Building Safety Week May 5-11

WASHINGTON, May 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Building Safety Week is relevant to:

• Green Building
• Energy Conservation
• Tornados
• Earthquakes
• Wildfires
• Hurricane Katrina
• Flooding

Building Safety Week annually calls attention to the importance of building safety and fire prevention codes, the overlooked components of public safety. Building safety codes play a major role in saving lives, protecting property and reducing recovery costs often paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Following the 9/11 tragedy, Americans came to know who "First Responders" are and why their essential functions deserve more support. The same cannot be said of their bookend group: "First Preventers," those many unheralded and mostly unknown code officials who check and double-check the code compliance of what designers, builders and oversight institutions certify as safe.

They may go under the title of building inspector, fire chief, fire inspector, structural engineer, plan reviewer, electrical inspector, plumbing inspector or simply building safety official, but the labels merely obscure their common mission to prevent harm by ensuring compliance with building safety codes before a disaster occurs. First Preventers, as referred to by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), are an essential part of the public safety equation.

For more information, visit buildingsafetyweek.org or www.iccsafe.org.

The International Code Council, a membership association dedicated to building safety and fire prevention, develops the codes used to construct residential and commercial buildings, including homes and schools. Most U.S. cities, counties and states choose the International Codes, building safety codes developed by the International Code Council.