The U.S. Fire Administration advised that Spartan Chassis was recalling in early November emergency rescue transport vehicles equipped with an electronic stability control (ESC) manufactured from April 12, 2007, through September 2011. The ESC module may cause the ESC system to activate unnecessarily when the vehicle is driven in a particular manner on certain unique road conditions and may adversely affect the slip angle calculation by the ESC module. This might cause the ESC to perceive an oversteering situation and, therefore, apply the front axle outer-wheel service brake until the vehicle is perceived to be stable by the ESC. These conditions could increase the risk of a crash.

Line-of-Duty Deaths

October 22. Firefighter Horace "Chris" C. Pendergrass, 49, Fairfax County (VA) Fire & Rescue Department: cause to be determined.

November 10. Fire Police Officer Edward Steffy, 71, Rothsville (PA) Volunteer Fire Company: heart attack.

November 16. Captain Jon Young, 50, Roselle (NJ) Fire Department: heart attack while responding to an emergency in his vehicle.

Source: USFA Firefighters Memorial Database

NFPA: Property loss from large-loss fires down

There were eight fewer large-loss fires in 2010 than in 2009, and associated property losses decreased by more than $298.4 million, according to the "Large-Loss Fires in the United States," released by the National Fire Protection Association's (NFPA).

Large-loss fires and explosions are defined as incidents that cause at least $10 million in direct property loss. In 2010, the United States experienced 17 large-loss fires that resulted in approximately $950 million in direct property losses. The report looked at a relatively small portion (.001 percent) of estimated fires in 2010 that accounted for 5.6 percent of the total estimated dollar loss.

Foundation releases ambulance crash data report

The Fire Protection Research Foundation, the research affiliate for the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), recently released "Analysis of Ambulance Crash Data." The report presents the following key observations pertaining to the collection of ambulance crash data, including fatalities and injuries from all 50 states, and the methods used to collect these data.

The information collection infrastructure for ambulance crash data, although "relatively well evolved," could benefit from "future enhancements and improvements."

At the national level, the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) program provides well-established guidelines for the collection of EMS data.

At the national level, the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC) program provides well-established guidelines for the collection of emergency responder vehicle crash data.

Ambulance crash data collection at the state level is significant in quantity.

From a national perspective, a lack of uniformity exists among and within the states.

State-based ambulance crash information collection appears to be occurring on two fronts: through the state department of public health, often in collaboration with the state EMS agency, and also through police accident reports typically collected through the state department of transportation.

In some cases these separate data collection streams are coordinating and sharing information; in other cases, they are effectively independent.

States should continue to promote and use the MMUCC program guidelines.

Data gathered among the available multiple sources need to be used with significant care, especially when attempting to address trends in the data which may have been collected in ways that could distort an analysis. Examples given were Delaware, where in one instance ambulance "response" was incorrectly interpreted as ambulance "involvement" in a motor vehicle crash—i.e., the ambulance's response caused the ambulance to be "involved"—and New Jersey, where data are collected only for licensed providers, which excludes private companies.

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