55 min
70: Emerging and Deprecated Technology with Robert Solomon Fire Code Tech
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- Careers
How do fire and life safety professionals tackle challenges like sustainability, energy storage systems, and technology becoming obsolete? These topics and more are discussed in episode 70 of Fire Code Tech. Robert Solomon P.E. shares tremendous insight from his 30+ years at NFPA and 40 years in fire protection.
00:07.11
firecodetech
Well Robert thank you for coming on the fire code tech podcast we're happy to have you today.
00:13.10
robert solomon
Well thank you very much for having me I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.
00:18.15
firecodetech
Awesome! So how I usually get these things started to give the listeners some context and also for my own listening pleasure is usually asking about how you found fire and life safety How you found the field.
00:32.93
robert solomon
So where I grew up. Um I grew up in a rural area in Western Pennsylvania and I think I was like maybe like a lot of little kids right? The fire truckcks you know pure actually going by. Would you know there's some level of excitement or you'd go to the. Annual ah fire department carnival in the local towns or whatever that were run by the fire departments and I I kind of got an interest I think from that you know childhood ah piece or kind of experience. When I was 15 I actually learned about the small town that I lived near they actually had a junior volunteer fire department program and I found out about that and um I joined that literally when I was fifteen years old so at 15 right? You can you can like wash equipment and fire trucks. You know you're not going to go to fires or car accidents or anything but I immediately kind of liked the firefighting aspect. A while later maybe a year later than two of the members who were getting their far science degrees at a community college. They came to the muddy night meeting and they have this photocoppied piece of paper about this fire protection engineering program at University Of Maryland I thought like.
01:54.96
robert solomon
Sounds interesting. What what exactly does this mean and what is it so I made a trip to University Of Maryland ah that year I was in tenth grade then um I met Dr Brian Wright who is one of the more famous folks from Oklahoma. And he talked about the program and in I think in tenth grade he in tenth grade I think I was 99% sure I wanted to figure out how I could go to University Of Maryland to to go through that program. So um I was just blessed to kind of. Have all these things that kind of came together and that were kind of connected. Um I liked the farfighting part but I always had in the back my mind I wanted to be an engineer. My father was an engineer and ah, that's kind of how how it all started for me when I was when I was fifteen years old so and been been doing it ever since which is a long time for by age. So yeah.
02:48.33
firecodetech
That's awesome. That's interesting to hear that seems like a common thread of involvement with the fire service and then ah, a proclivity for math and science or a family member that is related to engineering So that's good to hear. Well.
03:00.00
robert solomon
Um, yeah, and for sure.
03:04.26
firecodetech
Ah, so for a bit more of context. Um, would you mind explaining a couple more of the roles that you've held in during your career.
03:13.75
robert solomon
Sure so the first kind of job I had in the fire protection engineering world. It was a summer intern job with the department of veterans affairs. It was the veterans administration back then but I had a summer internship in Washington Dc at the v a central office. And of course the e a does hospitals and nursing homes. So I learned a lot about the nfk life safety code and the fire safety evaluation system um is a part of that summer job working with the really you know smart fpes that were there. The supervisor that headed up that group bill Brooks. Um, one of the other things he did for me that summer is he arranged for me to go visit with
How do fire and life safety professionals tackle challenges like sustainability, energy storage systems, and technology becoming obsolete? These topics and more are discussed in episode 70 of Fire Code Tech. Robert Solomon P.E. shares tremendous insight from his 30+ years at NFPA and 40 years in fire protection.
00:07.11
firecodetech
Well Robert thank you for coming on the fire code tech podcast we're happy to have you today.
00:13.10
robert solomon
Well thank you very much for having me I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.
00:18.15
firecodetech
Awesome! So how I usually get these things started to give the listeners some context and also for my own listening pleasure is usually asking about how you found fire and life safety How you found the field.
00:32.93
robert solomon
So where I grew up. Um I grew up in a rural area in Western Pennsylvania and I think I was like maybe like a lot of little kids right? The fire truckcks you know pure actually going by. Would you know there's some level of excitement or you'd go to the. Annual ah fire department carnival in the local towns or whatever that were run by the fire departments and I I kind of got an interest I think from that you know childhood ah piece or kind of experience. When I was 15 I actually learned about the small town that I lived near they actually had a junior volunteer fire department program and I found out about that and um I joined that literally when I was fifteen years old so at 15 right? You can you can like wash equipment and fire trucks. You know you're not going to go to fires or car accidents or anything but I immediately kind of liked the firefighting aspect. A while later maybe a year later than two of the members who were getting their far science degrees at a community college. They came to the muddy night meeting and they have this photocoppied piece of paper about this fire protection engineering program at University Of Maryland I thought like.
01:54.96
robert solomon
Sounds interesting. What what exactly does this mean and what is it so I made a trip to University Of Maryland ah that year I was in tenth grade then um I met Dr Brian Wright who is one of the more famous folks from Oklahoma. And he talked about the program and in I think in tenth grade he in tenth grade I think I was 99% sure I wanted to figure out how I could go to University Of Maryland to to go through that program. So um I was just blessed to kind of. Have all these things that kind of came together and that were kind of connected. Um I liked the farfighting part but I always had in the back my mind I wanted to be an engineer. My father was an engineer and ah, that's kind of how how it all started for me when I was when I was fifteen years old so and been been doing it ever since which is a long time for by age. So yeah.
02:48.33
firecodetech
That's awesome. That's interesting to hear that seems like a common thread of involvement with the fire service and then ah, a proclivity for math and science or a family member that is related to engineering So that's good to hear. Well.
03:00.00
robert solomon
Um, yeah, and for sure.
03:04.26
firecodetech
Ah, so for a bit more of context. Um, would you mind explaining a couple more of the roles that you've held in during your career.
03:13.75
robert solomon
Sure so the first kind of job I had in the fire protection engineering world. It was a summer intern job with the department of veterans affairs. It was the veterans administration back then but I had a summer internship in Washington Dc at the v a central office. And of course the e a does hospitals and nursing homes. So I learned a lot about the nfk life safety code and the fire safety evaluation system um is a part of that summer job working with the really you know smart fpes that were there. The supervisor that headed up that group bill Brooks. Um, one of the other things he did for me that summer is he arranged for me to go visit with
55 min