International Fire Suppression Alliance, Ltd. (IFSA) News

The Board of Governors of the International Fire Suppression Alliance has voted to bestow its highest honor on Kevin T. Fee of The Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Company. The award, which has only been given out on six previous occasions in the 25-year history of the IFSA, recognizes lifetime contributions in support of the fire sprinkler concept internationally and was announced by IFSA Chair Mike Bosma on April 24, 2024, at the Fire Sprinkler International conference in Dublin, Ireland. Sir Ha...

The IFSA’s video explaining the need for fire protection industry professionals and regulators to demand product certification by reputable testing laboratories is now available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish, and Arabic. One can view the video by visiting their official website. The 6-minute video focuses on the shortcomings of noncertified fire sprinklers that have been identified, some actually removed from service where they were being trusted...

Effective November 1, 2020, Robert (Bob) Caputo became the new President of the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA). Bob is a sprinkler industry veteran with more than 40 years of experience, ranging from owning a fire sprinkler installation company in San Diego, California to teaching technical seminars for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Fire sprinkler industry veteran Bob most recently served as Vice President for training and technical support for Fire & Life Sa...

International Fire Suppression Alliance, Ltd. (IFSA) recognized that the emergence of the COVID-19 virus spread, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), has resulted in the postponement or cancellation of virtually all industry events over the next few months, as countries struggle to contain it.  Fire Industry events cancelled The list of international events and trade shows cancelled and postponed includes: 17-18 March 2020 - ABSpk conference in Sao Paulo –...

Following an exhaustive search, the International Fire Suppression Alliance (IFSA) has announced that Paul Sincaglia, P.E. will become the organization’s first full-time Managing Director, effective from March 1, 2020. A fire protection engineering graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Paul brings a broad range of experience to the IFSA. Fire safety industry veteran Most recently, he has served as Director of Industrial, Fire and Life Safety for Osborn Engineering in Cleveland, Oh...

The International Fire Suppression Alliance (IFSA), a 501(c)6 non-profit trade group body, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, is seeking a full-time Managing Director to lead the organization forward. IFSA search committee The IFSA has set up a search committee, which has been charged with the responsibility of recommending final candidates to the organization’s Board of Governors. The ideal candidate for the profile of full-time Managing Director will enjoy many perks, such...

While the investigation continues, preliminary reports from Paris suggest that the April 15, 2019 fire that devastated the 850-year old Notre Dame Cathedral was most likely caused by an electrical short circuit. Firefighters moving quickly up hundreds of steps to reach the attic level where the fire originated were credited with preventing the damage from being even worse. The response of 500 firefighters was able to bring the fire under control within 5 hours, but only after the cathedral&rsqu...

On May 18, 1999, the inaugural meeting of the International Fire Sprinkler Association was held in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Representatives of ten companies along with staff from the National Fire Sprinkler Association agreed on the establishment of a new organization that would work to increase global awareness of the effectiveness of automatic sprinklers and other water-based fire suppression systems. From the start, the IFSA founders envisioned a supporting role for IFSA: it would be an org...

Fire sprinkler conferences and exhibitions conducted in Mexico and Brazil in October of 2018, along with a conference in Colombia two months earlier, were evidence of a major milestone for IFSA efforts in Latin America. All three of these conferences were conducted by national associations affiliated with the IFSA and helped fulfill one of IFSA’s major goals since its founding in 1999. Development of National and Regional Organizations – To foster the development of national and reg...

At its 2017 year-end meeting, the Board of Governors of the IFSA voted to legally change the name of the organization to the International Fire Suppression Alliance, consistent with its mission ‘to globally promote the use of effective water-based fire protection systems.’ Since its original formation in 1999, the IFSA has included water mist and other water-based systems within its scope of activities. In fact, the original mission statement of the IFSA was ‘to promote and en...

Recent reports that detail the origin of the deadly Grenfell Tower fire in London suggest that an automatic fire sprinkler system could have prevented the tragedy. According to the London police, the fire that killed at least 79 individuals on June 14th started in a refrigerator within a 4th story apartment, then spread to the building’s combustible exterior cladding. If an automatic fire sprinkler system had been installed in the building, it would have been expected to intervene and pre...