JAMES O. PAGE: FIRE ENGINEERING LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Fire Captain Andy Page and Tom Page, the sons of James O. Page, accepted the Fire Engineering Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of their father at Thursday’s General Session. William Manning, Fire Engineering associate publisher/editor in chief and FDIC conference director, made the presentation.
Tom Page, a photographer, spoke on behalf of Andy, his mother and his two sisters. He recalled his father’s words: “No leader is any greater than the men and women he is called to lead.”
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TRAINING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: MARK C. BUTLER
Fire Engineering’s Training Achievement Award was presented to Mark C. Butler, New York State fire instructor and attorney, at Thursday’s General Session. Diane Feldman, managing editor of Fire Engineering/FDIC conference manager, and Professor Glenn Corbett, the magazine’s technical editor, made the presentation.
Butler has come to be known as a role model for instructors; he teaches his students to be combat ready, and has devoted his talents and energy to guide and direct the New York State Fire Service in legal and liability issues.
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FDIC’S LILA GILLESPIE RECEIVES JOE FISHELSON AWARD
Lila Gillespie, FDIC exhibit account manager, received the Joe Fishelson Award at Friday’s General Session. The Award acknowledges individuals who have had a long-term impact on the fire protection industry through customer service.
Gillespie has been a beacon on the Indianapolis FDIC exhibit floors since 1996, when Fire Engineering/PennWell sponsored its first FDIC. She had been working on behalf of the industry long before that.
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NATURAL “BIOTERRORISM” AGENTS POSE RISKS FOR RESPONDERS
When we think of bioterrorism, we tend to think of agents such as anthrax or smallpox. Actually, says Mike McEvoy, EMS coordinator for Saratoga County, New York, responders face greater risks from germs they encounter daily on their jobs. “I’m here to tell you that our efforts to prepare for bioterrorism are failing to protect ourselves and our families from the most dangerous bioterrorist out there – Mother Nature,” McEvoy said at Thursday’s General Session. Just eating at the fire station, he noted, poses a risk far greater than that of a deliberate bioterrorist attack with anthrax or smallpox.
McEvoy offered “three simple steps” responders can take to protect themselves and their families from diseases such as chicken pox, measles, colds, and the flu,” plus the unfamiliar bioterrorist agents and bugs we haven’t seen or heard of yet!”
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EVER CONSTANT: THE NEED FOR TRAINING IN THE BASICS
In “First Impressions – Lesson Learned,” on Thursday, John Mittendorf, battalion chief (Ret.) Los Angeles City (CA) Fire Department, related some of the major changes he has observed in the fire service over his 42-year career. He categorized them under the areas of perceptions, preparation, priorities, and professionalism.
Mittendorf recalled responding to the 1965 Watts riot when he was 23 years old. Then, he said, civilians would often assist in extinguishing the fires and looked on firefighters as friends. In those days, he noted, it was all about “putting the wet stuff on the red stuff.” There was no incident command system or salvage/overhaul then. “We never heard of them,” he added.
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FIRE SERVICE URGED TO TAKE LEAD IN PREPAREDNESS
“It is time to plant our fire service flag in the preparedness arena,” Chief R. David Paulison, U. S. Fire Administrator, told attendees at yesterday’s General Session. He mentioned such areas as EMS, community response plans, risk management, and critical infrastructure protection. Who better than the fire service to take the lead in such areas? he asked.
Paulison acknowledged some cuts in funding for the U.S. Fire Administration, but said that many programs are available and “the USFA is not closing our doors.”
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RAPID INTERVENTION ISN’T JUST FOR FIRES
It is time for rapid intervention to be applied to high-risk nonstructural fireground emergencies as it is for structural firefighting, says Captain Larry Collins of the Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department. Collins, in today’s General Session presentation “Rapid Intervention Isn’t Just for Fires,” points to areas such as technical rescues, disaster response, terrorism response, and nonstructural firefighting, for which relatively few fire departments have established rapid intervention protocols.
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