NFSA’s Chat EOD: Developed by the Industry, for the Industry

Alexandros Tzamaras, EIT

The National Fire Sprinkler Association’s (NFSA) Expert of the Day (EOD) program has been around for decades. Industry legends such as Russ Fleming, Ken Isman, and countless others, have provided Association members with technical information and support.  The NFSA’s technical departments, such as Codes, Standards, and Public Fire Protection and Engineering, have long been regarded as subject matter experts (SME) in the codes and standards sphere. The staff SMEs at NFSA represent the fire sprinkler industry on dozens of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) code and standard technical committees, as well as various International Code Council (ICC) codes and committees. The NFSA currently has over 180 members and staff that participate on 60+ technical committees and 90+ technical committee seats.  Along with NFPA and ICC, NFSA also has a technical presence that extends to the committees and boards of organizations such as the American Waterworks Association (AWWA), Factory Mutual (FM), Society of Fire Protections Engineers (SFPE), Underwriters Laboratories (UL), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

As the world and technology are changing and constantly improving, and the use and development of AI is on the rise, earlier this year NFSA launched Chat EOD. Chat EOD is our revolutionary new AI assistant, a purpose-built AI tool for fire protection. While not intended to replace the traditional EOD program, Chat EOD provides members with live, 24/7 access to technical expertise, at the touch of a button. This means our members can get answers whenever they need them.

The Expert of the Day Program – a brief background

The EOD program has long been one of the most valuable ways that NFSA has been able to provide technical guidance to our members. Through the EOD program, members are able to submit their toughest questions, likely related to an ongoing project, about sprinkler system design and installation, among a vast number of other topics. The SMEs at NFSA will then respond with answers about code, standards, and technology. The answers provided by NFSA, though informal opinions/unofficial code interpretations, have helped our members solve some of the toughest problems that they face.

The NFSA EOD process is straightforward, simple, easy to use, and loved by our members. What was started as a system via phone call or fax was streamlined into an online process. Members must log into their account on the NFSA website and go to ‘My EOD’. From there, they fill out all the requisite information and then submit their EOD question. While EOD questions are typically answered within one to two business days, some questions are resolved and the answer sent back to the member even faster than that.

NFSA has taken some of the most impactful EOD questions asked and answered and complied them into a five-volume set, called the EOD Handbook. Over five volumes you will find thousands of detailed answers to questions that have been used in real-world scenarios in the field, on plan reviews, and more. In addition to the print and bound copies of the EOD Handbook, an online searchable index is also available, in order to make navigating the handbooks easier. More information on both can be found at https://nfsa.org/eodhandbook/.

NFSA TechNotes

Back in 1978, Russ Fleming, who was the first staff engineer hired at NFSA (then called the National Automatic Sprinkler and Fire Control Association), created the bimonthly Sprinkler TechNotes Newsletter. This was a way of distributing technical information to members of the association. Fast forward to 2004, Ken Isman took over the responsibility for the Sprinkler TechNotes Newsletter. At this time, Russ started an electronic newsletter, the Tuesday eTechAlert, which was published every Tuesday in which NFSA engineering staff were not holding a seminar. The eTechAlert started reprinting NFSA answers to EOD questions, and eventually in 2011, eTechAlert and TechNotes were combined into one electronic newsletter; we now know it as NFSA TechNotes, in which Roland Asp, Manager of Codes and Standards at NFSA, serves as editor. While TechNotes and the EOD program have been, and still are, great ways to disseminate information to our members, as an association we’re always improving – aiming to get reliable information to our members as quickly as possible.

Enter, Chat EOD

With technology constantly changing and improving, and the development and subsequent refining of AI and large language learning models, NFSA developed Chat EOD. Chat EOD is an expert-driven AI tool built by the fire-sprinkler industry, for the fire-sprinkler industry. Members can expect to receive full, correct answers to the toughest fire sprinkler-related technical questions they might have. In the development of Chat EOD, NFSA took decades worth of EOD material, TechNotes, and other fire sprinkler technical guides and fed them into our AI large language learning model. We’ve been able to leverage NFSA’s extensive knowledge, built over 120 years, to provide our users with a tool that delivers reliable, well-developed industry insights and answers.

Chat EOD can be relied on to deliver accurate answers on an array of topics. In a recent blog post, Jeffrey Hugo, VP of Codes, Standards, and Public Fire Protection at NFSA put Chat EOD to the test against other open-source AI language learning models (https://nfsa.org/2025/09/09/ai-in-the-fire-sprinkler-world-chat-eod/). Chat EOD was tested against Chat GPT4, GPT5, and Gemini. Far and away, Chat EOD was the clear first place – it provided not only the enforceable code section to the test question (“The 2016 edition of NFPA 13 includes new guidance for fire sprinkler systems that protect spaces that have cloud ceilings – can you tell me more about this?”), but exact requirements and what happens if conditions aren’t met. The differences are clear – an AI tool purpose-built for the fire sprinkler industry will outperform and will provide more reliable answers than a generic AI model.

Chat EOD Use Example

Let’s do a quick demonstration about what users can expect with Chat EOD, using the test question referenced in the section above.

Upon logging in to Chat EOD, users are greeted with the screen above. At the bottom of the page (but out of view of the image) is the text box in which users can input their question.

We’re going to go ahead and using the test question from above (“The 2016 edition of NFPA 13 includes new guidance for fire sprinkler systems that protect spaces that have cloud ceilings – can you tell me more about this?”).

After pressing enter, and some processing time, Chat EOD delivers its answer, even providing references for where it pulled material from. Aside from that, we can even use Chat EOD in a similar way to other AI large language learning models. Say we want to summarize the answer into an email we want to send as part of an official communication – Chat EOD can do that. The opportunities are endless – even translating answers into other languages, such as Spanish, is possible.

Screengrabs from Example Use-Case

Conclusion

The EOD process, which once started as a system via phone call or fax and then transitioned into an online platform, has now been brought into the future using cutting edge AI technology.

Chat EOD has been received in a positive light by our members and is driving the EOD process into the future. And while it is not intended to replace the traditional EOD process, it has become a welcome addition to our various member benefits and has even improved the traditional EOD process. We find that the quality of questions received through EODs has increased, as members are using Chat EOD before submitting their EOD question, which is really helping narrow in on certain topics. The creation of Chat EOD has allowed us to leverage 120 years of industry expertise into a quick, simple, easy to use, and effective tool. Members can have answers to their questions at the touch of a button.

Since its rollout back in May of this year, Chat EOD has answered over 13,000 questions from our members. We hope that Chat EOD will continue to be a reliable and useful tool in our industry for years to come. Chat EOD can be found at https://app.nfsa.org/chat-eod/. For more information on Chat EOD, or any questions, feel free to reach out to us at any time at https://nfsa.org/ .

About the Author

Alexandros (Alexi) Tzamaras is a staff engineer at NFSA, in the Engineering Department. holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Fire Protection Engineering from the University of Maryland. Prior to coming to NFSA, he worked in consulting and research, as a research engineer. As a researcher he helped conduct both bench and large-scale fire tests, as well as materials property tests. Alexi can be contacted at tzamaras@nfsa.org.

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