ESA Training Curriculum on Non-Compliance Issue in Panel Recall
The NBFAA, which is now known as the ESA, created the National Training School to provide certified professional training to alarm industry technicians. There is a formal curriculum established with best practices on what is and what is not acceptable and according to the various codes and standards that govern the alarm industry.
The training manual of 2005 (which is built upon materials dating back to 1992) is very clear on the issues that are in the process of forcing the recall of 10s of millions of alarm panels because of non-compliance.
Here is a copy of the document itself: NBFAA Manual
There is no doubt that this issue was recognized as being mandated by the standards in 2005 and this has not changed. The alarm industry has only made these same standards more strict concerning combination burglar/fire panels. ESA also provides insurance to most of the typical alarm dealers in the industry. Will they stand behind these dealers for claims for losses where the panels were non-compliant?
We will have to wait and see.
Here is the email that was sent to the ESA team on 10/22/2019:
Merlin and team,
Please find a PDF from the NBFAA Training School Curriculum from 2005 that contains work dating back to 1992. Many people who helped create this material listed in the credits are still around including George Bish.
It is crystal clear in this training provided by the NBFAA for combination systems that:
“U.L. Listing ensures that faults in other systems or components (burglary zones) shall not affect the operation of the fire alarm system. A fire alarm signal must take precedence over any other function. Reference NFPA 72, 11.7.5-6 [‘02].”
This makes it crystal clear that not only was this the code widely known but that the industry embraced it and trained their people accordingly. The fact that the combination panels did not actually comply with this code is significant.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Keith Jentoft
SET, President, CEO at American Alarm Systems, Inc.
5 年That is the manual used in the training that I took when I was coming up in this industry. It is truly a shame that now, the stand that UL, and others are taking, is completely different than what is written in those pages. How can anyone who is in the life safety business think that way? I will certainly continue to follow what is in those pages. That’s what I was taught, and it has not changed. No matter what some other people think.