New York Deputy State Fire Administrator John Mueller has been named recipient of the 2010 Excellence in Fire & Life Safety Award.
"John has spent his career improving life safety and public safety in the built environment to the benefit of New York State and the country," said ICC CEO Rick Weiland. "His crowning achievement is the implementation of the safe-cigarette law in New York. The statute was the first in the world and led to the same standard for fire-safe cigarettes across the United States and Canada. John is active at our code-development hearings and chaired the International Fire Code Committee during the past two cycles."
Mueller's nomination states that fire fatalities attributable to smoking materials have decreased about 33% over the four years since the safe-cigarette legislation took effect and suggests that, other than smoke alarms, no other fire-safety enhancement has produced results as impressive. He also is commended for organizational and coalition-building skills.
"I remember that his department was a pioneer in computerizing their fire-prevention inspection processes by using hand-held computerized devices to remotely access their office database. I will be forever impressed by his gracious willingness to share that process with my department. It made quite an impression on me," said Deputy Chief Joe Pierce of the Dallas Fire Department and chair of the FLSS Section.