Fire Fighter Tags Provide Vital Data In Event of Injury
Chief Bristol, Pa., Fire Department
The Bristol, Pa., Fire Department has improved one of our oldest identification systems to provide an emergency service personnel safety system.
The system was designed by Richard Schramm, a fire protection consultant and formerly industrial training coordinator for the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute, and myself. The main reason for designing this system was that we were appalled with the lack of vital health information available for personnel injured during an emergency.
The Bristol Fire Department has obtained vital information from each member and transcribed it onto a dog tag—the same kind as used in the armed services. A copy of this information is also kept at the station and a duplicate is given to the local hospital. Each member receives a dog tag with the following information on it:
Name, date of birth, station, blood type, religion, allergies, race and social security number.
In the event of an injury, this information saves time during a critical period—admittance to a hospital.
Local hospitals will often do the blood type work free of charge in exchange for a walking donor program with the fire department. This program often consists of nothing more than a list of personnel, their blood types and phone numbers and is used only when the hospital urgently needs blood.
