By Barrie Bouwsema
For FIREFighting in Canada
In a post-911 world the fire officer is faced with the routine fire calls, hazmat spills, and now, an increased potential for a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) event. The threat of a terrorist attack needs to be considered by all front line first responders. If this a concern for you, read on.
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By Ed Ballam
For Firehouse.com
Firefighters and responders have known for decades that smoke is harmful to their health, but the latest studies have shown that the microscopic materials that become airborne during fires are far more deadly than ever realized. That’s because of the proliferation of nanotechnology – particles that are one billionth of a meter in size – that are found in today’s consumer products.
Capt. Peter McBride Ottawa (Canada) Fire Services spoke of the dangers of nanotechnologies, which contain known cancer causing materials, at the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) in Indianapolis. He is a safety officer in Ottawa, responsible for the health and safety of the firefighters in his department.
He became acutely interested in nanotechnologies when a huge downtown sporting goods store burned and belched acrid black smoke for blocks. Carbon fiber sporting goods, including thousands of skis, burned and emitted microscopic particles that coated everything, particularly his white department-issued SUV. He noticed stubborn black deposits on the SUV that just wouldn’t come off.
Read the full article on Firehouse.com.
From NFPA.org
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has kicked off a new program to help fire departments fund the purchase of life-saving fire safety educational materials. Sparky’s Wish List™: Partnering for Fire-Safe Communities invites fire departments to create a free online wish list for Fire Prevention Week materials. Businesses and the public can fulfill departments’ wish lists and provide these critical educational materials for their communities.
“Fire safety education saves lives, but with current budget pressures, it’s hard for many departments to pay for a range of educational materials,” said Jim Shannon, NFPA president. “Sparky’s Wish List is designed to help close the gap between what fire departments can afford and what they need to educate on fire safety.”
Every year, fire departments in the United States respond to more than 350,000 home fires resulting in at least 2,500 deaths and more than 12,000 injuries.
The official launch of Sparky’s Wish List was held at the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis where thousands of firefighters were among the first to learn about the new site.
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From CBC News
Firefighters across Ontario have a new hazard to deal with right below their feet.
Pre-engineered floor joists, made from wood chips and glue, burn twice as fast as traditional wooden joists and can suddenly collapse from beneath the first responders.
According to Tim Beckett, fire chief of the Kitchener fire chief and president of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC), traditional floor joists burn in 15 minutes. Pre-engineered joists do so in approximately six.
Beckett said the average response time of a fire department is between four and six minutes, depending on the area of Ontario.
What we’re finding with the new joists … is that you can failure in as little as four to seven minutes,” Beckett said. “We’re looking at floor failure before we even arrive on scene.”
Beckett called the use of the new joists “widespread.”
Click here for the full story.
Picture courtesy of Blais Construction Management Ltd.
By Jessica A. York
for the Times-Herald
VALLEJO, Calif. — The call comes in — a Vallejo home is on fire.
Firefighters rush to the scene, observe blacked-out windows and smoke pouring from the chimney. Inside, utter darkness, perhaps a bag of fertilizer by the door.
Two recent residential fires that turned out to be rented homes converted into marijuana-growing facilities have prompted the Vallejo Fire Department to assess what could be a new threat for firefighters and the city, department Battalion Chief Dave Urrutia said.
Urrutia responded to one of the recent grow-house fires and also spent time in a converted grow house outside Vallejo after a police bust. As a result, he said he has begun establishing new training standards for the department.
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By Scott Muska
For The Daily Times
Francis Pusey allowed some Ocean City Fire Department staffers into her home recently, and she feels safer after having done so.
They checked her smoke alarms and replaced their batteries, and they checked her doorways to make sure she could get out of her home safely in case of emergency, she said.
Pusey was one of the first in town to take firefighters up on their offer to evaluate homes for potential fire hazards. They’ve been canvassing Ocean City’s neighborhoods, going door-to-door to offer the free safety evaluations, since the beginning of the month.
Fire department staff members check for things like overloaded outlets, working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, unobstructed exit routes from the home and good address visibility from the street, among other measures geared toward either preventing a fire from occurring or decreasing the damage a fire could ultimately do.
“There were really no negatives, and everything went so well,” Pusey said. “They were so helpful. I think it’s great the department is doing this.”
Chief Chris Larmore said the evaluations are one more step the department is taking to make the resort fire-free, and to ensure its residents and visitors are safe.
Read the full article on The Daily Times.
By Jason Zigmont
For FireRescue1.com
It seems like everywhere you turn there is an amazing video of a fire response, no matter if it is good or bad. The availability of helmet cams makes a real point of view available for review and learning.
Most times the video is “ooo’d” and “aah’d” at, but is it used effectively as a quality-improvement tool? There are ways that every service can use videos effectively and avoid the common pitfalls.
Video recording of events have been around since the invention of the handheld camera. It was not until the Internet age that videos became regularly available to the public.
Now anyone with a cell phone can take a video of a scene and have it posted on YouTube within minutes. This can air your dirty laundry in public as it becomes hard to control videos that are posted online.
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From NFPA Today
The NFPA, IAFC and NVFC launched a new contest this week, asking career firefighters, volunteer firefighters or other fire department employees and fire service members to submit a video that highlights their fire company operationally demonstrating firefighter health and safety.
The Contest will utilize the theme of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) and International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) combined International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week, which will be June 17-23, 2012. This year’s theme will be “Rules You Can Live By.”
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By Gregory Havel
For FireEngineering.com
During the late 20th century as the price of petroleum products steadily increased, renewable energy sources became more attractive. Technologies have been developed to use solar energy to generate heat and electricity for buildings.
The most important concerns for firefighters regarding solar collectors include the following:
- They can prevent or interfere with firefighter access to roofs for ventilation or other operations.
- They can prevent or interfere with firefighter exterior access to windows for ventilation or rescue operations.
- When they are installed on an existing building, they provide an eccentric load on the wall, or they may exceed the live load allowance in the engineering calculations for the roof.
- They cannot be turned off. Although they can be isolated from the building’s electrical or heat system by switches, circuit breakers, or valves, the collectors themselves will continue to produce electricity or heat as long as they are exposed to sunlight. Some photovoltaic cells are so sensitive that they will produce some electricity from exposure to street lighting. Although covering these collectors with salvage covers or opaque tarps will reduce their electrical or heat output, firefighters may still be exposed to electric shock or hot-water burns.
- They can add significant weight to a structure that was not designed to carry them.
- If solar collector panels are broken during firefighting operations, the firefighters in the area can be injured by electrical shock or hot-water burns.
Read the full article on FireEngineering.com.
By Barrie Bouwsema
LION Connects
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