News from the Safety Industry

Barry Brickey, public education and information officer for the Kingsport (TN) Fire Department and voice of Sparky the Fire Dog®, as the recipient of the 2019 Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year Award.

Intercontinental Terminals Company reported at 10 a.m. March 18 that emergency responders were continuing to use foam to try to control the fire and prevent it from spreading further.

The commission proposed a vertical location accuracy metric of plus or minus 3 meters relative to the handset for 80 percent of indoor wireless 911 calls, tentatively concluding that location accuracy metric—within 3 meters above or below the phone—would be sufficiently accurate to identify the caller's floor level in most cases and would be technically feasible under the timeframes established in the Enhanced 911 rules.

Incidents cited in the Safety Spotlight document include the BP Texas City refinery explosion and fire, ConAgra Foods and Kleen Energy natural gas explosions, and the Imperial Sugar combustible dust disaster in Georgia in February 2008. Each example discusses standards or guidelines that were developed following the incident.

Phase 2 of the Inquiry will examine issues that include the high-rise tower’s original design and modifications, fire and safety measures in it at the time of the fire, and where and why the fire began.

Longtime employee John W. Lubinski has been named director of the agency's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.

March 15, 2019 U.S. Department of Labor Signs Alliance with North Dakota Oil and Gas Industry Group to Promote Workplace Safety in Oil Fields

Three investigators with expertise in recorders, flight crew operations, and human factors have been sent to France to assist with the downloading and analysis of flight recorders from the Ethiopian Airways Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed March 10 shortly after takeoff from the airport in Addis Ababa.

An opinion letter is an official, written opinion by the division on how a particular law applies in specific circumstances presented by the individual person or entity that requested the letter. The requesting parties' names are not included in the letters to protect their privacy.

The recall now affects about 78,500 units beyond the 50,000 that were recalled in the United States in January 2018. The recall expansion involves lithium-ion batteries for HP commercial notebook computers and mobile workstations that were sold to businesses and other organizations. The batteries can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards.