Featured Blog Posts – April 2009 Archive (37)

Avoiding The Dirty Dozen on the Fire Scene

Gordon Dupont wrote an interesting artcile on Human Factors and how to avoid the dirty dozen, in relation to the aviation industry.

Check it out at:

http://www.ihst.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=ciDdCM%2FClnw%3D&tabid=1784&language=en-US

These are the 12 contributing factors that can set you up to make an error no matter what your occupation and can easily be adpated to the fire scene. Consider the… Continue

Added by lutan1 on April 12, 2009 at 7:30pm — 6 Comments

Flying the Flag at Half Staff

Good afternoon:

We as members of the Public Safety community are very mindful of the customs and traditions of our various services. Many of the traditions within the fire department have been handed down for, well, since 1736. 1736 was the year that Ben Franklin started the first fire department in Philadelphia.

When we learn of a Line of Duty Death, we are quick to show our compassion, our grief, and our support of a fallen brother or sister. While we strive to follow… Continue

Added by Coach on April 12, 2009 at 3:00pm — 7 Comments

Old TV Shows

I know this has nothing to do with firefighting, but a bit of history on everything from TV shows to military history, many of us may know or not know and this is showing my age but though it would be nice for a change, let me know what you think.

As it was at the beginning

1960 Philco Predicta UG-4744

1966 1961 1967

The Beverly Hillbillies 1962 Howdy and Buffalo Bob 1955

Leave It To Beaver… Continue

Added by Bob Allard on April 12, 2009 at 11:30am — 3 Comments

To evaluate progress, Take a SEET

From my All Hazards Contemplations blog...

During simple call like a room and contents fire, it's usually fairly easy to evaluate progress.

The black smoke turns to white steam, the fire goes out, the building cools down, we go home, and the invetigators take over. The next morning, the local newspaper reports the wins and losses...hopefully with a box score that… Continue

Added by Ben Waller on April 11, 2009 at 10:31pm — No Comments

Stay Positive and Be the Change Agent

I was talking to some old friends that I had worked with when I had originally got hired as a career firefighter. We were discussing the “good old days” and having a good laugh. We all have moved on to different departments and districts since then, but we all agreed that those were some the best times of our careers. The pay and benefits weren’t great, we had our share of issues with the city, but we were a tight group and we had a blast on duty.

Most of us have moved on to bigger… Continue

Added by Jason Hoevelmann on April 10, 2009 at 11:49pm — No Comments

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter

Notes from a Rookie Firefighter...April 10, 2009

I think this was the first time in my life I didn't reflect on the fact that today was Good Friday. I've been working so hard at my new part-time job, which I LOVE, writing webcontent for lawyers. Everything else is privileged so I cannot say more. I am, of course, still a realtor and tomorrow morning will be boxing up a tiny house for someone who died.

It's been pretty quiet around the firehouse. Last week was a our pancake… Continue

Added by Denise Imperiale on April 10, 2009 at 10:34pm — No Comments

Expecting The Expected

Early this morning I posted an article on my blog at Firehouse Zen regarding the need to guard against complacency and to not just expect those "smells and bells" calls to always be smells and bells, but to do our job and keep the "big one" in mind, because someday, that's exactly what you are going to encounter.

How about thinking about the expected as well? How often do… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on April 10, 2009 at 10:42am — 4 Comments

Chief Robert Ray is a Golf Digest finalist--he needs your votes!

Do you enjoy a nice round of golf on a sunny spring day? Even if you don't, you SURELY want a firefighter to win a national golf contest when he's the only firefighter out of just four contestants left!

One of FireRescue's board members, Matt Tobia, sent us a message that his Fire Chief, Robert Ray, Chief of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, is a finalist in a Golf DIgest contest to win an all-expenses paid trip to play golf with Michael Jordan and other celebrities at the… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on April 5, 2009 at 4:00pm — No Comments

Pittsburgh Police LODDs

Sadly, and tragically, 3 Pittsburgh Police Officers lost their lives on April 4th, 2009, in the line of duty, at approximately 0715 hours. 2 other Pittsburgh Police Officers were injured in the line of duty. Officers Eric Kelly, Stephan Mayhle and Paul Sciullo III were shot and killed as they responded to a domestic dispute in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of the City of Pittsburgh. Officer Kelly was actually on his way home, a block or two away, but responded to back up his comrades… Continue

Added by Andy Marsh on April 5, 2009 at 2:08am — 6 Comments

Rolling the Window Down on Safety

From my newborn All Hazards Contemplations blog:

Skip Kirkwood's Jems Connect blog had an excellent post about the recent multiple shootings at the nursing home in Carthage, NC, Binghamton, NY, and todays triple police officer murder in Pittsburgh, PA. Skip made some excellent points about how to approach dangerous scenes.

Skip's post triggered reminders of some old street safety… Continue

Added by Ben Waller on April 4, 2009 at 10:57pm — 2 Comments

To The Easily Offended

In my blog at Firehouse Zen today: I mentioned a great homily by Father Chris where he spoke about getting the message out (you know, THE Message). I specifically discussed one of his points about how, when someone in today’s society doesn’t agree with you, the expectation is that they have a “right” to be offended.

There are a lot of people who should pretty much… Continue

Added by Mick Mayers on April 4, 2009 at 4:09pm — 8 Comments

LEOSAD: Rumors of Its Death Greatly Exaggerated

Notes from the IAFC’s WUI 2009 conference

We Americans, never quite comfortable with the Australian Leave Early or Stay and Defend (LEOSAD) concept to begin with, are less so now. The Victoria Fires that killed at least 173 people in southern Australia in February have given us, at least, pause as we consider applying this policy here.

But let me not generalize about Americans and take responsibility for myself. Among the first things I said to Keith Harrup,… Continue

Added by Crawford Coates on April 3, 2009 at 3:16pm — No Comments

Brotherhood - Who are we kidding?

I find it fascinating as I search through the various discussion threads at the number of threads that find themselves debating passionately who is better paid or volunteer. We have always hung our hat in the fire service on the fact that we "are all brothers", "you go, we go", etc., etc. Ironically, the brotherhood term gets thrown around the most when one of us makes that ultimate sacrifice doing what we do. I say ironically, because I have unfortunately been very close to the action for… Continue

Added by drew on April 3, 2009 at 12:58am — 14 Comments

Common sayings at the Fire House

1. Stay ready and you wont have to get ready

2. If you don't look professional you're probably not

3. A ball player is not PRO until he gets paid to be a ball player

4. No cook'in like fire house cook'in

5. I am a fire fighter because I would rather be in a raging fire than in a shoot out

Added by Yank2441 on April 2, 2009 at 9:08pm — 7 Comments

Smoke Explosion Injures 2!

According to The Secret List, two Cleveland (Ohio) firefighters were injured on Thursday while operating at a dwelling fire. Firefighters say the fire took off quickly through the dwelling, and the two firefighters were injured when there was a smoke explosion as they opened an attic door. The firefighters, who were conducting a floor-by-floor search of the house at the time, suffered second-degree burns and were taken to MetroHealth… Continue

Added by Fire Rescue Magazine on April 2, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

The Big Idea

Notes from the IAFC’s WUI 2009 conference

In my last blog post about WUI 2009, I mentioned how impressed I am with the fire service’s level of engagement in big-picture issues, exemplified by global climate change. This impression is due in large part to Timothy Murphy, deputy assistant director of the Fire and Aviation Directorate as the Bureau of Land Management, and his presentation on the 2009 Quadrennial Fire Review (QFR).

The QFR is a review of trends in… Continue

Added by Crawford Coates on April 2, 2009 at 1:00pm — 3 Comments

First, the Bad News

Notes from the IAFC's WUI 2009 conference

Qualifiers always preface responsible comments to a general audience about global warming, but it seems to me that we, the public and the fire service, are finally filing into a consensus along similar lines as the scientists. As proof: The qualifiers are more streamlined than ever, a mere bump before we’re off and rolling.

And so Dr. Faith Ann Heinsch from the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab began: “Climate change is a big topic… Continue

Added by Crawford Coates on April 1, 2009 at 1:00pm — 3 Comments