1994 US Code
Title 15 - COMMERCE AND TRADE
CHAPTER 49 - FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL
Sec. 2207 - Fire technology

View Metadata

§2207. Fire technology (a) Development

The Administrator shall conduct a continuing program of development, testing, and evaluation of equipment for use by the Nation's fire, rescue, and civil defense services, with the aim of making available improved suppression, protective, auxiliary, and warning devices incorporating the latest technology. Attention shall be given to the standardization, compatibility, and interchangeability of such equipment. Such development, testing, and evaluation activities shall include, but need not be limited to—

(1) safer, less cumbersome articles of protective clothing, including helmets, boots, and coats;

(2) breathing apparatus with the necessary duration of service, reliability, low weight, and ease of operation for practical use;

(3) safe and reliable auxiliary equipment for use in fire prevention, detection, and control, such as fire location detectors, visual and audio communications equipment, and mobile equipment;

(4) special clothing and equipment needed for forest fires, brush fires, oil and gasoline fires, aircraft fires and crash rescue, fires occurring aboard waterborne vessels, and in other special firefighting situations;

(5) fire detectors and related equipment for residential use with high sensitivity and reliability, and which are sufficiently inexpensive to purchase, install, and maintain to insure wide acceptance and use;

(6) in-place fire prevention systems of low cost and of increased reliability and effectiveness;

(7) methods of testing fire alarms and fire protection devices and systems on a non-interference basis;

(8) the development of purchase specifications, standards, and acceptance and validation test procedures for all such equipment and devices; and

(9) operation tests, demonstration projects, and fire investigations in support of the activities set forth in this section.

(b) Limitation on manufacture and sale of equipment

The Administration shall not engage in the manufacture or sale of any equipment or device developed pursuant to this section, except to the extent that it deems it necessary to adequately develop, test, or evaluate such equipment or device.

(c) Management studies

(1) The Administrator is authorized to conduct, directly or through contracts or grants, studies of the operations and management aspects of fire services, utilizing quantitative techniques, such as operations research, management economics, cost effectiveness studies, and such other techniques and methods as may be applicable and useful. Such studies shall include, but need not be limited to, the allocation of resources, the optimum location of fire stations, the optimum geographical area for an integrated fire service, the manner of responding to alarms, the operation of citywide and regional fire dispatch centers, firefighting under conditions of civil disturbance, and the effectiveness, frequency, and methods of building inspections.

(2) The Administrator is authorized to conduct, directly or through contracts or grants, research concerning the productivity and efficiency of fire service personnel, the job categories and skills required by fire services under varying conditions, the reduction of injuries to fire service personnel, the most effective fire prevention programs and activities, and techniques for accuracy measuring and analyzing the foregoing.

(3) The Administrator is authorized to conduct, directly or through contracts, grants, or other forms of assistance, development, testing and demonstration projects to the extent deemed necessary to introduce and to encourage the acceptance of new technology, standards, operating methods, command techniques, and management systems for utilization by the fire services.

(4) The Administrator is authorized to assist the Nation's fire services, directly or through contracts, grants, or other forms of assistance, to measure and evaluate, on a cost-benefit basis, the effectiveness of the programs and activities of each fire service and the predictable consequences on the applicable local fire services of coordination or combination, in whole or in part, in a regional, metropolitan, or statewide fire service.

(d) Rural assistance

The Administrator is authorized to assist the Nation's fire services, directly or through contracts, grants, or other forms of assistance, to sponsor and encourage research into approaches, techniques, systems, and equipment to improve fire prevention and control in the rural and remote areas of the Nation.

(e) Coordination

In establishing and conducting programs under this section, the Administrator shall take full advantage of applicable technological developments made by other departments and agencies of the Federal Government, by State and local governments, and by business, industry, and nonprofit associations.

(Pub. L. 93 498, §8, Oct. 29, 1974, 88 Stat. 1540.)

Transfer of Functions

Functions of National Fire Prevention and Control Administration [now United States Fire Administration] and National Academy for Fire Prevention and Control generally transferred to Federal Emergency Management Agency. For further details see Transfer of Functions note set out under section 2202 of this title.