project (ARP)
for my Executive Fire Officer Program (EFOP) at the National Fire Academy
(NFA), accidentally, I found an old, incomplete copy of the reports titled
"The President's Conference on Fire Prevention" at the Learning
Resource Center (LRC). I came to realize that this was a
very rare report, not referenced in many publications and not that many
people were aware of it's existence. Simply stated, time had taken it's
toll and passage of almost six decades had buried this report in the
archives.
So earlier this year, I decided to find all of the missing pieces of that
report by researching the National Archives, Truman Presidential Library, and
the Library of Congress, and put them all into electronic format (Microsoft
Words), and in an essence revived and restored them. I hope by reviving
these reports in an electronic form, I can make them more accessible to all
members of the fire protection community and the related professional
organizations, so that they can not only appreciate their tremendous
heritage, but also can build upon it. These rare reports are truly the
heritage of the American fire service, yet unfortunately the absolute majority of them are not even aware of
it's existence.
Interestingly enough
though, the suggested alternatives and conclusions of these reports are quite
progressive even for this day and age. Anyways, last month, when I finished
reconstructing the report, I sent it to the USFA and the NFPA and they have
posted it on their websites (the way USFA has posted it is much more user
friendlier though).
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/
http://www.nfpa.org/MemberSections/IFMA/News/News.asp#rep
Here are the contents
of the "1947 President's Conference on Fire Prevention" reports:
* Announcement
* Program
* Proceedings
* Reports of the six (6) working
committees:
* Report of Committee on
Firefighting
* Report of Committee on Fire
Prevention Education
* Report of Committee on Building Construction,
Operation, and
Protection
* Report of Committee on Research
* Report of Committee Organized
Public Support
* Report of the Committee on Laws
and Law Enforcement
* Action Program
* A Guide to Community Organization
for Fire Safety
* Final Report of the Continuing
Committee of the President's
Conference on Fire Prevention (1948)
You can also find a brief background
information about this report from
the USFA website, and the
Firehouse.com Press Release (Monday, August 19,
2002), http://www.firehouse.com/news/2002/8/19_FHlv.html
I hope that you get a chance to
glance through this report, and that you agree with me that the fire service
community could benefit immensely from this report, both as a historical
resource and a guiding light. I would like to strongly emphasize, and I
hope you recognize that my persistence in promoting this report is solely to
do with the invaluable content of
the report itself, and nothing to do with self promotion at all.
To me, this is about paying homage to the foresight of our predecessors who
outlined the path to a much safer community. All your efforts in
promoting this report is greatly appreciated.
Take care. Oz :-)
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