The Alliance for Response Pittsburgh is pleased to announce details and registration for its fall program:
Fire Protection for Cultural Heritage
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
1 to 5 pm
Pennsylvania Ballroom, Pittsburgh Athletic Association, 4215 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
The featured speaker for this program is Nick Artim, P.E.,
Director of Heritage Protection Group, Middlebury, Vermont,
a nationally recognized fire suppression and safety expert.
This program is free but registration is requested by September 2. Please register by following this link:
http://www.structbio.pitt.edu/palci/regform-arp.html
We look forward to seeing you!
About the program
This session will describe the general philosophy of fire safety for cultural heritage properties that include libraries, archives, museums, and historic structures. The program will discuss a full range of fire safety issues that will start with basic fire chemistry – how a fire starts and develops. It will then describe typical fire risks that exist in cultural properties and how through fire prevention and risk reduction measures the threat can be reduced. The session will continue with a discussion of fire safety features including building fire compartmentation, fire detection and alarm systems, and fire suppression systems. A part of the session will also discuss construction fire safety so that threats during this typically high hazard period can be reduced.
About the speaker
Nick Artim currently serves as the director of the Heritage Protection Group, a Middlebury, Vermont based collaborative of fire protection and security consultants and engineers that specializes in heritage protection. Over more than twenty- five years, his project experience has included sites in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Bermuda, and Ireland. His clients have included several National Park Service historic sites, the National Libraries of Canada and Ireland, the British Library, the Scottish Supreme Court, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Bermuda Archives, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the historic structures under the jurisdiction of the Vermont State Government. Some of his current projects include fire protection systems engineering for the restoration of James Madison home, the restoration of the Thomas Edison-Henry Ford Winter Estate, and automatic fire suppression improvements at the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.
Prior to founding the Fire Safety Network which was the Heritage Protection Group’s original company name, he was the Chief Fire Protection Engineer for the Architect of the United States Capitol where he was responsible for fire and life safety at the U.S Capitol Complex. These buildings included the Capitol Building, Congressional Office Buildings, Library of Congress, U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Botanical Garden. He also served as a professional fire fighter for the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) Fire and Rescue Services.
Mr. Artim is a registered fire protection engineer and has a formal education consisting of an Associates Degree in Fire Protection Technology from the State University of New York and a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Fire Protection from the University of Maryland. He is a member of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPA) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). He serves as a principal committee member on National Fire Protection Association Committee on the Protection of Cultural Resources, which produces document #909, Standard for the Protection of Cultural Resources. He is the past task group chairman on NFPA #914, Protection of Historic Buildings. He is also responsible for fire protection educational services with the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection and has authored a number of fire protection technical articles, and serves as an instructor for several fire protection educational seminars. He serves as a seminar course instructor at Simmons College (Boston) School of Graduate Library Studies. He is also serving an advisory role for the University of Vermont’s proposed Preservation Engineering curriculum.
Program sponsorship
This workshop has been partially funded with Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds administered by the Office of Commonwealth Libraries and would not have been possible without the help of the College and Research Division of PaLA. Show your appreciation by becoming a member of PaLA! And if you are already a member – thank you!
Additional funding and support has been offered by the BELFOR Property Restoration, Alliance for Response Pittsburgh, Heritage Preservation and the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, Lyrasis, PALCI, and the University of Pittsburgh University Library System.
