Each year close to 100 hundred firefighters die in the line of duty. 80,000 are injured. There is no estimate on number of near misses each year. In an effort to reduce the number of LODD's the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation developed 16 Life Safety Initiatives. Initiative #9 is thoroughly investigate all firefighter deaths, injuries and near misses. Investigation of these events is a complex process that needs to be preplanned. …

I will be speaking on the Continuing Challenge in Sacramento next week.

Click here for a link to the conference website

Wednesday  1:30-3:15 Keeping Your People Trained

This is a review of the training requirements in the HAZWOPER standard and how my agency provides refresher training to over 600 responders.

Thursday 3:45-5:30 I Just Got an OSHA Citation: What Do I Do Now?

Fire…

I am currently reading a book a came across when searching through Amazon. It's called Leadership in Dangerous Situations edited by Patrick J Sweeney, Michael D. Matthews, and Paul B. Lester. The subtitle is A Handbook for the Armed Forces, Emergency Services, and First…

November 14-18, 2011

Fresno Convention Center

Registration is open atwww.calchiefs.org.

I am teaching an 8 hour class on Firefighter Accident/Near Miss Investigation on Wednesday.

We recently received several new fire engines. These beautiful Pierce Quantums are everything you could want in a fire engine. However, it seems there is at least one thing that some people don't want. The seats in the engines have sensors that can tell if someone is sitting there and whether or not the seat belt is buckled.

Last week, as I was gathering my gear from the engine, the Captain who relieved me asked the engineer if the engine had one of those seat belt…

It was an honor to carry FF Van Hine's name up 110 floors during the Sacramento 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. Even with the training I did it was an incredibly hard climb.

343 firefighters will climb 110 stories  at the Renaissance Building in Downtown Sacramento on Sunday 9/11/11. Over 3,000 others will complete a 5K Run/Walk on the Riverfront. After the completion of the Stair Climb and 5K there will be a tribute concert in the Capitol Mall.

This event is sponsored by the Local 522 Sacramento Area Firefighters, Placer County Deputy Sheriffs Association, Sacramento County Deputy Sheriffs Association and the Sacramento Police Officer…

Mark Cooper was a retired assistant chief at Sacramento Metro Fire. He will  be missed.…

The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District recently completed a Serious Accident Review. On May 31, members of Metro Fire were operating on a residential structure fire. A truck company was on the roof performing vertical ventilation when a roof collapse dumped one firefighter into the burning garage. The firefighter was successfully rescue by adjacent crews. Follow this link to the report

Ellsworth SAR…