SUMMER SCHOOL WILL BE IN SESSION

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A Season of Learning With Design in Mind

Summer school will be in session for the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) and its Beginning and Intermediate Design Schools. New for the summer of 2025 is the inclusion of AFSA’s new training lab, aka the “playground,” as an integral part of the school.

“AFSA’s new valve lab is invaluable for all kinds of training, including sprinkler system design,” says AFSA’s Director of Operations and Training Joshua McDonald, MSET, CFPS, CWBSP, WBITM. “Discussing water flow testing is one thing—our students actually perform and analyze it. NFPA 13’s obstruction diagrams come to life as participants witness actual spray patterns with and without obstructions. This dynamic facility is versatile and constantly evolving to meet our industry needs.”

Beginning Design School

AFSA’s Beginning Design School offers a hybrid approach, with six live webinars offered first, followed by one week of in-person instruction. The school presents a comprehensive, practical approach to preparing fire sprinkler system drawings. Over a three-week period, students will attend six live webinars studying and reviewing the installation and design approach requirements of NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems, (2022 edition) while completing self-paced exercises and module assessments. Q&A sessions and open discussions will also be included as part of the online instruction. The second part of the class will be a week of in-person training, preparing fire sprinkler system layouts, shop drawings, and hydraulic calculations by hand. The course concludes with a comprehensive exam of the class content, including the installation requirements and hydraulics. There is no CAD or third-party software taught in this class. The school will prepare the student to:

Accelerate the comprehension of plans and various types of building construction for proper sprinkler spacing applications.
Determine the proper sprinkler system layout and installation requirements and methods.
Interpret sprinkler specifications, plans (shop drawings), manufacturer’s technical data sheets, and flow tests.
Identify sprinkler types, system types, pipe types, hangers, fittings, system components, etc.
Explain the coordination with other trades—plumbing, mechanical, electrical, and structural.
Prepare hand sprinkler drawings and hydraulic calculations and identify the hydraulic inputs to explain computer outputs.

“Josh was fantastic as our instructor and kept us all engaged. He has a great personality and is an awesome subject matter expert with a wealth of experience to share,” says Hugh McVeety, VSC Fire & Security, Travelers Rest, S.C., who attended a school last fall.

This class is designed for trainees and entry-level technicians with at least six months experience as well as those with experience in the sprinkler trade looking to make the transition to system layout. For more information and to register, visit firesprinkler.org/programs/beginning-fire-sprinkler-system-planning-school/.

Intermediate Design School

Taking designers to the next level of learning, AFSA’s Intermediate Design School begins with an orientation and two three-hour webinars providing an overview of the toolsets available in the Autodesk® Revit® software to allow students to utilize Building Information Modeling (BIM) for exercises. That is followed by five days of in-person instruction.

The course is designed for those with layout experience looking to understand the tools they utilize in-depth and gain a more profound knowledge to apply the design and installation requirements for general storage, install and calculate seismic protection, layout and calculate standpipe systems, size, and select fire pumps, and apply hydraulic principles to complex wet, deluge, and preaction systems. Seismic protection and sway bracing will also be covered in detail. The school will prepare the student to:

Classify commodities and storage arrangements.
Compare installation requirements for storage sprinklers (CMDA, CMSA, and ESFR).
Use computer modeling of a sprinkler system to illustrate and confirm installation requirements for storage sprinklers (CMDA, CMSA, and ESFR).
Determine a standpipe system’s appropriate component, installation, and design requirements.
Recognize the components and prepare shop drawings where seismic protection is required.
Select an appropriate fire pump based on available supply and system demand and verify using a computer model.

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Enroll Today

Don’t delay; register your designers for the best in-depth training in the industry! All details and registration information can be found online for both schools. Early registration is highly encouraged. For more information, visit firesprinkler.org/ and click on “Education and Training” online or email training@firesprinkler.org.