NFPA

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is the national standards-setting organization for all aspects of fire and life safety. Its hundreds of NFPA technical codes, each developed by a Technical Committee of experts in the respective field, cover firefighting, fire prevention, building safety standards and systems, wildfire management, professional pyrotechnics, and rocketry. NFPA codes are used by public safety officials throughout the world as the basis for inspecting and enforcing safety standards. In many jurisdictions in the U.S. they are adopted as state law or local ordinances.

The NFPA Pyrotechnics Committee has jurisdiction over codes pertaining to professional pyrotechnics and hobby rocketry. Its 36 members include a wide range of fire safety officials, government regulators, manufacturers, safety experts, and user organizations. Both the NAR and TRA have seats on this committee, as do Estes, Aerotech, and Cesaroni. NFPA Codes 1122 (Model Rocketry), 1127 (High-Power Rocketry), and 1125 (Hobby Rocket Motor Manufacturing) are the foundational safety documents of our hobby and the basis for the NAR Safety Codes. The public can read these codes online, but getting an actual copy (digital or paper) requires payment; these payments are what funds the operation of NFPA and its standards-setting processes. A link to view NFPA 1122 is HERE; similar paths exist for all the other codes. You have to establish a free NFPA account to view.

NFPA codes are updated periodically (typically every 4-5 years) through a structured process that includes opportunities for public input and review. The review cycle for the rocketry and pyrotechnics codes is in progress now; revised editions will be issued at the end of this, in about two years.

If you have questions or comments about the NFPA Codes or process, contact the NAR's representative to the NFPA Pyrotechnics Committe, Trip Barber, at nfpa@nar.org