Fire Protection System for Existing Buildings Undergoing Changes

Mark Hopkins, P.E. recently joined TERPconsulting as regional director and senior fire protection engineer. He has both B.S. (’92) and M.S. (96’) degrees in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland College Park. For the past four years Mark served as Vice President of Engineering for the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) where he oversaw the operations of the engineering department, served on the leadership team, and served as chief technical expert for this nationwide trade organization. He represented the NFSA on numerous NFPA technical committees (13, 20, 25, 30, 72, 101, 101A, 200, 232, 550, 551, 909, 914, and 5000), served as secretary and senior staff representative on multiple NFSA committees and councils, and many other industry related technical committees. Mark was a senior fire protection engineer for JENSEN HUGHES (previously Hughes Associates, Inc.) for 18 years prior to joining NFSA, he designed and evaluated sprinkler systems, water mist systems, water spray systems, fire alarm and mass notification systems, and clean agent systems. He also conducted hazards assessments, conducted forensic engineering examinations, provided litigation support, conducted corrosion investigations, and consulted on life safety and building code issues for a variety of occupancies. He was a contributing authored for Chapters 28 ( Systems Acceptance) and 29 (Existing Systems Modifications) of the NFPA 13 Automatic Sprinkler Systems Handbook, 2019 edition, and co-authored a report for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), regarding the performance of the fire suppression systems in the World Trade Center disaster, NCSTAR 1-4B. Mark has served on the SFPE Chesapeake Chapter Board of Directors and was the Capital Regional Fire Sprinkler Association Chairman for the ITM committee.