ABOUT AFSA
The AFSA Story
The American Fire Sprinkler Association, (AFSA) is a non-profit, international association representing merit shop fire sprinkler contractors, dedicated to the educational advancement of its members and promotion of the use of automatic fire sprinkler systems.
AFSA History
AFSA was organized in 1981 to provide the merit shop fire sprinkler contractor with training, consulting, communication, representation and many more services, all of which have expanded over its existence. Membership is open to contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, designers and Authorities Having Jurisdiction. Currently, AFSA represents companies and individuals in the United States and throughout the world.
AFSA believes that the installation of fire sprinklers could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars lost to fire each year. Increasingly, public officials are realizing this.
What We Do
AFSA acts as a liaison with other national associations involved in fire safety. Working together with government agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Fire Protection Association, the Residential Fire Safety Institute, and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, AFSA helps to create an awareness on the dangers of fire.
Convention and Exhibition
AFSA holds the largest fire sprinkler industry convention and exhibition in the world. The exhibit provides attendees the opportunity for face-to-face time with more than 140 manufacturers and suppliers presenting the latest in products and technology. The convention hosts dozens of industry-related seminars as well as networking events and fabulous parties.
Publications
AFSA publishes Sprinkler Age, the most widely read and respected monthly magazine covering the fire sprinkler industry. The SprinklerNEWS weekly email newsletters covers current news about fire sprinklers around the country. ContractorNetwork, an email newsletter for contractors, brings labor and legislative news to your inbox each quarter.
Technical Services
AFSA provides technical services to members, including representation on all applicable codes and standards committees, informal interpretations of codes and standards, and Tech Update email newsletters covering technical issues.
Training
To assist fire sprinkler contractors in maintaining a quality workforce, AFSA offers several training programs for the installation, design layout, and inspection, testing, and maintenance of fire sprinkler systems.
One of our more popular training courses is the Sprinkler Fitter Apprenticeship Training Series, a correspondence course designed specifically for training apprentices in the fire sprinkler trade. In addition, AFSA offers the following specialized schools: a two-week Beginning Fire Sprinkler System Planning School offering a comprehensive practical approach to preparing fire sprinkler system drawings with heavy emphasis on NFPA 13; and the System Layout School for Residential One- and Two-Family Dwellings covering layout & calculation of stand alone, multipurpose, and flow-through system types of residential fire sprinkler systems.
AFSA’s newest training offering, in response to member demand, is the ITM Inspector Development Program, a comprehensive curriculum blending live webinars and on-demand courses with live classroom, lab, and field training. This expansive program is designed to take a ‘green’ Inspector to a NICET Level II certification in inspection and testing of water-based systems.
AFSA offers continuing education units (CEU) and NICET-required continuing professional development (CPD) units for nearly all of its training programs, to promote professional growth and development throughout the industry.