From NFPA.org:

Let’s celebrate fire and life safety educators! Educators are key to the success of NFPA’s programs. That’s why NFPA’s “Educator of the Year” Award is so important. It gives educators the recognition they deserve for playing the lead role in making their communities safer.

Apply for the 2012 NFPA Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year Award (PDF, 615 KB). Deadline is February 24, 2012.

We are looking for fire and life safety educators who:

• work for a local fire department.
• use NFPA’s  Risk Watch®,  Learn Not to Burn®,  Remembering When^TM or Fire Prevention Week materials.
• use NFPA materials in a consistent and creative way.
• demonstrate excellence and innovation, reaching out to the community with NFPA materials.
• view NFPA as the source for safety information.

(more…)

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The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), with support from the U.S. Fire Administration, partnered with the HOPE Health Research Institute to conduct a  study on obesity in the fire service. The report begins by stating that although the image of a healthy, fit firefighter is still intact, “a chilling epidemic” of obesity caused by unhealthy eating and physical activity habits threatens to undermine the ability of firefighters to effectively and safely respond to emergencies.

The report addresses the obesity epidemic in the U.S., its effects on the fire industry, new trends on how to combat the problem and then offers recommendations for departments. Chapter 2 looks specifically at obesity in the fire service:

To read the full report, click here.

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As posted on FireRescue1.com

Austin, Texas — Upon arriving at the scene of a vehicular accident, Emergency Responders can click on this Extraction Zones app and select the make and model of the damaged vehicles from an extensive databank in the pop-up list. The side and top view of these specific vehicles will come up displaying all areas of concern that are crucial to a safe and efficient extrication of trapped victims. Areas featured in these two views include ultra high strength structural reinforcements, high voltage hybrid batteries and high voltage cables, airbags and airbag canisters, seatbelt pretensioners, fuel tanks, and 12 volt batteries.

Extraction Zones LLC. has released a second more complete version of the successful original version. The new version is called Extraction Zones Pro which features an additional 150 vehicle makes and models. This addition has increased the original Extraction Zones databank of vehicles by over 300 percent. Extraction Zones Pro builds upon the success of the original version with the addition of entire production lines from many popular manufacturers to enable firefighters, EMT’s, and other first responders to know exactly how to perform vehicle extrication with maximum safety and efficiency. Having this database of knowledge in their hands while performing vehicles extrication procedures is crucial to their safety and the safety of the victims they are rescuing.

To read more click here.

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By Craig S. Semon for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Firefighter Paul M. “Aldo” Bastardo is not only behind the wheel of the command vehicle dubbed “Car 3,” he is also manning a mobile command center, which is equipped with everything one needs to strategically fight a stubborn blaze and help secure the safety and whereabouts of its firefighters.

As the aide to District Fire Chief Samuel W. Richesson, Firefighter Bastardo, a 35-year-plus veteran of the fire department, keeps track of firefighter personnel, engines, ladders and pumps at a scene, as well as civilians, neighboring dwellings, paramedics, police, the electric company, the gas company, and media,.

And Firefighter Bastardo does all this with the help of an “accountability board,” a magnetic board with movable pieces housed in a suitcase that resembles a suburban “Risk” game — but this is no game. The “accountability board,” purchased a few months ago for about $1,000, as well as the equipment and gear in the command vehicle, reduce the risks inherent to accountability, second-guessing, safety and fighting fires.

“What we have here is one of two vehicles we have in the department. This is a mobile command post. It’s also a mobile office,” Firefighter Bastardo said, standing in front of Car 3 inside the garage at the Grove Street fire station. “And what that means is, we bring our resources with us to the scene of a call, so that the incident can be handled by the incident commander and he has resources right there available to him to make decisions to help reduce and/or eliminate loss of life and loss of property.”

Read the full article here.

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From NFPA.com

This NFPA / UL video demonstrates the flammability of a dry Christmas tree vs. a tree that has been watered regularly.

Facts & figures

• Between 2005-2009, U.S. fire departments responded to an average of 240 home fires that started with Christmas trees per year. These fires caused an average of 13 deaths, 27 injuries, and $16.7 million in direct property damage annually.
• Christmas tree fires are not common, but when they occur, they are likely to be serious. On average, one of every 18 reported fires that began with a Christmas tree resulted in death.
• A heat source too close to the Christmas tree started one of every five (20%) of these fires.
• Eighteen percent of home Christmas tree structure fires were intentionally set. Half of the intentional Christmas tree fires occurred in January and may have been related to disposal.

Source: NFPA’s “Home Christmas Tree and Holiday Light Fires” by Marty Aherns, November 2011.

Also see: Fact sheet on Christmas trees and holiday lights (PDF, 51 KB)

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A study by the Fire Protection Research Association, “Thermal Capacity of Fire Fighter Protective Clothing,” shed new light on the issue of stored energy in 2008:

This laboratory based study shows that the Stored Energy Test (SET) method provides information not provided by any other protective performance test method currently incorporated in NFPA 1971 Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. It supports a hypothesis that sub-flashover burn injuries may occur as the result of two different heat transmission mechanisms, or combination of two thermal phenomena. Tests conducted on moisture preconditioned materials exposed for 1.5 and 2.0 minutes to 0.2 cal/cm2sec radiant heat, predict burns mainly from transmitted thermal energy. For these conditions, the SET functions essentially as a Radiant Protective Performance (RPP) test for moist samples with attached trim or reinforcements. For 1.0 minute radiant heat exposure followed by contact compression, SET performance is more noticeably influenced by thermal energy discharged from the heated turnout materials. Both phenomena could contribute to the burn hazard, depending on the specifics of the heat exposure and other conditions of use. In both scenarios, the presence of non-porous reflective trim or non porous reinforcements reduces test performance when these materials are attached to the outer surface of a turnout composites consisting of a thermal liner, outer shell and a breathable moisture barrier.

This study and others have led to the upcoming changes in the 2012 edition of the NFPA 1971 standard. In its first rendition, the new stored energy requirement will only apply to the garment sleeves. The imposed criteria requires manufacturers to make changes to how trim bands are applied and investigate alternative materials or construction methods for addressing any exterior reinforcements on coat sleeves. LION Connects provided an update on the 2012 edition in August:

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From FireRescue1.com

In fire experiments conducted in uniformly furnished, but vacant Chicago-area townhouses, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers uncovered temperature and heat-flow conditions that can seriously damage facepiece lenses on standard firefighter breathing equipment, a potential contributing factor for first-responder fatalities and injuries.

The findings are detailed in a report* from a research study sponsored by the U.S. Fire Administration and Department of Homeland Security. The work is an important step toward improving what may be the most vulnerable component of a firefighter’s protective gear in high-heat conditions: the facepiece lenses of the so-called self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBA.

Failure of the lens can expose a firefighter to toxic gases and can result in burns to the respiratory tract as well as asphyxiation. In several SCBA-related deaths, degraded masks were found affixed to the faces of victims while their equipment continued to supply air.

In two of four realistic living-room fire scenarios tested by NIST, “lenses exhibited bubbling and loss of visual acuity, as well as severe deformation, and, in one case, a hole,” the NIST team says.

Read the full article on FireRescue1.com.

You can read the USFA’s report on facepiece thermal performance here.

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By Mark van der Feyst
for FireRescue1.com

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.

Read the full article on FireRescue1.com.

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By Don Oliver
for FirefighterNation.com

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.

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