Charleston fire spurs calls for FR regs
By Gary Evans -- Furniture Today, July 2, 2007
West Ashley, S.C. — In the wake of a furniture store fire here June 18 that killed nine firefighters, two key groups involved in creating a fire- safety standard for upholstery said they plan to press on to enact a mandatory federal law.
In a statement last week, John Dean, president of the National Assn. of State Fire Marshals, said he is talking with Andy Counts, CEO of the American Home Furnishings Alliance, and is "encouraged by the recent signs the (furniture) industry wants to do the right thing to prevent a very preventable loss of lives involving their products."
Counts said an effort is under way to get all stakeholders together soon "to revisit the issues, to see what common ground exists, to see what issues are out there — all with the goal of trying to get a workable national standard on the books."
"There are technical issues that still need to be worked out," Dean said, "but (there is) much that we already agreed on."
