Canteen Service is But One Of Ways Buffs Can Assist
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Staff Correspondent
From time to time we hear of a new fire fan group somewhere that has trouble getting its program going because there doesn’t seem to be a focus for their attention.
“We just don’t have the big fires here to support a canteen service,” ran one complaint, “and there isn’t that much else for us to do.”
True, fire buffing does imply an interest in fires. But there are many ways to show that interest, and assist local emerrgency services, besides chasing the engines. As for a canteen, some of the nation’s oldest, most active buff groups have never operated one—two examples being San Francisco’s Phoenix Society and the Fire Bell Club of New York.
With a little thought, fire department officers and buffs working together can come up with many more civilian activities than just helpfulness on the fire line—valuable though that may often be. Here are a few instances of what individuals and groups are doing:
Fire prevention: The late Walter Long, of Baltimore’s Box 414 group, organized the first fire prevention parade in that city. In Milwaukee, several members of the Fire Bell Club furnished manpower during 1978’s Fire Prevention Week to pass out literature and staff displays at suburban shopping centers. Related efforts can and should be year-round, not merely during one week in October. The City of Edmonds, Wash., was the first of several communities to use non-fire fighters to conduct voluntary home fire safety checks. The first year brought a 68 percent cut in residential fire losses, and another 52 percent drop came the second year.
Fire service education; This has two aspects. First, at their club meetings, with an interested group gathered, buffs can be brought up to date by outside speakers on many fire safety topics. Some recent examples: a May 1978 demonstration for Seattle area buffs of comparative response by various smoke detectors. In Los Angeles, the June meeting of the Box 15 Club featured a detailed report by a city fire inspector of the million dollar smoke detector test conducted in Los Angeles after two years of planning. Elsewhere in California, the Peninsula fire buffs got a tour and demonstration of a fire simulation training center used cooperatively by three adjacent fire departments.
Education works the other way, too, some buffs having their own educational contribution to make. In Milwaukee, Fire Bell Clubber John Hopwood, retired electrical engineer, teaches on fire investigation and electrical fires in the fire technology curriculum at a local college. Recently, the same college was presented with a new NFPA training package on hazardous material transportation emergencies, purchased by the Fire Bell Club.
Emergency medical services: Besides programs on modern burn treatment and support for local or national burn centers, organized buffs continue to lead the way in civilian CPR training. While doing his 1977 Christmas shopping, Box 414 member Bill Blair came upon a crowd around an unconscious woman, who wasn’t breathing. He started CPR based on what he had learned through the buff club program. She was in a diabetic coma, all vital signs negative, and his training saved her life.
An outstanding example of one fire buffs contribution to emergency medicine is Dr. Don Cheu of San Mateo, Calif., fire photographer and member of three buff clubs, described as one of the nation’s leading triage experts. He originated and directed the annual disaster tests begun at San Francisco International Airport in 1971. Dr. Cheu is chairman of his county medical society’s emergency care committee, as well as the California Aviation Safety Council. He belongs to the state medical association disaster committee, was foremost in establishing a paramedic program in South San Francisco, and is an honorary fire chief. He seldom goes to a fire—but that is clearly no measure of his assistance to Bay Area fire departments.
Fire service history: Detroit’s Box 42 Club is Working on restoration of that city’s 1884 Fire Station No. 11 as a museum, containing a 1908 Ahrens steamer (also restored) and a 1936 pumper. At the end of 1977, Box 414 leased Baltimore’s historic No. 6 Engine House for refurbishing as a museum and permanent meeting place. Not only buffs nationwide, but local schoolchildren and other residents will have the chance to learn there of the city’s colorful fire service history.
So there is much more to be done by an interested group of buffs than monitor their scanners, or pass the coffee cups. The group need not be large, either. Membership in the clubs cited above ranges from over 100 down to only a dozen.