40: Fire Alarm Sales and NFPA Technical Committees Fire Code Tech

This week we are talking to Steven Lewis who has had 30 years in the fire alarm industry in sales. Steven sits on the NFPA committee for NFPA 72 and has recently been appointed to NFPA 420. We speak about the how to get the next generation of fire protection professionals into the field, career development and much more.
 
Tell me about your early career?
Tell me about some of your project work?
Do you have an occupancy specialty?
What is your background on NFPA Technical committees?
Tell me about your involvement in the NFPA 72 technical committee?
What piece of advice do you have for professionals?
 
Transcription
Hello, all welcome to the show. I'm Gus Gagliardi, and this is fire code tech on fire code tech. We interview fire protection professionals from all different careers and backgrounds in order to provide insight and a resource for those in the field. My goal is to help you become a more informed fire protection.
Professional fire code tech has interviews with engineers and researchers, fire marshals, and insurance professionals, and highlights topics like codes and standards, engineering systems, professional development, and trending topics in the industry. So if you're someone who wants to know more about fire protection or the fascinating stories of those who are in the field, you're in the right place.
Hello, all welcome to episode 40 of fire code tech. On this episode, we have Steven Lewis. Steven is a fire alarm professional. Who's been in the industry over 30 years. In this episode, we talk about some of Steven's fascinating work in the field of technical design and sales. We get into some of his big success stories.
And later on in the interview, we talk about some of his great work in the area of, uh, volunteering on NFPA technical committees. Uh, most notably the, uh, NFPA 72 committee for notification appliances and the new NFPA technical document that's coming out, which is NFPA four 20, the standard for cannabis related facilities, tune in.
If you want to find out some great takeaways from Steven's career, as well as some really interesting information on the variety. Of facilities and systems that Steven has been a part of designing, including, um, some exposition about gas detection systems. Do us a big favor and subscribe. So you never miss an episode.
And also if you wouldn't mind, give us a rate and review on apple podcast, that would be a big help. Also, if you listen on YouTube, hit that like, and subscribe. All right. Let's dive into the episode, Steven. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm happy to have you. Thank you very much, GU I tell you it was such a surprise and pleasure to hear from you.
I, um, it, it's nice to get recognized and people, uh, appreciate what you do. And so, yeah, that was a pleasant surprise. I appreciate that. Awesome. Well, yeah, it's always, uh, gamble reaching out to people. So it's uh, it's a good thing. I'm glad you're interested in coming on. Yeah. And, and, and I will tell you too, GU that the second reason for me not only was a surprise and I, and I appreciate all that, but it's, you know, wanting to give back to, to the fire industry and hoping I can get some listeners that, that Mike find this fire industry industry and, and make career changes.
Um, you know, I, I just saw some interesting stats that just number of people in this, uh, in this industry are retiring and we're just looking for, for new people to, to kind of, you know, take the torch. Yeah, I agree. It seems like that has been a, um, emphasis recently in the field. Is this kind of, uh, how do we get the next generation informed that this is a, you know, an option and not just an option, but.
Um, a wonderful career path and, uh, with a lot of promise. So I agree with what you're saying any way that we can, um, get the word out and let people know about, uh, what a great career fire in life safety can be is, uh, it's a good deal. So I'm glad that you, uh, feel that