Building Safety Month Wrap-Up: Summer Newsletter Updates 2022
By: Chris Nay
In May, the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC) took part in the International Code Council Building Safety Month 2022 annual campaign. Every year, the ICC assigns monthly and weekly themes and topics for each week surrounding the concept of building safety. This year was slightly unique in that we offered prizes for watching our informational videos, reading our articles and taking quizzes based on the weekly themes.
The theme of the entire month for 2022’s campaign was "Safety for All: Building Codes in Action.” The weekly themes dive deeper into building codes and their importance, such as:
Week 1: “Energy and Innovation, Planning for a Safe and Sustainable Tomorrow”-DFPC Building Inspector Jack Howard wrote an article highlighting changes building and homeowners can make to their structures to be more energy efficient and will save them money. It also gave guidance on conducting home energy audits, including the process used by many utility companies in Colorado and a link to perform an energy assessment yourself.
Week 2: “Building Safety Careers, Exploring Careers in Building Safety”- The first video was from Hope Medina of Shums Coda Associates, with a focus on women in Building Safety careers, describing the career paths they took to get to their building safety positions. The second video, by DFPC Building Inspector Bradley Duncan, covered the building inspector’s role in the building process, typical inspector qualifications, and recommendations for performing successful building inspections.
Week 3: “Disaster Preparedness, Understanding the 4 Phases of Emergency Management”-In case you did not know, those phases are: Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. Four articles were written, one for each phase, describing what occurs during the phase and what action can be taken by communities and individuals to be more resilient before, during and after a disaster.
Week 4: “Water Safety, Creating a Safe & Abundant Water Supply”- The first video of the week, provided by DFPC Building Inspector Mark Remy and The City and County of Broomfield, covered the process for getting clean water from the source to your home. The second video, featured an interview between Mark Remy and Larry Benz from Associated Pool Builders, Inc. discussing pool safety construction features, including keeping the pool water separate from drinking water. This was filmed at the St Vrain Valley School District’s first pool, The Aquatic Center at St Vrain, located at Silver Creek High School in Longmont. The final video was introduced by Mark Remy and featured DORA Plumbing Inspector James Fernandez describing how the ICC Plumbing Code enforces water conservation measures.
The Building Code Branch is offering quizzes each week and a drawing for each quiz to win Building Safety themed prizes. Anyone who takes all the quizzes will be entered into a drawing for a grand prize to be announced near the end of June 2022.
All the materials and quizzes will be available until June 26, 2022, and it is not too late to improve your knowledge and be rewarded!
If any agency or individuals wish to participate in Building Safety Month 2023, please email Chris Nay at chris.nay@state.co.us
June 7 2022