By Janet Wilmoth for Mutual Aid
A FIRE CHIEF blog
I rarely ask you for anything, but this week I am. Please take the time to read the investigative series published this week in the Chicago Tribune that examines the relationship between the fire-retardant and tobacco industries. This is one of the most significant reports I have read in all my years writing about the fire service.
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.
By Rick Markley, FR1 Editor
For FireRescue1.com
The helmet may be one of the most important pieces of equipment you have. To better understand what to look for when buying a fire helmet and what to expect from helmets in the coming years, we collected experts from three major manufacturers and posed a few key questions. Our experts include Matt DeLorenzo, MSA product line manager for helmets and communications systems; Karen Lehtonen, LION’s director of products; and Thomas Stachler, Honeywell’s product manager of gloves and helmets.
What are the top three key factors when choosing a fire helmet?
MSA’s DeLorenzo: Safety features (in addition to what is required by the NFPA standards), comfort, and options.
Lion’s Lehtonen: Fit and comfort: The way a firefighting helmet sits on a firefighter’s head is very important in reducing stress to the neck and shoulders. The balance is also important to ensure it is not too top heavy or wobbly. Finally, the ability to accommodate a wide range of head sizes and shapes is important so that you are getting the best fitting helmet thus reducing fatigue. The more adjustment mechanisms beyond a ratchet knob (headband circumference, headband depth/height, front to back and left to right adjustments), the more likely you can achieve a custom fit.
Materials of construction: The helmet shell materials are just as important as the outer shell material in your turnout gear. The helmet shell is the first point of impact, and its ability to resist penetration or impact is key to the level of protection provided. The helmet shell should be rigid enough to resist impact and penetration, yet be able to provide enough of a cushion so as to not transfer energy to the wearer.
By Anna Gorman
For the Los Angeles Times
Just before 10:45 a.m., Keith Marks called 911 and the Los Angeles County emergency response system sprang into action. A fire engine, a paramedic squad and a private ambulance — eight men in total — rushed to the Martin Luther King Jr. urgent-care center in Willowbrook.
When they arrived, Marks, 56, was sitting calmly in a wheelchair just outside the entrance. His complaint: he was having joint pain from gout and wanted his medication refilled.
“I can’t walk,” he said. “I need to go to the closest emergency room.”
The paramedics checked his vital signs. Marks told them he called 911 after the county clinic wouldn’t see him for free because he had other insurance. Then the paramedics did what Marks wanted — sent him by ambulance to St. Francis Medical Center.
During an eight-hour period at L.A. County Fire Station 41 last week, paramedics responded to a handful of calls but only one actual emergency — a man who reportedly had a seizure while driving on the 105 Freeway. Several other calls, they said, could have been handled differently if there were other options. The call from Marks was one.
“Really, what are we going to do for gout?” Capt. Ernie Clayton asked.
The incident illustrates a chronic problem — unnecessary 911 calls that result in costly trips to already crowded ERs, which divert resources from true emergencies. Increasingly, uninsured patients rely on 911 as their only way into the healthcare system.
Now, four decades after public safety agencies began launching fast-response paramedics, counties around the nation are overhauling the 911 system to save money, improve care and reduce ER overcrowding, an especially acute problem in the Los Angeles area. Federal health reform is driving the changes, as hospitals try to reduce readmissions and the healthcare system prepares for more patients
Click here for the full story.
Photo credit: Allen J. Schaben for the Los Angeles Times
By Lisa Frank
for NFPA’s Fire Service Today
What does it mean to be an innovative organization? To be an innovator, do you need to have a certain product or follow a certain way of doing things? How much does innovation truly matter? And how do you know if you are doing it right?
As I walked the exhibit floor at the FDIC conference in Indy last month, these questions kept going through my head.
A Commentary on THL and the Indianapolis (“Indy”) Field Trial
by W. L. Gore and Associates, Inc.
Often it is asked, ‘What is the minimum difference in THL that is perceivable by (or meaningful for) a firefighter during use?’ When answering this question, the first thing that needs to be understood is that, in general, the higher the THL the better the potential for heat stress reduction – even when considering the existing and valid complications such as air gaps, additional material layers, etc., that come into play with garments as compared to just composites.
The ability to answer the question precisely is limited by the variation in both materials and the THL measurement, and also by the variation in people and the measurement of people’s responses. These four sources of variability hinder the ability to measure and predict what the minimum perceivable THL difference is due to the limited sensitivity of the measurement devices involved in making those types of determinations (including skin temperature measurement devices, core temperature measurement devices, etc.).
Lab measurements and lab predictions always need to be correlated to actual field experience in order to be trustworthy. But in conjunction with the limited sensitivity of the measurement devices, science is also constrained (or at least affected) by the test design and test protocols typically used in physiological trials. Making sense of each of these limitations and/or constraints is where statistics come into play. Applying good statistical evaluation to all of the design, sensitivity and data collection factors allows a researcher to determine what is the strongest (most confident) statement that can be concluded from the study conducted and data collected, and also, applied to a general population.
A new tool for free hazardous materials (hazmat) training, the Electronic Learning Community (ELC) was created to provide a flexible and inexpensive means for emergency first responders to receive high quality training. The goal of the project is to reach underserved volunteer responders who may not have the time or resources to receive training on hazmat, and specifically, hydrogen and hydrogen fuel cell incidents. The Hydrogen Response Considerations course has been developed as the first subject to pilot this ELC concept and is open to anyone.
The ELC is made possible through a cooperative agreement between the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and the Department of Transportation’ s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). Funding was provided by DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA).
If you were at the FDIC this past April, you may have noticed or even experienced the BullEx Fire Safety Trailer that featured kitchen, bedroom and industrial emergency scenarios. It even simulated an earthquake with lighting, sound effects and realistic props.
FIRE CHIEF Editor Glenn Bischoff spoke with Russell Herman, BullEx’s senior account executive, about some of the new technologies and capabilities that have been added to the company’s fire-prevention safety trailer.
Click here to watch the video.
To learn more about the Fire Safety Trailers, visit the BullEx website.
By Lt. Michael Swiman
of the Lake Forest FD
This has been on my mind recently with all the events around the country with budgets: brothers doing harm. I had found this while doing research for a project and this resonates so true. I could have not said it any better. Please take a moment to read
“We know that the sheep live in denial; that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids’ schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid’s school. Our children are dozens of times more likely to be killed, and thousands of times more likely to be seriously injured, by school violence than by school fires, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their children is just too hard, so they choose the path of denial.
From NFPA
According to a recent report released by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), 610 civilian deaths in the United States were attributed to smoking material fires in 2010, a number at or near the all-time-low and well down from the 1980 levels. During 2010 there were an estimated 90,800 smoking material fires resulting in $663 million in direct property damage.
Several factors, including a decline in smoking and stricter fire resistant standards on mattresses and upholstered furniture have been credited with the decrease in smoking material fire deaths over the last 30 years. The most recent drops in fatalities and injuries, though, owe much to the “fire-safe” cigarette legislation.
In 2003, U.S. states began requiring that all cigarettes sold must be “fire-safe,” that is, have sharply reduced ignition strength (ability to start fires), as determined by ASTM Standards. By 2010, fire-safe cigarette legislation was in effect in 47 states. From 2003 to 2010, the number of civilian deaths in smoking-material fires fell by an average of 21 percent.
Read the full story here.
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