Whenever we arrive at a working fire, time is running against us in terms of executing an interior attack and achieving a quick and effective knockdown of the fire.
Certain delays caused by human, mechanical or unknown error can arise, which handicap the efforts of our interior fire attack.
Some of these handicaps are attributed to our personal protective equipment malfunctioning right at the time of our operation.
A basic part of our personal protective equipment is the self contained breathing apparatus. This piece of equipment is an integral part of our personal protection as it provides for protection against heat, smoke, toxic gases and other products of combustion from entering into our respiratory system.
Knowing SCBA inside and out is vital to the survivability of the individual using it. Knowing the limitations, the mechanical operation and being able to troubleshoot problems as they arise will benefit the user and remove any handicaps.
Firefighting can be an extremely physically demanding job, at an emergency call firefighters are required wear an extra 50 lbs of protective clothing and equipment. They are expected to be able to climb flights of stairs, carry heavy hoses and pull victims to safety. The stress levels on the body is so high that the lead cause of fatal injuries to firefighters is a heart attack.
Because of this it is imperative that a firefighter be in the best physical shape possible.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has guidelines for firefighter exercise expectations, and most fire departments have made it mandatory for their members to work out a certain number of hours per week.
However as the Los Angeles Times reports most of firefighters’ injuries might be as a result of exercising not firefighting. Jeannine Stein for the Los Angeles Times writes:
“A study released online Wednesday in the journal Injury Prevention looked at injuries sustained by 650 firefighters and emergency medical service workers (paramedics, engineers, inspectors and battalion chiefs) at 21 fire stations from 2004 to 2009. The frequency of injuries per year was on average 17.7 per 100 employees.
Almost 33% of all injuries happened during mandatory exercise during a worker’s shift. The exercises are geared to keep emergency workers in shape for the types of jobs they do and to prevent injury. Transporting patients accounted for 16.9% of injuries, training drills 11.1% and fireground operations 10.2%.
“Exploring the root causes of these events and the manner in which physical exercise is performed, monitored and evaluated,” the authors wrote, “should be of greater emphasis within the fire service.”
As we all know, even when following the best safety practices, firefighters can be seriously injured or killed while engaged in fire and rescue operations. And if a tragedy like this does occur, there must be a thorough investigation.
Conducting an investigation is the primary responsibility of the safety officer and management team.The goal of these investigations is to find out what caused the event and how to prevent it from happening again.
On November 18, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Chief Ernest Mitchell, Jr., for the position of Administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), to which he was nominated by President Barack Obama.
Mitchell served as a Battalion Chief for the City of Compton, CA, before being hired as Fire Chief and Deputy City Manager of Monrovia, CA, in 1991. In 1998 he became the Fire Chief and Assistant Director of Disaster Emergency Services for the City of Pasadena (CA) Fire Department. In 2004, Mitchell served as the President of the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
“On behalf of the National Volunteer Fire Council and the nation’s volunteer emergency services, I congratulate Chief Mitchell on his Senate confirmation and look forward to working with him in his new position as U.S. Fire Administrator,” said NVFC Chairman Philip C. Stittleburg.
It has been said many times that information is power. This is never truer than when providing fire and rescue protection to a community. Many of today’s fire service leaders, both in uniform and in laboratory coats, are working to develop tools that help firefighters cope with the unique challenges of the modern fire service. The safety of response personnel is their number one priority.
Geographic information systems (GIS) allow you to identify and quantify community hazards and values at risk. In this article, I’ll introduce the elements of a GIS-based community fire risk and hazard assessment, and discuss how you can start using GIS in your risk assessment and preplanning.
The thermal protection performance and thermal heat loss values for your turnout gear are measurements designed to give you some idea of how heat-resistant the garment is and how much thermal energy can escape from the garment. How much do you know about the TPP and THL values of your turnout gear? Dr. Rich Young from DuPont gives a quick overview of these two values and why they’re important to you in the second video of our ongoing video series:
Look for more videos from LION and DuPont to come.
This post brought to you by DuPont Protective Technologies. For over 200 years, DuPont scientists, engineers and technicians have searched for ways to make life better and safer. Through our history and culture, we are dedicated to protecting more people, from more hazards, in more places around the world. Through our continued commitment to innovation and personal protection, DuPont has developed an extensive line of products and services targeting the needs of first responders and first receivers. These include a wide range of proven, science-based solutions including some of the most trusted brands in the industry, such as Nomex® and Kevlar®.
Thanksgiving is a holiday tradition where family and friends come together and celebrate over a home cooked meal. Unfortunately it’s also the worst day of the year for home cooking fires. According to the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA), home cooking fires on Thanksgiving Day had three times the national average of fires per day in 2009.
With Thanksgiving being so close, now is a good time to reach out to your community in an effort to promote fire safety, not just during the holidays but everyday.
NFPA states that, “Cooking fires are the number one cause of home fires and related injuries. In 2005-2009, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 155,400 home fires per year involving cooking equipment. These fires caused an annual average of 390 civilian deaths, 4,800 civilian injuries, and $771 million in direct property damage.”
To reduce the risk of cooking fires this holiday, NFPA recommends the following safety tips:
Keep anything that can catch fire such as oven mitts, wooden utensils, food packaging, towels or curtains away from the stovetop.
Always stay in the kitchen while frying, grilling, or broiling food. If you have to leave the kitchen for even a short period of time, turn off the stove.
When simmering, baking, roasting, or boiling food, check it regularly, remain in the home while food is cooking, and use a timer to remind you that you are cooking.
Stay alert. If you are sleepy or have consumed alcohol, don’t use the stove or stovetop.
Click here for more holiday safety tips from NFPA.
Of the many challenges first responders face, perhaps the greatest is communication — or lack thereof. Effective communication is essential in any emergency situation, yet too often, police, firemen and other public safety officials operate with multiple and incompatible radio and communication platforms. In some cases, the operational command systems and databases back at headquarters aren’t linked across agencies, making matters worse. The result, rather than a seamless emergency response system, is a jumble of disconnection.
To address this problem, and make public safety systems “smarter,” cities around the world are beginning to harness the power of analytics fed by sensors, global positioning systems, cameras, radio frequency tags and integrated communications to make more intelligent decisions. As analytical programs mine the incoming data, public safety officials can instruct local, state, federal and non-government authorities on how best to respond to emergencies and better protect citizens from harm.
Of the six residential fires that the Carters Valley Volunteer Fire Department responded to this past month, five didn’t have working smoke detectors.
The Tennessee Fire Marshal’s Office recently received a federal grant for 10,000 smoke detectors to be distributed to fire departments statewide for free distribution to the public.
On Monday, Carters Valley VFD Chief Mike Yates filed a request for 200 of those smoke detectors to be given away in the West Carters Valley area.
Emergency responders and pizza delivery drivers have something in common.
They both need to find you.
In the city of Butler, the two are teaming up to make sure each can do that easily by encouraging residents to properly number their homes. It’s a safety measure other communities are pushing as well.
Butler firefighters have created a flyer bearing an order form that residents can use to buy a $10 sign with reflective house numbers. The numbers are uniform in appearance. The flyer will go out with every box of pizza delivered by Fox’s Pizza in Butler.
About $6 from the sale of each sign will benefit the police and firefighter unions, said Lt. Donald Crawford.
“A lot of people don’t have their houses marked, and we can’t see where the call’s at,” Crawford said. “People who do have them marked, the numbers aren’t reflective, so it’s hard for us to find addresses. The numbers might be on there 20 or 30 years, and they blend right in.”
By Mark van der Feyst
By Gary Morris
Thanksgiving is a holiday tradition where family and friends come together and celebrate over a home cooked meal. Unfortunately it’s also the worst day of the year for home cooking fires. According to the 
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