Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine's Blog

Goldfeder on NLC/TriData Cancer Report: “A grave, grave mistake”

Today, the IAFC and the IAFF released joint statements condemning the recent report from National League of Cities/TriData, “Assessing State Firefighter Cancer Presumption Laws.” Read the IAFC statement here and the IAFF statement here.

In case… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on April 29, 2009 at 11:30pm — 7 Comments

Help Sperian Fire donate $100,000 to the NFFF

At FDIC last week, one regular exhibitor had a much smaller booth than usual, and for good reason. Sperian Fire elected to downsize its exhibit significantly, and with the money it saved on exhibit costs, it’s making a $100,000 donation to National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation.

That’s a lot of cash, and what’s even cooler: Sperian is making the donation… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on April 28, 2009 at 9:00pm — No Comments

Good news to come for the fire service?

In Thursday’s general session at FDIC, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger hinted that he’s close to working out an arrangement with Congress that could bring a wave of new funding to the fire service.

By now it’s widely known that the stimulus package contained only $210 million in direct funding for the fire service, allocated to fire station construction. Nearly $9 billion was set aside for discretionary funding, some of which could be directed to the fire service, but that… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on April 27, 2009 at 12:03pm — No Comments

From FDIC: Thank you, Firefighter Nation members!

In the airport on my way back from FDIC, and I just wanted to post a real quick entry to thank all the Nation members who attended FDIC and picked up (and wore!) their free T-shirts and came to our meet-and-greet at Alcatraz! It was great to put faces to many of the people I read regularly on the site, and to make some new contacts as well. I especially enjoyed meeting Tiger and… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on April 25, 2009 at 4:36pm — 3 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

Making Your PPE “Smart”

When you stop and think about it, a firefighter’s personal protective equipment (PPE) is downright amazing. You carry the air you’ll need on your back, cloaked in fire-resistant fibers that allow you to move through burning buildings; your boots are designed not to melt as your feet encounter burning materials, and your helmet has undergone years of testing to ensure that it affords the greatest protection against impact.

But these items that you wear and bring with you are… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on March 17, 2009 at 11:42am — 7 Comments

Routley at EGH Summit: Complacency is the greatest risk we face

Note: I’m currently at the Everyone Goes Home Safety Summit held at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md.

“When we train, we have all sorts of policies and procedures to follow. But when we go to a fire, it’s just chaos—and I love it!” This is just one example of the attitude Chief Gordon Routley encountered during the after-action review of the Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire that killed nine firefighters. As Routley put it in his presentation today, it… Continue

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on March 7, 2009 at 7:30pm — 2 Comments

IAFC Issues Fire/EMS Survival Alert

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 28, 2009 at 6:49pm — 2 Comments

More on Mobile Home Fires: Quick tips for firefighter safety

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 24, 2009 at 7:19pm — 9 Comments

MFRI Director Selected for Lankford Fire Service Leadership Award

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 23, 2009 at 12:08pm — 1 Comment

Tactical Tips: Mobile Home Fires

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 22, 2009 at 4:00pm — 23 Comments

Near-Miss Reporting System & Common Voices Receive Sarbanes Award

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 20, 2009 at 2:00pm — No Comments

Stimulus Bill Signed Today: What you need to do next

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 17, 2009 at 12:37pm — 34 Comments

My Top 16: Rethinking the Life Safety Initiatives

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 15, 2009 at 5:50pm — No Comments

Final Stimulus Package: $210 million for fire station construction

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 13, 2009 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Goldfeder Comments on NIOSH Vacant Structures Draft Alert

(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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 12, 2009 at 10:13pm — 1 Comment

NIOSH Releases Vacant Structures Alert

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 12, 2009 at 3:14pm — No Comments

Stimulus Package Update

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 10, 2009 at 5:22pm — 24 Comments

The Good of the Whole

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 10, 2009 at 6:00am — No Comments

Your Share of $800 Billion

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

Added by Shannon Pieper, FireRescue Magazine on February 6, 2009 at 3:22pm — 2 Comments

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