The 2025 Fire Safety Symposium was recently held at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, GA.
This 5 day event brought fire service and fire protection professionals from across Georgia and was designed to allow attendees to expand their knowledge base as well as network with similarly trained individuals. The symposium was separated into three different tracks where attendees could participate in seminars focused on investigations, inspections, or education related courses.
McKEON and distributor, Maxson Associates, teamed up to deliver a 3 ½ hour seminar focused on educating the audience on the details of various widespan opening protectives and how to apply those products in a compliant design. Jordan Pierce of Maxson Associates used the first 1 ½ hours to introduce the various types of deployable fabric widespan opening protectives and their associated ratings. Doug Zachary of McKEON wrapped up the final 2 hours with an in depth discussion of code requirements and acceptance for the design of vertical open spaces. The seminar was based on requirements found in the International Building Code but also highlighted many of the local regulations from the Georgia Amendments and NFPA 101, the enforceable codes for this audience.
Over 125 people attended the joint seminar and they were very engaged. The questions that Jordan and Doug received allowed them to go off script to discuss other topics that were of interest to the audience such as fire door labeling requirements, fire door inspections, testing procedures for walls and opening protectives, and processes for determining alternative method or equivalency compliance.
We enjoyed our time at the symposium and look forward to presenting there again in the future!