IJust a few months ago, James M. “Jim” Shannon, president and chief executive officer of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), watched in dismay as a house that had once belonged to his grandparents, where his mother grew up and he spent many hours visiting as a boy, was destroyed by fire.

“My wife, Silvia, called me at the office and left a message that I should go online and look on a local news site. When I checked it there was video of a fire taking place in my hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts. When I looked at the address, I realized it was my grandmother’s old house, the house my mother grew up in that was in her family until just a few years ago,” he says. “From the time it was built until it burnt, it had housed people who worked hard to just keep a roof over their family’s head. Thankfully, when it went up in flames, everyone got out alive.”

Although Shannon had been a proponent of residential fire sprinklers long before that fire consumed his mother’s childhood home, he says the image he saw on the screen that day was a stunning reminder of just how vulnerable we all are. Because of his determination to lessen that vulnerability by making fire sprinklers a standard household safety item, Jim Shannon has been chosen by the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) as the recipient of its 2010 Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year Award.

Putting Resources to Work

Under Shannon’s leadership, NFPA has placed residential fire sprinklers front and center, devoting valuable resources to educating the public about the life-saving devices through the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) and, more recently, launching the NFPA Fire Sprinkler Initiative, an ambitious, nationwide effort to increase the number of jurisdictions that require home fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes.
Shannon understands that he leads an organization with the enviable position of having the technical ability and national credibility to accomplish widespread change.

“In recent years, NFPA really stepped up our advocacy efforts, especially with the launch of the Fire Safe Cigarette Initiative in 2006. The technology had been known for a generation, and it had been discussed in Congress for a decade but had gone nowhere. We originally thought we would be fighting that battle for at least 10 years,” he says.

Shannon proudly notes that in March 2010, only four years after the Coalition for Fire Safe Cigarettes officially launched, Wyoming became the 50th state to pass legislation requiring fire-safe cigarettes.

“Once you demystify an idea to show how it can work, you can overcome the resistance. However,” he adds, “even if we eliminate home fire deaths caused by smoking, we will still have one of the highest fire fatality rates in the world.”

“One of the lessons we learned from the Coalition for Fire Safe Cigarettes was the importance of fire service support in reaching that success. When we recognized that we were nearing completion of that program, we conducted some focus groups with fire service officials to get their input on what we should approach next. Their responses indicated that they wanted a campaign to get fire sprinklers into homes, and we realized that was the convergence of our beliefs with those of the fire service,” he continues.

“We have been strong supporters of home fire sprinklers for years, from the early development of the 13D standards. And, of course we have been advocates to the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition since its beginning. The data that we have on home fires and home fire sprinklers and how well home fire sprinklers protect people is overwhelming. I have thought for a long time that this, the Fire Sprinkler Initiative, is the direction that we should go,” says Shannon.

“Fire sprinklers in homes are a relatively new concept, so again our biggest challenge is fear of the unknown. Homebuilders have made assertions that have frightened people, but one-by-one we have been addressing those and by doing that we make it more difficult for the homebuilders to throw out those ‘red herrings.’

“Another thing we learned during the fire-safe cigarette campaign that we have put to use in the Fire Sprinkler Initiative is the power of technology. With the Internet, we can get factual information into the hands of the people. That gives them the power to influence the decisions made that affect their lives. NFPA has proven data from a number of communities – Scottsdale, cities in Maryland, communities around Chicago, and more – that we can present. The fear of the unknown is what freezes things. We have been able to use these facts to help overcome that fear, and we can see that things are beginning to thaw,” Shannon explains.

Dynamic Leader, Strategic Thinker, Convincing

Advocate Jim Shannon is known by his colleagues to be someone with a sincere interest in protecting the public and a strategic thinker who can bring the necessary elements together to accomplish a mission.

“From a very young age, I thought that if you could be in a position to protect a wide swath of the public through your efforts, that would be a very satisfying career,” he says.

That belief led him into service in the public sector, first as a member of the United States House of Representatives, where he served on the Ways and Means Committee, and later as Massachusetts Attorney General, where he was known as a staunch consumer and civil rights advocate. However, in 1991, Shannon found another path with perhaps even greater opportunity to protect Americans through the private sector. He joined NFPA that year as senior vice president and general counsel. In 2002, he became NFPA president.
“I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to come to NFPA. It has given me the opportunity to do in the private sector what gave me the most satisfaction in the public sector. I believe that private and public sectors can work together to give the public the protection that it needs,” says Shannon.

“NFPA can play a very important role. Going with our historic strength to bring the right people together to achieve our goals for a safer environment, we can be a powerful force for good. Our standards-setting system is a perfect example. We have been doing this for more than 100 years – in public education, standards development, etc.,” he adds.

Phillip C Stittleburg, chief of the LaFarge (Wis.) Fire Department and chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), serves as first vice chairman of the NFPA Board of Directors and has worked closely with Shannon for many years.

“Jim Shannon’s commitment to fire sprinklers, and particularly residential fire sprinklers, is deeply held and of long standing. He has advocated for their use at every opportunity and with great success, often in the face of determined resistance. The trend toward adoption of sprinkler legislation is due in large part to his untiring efforts,” he notes.

John C. Dean, State Fire Marshal of Maine, who as a member of the NFPA board has watched Shannon lead these efforts, observes: “Launching the Fire Sprinkler Initiative is only the latest fire and life-safety initiative that Jim Shannon has been involved in. With most fire deaths occurring in the home, ironically, the place people generally feel the most safe, Jim clearly understands the value of residential sprinklers as the next logical, effective, and responsible step in our efforts to provide protection to our citizens.”

Don Bliss, director of the National Infrastructure Institute’s Center for Infrastructure Expertise and former New Hampshire State Fire Marshal, also worked with Shannon while serving on the NFPA Board, and says: “Jim Shannon has been a passionate, articulate and convincing advocate for fire sprinklers for many years. His dynamic leadership has positioned NFPA at the center of the fight – and it is a fight – to ensure that those most at risk from fire are protected with sprinklers where they live, work, eat and play.

“Jim is a great strategic thinker who understands how to motivate people and organizations to do the right thing, and he has an outstanding track record of getting positive results for fire safety from government agencies, legislators and the business community. There is no doubt in my mind that because of Jim’s tireless efforts, automatic fire sprinklers will soon become as much of a routine fixture in homes and businesses as smoke detectors are today,” Bliss adds.

A Personal Commitment to Life Safety

Shannon notes that his wife of 37 years, Silvia, and their daughter, Sarah, understand and support his commitment to life safety. Silvia, a native of Brazil, holds a Ph.D. in History and is a professor at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Sarah works in commercial real estate in New York City, and Shannon says she is keenly aware of fire protection measures in the buildings she visits.

AFSA President Steve Muncy served two terms on the NFPA Board of Directors and is also a member of the HFSC Board. Muncy has witnessed first hand Shannon’s dedication to protecting the public with fire sprinklers.
“Since he became president of NFPA, Jim Shannon has been a strong proponent of fire sprinklers and frequently includes strong statements supporting sprinklers in his president’s address at the annual NFPA convention. Jim has been strongly supportive of the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, and his leadership in initiating the NFPA Fire Sprinkler Initiative has established it as a high priority program of NFPA. He is very deserving of this honor.”

AFSA’s Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year award was created to honor individuals not directly involved in the fire sprinkler industry whose efforts have had national impact in advancing life safety and property protection through the use of automatic fire sprinklers. Previously known as the Fire Service Person of the Year, the award was renamed in 2001 to better reflect the diversity of backgrounds, including the fire service, as well as legislative, code, and standards-setting groups, in which individuals can have a major impact on the fire sprinkler industry. Each year, AFSA’s Legislative Committee selects a recipient, with approval of the AFSA Board of Directors. Previous recipients include Home Safety Council President Meri-K Appy; former Mesa, Ariz. Fire Chief Dennis Compton; Fire- and Life-Safety Educator Jan Gratton; Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition Spokesman Ron Hazelton; former U.S. Fire Administrator Olin Greene; Congressman Jim Langevin; and Senator Rick Santorum.
Jim Shannon will receive the 2010 Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year Award September 30, during the Opening General Session of AFSA’s Convention & Exhibition in Providence, R.I. Presenting the award will be Larry Thibodeau, who served as AFSA Board Chairman (2007-2009) and presently chairs the Legislative Committee.

Thibodeau states: “Jim Shannon has been a proponent of fire sprinklers for many years. As head of NFPA, he has pushed relentlessly for the adoption of fire sprinklers in the home. He knows the value of protecting lives and property and for that he is well deserving of this award.”