Shawn Mahoney of NFPA's Technical Services team joins Drew for his fourth time on The Fire Protection Podcast, and this one covers a lot of ground before landing on a problem the industry keeps stepping over: construction-site fires.

You've seen the headlines. A light wood-frame building goes up mid-construction, and the whole thing is gone, like the Denver complex that took a 238-unit building with it, or the South Park fire in North Carolina that killed two workers. Shawn's point is blunt: we already have the standard to prevent this. It's NFPA 241, the Standard for Safeguarding Construction, Alteration, and Demolition Operations, and it's been around since 1930. It's referenced by NFPA 1, NFPA 101, the IBC, and the IFC. "The biggest issue is people just aren't using it," Shawn says. The code isn't broken. Enforcement is.

Drew and Shawn dig into why adoption is so piecemeal, what real enforcement looks like (Boston shuts a site down if the fire prevention program manager isn't there), the legislative push after the North Carolina fire, and what the Fire Prevention Program Manager actually has to do day to day.

Before that, they preview the NFPA Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, including Drew's Tuesday session on AI and fire protection, how AI has reshaped the codes world through NFPA LiNK, CASI, and the new Notebooks feature, and why data centers and small nuclear reactors are creating fire-protection problems in towns that have never seen anything like them.

Join Drew for Episode 96 for a real conversation about why the standards we already have only matter if someone enforces them.

Topics covered:

Levi Rock got laid off for three weeks when COVID hit, and it changed how he thought about job security. In 2020 he started Red Seal Fire Protection in Windsor, Ontario, and grew it to 17 employees in five years by keeping it simple: show up when you say you will, turn reports and deficiency quotes around within 48 hours, and get out of the way so customers never have to think about their fire protection.

In this episode, Levi joins Drew Slocum to talk about building a service-first fire protection business. They cover the recurring-revenue membership model behind it, why he says no to most new-installation work, how Red Seal uses social media to educate property managers and recruit fitters, and how Inspect Point replaced their PDF forms with consistent, faster reporting. They also get into the gap between NFPA 25 and the Ontario Fire Code, why contractors and AHJs need to communicate more, and why human expertise still beats generic AI on fire code.

Episode #95. The Fire Protection Podcast, powered by Inspect Point.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:31 Welcome and why Levi's on the show

02:56 From sprinkler fitter to founder during COVID

07:50 The edge: speed, communication, 48-hour turnarounds

11:30 Moving off PDF forms to Inspect Point

13:35 Capturing asset data to power AI tools

15:42 The membership model and predictable budgets

20:02 Marketing fire protection and recruiting techs

23:32 The AI content problem and fire code accuracy

25:54 The fire protection education gap and training AHJs

28:34 NFPA 25 vs the Ontario Fire Code (and ULC 536/537)

33:11 Training the next generation

34:13 What's next for Red Seal

37:19 Wrap-up

Ray Fremont Jr., president of General Air Products, joins Drew to talk about the air supply side of dry pipe sprinkler systems. General Air Products has been building air compressors for fire sprinkler systems since the 1960s, and the Fremont family has been in the compressed air business since the 1930s. Ray covers how dry system air supply has changed over the last century: plant air compressors and schedule 40 pipe, the shift to thin-wall steel, nitrogen generators, and a newer vapor corrosion inhibitor technology called Vapor Pipe Shield that creates a molecular barrier on the inside of the pipe. They also dig into some real problems: most dry systems leak well beyond what NFPA 25 allows, jurisdictions are a decade behind on code adoption, and air compressor maintenance still gets skipped. Ray previews a new digital monitoring device that tracks compressor cycling and flags system issues before they turn into failures. It's the kind of predictive data the sprinkler side has never had.

Dr. Roger Reiswig, Industry Liaison at Johnson Controls, joins Drew for a conversation spanning nearly 40 years of fire alarm industry experience. Roger started as a Simplex technician in 1986 and now represents JCI across NFPA, UL, FM, and international organizations including the European Alarm Association (Uralarm).

Topics include how countries outside the US often adopt NFPA codes faster than US states, the differences between European EN standards and NFPA/UL requirements, Europe's mandatory smoke detector replacement cycles, the new 40-foot ceiling allowance for smoke detectors in NFPA 72, remote and automated inspection technology and its UL listing challenges, how UL and NFPA standards push each other forward, the birth of NFPA 3 and NFPA 4 for integrated testing (now showing up in building codes), Canada's ULC certification model, and the history of carbon monoxide detection moving from NFPA 720 into NFPA 72.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Cold open

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Bob Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs, joins Drew Slocum on Episode 92 to discuss Ting, the IoT sensor that monitors home electrical systems for arcing hazards before they become fires. In this episode:

Bob also shares the personal story behind founding Whisker Labs and how their fire safety team works directly with homeowners and electricians to find and fix problems before they cause fires.

0:00 - Paper documents, hydrant flow testing, and lost inspection data

04:59 - Deficiencies are not a gotcha game

8:47 - Ontario Fire Code limits and NFPA 25 enforcement gaps

15:23 - Strategic planning and involving Al

20:20 - 2025 highlights, consistency, and "what I'd do differently"

24:05 - Current state of the fire protection industry

40:27 - Notable fire incidents & what we learned from real sprinkler activations

46:20 - Closing thoughts and Chris's podcast

Timestamps:

00:00 Why 2025 fire protection data matters

02:47 2025 fire protection industry report preview

06:28 Why fire protection businesses need a tech stack

08:42 Inspection dollars vs service proposals

11:46 Deficiency approvals and compliance platforms

17:05 Common fire inspection deficiencies

24:53 NFPA questions and inspection data quality

29:42 Growth of regional fire protection companies

36:40 2026 outlook and Al in fire inspection

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introducing today's guest

01:57 - Launching the first Al agent

04:19 - How AI adoption changes business processes

06:58 - Code complexity in fire protection

09:30 - Generative Al vs agentic Al explained

12:10 - How data supports better decisions

14:39 - FireCAD design assistant and design workflow gains

18:56 - Passion, innovation, and industry growth

19:49 - OEMs, contractors, and AI-enabled data flow

25:24 - Using AI for simple tasks and avoiding hallucinations

29:45 - The rapid shift toward AI in fire protection

32:02- Favorite Al-themed films

34:35 - Closing thoughts and future direction

In this episode of The Fire Protection Podcast, host Drew Slocum sits down with Grant Lobdell, President of Dyne Fire Protection Labs, to discuss one of the most pressing issues facing the fire protection industry today—sprinkler testing and system maintenance.

Grant shares insights on Dyne’s acquisition by NFPA Global Solutions and how this new initiative supports NFPA’s life safety mission. The conversation takes a serious turn as Drew and Grant unpack the tragic Fall River, Massachusetts fire, where recalled O-ring sprinkler heads failed to activate—an incident underscoring the critical importance of regular inspection, testing, and maintenance under NFPA 25.

They also dive into the new partnership between Inspect Point and Dyne, designed to streamline how contractors and building owners identify, test, and replace aging or defective sprinklers. The episode closes with updates from Dyne’s lab on the transition from fluorinated foams to fluorine-free alternatives, and what that means for contractors navigating environmental regulations and system performance.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro and Episode Overview

02:21 Meet Grant Lobdell and Dyne Labs

07:32 O-Ring Recalls and Failure Rates

11:15 NFPA 25 Testing Requirements

18:00 Simplifying Inspections Through Partnerships

21:07 Testing Cycles and Code Changes

23:42 Interpreting Results and Owner Duties

27:21 Foam Systems and Regulatory Updates

34:48 Closing Remarks