News

George H. McCall was recognized in the Fellow’s Ceremony at the SFPE North American Conference in September.

During the Awards Luncheon at the 2016 SFPE North America Conference & Expo Ralph Foster and Jason Butler received the society’s “Hat’s Off Award” for their efforts with installing a NFPA 13R sprinkler system for the CAPA house in Beaufort. The new sprinkler system allowed the CAPA house to increase the number of children the facility may shelter for their community.

Paul Anslow represented our chapter by accepting the 2016 Gold Chapter Excellence Award from SFPE International during the 2016 SFPE North America Conference & Expo. This award marks our 11th Gold Chapter Excellence Award and is recognition for our chapter’s representation in the society in our area. Our chapter could not receive this award without the hard work of our chapter members.

(Pictured, from left to right: Paul Anslow, Barbara Jackson, and Stan Hill at our booth moments before the influx of students)

Members of the CSRA SFPE Chapter attended the 2016 College Night in Augusta, GA, to inform high school students and parents about the vast array of careers in Fire Science and Fire Protection Engineering. Tom Allison, Paul Anslow, Jason Butler, Stan Hill, Barbara Jackson, and Stan Maciaszek represented the Chapter at this event. Students and parents were given information on colleges that offer degrees in fire protection and career opportunities available upon graduation. Over 6,000 students were in attendance.

An Order of the Engineer ceremony was conducted by the CSRA SFPE Chapter on May 17, 2016 at the Aiken Brew Restaurant in Aiken, SC. Speaking parts for the ceremony were performed by Jason Butler, Glynn Dyer, Eric Johnson, and Paul Anslow. An outstanding presentation was given by Bernie Till to the ten new inductees. Congratulations to the new members of the Order of the Engineer!

(Pictured above is Stan Maciaszek during one of his classroom demonstrations.)

Stan Maciaszek attended Career Day at Brookwood Elementary in Grovetown, GA, on May 9th, 2016. Stan demonstrated fire chemistry experiments while teaching the children about careers in Fire Protection Engineering. The CSRA SFPE Chapter continues to hold classroom demonstrations throughout the school year to help spread the word about fire protection. While our chapter may be small in comparison to other chapters, devoted chapter members, such as Stan, continue to inform the public about fire safety and careers as a Fire Protection Engineer.

(Pictured, from left to right: Willy Ramos, John Pham, Ralph Foster, Paul Anslow, and Will Cosey)

Members of the CSRA SFPE Chapter attended the 2016 SFPE Greater Atlanta Fire Safety Conference on March 15th and 16th. A few of the CSRA SFPE members also assisted with planning of the conference and performing roles such as Session Managers. The conference was well attended, and the Greater Atlanta SFPE Chapter did an outstanding job organizing this great event.

(Pictured from left to right: Mark Legrand, Tom Allison, Denny Bennett, Ralph Foster, Paul Anslow, Chris Jelenewicz, Stan Maciaszek, and Rob Plonski)

The CSRA SFPE set a new chapter record for submitting 32 problems at the Fire Protection Engineering PE Problem Writing Session on March 8th! Chris Jelenewicz from SFPE International assisted with moderating the session and 7 chapter members volunteered their time to prepare problems for the future PE exams.

Indian Waters Council conducted their 23rd annual Merit Badge University. The event allows 400 Scouts from the Columbia Midlands area to earn a merit badge in one day. This year, two of our chapter members taught classes on careers in the fire service. Patrick Bradshaw taught Fire Safety, where 15 Scouts spoke with an Engineer who introduced them to a career in Fire Protection Engineering. Paul Anslow taught Engineering Merit Badge and also exposed 20 Scouts to a career in Fire Protection Engineering. The Scouts asked a host of questions and several said they would consider a career in Fire Protection Engineering.

(Pictured above is Stan Maciaszek showing the differences between ionization and photoelectric smoke detectors.)

Stan Maciaszek and Jason Butler attended Paul Knox Middle School on February 26th, 2016, for several fire protection classroom demonstrations. There were a total of five STEM classroom demonstrations, each lasting an hour long. Students were actively engaged during the fire science experiments, and by the end of each class, a few were ready to become Fire Protection Engineers!