TVSFPE,
TVSFPE will be meeting Thursday (11/6/2025) at Mimi's Café in Turkey Creek: https://www.mimiscafe.com/locations/knoxville/
The meeting will be from 6pm to 8pm. The speaker is John Frank of AXA XL Risk Consulting and is a SFPE Board of Director. He will be presenting on:
"FPE and Fire Service Disconnects in Warehouse Operations".
Description: Current warehouse fire protection requirements have an allowance for firefighting hose streams. It is implied that the fire service will somehow be able to affect final extinguishment. Although this many have been relatively straightforward with the warehouses of 50 years ago, very high rack and large footprint ASRSs create challenges for the fire service that are typically not accounted for. Although a handful of FPEs have long recognized this issue, it has become a major topic of conversation since the total loss of a large warehouse in Plainfield Indiana in 2022. Since then, John Frank authored an article for SFPE’s FPE Magazine and presented an online version of this program in 2024. Also in 2024, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation® issued a report citing operational challenges at the Plainfield fire. This presentation will provide a brief historical overview updated with the very latest insight and well as what the presenter is doing on current projects.
Speaker Introduction: John Frank, PE, FSFPE has been involved in fire protection for 45 years. He was an active duty USAF firefighter for ten years, last serving as an Assistant Fire Chief at an Air Force Logistics Command base. He was a volunteer firefighter for fourteen years, which included six years in a large warehouse district just south of Atlanta. He has been working in the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) insurance industry since 1990 and is currently the lead property technical engineer at AXA XL Risk Consulting. During that time, John has directly participated in the final extinguishment operations at three technically challenging warehouse fires. He has witnessed many large scale warehouse fire tests, always with an eye toward firefighting operations. John is also a member of the SFPE Board of Directors and will deliver a short message on behalf of the Board.
A social hour will be held between 5pm and 6pm.
Please note that Mimi's Cafe' has food, and is located at 10945 Parkside Dr. Knoxville, TN 37934
Previous Meeting Minutes will be attached below.
Thank you,
Channing Walmsley
TVSFPE Secretary
Cell: 865-320-7091
Office: 865-241-5755
http://www.tvsfpe.org/
