The American Fire Sprinkler Association, VA Chapter

2012 AFSA - VA Chapter Essay Contest Results

By Ron Reynolds, AFSA-Virginia Essay Chairman

There were 132 entries in this year’s contest! Some of the most creative essays were submitted this year. High school seniors were asked to: “Write a creative, interesting and convincing essay where the characters can be historical or cultural, past or present, or completely fictional, that depicts the history and importance of automatic sprinklers.”

As usual, the essays had to be 700 to 1000 words long, with a bibliography and application included. The essays were judged on accuracy, content, and creativity. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation were also considered.The winning essays were as follows:

First Place, $1500
Austin Shepherd, of Albemarle High School, Charlottesville, VA
Austin wrote an interesting story where the main character was fire itself, where fire was giving a “Fireside Chat.” The story later says that sprinklers work so well that fire may consider “retirement.” Download/Read the essay

Second Place, $750
Kelly Sanborn, of Westfield High School in Chantilly, VA
Kelly’s essay was written from the perspective of “flames.” The flames lament that humans allow them to help cook or warm their home, but otherwise will try to exterminate them when a flame “acts on its own volition.” Download/Read the essay

Third Place, $500
Luke Quigley of Abingdon High School in Abingdon, VA
Luke’s essay was truly out of this world! It involves the “first civilian transport” to the planet Mars. A fire occurred, that was extinguished by an automatic sprinkler. Download/Read the essay

April Meeting Report

Steve Muncy, President of National AFSA, giving a presentation on the state of national AFSA and the Fire Sprinkler Industry

John Davis of FIKE making a presentation on alternative fire suppression systems

AFSA Board at work with Steve Muncy of National AFSA in attendance

Anthony Spencer of Lubrizol giving members an update on Lubrizol product issues

February Meeting Report

Members in attendence.

Mike Meehan, AFSA Chapter President, giving the “Fire Sprinklers Saves Lives” award to Chief Robbie Dawson for his hard work trying to get Residential Sprinkler required in Virginia. Chesterfield Fire Chief Edward Senter is standing by Chief Dawson.

Chief Robbie Dawson giving presentation on the Virginia Residential
Fire Sprinkler Initiative in 2012

Jim Schwander of TYCO/ANSUL giving a presentation of Foam protection systems

The Importance Of The VA Chapter Golf Tourney To The Central Virginia Burn Camp

The AFSA Virginia Chapter Golf Committee worked tirelessly for an entire year to make the 18th Annual Burn Survivors Golf Tournament a success. Members, vendors, friends and supporters all pulled together, despite the challenging economy, to make this the most successful tournament to date. The Central Virginia Burn Camp is one of the grateful recipients of an extremely generous donation from the golf tournament. During the tournament itself, I was able to greet the golf tournament participants as they drove their golf carts up to the first hole. The players, while certainly enjoying a beautiful day on the golf course, expressed genuine caring and enthusiasm for supporting burn camp. When the time came that evening for the checks to be presented and I was presented a $25,000 check, I was truly speechless. Not only does this amount of money represent over 75% of camp's operating budget for the entire year, it was presented with such heartfelt generosity by the members of the golf tournament.

Teamwork Makes Virginia Chapter Golf Tourney Successful in 2011

The AFSA Virginia Chapter Golf Fundraiser in October, 2011 was a strong success in a tough industry year, contributing $50,000 to charities in 2011-----up almost 20% from the $42,000 in 2010! These funds raised were split evenly between the Central Virginia Burn Camp (a camp for children burn victims in conjunction with fire officials) and the Evans Hayes Medical College of Virginia Burn Center (again in conjunction with fire officials).
Many golf fund raisers in the industry have been postponed or seen reduced participation and contributions, so the question was asked of how the Virginia AFSA grew the tourney. The Virginia chapter’s success was built upon three pillars:

1) Broad, Strong Cooperative, Formal Committee: A key success factor was that the golf tourney Committee was broad based, serious about the mission and cooperative as a group. The tourney had three Chairmen and twelve total members. The Committee members included:

AFSA VA Chapter Promotes Residential Fire Sprinklers

The Virginia AFSA Chapter supported the Office of the Virginia State Fire Marshall and the Chesterfield County Fire Department held a live Side by Side Burn on Tuesday October 4, 2011 at the Chesterfield County ENON Fire Training Facility. This event was staged the week before National Fire Prevention week to demonstrate a live comparison between the suppression of a fire in a residential scenario without fire sprinklers and one with fire sprinklers.

The Side by Side Committee followed the detailed instruction Kit developed by the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition for the construction of the Side by Side Burn demonstration units and the demonstration of a real fire.

The unit without fire sprinklers was ignited and within two minutes the entire unit was engulfed in flames, at that point the Fire Department would have still been four or five minutes away from arriving at the scene. It was clear to everyone present that if anyone was still in a home at this point that they wool have not survived. The unit with sprinklers was ignited and within 15 seconds the fire sprinkler activated. As Captain Matt Coffin stated, “Your built in Firefighter responded at 165 degrees and extinguished the fire”. The unit with Fire Sprinklers was hardly damaged and the newspaper in the trash can where the fire started was not even fully burnt.

2011 Golf Tourney Report

The AFSA Virginia Chapter held its 18th Annual Burn Survivors Golf Tournament on Wednesday October 5, 2011. The event was a sell out this year. We had sunshine and 70 degrees and everyone had a great day. AFSA was able to donate $25,000.00 to the Central Virginia Burn Camp and $25,000.00 to the Old Dominion Professional Firefighters Association due to the support of all of our sponsor companies. Planning is starting for the 2012 event which will be held on September 19, 2012. Please put this date on your calendar today.

The AFSA Golf Gold Sponsors

Golfers ready to go

Award to the Central Virginia Burn Camp

Award to the Old Dominion Professional Firefighters Association

AFSA Golf Committee

Some of the Golf Committee with Award Checks

AFSA 2011 Seminars

AFSA held the following Seminars at the Henrico Fire Training Facility On October 6, 2011 the Seminar held was on NFPA #20, Fire Pumps, with 21 attendees On October 7, 2011 the Seminar held was on NFPA #14, Standpipes, and on Seismic Protection with 30 attendees

NFPA # 20 Fire Pump Seminar presentation by Hans Stewart of ITT

Attendees of NFPA #14, Standpipe, Seminar

Attendees of Seismic Seminar

NFPA #14 and Seismic presenter Russ Leavitt

AFSA Side by Side Burn

On Tuesday October 4, 2011 AFSA with the Chesterfield County Fire Department and the Virginia State Fire Marshalls Office conducted a live Side by Side Burn at the Chesterfield County ENON Fire Training Facility.
About 125 people attended with Channel #6, Channel #8, Channel #12 and the Richmond Newspaper present to record this event.
Matt Coffin of The Chesterfield County Fire Department was MC and Chief Senter from Chesterfield County, Billy Shelton Directors of Virginia Fire Programs and Mike Meehan of AFSA/VSC spoke.

This event went off perfect and was a huge success!!! All local stations ran segments over the next few days on this event.
National AFSA and the Virginia AFSA Chapter funded this event.
We hope to have a full video presentation at a future Virginia Chapter meeting.

AFSA Meeting October 4, 2011

On Tuesday October 4, 2011 the AFSA Virginia Chapter met at the Rivers Bend Grille In chesterfield County for our regular meeting .

We had 30 in attendance for this meeting and Jeff Livaudias of National AFSA spoke on the 2012 Convention in Hawaii,
Ron Reynolds of the Virginia State Fire Marshall’s Office was recognized for his Chairing of the Essay Committee
The meeting was adjourned early to go to the Chesterfield County ENON Fire Training Facility for our highly publicized Side By Side Burn.

Meeting Attendees

Mike Meehan and Jeff Livaudais congratulating Ron Reynolds on his plaque for recognition of efforts on the Essay Committee.