DISPATCHES
1989: a “disaster-ous” year
The preliminary statistics are in: 1989 was the costliest year in terms of disasters, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other relief organizations.
Federal obligations for 1989 disasters—31 in all—are expected to total $2.964 billion, exceeding the decade’s previous high of $2.347 billion for 23 major disasters and six emergencies declared in 1980, according to FEMA. The bulk of the money— S2.7 billion—went to victims of Hurricane Hugo and the Loma Prieta earthquake.
As a result of Hugo, which swept through the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Carolinas in September, more than 289,000 people sought federal assistance, at an estimated cost of more than S 1.3 billion. An additional S5895 million was allotted to affected local governments for emergency needs and repairs.
Nearly 68,000 earthquake victims have applied for FEMA funds in Northern California, and that number is still climbing. So far FEMA reports it has distributed S95.5 million for housing, grants, loans, and other programs.
In addition to these major disasters, flooding and tornadoes—23 in all — cost FEMA SI435 million. Texas alone required $34.6 million of that money when tornadoes and flooding hit the state in May.
For the decade FEMA reports that 237 major disasters and 15 emergencies W’ere declared, costing FEMA in excess of S98 billion. The totals listed above are in addition to money given victims by insurance companies and the American Red Cross.
The insurance industry defines a catastrophe as exceeding S5 million in insurance losses, according to Tim Dove, regional manager in the Insurance Information Institute’s Washington, D.C. office. Of the 31 catastrophes in 1989, Hugo was the biggest in terms of damage and severity, and probably the most expensive hurricane ever, Dove notes. He estimates that insurance companies will pay out $4 billion when Hugo relief is over; they have already handled some 650,000 claims.
Dove estimates that earthquake damage will cost insurance companies SI billion. He compares 1989 damages with the 1971 San Fernando earthquake, which cost S553 million, or about half as much.
The American Red Cross averages 50,000 responses a year in the United States, to residence fires, haz-mat incidents, and disasters. Fall 1989 represented its single largest disaster response in history, according to Barbara Lohman, spokesperson for the American Red Cross, affecting the biggest number of people and areas.
Lohman estimates that the organization assisted 150,000 families— 133,000 just for the earthquake and Hugo. It spent S94 million in total disaster relief and Lohman expects that figure to exceed $100 million. The money goes to projects from rebuilding homes to providing temporary shelter to feeding victims and emergency workers.
IAFC urges SCBA recall
The International Association of Fire Chiefs is urging manufacturers of selfcontained breathing apparatus to recall and retrofit defective units.
The IAFC has documented cases in which firefighters have been injured or killed because of SCBA strap failure, according to Rand-Scott “Randy” Coggan, chairman of the IAFC’s Health and Safety Committee. “We feel it is incumbent upon SCBA manufacturers to identify who has unsafe SCBA, alert them to the dangers, and make available to them (preferably at no cost) a retrofit or repair.”
The IAFC has written to manufacturers, citing the safety problem: The NIOSH/OSHA standards that regulated the manufacture of SCBA did not address the thermal properties of the thermoplastic straps. The SCBA separated from the users during the few seconds needed to escape flashover (straps melted, burned, or failed), and several deaths resulted.
While the problem has since been addressed in NFPA Standard 1981, which specifies thermal performance requirements for straps and other parts, the standard is not retroactive: There is no requirement for SCBA manufacturers to retrofit old equipment (prior to 1988) to meet the current standard.
Coggan says the IAFC hopes to heighten user awareness as well. “If users have these defective SCBA, they will have to replace them with or without the manufacturers’ help,” Coggan says. “We’re hoping users will raise a fuss so manufacturers will set up replacement programs.
“When we identify a definite cause of firefighter death, we have to correct it,” Coggan concludes. “And these straps are certainly an identifiable cause.”
In search of a halon alternative
The public and private sectors are working to find alternatives to halon because of its harmful effect on the stratospheric ozone. The Halon Alternatives Research Corportion was established by the private sector this past fall and includes such members as Underwriters Laboratories, NFPA Research Foundation, and Ansul Fire Protection. The Government Working Group on halons was established to coordinate the efforts of different public sector branches such as the EPA, the Department of Energy, the General Services Administration, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The research is in response to the U.S. signing of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty that restricts halon use to protect the ozone. The treaty requires that halon production be frozen in 1992 at 1986 production levels. However, the protocol will be reevaluated in June as the ozone problem is getting more severe, and the countries will meet to consider phasing out halon.
Halon is an extinguishing agent that is nontoxic, nondamaging to electronic equipment, and lightweight. Halons are considered critical to many Department of Defense applications and are used in fire extinguishers in command, control, and communication centers and for explosion suppression tanks and fighter aircraft. According to Denise Mauzerall, program manager at the Environmental Protection Agency, halon can be replaced in the majority of situations, but there are cases, such as those involving human occupancy and high risk—for example, a fire in a control unit of a nuclear power plant—where nothing else currently will work.
Many companies are already reevaluating their fire suppression systems and substituting foam or other chemicals for halon systems. Automatic sprinkler systems are also being considered as alternate means of fire suppression.
“In the next 10 years we hope to come up with a chemical replacement,” Mauzerall says. For now, the public agencies and private organizations are working toward a goal of rapid discovery and commercialization of a new chemical agent.
Mandatory retirement decision pending
A federal district court in New Jersey is deciding whether fire chiefs in that state will be forced to retire at age 65. A state directive currently forces fire supervisory personnel to retire at age 65, grouping them with personnel actively engaged in firefighting; the fire chiefs, including Paterson Fire Chief William J. Comer, contend that since they only go to fires on an occasional basis and don’t go through the rigorous hose lifting, etc. that front-line firefighters face, they should be allowed to continue to work past age 65. State authorities, however, say that such supervisory personnel are not covered by congressional safeguards, which bar arbitrary age discrimination.
The chiefs won in a New Jersey appellate court. Then they lost in a state supreme court. Now it is up to the federal district court. The court has granted a temporary injunction preventing the state from forcing chiefs to retire until it has rendered its final decision.
While the case involves 18 fire chiefs, it would affect all fire and police supervisory personnel in the state. It has taken up three years of Chief Comer’s life, but he is confident he will win this case and be allowed to continue working. “We feel the judge is able to interpret the federal statutes in the way they should be interpreted. If we lose, it may set a precedent for all 50 states,” Chief Comer concludes.
NFA course changes
The National Fire Academy has announced course and curriculum changes for this school year.
The course “Hazardous Materials Tactical Considerations” will be temporarily withdrawn from the schedule between April and October 1990 for updating. “We have been offering this popular course for a number of years, but with all the advances, changes, and regulations in haz mats, we needed to pull out the course to update it,” explains Mary Ellis, program analysis officer in the superintendent’s office at the NFA. “It’s too hard to revise a course while it’s being taught. We feel that by not offering it one semester, we can update it to have the best information possible.”
Also, the NFA is developing a new fire and life safety curriculum. As the new courses are ready, old courses such as “Introduction to Fire Safety Education” will be phased out. The new curriculum will include the revised “Fire Service Instructional Methodology,” with an educational technology lab, and the new “Developing Life and Fire Safety Strategies,” incorporating newer methods of involving the entire community, according to Ellis.
