UPI, Fire Engineering
According to a recent article in Fire Engineering, the Texas wildfires this spring have been brutal for volunteer firefighters who worked through the Easter season, sometimes on top of regular jobs.
Two firefighters lost their lives, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Others have lost sleep and time with their families.
Members of the Graford Rural Volunteer Fire Department spent Easter Sunday putting out hot spots around the town, which had been affected by the Possum Kingdom Lake fire.
Click here to read the entire article.
On Tuesday, April 26, the International Association of Fire Chiefs announced that they would no longer contribute to federal political campaigns.
The message from IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger, found on the IAFF site:
Brothers and Sisters,
The International Association of Fire Fighters has grown into a political powerhouse in the Nation’s Capitol and in state houses, county and city halls across the country.
Over the past decade, the symbolism of our profession and the image of our fire fighters and paramedics decked out in this union’s trademark gold and black have become one of the most sought after endorsements in politics at every level. We have grown what was a modest federal Political Action Committee (PAC) into one of the top federal PACs in the nation.
Last election cycle, FIREPAC was in the top 1.1 percent of the more than 7,100 federally registered PACs in terms of dollars raised and was the 10th largest PAC in candidate contributions. It was also one of the most bi-partisan PACs.
In total, we spent close to $15 million in the last election cycle on behalf of federal candidates and both political parties, helping to elect those who support us and defeat those who oppose us.
But the attacks launched at our members since the November 2010 elections have changed the landscape.
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Sean Adkins | York Daily Record
York, PA – Something happens. Something they can’t stop.
In the communities that surround Three Mile Island or Peach Bottom Atomic Station, sirens shriek.
On TV and radio, the Emergency Broadcast System makes the announcement. A meltdown. Radiation is leaking. The governor has ordered evacuation.
Click here to read the entire article on FireLink.
By Michael Krueger, Fire Life
One word comes to mind whenever I think about people in the middle years of their careers and that word is “complacent.” In most professions, complacency simply gets you downsized; in firefighting it gets you dead.
The Trouble with Age
You’ve worked your tail off for quite a few years, you’ve paid your dues and now you are a veteran. You feel that you’ve earned some respect and some perks as well. Longevity means something so long as you accomplished something during those years, simply getting by and putting in your time isn’t supposed to be what it is all about. You are here to grow, learn, mentor and thrive not just make it through to retirement.
Too often the “old timers” forget that fires don’t care how long you’ve been a firefighter. Heart attacks and injuries don’t take into consideration that you only have 4 or 5 years to retirement. It’s too easy to “remember when” and forget to “remember how”.
Click here to read the entire article on Fire Link and find out what you need to do to reach optimal health.
By Richard Fairburn
for PoliceOne.com
Those of us on ‘the thin blue line’ are sometimes reluctant to admit it, but we can actually learn some important things from our brothers and sisters who ride the big, red trucks. One of those things is the need to appoint a “safety officer” at significant incidents and high-risk training events.
If you are up-to-date on your mandatory NIMS/ICS training, you have been introduced to the concept of a safety officer. The duties of a safety officer at a critical incident scene are to look out for the safety and well being of the first responders, and only the first responders. The safety of the general public during a critical incident rests with the Operations and Planning elements. Fire commanders use a safety officer religiously and confer great powers upon them.
Have you ever tried to get a fire truck or paramedic unit to move their rig for some police-related reason? Damn, tough to get it moved, isn’t it? Locate the FD safety officer and convince him the rig needs to be relocated for safety reasons (on a blind curve, too close to a pending SWAT operation, etc.) and it will be moved, right now!
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Daily Mail | © 2011 YellowBrix, Inc.
If you saw two pit bulls struggling to breathe would you feel happy giving them CPR?
That’s exactly what Chicago firefighter Tammy Rodriguez did as she rescued two dogs from a house fire and resuscitated them both using CPR and applying oxygen.
Ms Rodriguez was in a fire team rescuing two pet pit bulls, Howdy and Hossa, from a blaze in Bucktown, Illinois, on Friday – and her quick thinking saved the lives of both.
Click here to read the entire article on FireLink and find out how both dogs are recovering.
By Jason Poremba
for FireRescue1.com
Quite often in our careers we come on scene to a fire that is beyond the point of making an offensive attack. The words offense and defense can be used in all types of fire attacks.
As an incident commander you could determine that an aggressive offensive attack on a car fire is necessary because there is a life hazard involved. On a different run you may determine that a defensive attack is warranted on a dumpster fire because there is no life hazard and the contents are unknown.
I say this to remind firefighters that we are not just talking building fires when we refer to an offensive or defensive attack. An initial and continual size-up will determine how you adjust your attack on any type of fire.
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Who should be responding to 911 calls? This is a topic recently discussed in an article on MSNBC titled “Firefighters face new threat: private 911 service.”
In a growing nationwide trend, private ambulance service providers are marketing to cash-strapped cities to take over services historically provided by the local jurisdictions’ fire departments. And emergency ambulance calls make up a large portion of the calls to which firefighters respond.
While the two groups are already working together in many instances, experts have varying views and opinions on whether for-profit providers put the public – and the jobs of the public servants hired to protect the public – at risk.
Not surprisingly, the MSNBC story reports that unions such as the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) have concerns about private EMS companies responding to calls. The IAFF sent out a bulletin to its members warning them of a specific private ambulance company’s alleged efforts to target municipalities in which budget deficits are well-known and the fire department’s resources are shrinking.
So, what’s your experience? Are private 911 service providers a presence in your community? And by outsourcing these services to a private company, are municipalities putting the public at risk?
By Roy Bedard
for PoliceOne.com
The Czech Republic is one of the most modern countries in the former communist block, and is quickly becoming a recognized leader in the global law enforcement profession. They are considered quite modern and up to date on western theory, technology, and applications. They produce one of the world’s finest firearms, and are great contributors to the advancement of law enforcement methodologies. Not long ago, while I was giving presentations in the Czech Republic, I was confronted by an unusual perspective that has comparative value to our system of policing here in the United States.
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By Dolph Holmes, FireRescue1
Do you just pick up the microphone and just start talking? Oh come on … you know you do! Well next time you pick up the mic, stop for a second and then talk.
It does a few things; it allows repeaters to become fully operational, gets the transmitter up and a digital ID to go out, or just gives you one more chance to think about what you want to say.
In classes, hopefully you learned a little on how radio systems operate but I doubt your instructor told you this little tip: Always do your radio calls the same way. Follow your local protocol, even if you consider they are wrong.
Click here to read the entire article on FireRescue1.
According to a recent article in Fire Engineering, the Texas wildfires this spring have been brutal for volunteer firefighters who worked through the Easter season, sometimes on top of regular jobs.
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