The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) (www.firehero.org) reminds responders that they must be fully credentialed as a Public Safety Officer when assisting in disaster situations to qualify for Public Safety Officers Benefits (PSOB) in case of serious injury or death. Responders are asked to become familiar with these requirements and to share the information with departments in their states. The criteria follow; they were provided by Chief Kyle Ienn, the Nebraska LAST coordinator and a state advocate for the NFFF’s Everyone Goes Home Program.
NIST issues guidelines for concrete and steel buildings
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) TN 1681, Best Practice Guidelines for Structural Fire Resistance of Concrete and Steel Buildings, is available from the NIST Engineering Laboratory. The document, part of the NIST response to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster of 9/11, was developed in conjunction with the agency’s technical building and fire safety investigation of WTC buildings 1 and 2 (the WTC towers) and 7.
Experts in the design and construction industry and academia also participated in developing the document, which features information on current best practices in structural fire resistance engineering in the United States and overseas, current best knowledge in fire risk assessment, material properties at high temperatures, and thermal and structural response calculation methods. Comments received from NIST-sponsored workshops organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and from individually submitted comments on the draft version are also included. The report is available at http://www.nist.gov/manuscript-publication-search.cfm?pub_id=907295.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
May 18. Ex-Captain Michael Esposito, 43, Baldwin (NY) Fire Department: cause to be determined.
May 20. Firefi ghter Thomas “Todd” Lange, Pittsfi eld (MA) Fire Department: hepatitis he contracted on an EMS call more than 20 years ago.
May 23. Firefi ghter Chip Imker, 35, Cambridge (MN) Fire Department: injuries sustained during rope-rescue training; investigation ongoing.
May 31. Second Assistant Chief Thomas Shields, 42, Flanders (NJ) Fire Department Company #1 and Rescue: heart attack.
June 2. Lieutenant Vincent A. Perez, 48, San Francisco (CA) Fire Department: injuries sustained while operating at a house fi re on June 2.
June 4. Firefi ghter/Paramedic Anthony M. Valerio, 53, San Francisco (CA) Fire Department: injuries sustained in a house fi re on June 2.
June 12. Acting Battalion Chief Garet Rasmussen, 38, Chelan County Fire District 1, Wenatchee, WA: cause still to be reported.
June 15. Firefi ghter Davis Scott, 40, Muncie (IN) Fire Department: injuries sustained in a roof collapse while fi ghting a church fi re.
Source: USFA Firefi ghters Memorial Database
Study: How WTC evacuees left area after attacks
A study, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the Association of Schools of Public Health, reveals that survivors of the World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks in September 2001 stopped for information and sought out others, indicating that these critical factors should be included in emergency planning. “Planning has to be adapted at every level to meet the need for sudden action in a catastrophic situation,” according to the authors.
The paper, “To Leave an Area After Disaster: How Evacuees from the World Trade Center Buildings Left the WTC Area Following the Attacks,” was authored by Rae Zimmerman of New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Martin F. Sherman of Loyola University Maryland. It presents an analysis of Columbia University’s WTC Evacuation Study (WTCES) data that focused on 1,444 evacuees.
Among the findings of the survey of WTC evacuees were the following:
- About one-half of the respondents immediately left the area; the other half did not evacuate quickly. Almost 73 percent of those who had not left immediately said they “stopped to see what was happening and/or get more information or assistance,” and 53 percent said they “stopped to look for friends or coworkers.” According to the report, “People’s comfort level and ability to take action during uncertain situations is apparently higher in the presence of people they know, a conclusion that emergency planners may increasingly need to take into account.”
- Evacuees were in need of information about escaping not only the buildings but also the immediate surroundings; falling debris was a constant threat.
- Another major need was information about public transportation. Communicating information about available public transportation is crucial in densely populated areas. More focus was put on communicating activity within the towers prior to and during their collapse than on providing transportation information, the authors noted.
- A little more than a quarter of the respondents (28 percent) said they “didn’t know where to go”; 15 percent said they “were not given directions.” The researchers cited the need of “such communication … to overcome denial of the threat, which is common in some circumstances.”
- After deciding to evacuate, about 40 percent gathered up personal items such as keys, laptops, handbags, and files. Those who waited for instructions while still in the building were 1.5 times more likely not to have left the area immediately than those who did. Those who underwent fire safety training also evacuated more quickly.
- Evacuees who lived farther away tended to quickly evacuate the entire area; they avoided exposure to additional risks.
NIOSH Fatality Investigation Reports released
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has released the following firefighter fatality reports:
- F2010-37, Nov. 05, 2010, “Volunteer fire captain dies from injuries received after a brush truck undergoing maintenance strikes and pins him against a wall – Indiana”; http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face201037.html.
- F2010-33, Sept. 20, 2010, “Deputy chief suffers sudden cardiac death during physical fitness training – Illinois”; http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/reports/face201033.html.
IAFC’s Johnson testifies on D Block
Chief Jeff Johnson, immediate past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and current executive director of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, urged members of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology to pass legislation that will allocate critical radio spectrum to public safety and enable the creation of an interoperable public safety broadband network.
Johnson, representing the Public Safety Alliance at the committee hearing, gave an overview of the positive impact the allocation of the D Block spectrum to public safety will have on life-saving operations and on how the allocation can be accomplished. “Utilizing a single technology with adequate spectrum will ensure nationwide interoperability and allow us to effectively manage day-to-day operations as well as major incidents,” Johnson noted.
The Federal Communications Commission has the spectrum slated for public auction to commercial interests, who will have the power to determine public-safety access as needed. Johnson reiterated the IAFC’s and other public-safety leaders’ charge to take this opportunity to change the status quo from a commercially decided “as needed” to a public safety-decided “when needed” environment.
Although developing a public-safety broadband network would not be easy or inexpensive, Johnson said: “Repeating the mistakes of the past 50 years will only lead to a repeat of communication failures on the incident scene. Following numerous major events and other significant disasters that demonstrate communications failures, we know that a new model is necessary.”
USFA Fire Prevention Group holds national conference
More than 160 state and major metropolitan area fire marshals and other fire prevention professionals attended the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) 6th National PARADE (Prevention, Advocacy, Resources, and Data Exchange) Conference. Experts offered presentations, workshops, and displays on topics including residential sprinklers, evaluation tools to demonstrate program effectiveness, and fire safety and alternative energy systems.
At the banquet following the conference, the R. Wayne Powell Excellence in Fire Prevention award was bestowed on Jim Crawford, recently retired fire marshal for Vancouver, Washington, and Mike Love, recently retired fire marshal for Montgomery County, Maryland. The award was named for former USFA and 30-year federal employee R. Wayne Powell, whose vision and expertise in the fire prevention arena led to the creation of PARADE. The award is presented every other year at the PARADE Conference.
Crawford served more than 35 years in the fire service, most of those years in the field of fire prevention. He was a consultant to the USFA and an instructor for the National Fire Academy. Among his achievements were leading in the development of the Technical Committee for National Fire Protection Association 1037, Professional Qualification Standard for Fire Marshals, which he chairs, and serving as project manager for the Vision 20/20 initiative.
Love most recently commanded a division that included the fire marshal’s office, public information, community outreach recruiting, and planning and research and held the title of fire marshal at Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue. He developed and expanded the E-PARADE electronic forum, which provides for the exchange of ideas, questions, and general information about fire prevention and protection, public education, and life safety issues. This past April, he was appointed president of the Fire and Burn Safety Coalition of Maryland.
CPSC Alert: Counterfeit smoke alarms distributed in Atlanta
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has advised that about 18,500 counterfeit photoelectric smoke alarms were distributed for free in the Atlanta, Georgia, area between 2006 through May 2011, as part of the Atlanta Smoke Alarm Program. It is urging that consumers in the Atlanta area check their homes for counterfeit smoke alarms. The smoke alarms may fail to alert if there is a fire.
The Atlanta (GA) Fire Rescue Department, which distributed the free smoke alarms as part of a fire safety campaign, is recalling the smoke alarms and is conducting free smoke alarm inspections and issuing replacement units. The Atlanta Smoke Alarm Recall Hotline [(404) 546-2733] has been established.
The counterfeit alarms have a silver Underwriters Laboratories (UL) label on the back and three sets of vented slots on the front. The UL label is counterfeit. The alarms do not have a model number or brand name printed on them. The battery included with the smoke alarm is not lithium; it is a carbon zinc, industrial, heavy-duty battery, which will power the alarm for only one year.
House fires cause more than 2,000 civilian deaths a year
An estimated 248,500 fires occur in one- and two-family residential buildings each year in the United States, according to the report One- and Two-Family Residential Building Fires, prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s United States Fire Administration (USFA). These fires, the report notes, are responsible for 2,135 civilian fire deaths, 8,550 civilian fire injuries, and $5.9 billion in property loss. This category of dwellings includes also detached dwellings, manufactured homes, mobile homes not in transit, and duplexes.
Multifamily Residential Building Fires, a report released simultaneously with the USFA’s One- and Two-Family Home report, notes that an estimated 103,000 fires in structures such as apartments, townhouses, row houses, condominiums, and other tenement properties occur each year in the United States and cause 390 civilian deaths, 4,050 civilian injuries, and $1.2 billion in property loss.
These Topical Fire Report series studies are based on data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System for the years 2007 to 2009. Information on these and other Topical series reports is at www.usfa.fema.gov.
IFE-USA offers online Fire Prevention Toolkit
The Institution of Fire Engineers USA Branch’s (IFE-USA) Web-based Vision 20/20 Fire Prevention Advocacy Toolkit provides local fire departments with tools that will help them prove the value of fire prevention in saving lives and reducing the impact of fire on a community and its economy. The kit, available at www.strategicfire.org, was funded by a Department of Homeland Security Fire Prevention and Safety Grant to IFE-USA.
The Toolkit was developed under one of the five Vision 20/20 strategies, Strategy 1 Fire Prevention Advocacy, led by Alan Perdue, emergency services director, Guildford County, North Carolina, a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs board of directors and of the Vision 20/20 Steering Committee, and supported by Peg Carson of Carson Associates, Inc.
Among the items included in the Toolkit are the following:
- Fire prevention advocacy strategies.
- Community investment in fire prevention.
- Implementing an advocacy program.
- Working with the local media.
- Evaluating your program’s impact.
- Reaching audiences.
Fire Engineering Archives
