2009 isn’t starting out on a positive trend as far as firefighter LODDs go. Accordingly, the IAFC yesterday issued a Fire/EMS Survival Alert to its members. The goal: get departments to redouble their efforts to prevent firefighter injuries and deaths by reviewing and establishing safe practices for driving, MVAs, health and fitness and more.



The alert noted that so far in 2009, just some fire/EMS LODDs include:



• Several firefighter LODDs due to medical emergencies

•… Continue

Earlier this week, I posted some comments from FireRescue magazine's Fire Attack columnist, Greg Jakubowski, on mobile home fires, since they're certainly on our minds following the double-LODD in West Virginia.



I wanted to add a bit more from Greg's fellow Fire Attack columnists, Mike Kirby and Tom Lakamp. They provided the following safety tips:



• Mobile home fires present… Continue

CFSI Press Release, 2/23/09 (Washington, DC)--The Congressional Fire Services Institute's Board of Directors selected Mr. Steven Edwards, Director of the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI) as the recipient of the 2009 CFSI/Motorola Mason Lankford Fire Service Leadership Award. The presentation will take place at the 21st Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner on April 2, 2009 at the Hilton Washington, in Washington, DC.



A veteran… Continue

The recent double-LODD in West Virginia has mobile home fires on all of our minds. Although it’s too soon for us to know what happened at that specific fire, or to draw any judgments about the tactics employed, it does provide an opportunity to review mobile home firefighting tactics. While our hearts go out to the families of Johnnie Hammons and Timothy Nicholas, our minds should turn to how we can… Continue

CFSI Press Release (Feb. 20)--The Congressional Fire Services Institute and the NFFF just announced their choices for the Senator Paul S. Sarbanes Fire Service Safety Leadership Award: the International Association of Fire Chiefs for its Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System and Common Voices for its advocacy efforts around fire… Continue

President Obama is set to sign the economic stimulus law today. As detailed in a previous post, the law includes significant funds for public safety. A new report from Galain Solutions indicates that the range of total funds available is anywhere from $4 billion to $13.8 billion for local public safety. The range is so large because of the State Fiscal… Continue

In a couple weeks, I’ll be attending the Everyone Goes Home Safety Summit. I’m pretty excited about it because I support the Life Safety Initiatives and what the program’s trying to do. To prepare for the event, I’ve been studying up on the LSIs and it occurred to me that despite how many times I’ve read them, I don’t really remember them. Of course I remember something about changing to a safety-based culture, and I know there’s… Continue

The full text of the compromise stimulus bill was finally released today, and the House has already passed it; Senate voting starts at 5:30 eastern and the bill is expected to pass. As reported by the IAFC, the compromise bill includes several items of interest to the fire service:



• $210 million for fire station construction via the firefighter assistance grants program, with no grant exceeding $15 million.… Continue

(See my earlier post on the draft alert.)



Firefighter Nation had a chance to talk with Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder about the recently released draft alert on vacant structures. Chief Goldfeder, who served as a technical reviewer on the document, and is Chair of IAFC Safey, Health and Survival Section,… Continue

NIOSH just released a draft alert on the dangers of fighting fires in vacant/unoccupied structures. The alert includes case studies of four incidents where firefighters died and were injured fighting fires in unoccupied structures.



Many of the recommendations in the alert are unsurprising, if important. In a quick scan, two stood out in my mind:



• Establish, clearly mark,… Continue

The full text of the Senate-passed stimulus bill has been posted. Couple notes about fire/EMS funding:



FIREFIGHTER ASSISTANCE GRANTS

For an additional amount for competitive grants, $500,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2010, for modifying, upgrading, or constructing State and local fire stations: Provided, That up to 5 percent shall be for program administration: Provided further, That no… Continue

Recently I was talking with one of my fire service colleagues about the economic problems it seems nearly all departments are facing. He said he was happy because at least for the time being, his department had managed to avoid position eliminations or other drastic measures in exchange for all members agreeing to a 4 percent pay cut across the board.



Now it’s surely a sign of the times that taking a 4 percent pay cut seems like a good thing, but his comment got me thinking. In my… Continue

Recently there’s been a lot of talk about the economic stimulus package. In fact, there’s been a lot of ridiculous analogies made about what $1 trillion looks like; I heard one commentator say if you started when Jesus was born (when is that exactly?) and spent $1 million a day, you wouldn’t have reached $1 trillion yet. One of my favorite bloggers posted this chart in an attempt to show how silly such… Continue

On this Superbowl Sunday, I’m reminded of an article I read recently on an NFL production crew directed by Bob Fishman. The article paints an amazing picture of the action that occurs in the production trailer, and how the decisions and actions of one or two people determine what millions are watching on their screens—indeed, their actions determine how those viewers experience the event.



But the article hit home… Continue