On June 2, during the National Fire Protection Association's World Safety Conference, its standards council will hold a public hearing on whether to delete Chapter 7 from NFPA 1124. Chapter 7 has been in place since 2003, and sets minimum safety standards for those selling, storing and transporting fireworks. The council says a report from the Fire Protection Research Foundation questions whether there is sufficient research to support meaningful standards.

John Robison challenges that finding and urging NFPA to keep Chapter 7 on the books. The former fire chief worked in the Alabama State Fire Marshal's office for 32 years, the last 15 as fire marshal.

Why are fireworks safety issues important to you?

I started off in emergency services at the age of 14 working for a county coroner who owned a local ambulance service. It went beyond what I have seen responding to other people's injuries and mishaps to my own. When I was younger, I had access to consumer fireworks. Through that I became aware of the fact that it can be a lot of fun, but you can get hurt from it. The thought that kept prevailing in my mind is that people don't really understand fireworks well enough.

Why do we need Chapter 7?

The NFPA consensus process is a far better method for putting together safety guidances and recommendations that can be used by a city, county or the entire state than is leaving it up to individual jurisdictions to try to come up with their own ideas. Many people have less experience in dealing with fire-safety issues. When they start trying to come up with a magic list of dos and don'ts, their list might fall significantly short of what it needs to contain to best protect the public, then the public suffers. There is a need for a broad understanding and a broad research on the subject. I also served on the NFPA fire test task group for fireworks, which has been for months testing the packaging of and storage of and display of consumer fireworks at retail locations. I also serve on the Fire Protection Research Foundation fire-safety and consumer fireworks storage and retail facilities hazardous assessment research project that already has reported out. The testing group has not reported because those tests are not completed. We have learned a lot about packaging and protection of fuses. And this is ongoing technology and ongoing information. It is this type of information that can help make 1124 a better document. I do not believe that document does harm to the public or to the fire service. Nor do I believe it does harm to NFPA. I believe it speaks well of NFPA that it is there. It says to the fire service that “we are an organization concerned for the safety of the public and we will do our part to make this the safest environment possible facing all of the circumstances we have before us.”

What will it take to sway NFPA on this issue?

We first need NFPA to agree that the issue of whether there is going to be consumer fireworks or not is a dead issue. It is not one that we need to keep discussing. It is there. Then to get them to say our objective is to help provide the safest environment possible for people to live in.

What are your chances of succeeding?

I don't know that answer. I hope that NFPA and the standards council will listen to the fire service and others who believe as I do. I don't want to be in 2025 using the same NFPA 1124 that was published in 2003. I want to see this national standard of care continue and be improved upon. I'm hoping that NFPA and the standards council will hear this and allow the process to continue, and not throw out the baby with the bath water.

What if Chapter 7 fails to stay on the books?

If I were to see it happen, then I would suggest to those who believe that a mistake has been made that they look at the NFPA process to determine what steps can be taken to try to get it back before NFPA's membership as an issue. This is an issue that should be decided by the membership, not the standards council alone. If the general membership votes it up or down, then we ought to have a pretty good feeling for what the consensus is.