The green movement in the United States is a serious effort to minimize and even reverse the damage being done to our planet. The federal government has implemented dozens of programs to provide incentives to individuals and businesses to conserve energy and reduce their negative environmental impact. Energy conservation is the area of activity that has garnered the most attention. With declining levels of fossil fuels, increasing costs, and the rise in global temperature, almost everyone agrees that we need to conserve energy wherever possible. The green movement doesn’t stop with energy consumption in buildings; it also encourages recycling building materials and waste and water conservation.
Something just didn’t feel right with this one. This is what ran through my mind as we approached a reported car fire on West 45th Street near Seventh Avenue in the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square area. The events of May 1, 2010, have reinforced the importance of expecting the unexpected at any time—in this case, a vehicle-borne improvised incendiary device (VBIID) or car/truck bomb.
Fire code enforcement is often seen simply as conducting inspections, noting violations, and conducting reinspections to ensure violations have been corrected. In its pure and simple form, this is true. When the violation notice provides accurate information and the property owner or contractor acts accordingly, code enforcement is clean and simple. Conversely, when a responsible party ignores the notice, allows the violation to persist, or otherwise fails to respond, the code enforcement authority must act. In reality, code enforcement can be complex and challenging.
Shortly after midnight, a frantic citizen calls 911, reporting heavy smoke coming from a neighbor’s apartment. Less than three minutes later, the first-due companies arrive at the incident site. The engine crew stretches the appropriate handline and enters the fire compartment. The backup firefighter flakes hose, chases kinks, and assists the nozzle firefighter in advancing the hoseline through the cluttered apartment. Meanwhile, the inside team from the first-due truck company performs a primary search, locating and removing an unconscious victim.
Personnel’s knowledge of their response area is a basic component of a fire department’s success. The sooner the fire department arrives, the sooner things start to get better. When considering structure fires, it is important not only that the first-in engine or ladder company, but also the entire fire response, make it to the right place as soon as possible to successfully mitigate the emergency. Depending on the location, this can be a major challenge.
Even the smallest flow rate nozzle, regardless of stream type, if operated long enough, can suppress any fire in a confined compartment. However, when the lives of trapped occupants or firefighters are at stake, an aggressive stream that can effect a rapid knockdown is needed to place an effective volume of water between the occupants and the advancing fire without steaming those people within the compartment or areas opposite the applied stream. As discussed above, the modern-day engine company should expect that its arrival time is in line with a flashover event. As provided by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the April 2010 report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments, a timed three-person engine company and a four-person engine company began applying water to the room-and-contents fires with an “early arrival,” at 11 minutes and 24 seconds and 11 minutes and 11 seconds, respectively, with the fires producing a high release rate (HRR) of 1-2 megawatt (MW), which is within the HRR ranges necessary to induce a flashover.1 These two factors alone necessitate that a single stream be capable of effectively and safely absorbing the heat release rate of the fire at hand while also capable of immediately reducing the chance of a flashover or stopping a flashover that may be well into development.
The response of the Albany (OR) Fire Department (AFD) to a small fire in the Santa Claus section of the Heritage Mall brought to light the need for preplanning a response to this location and establishing a collaborative relationship with mall management. Santa, his reindeer and elves, and mall employees and shoppers were not injured in the fire call. However, the incident brought the department’s attention to the fact that the mall was difficult to navigate for responders, fire department connection locations were not clearly labeled, and the stores had no visible addresses near the mall’s storefront entrance.
In the United States, the overwhelming maj-ority of fire injuries and fatalities occur in one- and two-family dwellings. Fire protection experts readily agree that sprinklers should be installed in all new one- and two-family dwellings, yet those without such expertise oppose such mandates. Local governments now have the mandated responsibility to provide for fire protection for their communities. Sprinklers play a large role in the fire service delivery system for a given community; prohibitions or roadblocks to the requirement for sprinklers by local government officials contradict the democratic principle on which this country was built.
Reporter Glenn Smith from the Charleston Post and Courier has extensively covered the Sofa Super Store fire and recently wrote a column based on e-mails among members of the team hired and paid $284,000 to investigate the causes of the tragedy that occurred on June 18, 2007. The column is fascinating to read for many reasons and is available online. It has generated a flood of calls and conversations regarding how we should investigate incidents and who should conduct the investigations.
The progression and future of the volunteer fire service and its districts are contingent on such factors as training, education, technology, staffing, and community relations. However, one factor has become more prominent than others in many communities: youth programs, commonly known as Explorer Posts. Generally, these programs consist of youths from 14 to 20 years old and are derived from the Boy Scouts of America. In New York State, youth programs can be established pursuant to General Municipal Law §204-B. I am a strong advocate for this type of program; it provides a great avenue for mentoring today’s youth and also paves the way for a potential career path for those who are interested.
Oriented search does not work for every situation. It does not solve all our search problems any more than compressed air foam systems have solved our fire control problems. But it is a good technique that firefighters need to know as well as how, when, and where to apply it.
Firefighters are at a significant risk of suffering fatal cardiovascular events related to the performance of their duties. Sudden cardiac death has consistently been the number-one cause of firefighter line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) each year in the United States.1
For the first time in more than 40 years, the American Heart Association (AHA) is recommending that individuals administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and emergency cardiovascular care (ECC) begin with chest compressions before clearing the victim’s airway and breathing into a victim’s mouth. The A-B-Cs (Airway-Breathing-Compressions) of CPR have been changed to C-A-Bs (Compressions-Airway-Breathing).
I’ve been a Fire Engineering subscriber for more than 50 years. As Bobby Halton said in “Socialists or Capitalists?” (Editor’s Opinion, October 2010), there’s no hard-line correlation between a person’s occupation, union membership, and a person’s politics. Back in 1966, the Santa Clara City (CA) Fire Department union [I have long forgotten the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) local number] asked me to be its bargaining agent. Bargaining in those days was done with the full City Council in open session, and the Council members were reiterating the usual misperceptions about what firefighters do between fires.
The fire service does a lot of talking about fire prevention but does a minimal job as a whole in walking the walk. Take a look at our trade publications, and you will see little in the way of articles about fire prevention. I don’t blame the publications or those not writing about it; it just isn’t a “sexy” topic. As a profession, though, we need to better use our budgets, personnel, and training in the direction of prevention to reduce not only the loss of civilian life and property but also firefighters’ lives.
Learning is 80-percent visual, but in low visibility or nighttime rescue scenarios, visual input is all the more important. In this-post 9/11 world, the rescue paradigm has shifted to include not just disasters but terrorist actions as well. We all have heard that “every second counts”; this is as true as it has ever been. In this changing environment, all first responders—fire, police, and EMS—have to work together. In addition, during these tough economic times, rescue crews have to do more with less. Finally, the two main reasons we lose firefighters are (1) stress-related health (i.e., heart attack and stroke) and (2) disorientation. The Rescue Cablelight was designed to assist firefighters and rescue personnel to stay calm and on task and to know the way out to fresh air and safety.
The West Redding (CT) Fire Departmentuses this PIERCE pumper tanker to move water in a rural area with limited dry hydrants, explains Fire Chief Al Landwehr. It replaced an older vehicle.
MN8 Products’ FOXFIRE™ product line features illuminating coating (paint) kits and helmet bands (pictured), which enables firefighters to be visibly located and find tools in zero-light environments while providing illumination to the surrounding area. Foxfire’s technology was developed using a new photoluminescent pigment combined with a specialized epoxy paint product. Equipment and tools painted with Foxfire technology will illuminate surroundings for up to 17 hours when fully charged. Foxfire products can be charged repeatedly by any type of light condition and can withstand high temperatures that are associated with firefighting.
BREATHING AIR SYSTEMS has acquired O-RING & ASSOCIATES. Both companies specialize in supplying breathing air compressors, cascade systems, and related equipment to fire departments and industrial customers. Established in 1969, Breathing Air Systems is based in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, with branch offices in five states. The company is the largest seller of Bauer Compressors in the country, and is well-known for its expertise in custom air trucks and trailers. More than 2,500 fire departments in 10 states are enrolled in their preventive maintenance service and air analysis programs. The immediate effect of the merger is quicker response to customers.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) appointed GREGORY B. CADE as division director of Government Affairs. Cade will oversee NFPA’s Washington office. He began his career as a firefighter in the Prince George’s County (MD) Fire Department, where he rose through the ranks during a 24-year tenure to become bureau chief. He served as chief for the City of Hampton (VA) Division of Fire/Rescue and the City of Virginia Beach (VA) Fire Department. Cade was appointed United States Fire Administrator from 2007 to January 2009. Cade most recently was assistant director of National Programs for the International Association of Fire Chiefs.
As we entered the narrow block, the fire was already blowing out two front windows on the fourth floor of the multiple dwelling. Attempting to get the truck into position would be tricky; someone had to stay with the chauffeur to help him position the apparatus tormentors in between the parked cars. Most of us were thinking that since the fire was already self-venting it would be easy to locate and extinguish, and we would have some type of visibility up off the floor, assisting us as we moved in—all we had to do was gain entry into the apartment and work toward the front of the building. In addition, we wouldn’t have to worry about any flashover conditions because it was free burning out the windows.
Although some of you may not agree, the best way to rescue a civilian from a fire is to prevent the fire in the first place. As Francis Brannigan said, “No firefighter was ever killed in a fire that was prevented!” The second best way to rescue a victim from a fire is to teach the civilian how to rescue himself.
