News

(Pictured above is Stan Maciaszek during one of his classroom demonstrations.)

Stan Maciaszek attended Career Day at Brookwood Elementary in Grovetown, GA, on May 9th, 2016. Stan demonstrated fire chemistry experiments while teaching the children about careers in Fire Protection Engineering. The CSRA SFPE Chapter continues to hold classroom demonstrations throughout the school year to help spread the word about fire protection. While our chapter may be small in comparison to other chapters, devoted chapter members, such as Stan, continue to inform the public about fire safety and careers as a Fire Protection Engineer.

(Pictured, from left to right: Willy Ramos, John Pham, Ralph Foster, Paul Anslow, and Will Cosey)

Members of the CSRA SFPE Chapter attended the 2016 SFPE Greater Atlanta Fire Safety Conference on March 15th and 16th. A few of the CSRA SFPE members also assisted with planning of the conference and performing roles such as Session Managers. The conference was well attended, and the Greater Atlanta SFPE Chapter did an outstanding job organizing this great event.

(Pictured from left to right: Mark Legrand, Tom Allison, Denny Bennett, Ralph Foster, Paul Anslow, Chris Jelenewicz, Stan Maciaszek, and Rob Plonski)

The CSRA SFPE set a new chapter record for submitting 32 problems at the Fire Protection Engineering PE Problem Writing Session on March 8th! Chris Jelenewicz from SFPE International assisted with moderating the session and 7 chapter members volunteered their time to prepare problems for the future PE exams.

Indian Waters Council conducted their 23rd annual Merit Badge University. The event allows 400 Scouts from the Columbia Midlands area to earn a merit badge in one day. This year, two of our chapter members taught classes on careers in the fire service. Patrick Bradshaw taught Fire Safety, where 15 Scouts spoke with an Engineer who introduced them to a career in Fire Protection Engineering. Paul Anslow taught Engineering Merit Badge and also exposed 20 Scouts to a career in Fire Protection Engineering. The Scouts asked a host of questions and several said they would consider a career in Fire Protection Engineering.

(Pictured above is Stan Maciaszek showing the differences between ionization and photoelectric smoke detectors.)

Stan Maciaszek and Jason Butler attended Paul Knox Middle School on February 26th, 2016, for several fire protection classroom demonstrations. There were a total of five STEM classroom demonstrations, each lasting an hour long. Students were actively engaged during the fire science experiments, and by the end of each class, a few were ready to become Fire Protection Engineers!

(Pictured, from left to right: Jason Butler and Rob Plonski at our booth during the influx of students)

Members of the CSRA SFPE Chapter attended the 2015 College Night in Augusta, GA, to inform high school students and parents about the vast array of careers in Fire Science and Fire Protection Engineering. Tom Allison, Jason Butler, and Rob Plonski represented the Chapter at this event. Students and parents were given information on colleges that offer degrees in fire protection and career opportunities available upon graduation. Over 6,000 students were in attendance.

(Left to Right: Rob Plonski, Andre Da Vitoria, Willy Ramos, John DePaoli, Barbara Hall, Richard Mellish, Jared Harbold)

Order of the Engineer: Jason Butler, Eric Johnson, Stan Maciaszek, and Paul Anslow conducted the Order of the Engineer ceremony on May 19th, 2015.

Inductees: 
Mr. Rob Plonski
Mr. Andre Da Vitoria
Mr. Willy Ramos
Mr. John DePaoli
Ms. Barbara Hall
Mr. Richard Mellish
Mr. Jared Harbold

Guest Speaker: Mr. William “Bernie” Till, MSFPE, CFPS, FSFPE
Organization: Bernie Till & Associates
Topic: Knowing What is Right Isn’t Enough; Crashes, Culture, Communication and Character

(Pictured above: Bernie Till providing a classroom demonstration.)

Bernie Till, Stan Maciaszek, and Jason Butler attended Paul Knox Middle School Career Day on May 15, 2015, for several fire protection classroom demonstrations. Fire science experiments were conducted and information was presented to the students about the field of Fire Protection Engineering.

The CSRA chapter member Paul Anslow taught fire protection engineering to the Indian Waters Council of the Boy Scouts of America on March 28, 2015, at USC’s Swearingen Engineering Center in Columbia, SC.

CSRA-SFPE Chapter Vice President, Paul Anslow, taught Engineering merit badge, which teaches scouts about engineering and career opportunities available to them. Paul said, “It’s always great to see our future leaders enthusiastic about the field of Engineering.”

Paul had 20 scouts learning about careers available to them in Engineering and why Fire Protection Engineering is the BEST field to go into!

Our second work weekend went slower than expected as we continued resolving conflict with the design and the existing conditions at the facility. We are pleased with the progress made by our 10 volunteers. Spirits were high and the CAPA staff is getting more excited with every visit.

Our next work day is scheduled for Saturday, March 28, starting at 9 AM. Please join us as we finish the project!

We want to thank our donors again for their support of this project:

Ferguson Fire & Fab—Jeff Mackey
Foster Engineering—Ralph Foster
Lifeguard Fire Protection—Jamie Patterson
TYCO—Dave Able
PASCO—Rick Mill
Victaulic—William Morrill