It was a record breaking year at FDIC last week with almost 30,000 visitors attending the exhibits and classrooms. Garnering buzz at the LION booth was our latest V-Force® turnout with an updated Glide™ thermal liner and the new PBI Max™ outer shell.  Together this combination offers game-changing comfort and strength. Many attendees were eager to try on a set of gear and experience not only the ease of donning and doffing, but also the flexibility in movement that the V-Force brings to the fire service.

Always on the cutting-edge, V-Force is the first turnout model to incorporate Glide liners and PBI Max outer shells.

Glide is the only liner system that features a face cloth with 60% Kevlar® filament. The low friction properties of Glide means added freedom of movement and less working stress for a more comfortable feel in your turnout gear.

The PBI Max outer shell offers fire fighters the best combination of break open and thermal protection, the strongest outer shell fabric in the world and the most flexible and comfortable outer shell fabric the fire service has ever seen.

Is your department properly equipped and ready for action? Click here to learn more about this game-changing turnout gear.

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From The International Association of Fire Chiefs

The IAFC is issuing a call to action and distributing a new guidance document, Operational Considerations for Addressing Outdoor Fires, to assist fire departments in taking immediate action to prepare for and respond to a growing threat of fire in U.S. wildlands, forests, brush and grasslands, woods, and other outdoor areas.

The document is designed to serve as a quick-reference reminder for those with a history of dealing with large-scale fire in the outdoors and a primer for those who are not.  The document outlines actions to take before, during and after a fire, as well as points to more in-depth resources for further guidance.

Outdoor fires—sparked by natural occurrences or by the carelessness of humans and subject to rapid spread—can happen at any time of year but typically begin in late spring and are most frequent in the summer and early fall. This year, the fire season has come early to many parts of the U.S. after a mild winter and early spring across much of the country has contributed to a mix of dry vegetation, high winds and drought conditions ideal for outdoor fires.

(more…)

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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.

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FDIC is just around the corner and LION is excited to share with you our latest products and services  – including our full line of turnout  gear, protective gloves, station uniforms, boots, helmets, CBRN garments and TotalCare (LION’s PPE maintenance program ).

Will you be attending FDIC? Make sure to visit us at booth 811 in the Indiana Convention Center to see our latest innovations in turnout gear. This year we are showcasing our next generation of Glide™ thermal liners:

The slick low friction properties of Glide mean added freedom of movement and less working stress for a more comfortable feel in your turnout gear. This low friction capability is a result of our patented weave…the only face cloth with 60% DuPont™ Kevlar® Filament Technology.

As well as an exciting new outer shell, PBI Max™:

The PBI Max patent pending design offers fire fighters the best combination of break open and thermal protection, the strongest outer shell fabric in the world, and the most flexible and comfortable outer shell fabric the fire service has ever seen.

Don’t miss an opportunity to see our turnout gear in action at live fire training evolutions hosted by BullEx at outside booth #15261 and booth #14052 at South Street.

We hope to see you next week! Of course you can also follow our facebook page and twitter @lionconnects for pictures, videos and updates.

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April is National Autism Awareness Month, 1 in 166 people are diagnosed with autism; a spectrum of Pervasive Developmental Disorders that affects the brain. This has gone up from 1 in 500 five years ago.

Is your department trained on how to handle autistic people in an emergency situation?

By Lisa A. Flam
For Health on TODAY

As an experienced firefighter and a devoted father to an autistic son, Bill Cannata is combining the two worlds he knows so well to help protect others.

Being in a fire can be confusing and overwhelming — especially for someone with autism, saysCannata, a fire captain in Westwood, Mass. And autistic people may react in a way that seems combative to emergency first responders. His mission: teaching first responders around the country how to identify someone with autism and how best to help them in an emergency, when every second counts.

Cannata knows about autism first-hand: His 21-year-old son, Ted, who has the disorder, is unable to speak and is highly sensitive to sight, sound and touch.

“They’re going to react differently,” Cannata told TODAY. “They’re going to resist rescue because of the confusion. They may have extreme behaviors because of the situation.”

Click here for the full article and accompanying video.

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By Staci Matlock

For The Santa Fe New Mexican

When the Pacheco Fire broke out near the Santa Fe ski basin last summer, a team of firefighters was ready to protect homes on Santa Fe’s north side in case the blaze blew that way.

It was a team of trained firefighters working under contract for a private insurance company.

These firefighters for hire are an increasingly hot commodity as the number of homes in high-fire-risk areas increases.

In the last five years, an increasing number of insurance companies have added fire prevention and protection to their list of services for their customers.

New Jersey-based Chubb Insurance has contracted with the nation’s largest private firefighting firm — Wildfire Defense Services out of Montana – to work with homeowners in 14 states, including New Mexico. Chubb began offering wildfire services to customers in 2008 and expanded service to 141 Texascounties last year.

Click here for the full article.

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From PRWEB

The American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association (AHSAFA) in conjunction with the US Forest Service is working to bring modern large airtanker aircraft into the fleet of aerial firefighting platforms.

The devastating wildland forest fires in recent years have focused increasing attention to the nation’s aging and dwindling fleet of large fixed-wing airtankers used as an initial attack tool for wildland fire containment. In fact, the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association (AHSAFA) has long recognized the 11 remaining large air tankers– former US Navy P2V aircraft, specially modified for dropping fire retardant–are stretched thin and nearing the end of their service lives. With a 50-year average age of aircraft, there will not be any large airtankers for wildland firefighting by the end of the decade unless the fleet is modernized and increased in numbers.

The US Forest Service (USFS)–the agency that oversees wilderness protection–has also known for years that indefinite deployment of the current large airtanker fleet is not an option. But it was only on March 6, in a prepared statement to Congress, that USFS Chief Tom Tidwell reported that his agency’s diminished and aging fleet of contractor-available, contractor-operated airtankers is insufficient to combat the nation’s increasingly severe fires. Just a month prior to that–on February 10–the USFS released the “Large Airtanker Modernization Strategy” and has sought proposals from private industry for next-generation large airtankers. Yet, well before this document was made public, the AHSAFA Members were already taking the first steps toward bringing in newer aircraft, which would be mission-ready well before the last of today’s large airtankers are finally grounded.

Click here to read the full press release.

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By Claire Bessette
For The Day

Norwich – Whenever Thomas LaFreniere hears a fire siren, he returns to April 3, 1962.

With the fire chief out of town and the deputy responding to another call, LaFreniere, a lieutenant, was in charge at 1:22 p.m. when trucks were backing into the cramped Chestnut Street station.

“Truck fire at Van Tassel Warehouse,” came the call from the switchboard operator. “Be careful, explosives aboard.”

When firefighters arrived, they were met by a massive explosion that was felt as far away as Montville and Preston. Four firefighters were killed in what is the second worst fire tragedy in the state’s history.

LaFreniere, now 83, will return to Norwich from Florida April 3 for a memorial ceremony on the 50th anniversary of the worst firefighter fatality disaster in the city’s history. He will give the keynote speech in honor of his four fellow firefighters killed that day. A plaque will be unveiled with the names of all 10 Norwich firefighters who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

That fateful day

Three firetrucks screamed to the narrow dead end of Forest Street.

“You always think a truck fire is in the engine compartment,” LaFreniere said this week. “Wrong. It was in the box car.”

Firefighters saw smoke coming out of the truck cargo box, which was loaded with highly explosive peroxide-based chemicals. The truck was parked in a narrow opening between two buildings. One barrel aboard had leaked.

To read the full article, click here.

Photo credit: Tim Martin, The Day

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Did you know that  the 2012 edition of NFPA 1971 has incorporated a stored energy test?  This test evaluates the stored and transmitted heat energy in a turnout composite underneath a reinforcement material.  Is your department equipped to meet the standard?

William J. Gorak,  a product development engineer with W. L. Gore & Associates discusses the newly added stored energy test in a recent article for Fire Engineering Magazine.

After many years of research and discussion, a new minimum performance requirement to help prevent stored energy burns will be added to NFPA 1971, Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, 2012 edition. Ensemble manufacturers will be required to perform stored thermal energy (STE) testing to ensure that turnout gear complies with the new performance criteria. What is stored energy, and how does it relate to the thermal protection performance (TPP) requirement already in NFPA 1971?

The NFPA 1971 Technical Committee on Structural and Proximity Fire Fighting Protective Clothing and Equipment has focused on firefighter burns caused by heat buildup under outer shell attachments. One study¹ indicated that many reported burns occurred on arms and shoulders, with many of them under nonporous materials attached to the outer shell such as trim, patches, logos, lettering, and so on. The burns typically occurred after minutes of thermal exposure without visible damage to the gear. Therefore, the 2012 edition of the NFPA 1971 standard specifically addresses burns under attachments located only on outer shell sleeves.

To read the full article, click here.

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