eFire technology
Having just read Dennis Wolf’s article “Are You Ready for eFire Technology?” (May 2003), I wonder where he gets the figure of three or more minutes for a dispatcher to respond to a structure fire near the fire station. Even a fully manual call processing system, which I am sure Tennessee does not rely on, would easily respond pumps faster than in three minutes.
In New Zealand, we dispatch using Intergraph Public Safety’s I/Dispatcher, an American system that not only provides a rapid system for dispatching pumpers while the call taker is still communicating with the caller but also provides powerful support tools. Virtually all the information that Wolf suggested could be accessed at the scene can be obtained by swiping a bar code prior to arrival, using direct communication between dispatchers and responding officers.
Regarding the rest of the article, yes, it would be awesome to have all firefighters fitted with locator devices, but wouldn’t they prefer a full-time thermal imaging system for their SCBA masks?
The barcode inventory control system is already in use in the United Kingdom, as is computer monitoring of fire appliance performance and maintenance data. There is even an American appliance that transmits these data via satellite to the manufacturer, in real time.
The current dispatch systems all provide the kind of turnout performance monitoring data Wolf describes as possible, and in New Zealand the fire service has operated a national “intranet” Web-based network for five years, with news, training, backup dispatch data, mail—you name it.
I did like a lot of Wolf’s ideas; it’s just that most of them are in use already, except the live Web cameras in private homes. I would love to see that being sold to the public on the basis that it would save the fire department some money!
Ross Stokes
Christchurch, New Zealand
Remembering freedom’s safety net
For 111 years, Everett, Washington, has been served by an organized fire department. That service has continued without interruption, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. Records for on-call volume in 1892 are sketchy, but let’s assume a fire per week. In 2002, the volume was approximately 16,500 calls—fires, car crashes, heart attacks, chemical spills, high-angle rescues, and extrications. Nonemergency services include building inspections, fire prevention, and life safety education. This is our fire service, similar to fire departments nationwide.
Along with other professions, the fire service took a huge hit the day the country was attacked in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. The trauma was large-scale, personal, up close, and profound. Until that morning, there hadn’t been a moment in our fire service history when we had to ask ourselves if what we were viewing on the television screen was real: the outline of the first tower impact area shaped like the aircraft, the second aircraft strike, the smoke and flames billowing out of two skyscrapers, the aircraft strike on the Pentagon, the towers’ collapse, and the science fiction-like images of people running for their lives ahead of a cloud of dust at street level.
Firefighters know when we’re hired that the potential for disaster is always present. About 100 firefighters die in the line of duty each year. We all think it can’t happen to us, especially if we’re careful. September 11 was a grave reminder that it does happen, even under circumstances difficult to conceive.
The inherent danger of the job is combated with safety training, leadership, and institutionalizing an awareness of danger, moving safety to a conscious and continuing benchmark as we work. Sadly, this means every one of the firefighters lost in New York knew they were in a terribly dangerous event as they headed up the stairs. This wasn’t just an office fire in a high-rise; this was a BIG fire, and there was jet fuel. And it was 90 floors up. And there were certainly more death and destruction that they were going to witness when they had climbed high enough. They were wondering how bad it would be. They were wondering how they would get their arms around the increasing volume and lethality of the problem. They were wondering how long the steel would stand because they knew steel weakens in the heat of a fire.
By all accounts, disciplined, steady, and positive, they climbed the stairs. And they kept climbing.
For those of us at Station 1 in the Everett Fire Department that morning, it was a crescendo of increasing gut impact as the events unfolded before us and before our country. Our perspective was a little different from everyone else’s: We were there climbing, too. We knew that the effort to respond, evacuate, and stabilize the disasters involved our service as it rarely did before and that with the pounding collapse we had witnessed the deaths of thousands—including our brothers and sisters in the fire service. We had witnessed our mortality in theirs.
Firefighters, paramedics, rescue technicians, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and caregivers. Members of a close community, bonded by a common ethic; others before self. They were also the ordinary members of the American community, like you and me. Men and women who return home after a workday, get a hug from the family, mow the lawn, buy school supplies, put the boat in the water, double-check the kids’ homework, do the dishes, tuck everyone in at bedtime. They were just like everyone else alongside them in the towers and across our great country. We all felt the bond with those who climbed the stairs. And we were all gripped by their sudden loss.
The strengths and symbols of a strong and free nation are its commerce and its infrastructure; our roads, our fresh water, our communications, our access to food and supplies, our business districts, and the services that support and preserve all of this and serve our community. Firefighters and police officers are high-visibility symbols of what’s great about America, Freedom’s Safety Net. The public outcry on the loss of fire and police personnel, alongside the civilians they were trying to protect, was a signal to the terrorists that fire and police make a satisfying terror target. We now count ourselves in the terror target package.
Realizing that the war was coming to us, the government began preparing fire departments to respond to terror incidents by beginning to provide additional equipment and training. It should be mentioned that many needs remain to be fulfilled to have a substantial positive impact on readiness and training. In any case, the normal urgency of addressing our local earthquake and disaster preparedness took on increased purpose as we began getting our arms around the weapons of mass destruction response and terror incident requirements.
As individuals and as a service, we prepare. We’re conducting and critiquing large-scale disaster drills. We’re training for realistic responses to “white powder” discoveries. We’re partnering with the local Department of Emergency Management and U.S. military agencies. We’re truly conscious of the framework of the new threat from day to day because it permeates our service culture.
That said, Freedom’s Safety Net is still here. As a service, we’re better prepared than before, though that work must continue. We’re still climbing the stairs, and we shall never forget.
Rick Robinson
Assistant Fire Marshal
Everett (WA) Fire Department
Be vigilant about properly set PRVs
The July 2003 Letters to the Editor on nozzle and hose selections (July 2003) included references to the problems of water delivery at the One Meridian Plaza Fire on February 23, 1991. The August 1991 issue of Fire Engineering included the articles “One Meridian Plaza Fire” by Harvey Eisner with Bill Manning, “Taking Control of the Pressure Regulating Valve” by Bill Manning, and “Standpipe Operations” by David P. Fornell. These articles were excellent presentations and included an explanation of the need to match the settings of pressure regulating valves (PRVs) installed on high-rise standpipes with the attack nozzle and hose.
The 21/2-inch Giacomini A-202 pressure control valves installed on the One Meridan Plaza standpipes were set at 80, which was too low to supply 13/4-inch attack lines equipped with a 100-psi automatic nozzle. A pressure control valve on the 21st floor was later adjusted to 140 by an engineer familiar with this PRV, which could be adjusted in the field as opposed to those preset at the factory. The 140 setting can deliver 150 gpm at an inlet pressure of 200 psi and an outlet pressure of 140 psi.
The fire article’s comment that the use of the 21/2- or three-inch attack lines would have been pointless is questionable in that a 21/2-inch hoseline with a one-inch, 50-psi nozzle would be expected to deliver 200 gpm with a friction loss of 10 psi per 100 feet. As the article explains, the water supply dilemma also included the loss of the building’s two 750-gpm electrically driven fire pumps.
I urge that those responsible for high-rise inspections be continually alert to make sure PRVs on standpipes and sprinkler risers are properly set to help avoid the nightmare the Philadelphia (PA) Fire Department experienced.
John T. Quinn
Levittown, Pennsylvania
White shirts, innovation, and balls
While at the scene of a recent commercial supermarket fire, I and other white shirts were talking. How unusual, some might say. Previously coming from the light blue shirt group, I was used to talking to other light blue shirts as things wind down about important things like how many fish were caught and how the kids are doing at baseball camp. I remember often wondering but not really caring about what the white shirts were talking about, usually thinking that some of them were out to “get” us in some way.
As we white shirts talked about how the fire was contained to the deli by the automatic sprinkler system, we commented to each other (tongue in cheek) that we NEVER have fires in sprinklered buildings, not to mention that the system nearly extinguished the grease fire that had caused the activation in the first place as the engine companies responded. We commented that possibly our organizations could have provided a little training to the employees on how to activate the hood system, but poor access because of improper storage of boxes also led us to believe that our inspection program needed a little attention. We continued to discuss how to remove the smoke from the rather large building, since no one had a good handle on how the HVAC system worked.
The captain directed salvage operations, and our attention turned to the ever-present deluge of the sprinkler system and how to manage the unending flow of water. We watched as several crews tried with great effort, diligence, and direction from the captain to stop the flow with the various wedges the firefighters carried in their pockets. Others worked together to squeegee and discuss how many fish this “lake” would hold. With little to no success of halting the flow from the sprinkler head, the white shirts commented about how it might work to cut the end off a section of 13/4-inch hose and place it over the unending flow of water coming from the sprinkler head “lead out” to the front door, to decrease the water damage in the store. As a creative thinker from the prior light blue shirt rank, I realized how this may be adapted to work very nicely in a building like a furniture store, a department store, or the like to minimize the damage.
A progressive thinker might say, What a great idea! We continued to discuss the merits of this operational change in the use of our 13/4-inch line. The white shirts thought it might be a great idea but soon realized that it probably would not work. No one would have the nerve to cut the coupling off the end of the hose even though, in the grand scheme of things, it could potentially save thousands of dollars of damage and only cost a few dollars to fix. Once again, the firefighters would be the great innovative thinkers.
Eventually the water stopped, the smoke cleared, and the fish were removed from the “lake.” Everyone had “smoked” fish from the supermarket deli and returned safely to their fire station. We have all had the opportunity to work with that “out-of-the-box-thinking” sister, brother, blue shirt, or white shirt. I hope we will continue to be innovative and forward in our thinking and, in some cases, have the nerve to carry out those decisions.
Jeff A. Welch
Chief
Northern Lakes Fire District
Hayden Lake, Idaho
In praise of America’s bravest
After September 11, I felt compelled to write this letter. I am not a firefighter or a member of a firefighting family, but I thoroughly enjoy reading Fire Engineering. I agonize over firefighters’ problems, sympathize over their losses, and forever admire their courage. I’ve always been a firefighter fan, but the zeal and bravery they demonstrated that historical day two years ago will remain with me as long as I live. I am proud of the firefighters I share this great country with. I just wanted to let them know there’s someone out here who really appreciates the sweat, tears, and sacrifices the firefighters have put into their job. God bless America and America’s bravest!
Jenny Gane
El Dorado Springs, Missouri
