In Case You Missed It: March 2015 Fire Engineering Features

Community Hazards and Vulnerabilities and the Fire Service

Each fire department should complete a hazard and vulnerability analysis with its emergency management authority and law enforcement partners using the above process for its community, writes Mark Wallace.

Drill: Outside Vent Suitcase

Wichita (KS) Fire Department Lieutenant Samuel Hittle offers this Traditions Training drill which looks at the tasks of the outside vent position.

Fire Scene Overhaul: Finding the Balance

The company officers and firefighters all play a huge role in every fire investigation, Danny Sheridan and Steve Chasteen write.

It Wasn’t Always This Way: Remembering Chief Bennett

Thomas N. Warren remembers former Providence (RI) Battalion Chief James Bennett and his contributions to firefighter health and safety.

Firefighters and Cancer

Hosts Frank Ricci and P.J. Norwood talk with Bobby Halton and Gavin Horn about various aspects of this terrible disease.

Happyland Fire: ‘They All Could Have Been Sleeping’

New York City marks the 25th anniversary of the disastrous Happyland Social Club fire. Read FDNY Assistant Chief Frank J. Nastro’s account of the response from the Fire Engineering archives.

Construction Concerns: Snow Load

Gregory Havel’s new Construction Concerns looks at the amount of snow load that a roof is designed to hold according to building code requirements among other variables.

Operational Resilience

G. Howard Blythe examines this operational structure which can continually be refined and expanded to include all operations in which emergency services provide.

Humpday Hangout: Dealing with the ‘Shrapnel’ of Other People’s Decisions

Rick Lasky, Mike Dugan, Mike Nasta, and Eddie Buchanan discuss bad behavior and its effects.

What Would You Do? Four-Story Apartment Building Fire

Skip Coleman presents a new simulation to trian your crews on.

No Irish Luck

Leadership and Decision Making: The Vroom-Yetton Model

The Vroom-Yetton Contingency Model, bases decision making on situational leadership that can be used by just about anyone, regardless of rank, writes Dan Kerrigan.

Spike the Jamb

Practice at and become efficient in the “Spike the Jamb” forcible entry technique, and I can guarantee it will be your go-to move when forcing an inward swinging door with a wooden jamb, writes Carl Meyer.

First Due…With So Few

Billy Goldfeder weighs in on the critical state of firefighter staffing.

Simply Complicated

Q & A: Sean Gray

Sean Gray recently presented a Webcast on structural firefighting tactics, “Attack from the Burned Side: New Age Tactics and Tasks.” Read his answers to questions posed during the live presentation.

Focus on the Fireground: ‘Vertical Lumberyard’

Hosts Bill Gustin and Mike Dugan talk to Edgewater (NJ) Deputy Chief Pat Chevalier and retired Tampa (FL) Firefighter Les Ennis about fires in their departments.

Safety Alert: Butane Honey Oil

A new method of extracting THC from marijuana has caught on like wildfire in the last few years, butane hash oil or butane honey oil (BHO). Todd Burton has a safety alert on how BHO can causes explosions and impact your citizens’ safety and operations.

The Wildland-Urban Interface

This training program from the Firefighters Support Foundation, presented by Battalion Chief Scott Magers of the Hillsboro (OR) Fire Department, addresses the fact that urban and suburban fire departments are increasingly being deployed to wildfire areas.

Redefining the Healthy Firefighter, Part 1

Develop a health and wellness program in a proactive manner where all parties achieve success; that means that the ultimate goal is to retire “healthy,” writes Jon Hofman.

What Would You Do? Two-Story Residential

Check out a brand-new training scenario and video from Skip Coleman.

No One Is Reinventing the Fire Service

Brian P. Kazmierzak asks: Why are we afraid of the science? He offers his take on the war of words being waged in social media regarding modern fire science and its adherents.