Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/522141
palletcentral.com PalletCentral • May-June 2015 31 cause undue harm to many family-owned small businesses. The message resonated with the ICC voting block and, with the help of a code consultant retained by NWPCA, NWPCA and its members were successful in getting the proposal rejected. At the 2013 hearing, NWPCA pledged to be more engaged for the next code development cycle starting in 2015. Next Steps Honoring that commitment, NWPCA is taking action toward the development of a code proposal of its own. The Board of Directors has charged the NWPCA Standards Committee with the task of developing the ICC code proposal. Furthermore, the association has hired the same consultant Bill Koffel, who was instrumental of the achievement in 2013 to help guide us through the code development process. Bill Koffel, president of Koffel Associates, leads a fire protection and life safety engineering design and consulting firm, and is recognized as an expert in the fire protection and life safety aspects of codes and standards. Mr. Koffel is very active in the development process of the industry's governing codes, standards and design guidelines including International Code Council (ICC), NFPA, Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE) and Underwriters Which Fire Code Applies to Your Business? Understanding which fire code applies to you can be a complicated process. The International Code Council (ICC) and National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) both develop building codes that stipulate how pallets shall be stored indoors, but the NFPA is currently the only code that stipulates outdoor storage rules. Codes are enforced by local fire officials, but it is up to each individual state (and potentially each locality) to determine which code is chosen to be enforced. For states where localities determine applicable codes, both the ICC and NFPCA codes may exist. Furthermore, the codes are developed on a cyclical basis, so that new codes are released every three years, and states can choose to update the code to the newest version or remain with the older one. The result is different versions of the same codes being enforced across the country. While NWPCA recommends to its members to consult with their individual fire marshals to determine which code applies to them, there are other resources available. To help decipher the complicated structure, this map of the United States indicates which codes are enforced by each state. The ICC website has a comprehensive data sheet that provides a listing of each state that enforces the ICC code, the version of that code, and if it applies to the entire state or certain municipalities within the state (the NFPA has no such resource): www.iccsafe.org/gr/Documents/ stateadoptions.pdf.