Life safety is the cornerstone of the First Alert Professional program. We are committed to providing you with the information needed to help protect the businesses and families in your communities.

As a security professional, you have the ability to save lives. By installing First Alert Professional and Honeywell systems, you are helping to protect families and businesses.

On January 15th, a US Airways jet crashed into the Hudson River late in the afternoon. Miraculously, all passengers and crew survived.

Honeywell’s Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), a device which provides power when main aircraft engines are not running, played a critical role in the emergency landing. Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III maneuvered the plane en route from New York’s La Guardia airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, to glide approximately 3,000 feet without power and splash down slowy in the river, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The article states, “The generators that routinely provide electricity weren’t available because they are driven by the aircraft’s engines – which weren’t putting out sufficient power after apparently having ingested several geese. But the plane’s auxiliary power unit — made by Honeywell International Inc. — was operating during the descent and gave the pilot full use of the jet’s flight-control system, according to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board and other people familiar with the details.”

Please read the attached article for details.

Tags: Honeywell, Hudson River, New York, US Airways

WHAT IS NICET?

NICET stands for National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies. It is a division of the National Society of Professional Engineers and NICET certification programs are structured to promote a greater degree of technical knowledge and competence in the workforce.

NICET certifies at 4 different levels: I, II, III and IV. NICET Level IV technicians handle situations that deal with one or more code or standard. A Level IV technician is able to identify common elements between codes and to provide an interpretation based upon those similarities.

BENEFITS OF NICET CERTIFICATION:

1. Being able to identify not only which code or standard applies to an application, but also knowing the specific section of that code. (Certification in fire protection references more than 30 different codes, some of which are 100+ pages long!)
2. Life safety projects, especially those involving state or federal funding, require independent code review which requires a certificate of code compliance – something a NICET technician can provide.
3. NICET Certification allows a designer to evolve from performance-based designs to detailed designs of fire protection systems.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO OUR CUSTOMERS:
According to the NICET website, “A NICET-certified work force indicates to your customers and potential customers that your personnel are qualified and that your organization is committed to excellence.”
Select Security has always been committed to excellence in the security and fire alarm systems we design and install, which is why we believe in the importance of NICET certification. Because of our beliefs, we have on board Larry Mullins, a NICET Level IV Certified Senior Engineering Technician (SET). Larry has worked with Patrick Egan, president of Select Security, for over 22 years, and has achieved Level IV certification for fire alarms, and Level I certification for audio systems through NICET.

So what does this really mean for our customer? To be a Level IV technician, you have to have at least 10 years working experience. To pass the test, you have to have direct experience – you can’t just read the book and take a written test to be certified. And when you are in need of a specialized fire system, we have the expertise and training on board to design systems to code, ensure compliance, and handle any degree of system difficulty.

Tags: Certification, NICET