November 20, 2019

Podcast: Industry Roundtable with Rodger Reiswig

Episode 2: Risk Analysis and Mass Notification Systems

If you’ve been in the fire protection industry long enough, you’ll recognize that a mass notification system (MNS) is a relatively recent addition to NFPA 72. But how did its inclusion initially come about, and what role does risk analysis play in the design of an MNS?

In this episode, Rodger Reiswig speaks with Wayne Moore, P.E., CFPS, SET, FSFPE, F.NSPE, vice president of Jensen Hughes, a fire protection engineering and code-consulting firm. Some of the topics to be covered include how:

• The Department of Defense, which had been using MNS since the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, requested that it be added to NFPA 72 in 2007

• Risk analysis, MNSs, and emergency response plans are unique to a particular building, which sets them apart from other areas of fire protection that must conform to “absolute” codes 

• The MNS can be allowed to override the fire alarm signal – but only under certain circumstances

Listen to the Podcast

Wayne D. Moore, P.E., CFPS, SET, FSFPE, F.NSPE, is a licensed professional fire protection engineer and a vice president at Jensen Hughes, a fire protection engineering and code-consulting firm. 

He currently serves as a principal member and former chairman of the NFPA 72-2016 Emergency Communications Systems (ECS) Technical Committee and is a principal member of the NFPA 72 Correlating Committee. He is also the editor/co-editor of five editions of the National Fire Alarm Code Handbook ®, and author of Designing Mass Notification Systems – A Pathway to Effective Communications.

 Moore is the 2009 recipient of the NFPA Standards Medal and the 2012 Recipient of the AFAA Lifetime Achievement Award.