Local 66 Members & Contractors Tackle Fire Life Safety Issues Together

Following the examples of Local 33 and others, Local 66 contractors and members have been busily preparing to make the facilities within their jurisdiction verifiably safe.

Local 66 has delivered Fire Life Safety Level 1 Technician training for the last few years through the Western Washington Sheet Metal (WWSM) JATC. Now, with increased awareness of the importance of fire life safety, Local 66, SMACNA Western Washington, and the WWSM JATC are increasing their efforts to provide Level 2 Supervisor training and to get contractors registered to perform the work as certified entities.Local 66 Business Manager Eric Martinson has designated Organizer Brad Stephens to take the lead on networking with the public officials who are by law required to perform periodic building fire life safety inspections. Brad has been busy connecting the dots to get the right training to the right people, to make Local 66 members and contractors the go-to resource for these valuable safety inspections. As with all of these endeavors, the primary goals are safety and increased work hours.
This past summer the WWSM JATC hosted a five-day training session that provided 15 members and contractor representatives with both the Level 1 Technician and Level 2 Supervisor training required to begin to chase this work. Additionally, the WWSM JATC has begun installation of two complete fire life safety labs that will allow them to demonstrate directly to building officials how fire life safety systems work and how they should be inspected. Modeled after labs used in Local 33, the two Local 66 labs will be located in the Everett and DuPont JATC training centers, making it easier to prepare as many Local 66 members as possible to do this work.
Both SMACNA Western Washington and SMART Sheet Metal Local 66 are encouraged by the level of training participation and the attention members and contractors alike are showing in fire life safety as a viable work opportunity.