NAMES IN THE NEWS
Deputy Chief FRED SHIPMAN has been appointed chief of the 470-member City of Tucson (AZ) Fire Department. Shipman became a firefighter in 1970 and worked his way through the ranks, becoming assistant chief in 1987. While in charge of the operations division he oversaw fire suppression and the hazardous-materials team. He was also instrumental in the coordination of a regional emergency-response plan.
BOB BUTLER, fire management officer for the Carson City District (NV) of the Bureau of land Management, has been named chairperson of the Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators for 1992 LOU BUCKLEY, chief of the ( arson City Fire Department, has been named vice chairperson. Butler has 22 years of experience in fire control and serves as one of two incident commanders for the fire management teams of the Sierra Front. He also has served as a planning chief and incident commander on national interagency fire teams. The Sierra Front Wildfire Cooperators is a cooperation of local, state, and federal agencies organized to present a united front against wildland fires in the region along the Sierra Nevada mountain range in Nevada and California.
TIM BUTTERS, director of government relations and public affairs for the International Association of Fire Chiefs, has left the organization to join the firm of Singer and Associates in Fairfax County, Virginia, as a marketing and sales associate. Following seven years with the U.S. Fire Administration, Butters joined the IAFC staff in 1987 to manage a wide range of projects and programs, including legislative and regulatory affairs. Butters assumed increased responsibility, culminating in his being named to head the government relations and public affairs department. His legislative accomplishments include playing a role in the passage of the Hotel/Motel Fire Safety Act and the Hazardous Materials Transportation Uniform Safety Act.
JOHN A. SHARRY, fire chief for the University of California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been appointed by the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Standards Council to serve as chair of the NFPA technical committee on fire service occupational safety and health. Sharry earned chief fire officer certification from the State of California State Fire Marshal’s Office. He is the editor of the Life Safety Code Handbook as well as numerous articles on various aspects of fire protection engineering, fire investigation, code enforcement, and emergency operations. Currently, he serves on the NFPA’s Safety to Life Committee and is a Life Safety Code instructor. He hits served as a member of the Standards Council since 1989.
This past September marked the fourth anniversary of the K-9 Accelerant Detection Program, which became part of New York State’s Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) to provide fire investigation assistance to local fire and police departments and arson task forces. Two accelerant-detection Labrador Retrievers, Buddy and Hershey, have been trained to detect even minute traces of combustible or flammable liquid residue of substances in four hydrocarbon categories: petroleum-based, acetone-based, alcohol-based, and natural-based products. Dogs, unlike electronic detection instruments, can distinguish between accelerant vapors and vapors produced by theburning of synthetic-based hydrocarbon materials. Two fire investigators from OFPC’s Arson Bureau, Michael E. Knowlton and Richard P. Rogozinski, attended the world’s first formal accelerant-detection training program in 1988 and since then have worked with the dogs on 217 investigations. Of those incidents, 169 were labeled incendiary. and accelerants were found to be present in 159. Approximately 36 percent of the investigations were closed by either arrest or indictment.
JIM WASHKO. a firefighter with the Fullerton (CA) Fire Department, has been named “Firefighter of the Year,” by the Fullerton Firefighters’ Association. Washko, who has been a full-time Fullerton firefighter since 1987, was recognized for his researching and writing of procedures for the department’s training manual; revising the workbook for probationary firefighters; collecting donations of used fire equipment for the Mexicali, Mexico, Fire Department; helping with citywide blood drives, the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Program, and with fundraisers for both the Orange County Burn Center and the Muscular Dystrophy Association; and helping with the department’s Junior Firefighters Program for fifth-graders. Washko is a member of the Orange County Firemen’s Association and the California State Firefighters’ Association.
