At its World Safety Conference and Exposition® this week, the NFPA presented various association awards to those demonstrating significant fire and life safety accomplishments. The 2004 Harry C. Bigglestone Award for Excellence in Communication of Fire Protection Concepts: The Bigglestone Award was presented to a team of eight authors for their paper "Early Warning Fire Detection System Using a Probabilistic Neural Network." The recipients are Susan Rose-Pehrsson, Sean Hart, Daniel Gottuk, Mark Wright and Jennifer Wong, of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington and Thomas Street, Frederick Williams, and Mark Hammond of Hughes Associates, Baltimore. Their paper was published in the second quarter 2003 issue of Fire Technology.

The Industrial Fire Protection Section Fire Prevention Week Contest recognizes businesses that promote fire and related safety messages for employees and their communities in conjunction with local fire departments during Fire Prevention Week from the previous year. The Industrial Fire Protection Section presented its first place award for the second consecutive year to Tom Whalen, fire protection specialist representing Duke University and Health Systems.

The 2004 Rolf H. Jensen Memorial Public Education Award is given yearly to a local fire department to support a fire and life safety education community-wide program or campaign. The award was presented to the Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue in Suffolk, VA. In collaboration with the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, the Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue will expand a fire safety education program for children and adults living in Section 8 rental assistance housing and public housing.

NFPA's Standards Medal is given for outstanding contributions to fire safety in the development of codes and standards and is the highest award given by the Standards Council. The medal was awarded to Gary Taylor, past chair of the NFPA Standards Council and current member of the NFPA board of directors. Taylor is a partner in Taylor/Wagner Inc., a firm in Innisfil, ON, Canada, that provides fire protection consulting services, with expertise in special hazards.