By FireRescue1 staff
QUINCY, Mass. — The National Fire Protection Association announced the launch of the NFPA Fire and Life Safety Policy Institute.
The Policy Institute will look at a range of issues and advise policymakers on how to improve safety for their citizens, according to NFPA.
“We have made tremendous progress in reducing loss from fire since NFPA’s inception, but we are painfully reminded every day that there is more to be done,” NFPA President Jim Pauley said.
In 2016, the NFPA said that U.S. fire departments responded to a fire every 24 seconds, and one structure fire was reported every 60 seconds. The number of civilian deaths did decrease by 54 percent from 7,395 in 1977 to 3,390 in 2016, but fires still killed nine people a day and caused almost $11 billion in damage.
“It takes a full fire prevention and protection system to reduce loss, and either intentionally or unintentionally that system has been broken. And the public, who believes this system exists and relies on it, has been let down,” Pauley said. “We can do better.”