Remote fire and life safety inspections certainly gained traction during the pandemic, however the advantages for remote processes were recognized well before COVID-19. Inspectors were already reevaluating video or audio technologies available today to perform inspections and testing procedures previously trusted only to a human. Because of advanced technologies, the need to travel three hours to perform a minor construction inspection or the need to send a contractor to scale a dangerous water tower could now be accomplished remotely in a safe and effective way. But to ensure these inspections are acceptable and official, the industry needed tools and protocols to officially launch a new way of working.
This is where the proposed NFPA 915 Standard for Remote Inspections and Tests comes in. In effect as of May, the standard establishes the minimal requirements, procedures, methods and documentation needed to perform remote inspection in order to deliver an equivalent or improved result when compared to in-person methods. NFPA 915 Standard for Remote Inspections and Tests includes information on: