● Boston Fire Commissioner PAUL A. CHRISTIAN has retired as fire commissioner and chief of department. A 38-year veteran of the Boston Fire Department, he cited the accomplishment of specific goals he set on assuming the office in his decision to retire. Christian has been fire commissioner since November 2001 and chief of department for the last six years.
As fire commissioner, he promoted management reforms and restructured the department to address homeland security/terrorism-related issues. The department helped in planning and executing major events, such as the Democratic National Convention and the celebrations following the New England Patriots and Red Sox winning their respective championships.
During Christian’s tenure, multiple alarm fires dropped to their lowest level in the city’s history. He instituted a modified response plan, which maximized apparatus availability, conserved fuel, and reduced apparatus accidents. In addition, the department made major strides in firefighter safety, fire communications, and fire apparatus fleet modernization. A new marine unit is currently under design. District fire chiefs have been assigned secondary specialty duties to accommodate the changing mission of the BFD: technical rescue, hazardous materials, tunnel command and communications and MBTA (subway) liaison. The establishment of a haz-mat company is also planned.
● U.S. Representative CURT WELDON of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and founder of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus, was recognized by the Gear Up Foundation for his lifetime work on first responder issues. A national spokesperson for fire service issues and a former fire chief, Weldon helped to pass legislation to provide the nation’s firefighters with the funding and resources they need. The Gear Up Foundation teaches fire prevention to children; provides training to firefighters; and delivers firefighting gear and equipment, including ambulances and fire trucks, to firefighters in need around the world. It also provides firefighters with an opportunity to share their time and experience with those in need.
COMPANYNEWS
● FIRE-DEX appointed Bob Stuart regional sales manager, responsible for protective apparel sales for the south central United States, including Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Dee Beard has been named receptionist, responsible for assisting accounting and customer service and maintaining daily phone and receptionist functions. Allen Rom has been named senior regional sales manager, responsible for training new sales staff; he will continue to manage sales in Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, and the southeastern United States.
● PIERCE MANUFACTURING INC. delivered seven new apparatus to Compton, California, including five Arrow XT pumpers, one Arrow XT 105-foot aerial ladder, and one Encore® air/light support rescue vehicle.
The five Arrow XT pumpers are each equipped with a Detroit Diesel 455-hp engine, TAK-4 independent front suspension, a 19-inch front bumper extension, six-person seating, dual alternators, LED lighting, a 500-gallon poly water tank, roll-up doors, a 1,500-gpm single-stage pump, stainless-steel plumbing, and a Husky® foam system.
The Arrow XT heavy-duty aerial ladder includes a Detroit Diesel 515-hp engine, TAK-4 independent front suspension, seating for six, roll-up doors, a Harrison 10-kw hydraulic generator, a 105-foot aerial device with AC power to the tip, and a 300-gallon poly water tank.
The air/light support rescue vehicle is built on an International chassis with a Pierce Encore rescue body and features a 330-hp engine, a 40-kw PTO generator, a breathing air system, SCBA bottle storage racks, and a Will-Burt light tower.
● SPARTAN CHASSIS, INC. secured 808 new orders for fire truck chassis in 2005, a 39.8-percent increase over 2004, including 221 new orders for fire truck chassis during the fourth quarter of 2005.
The firm’s strategic partnerships with fire apparatus builders and dealers in North America allowed Spartan to expand its market share for fire truck chassis over the year, said Richard Schalter, president of Spartan, who added that the firm also gained market share because of increased federal funding to emergency rescue services.
● ACTION TRAINING SYSTEMS (ATS) announced that more than 1,000 fire departments and fire service training organizations have installed ILUMINAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.’s Learning Management System (ILMS), designed to improve delivery and management of interactive, media-rich computer-based training from an internal server or local area network (LAN). Iluminar was founded as an independent company to develop a new platform for training management using ATS’s catalog of more than 80 NFPA standards-based training titles. The ILMS platform offers three interfaces for CBT training management: Students go to “LearnIT” to train; instructors and administrators go to “AdministrateIT” to enroll students and manage training access and training data; and “MakeIT” allows the creation of new customized content to meet local, state, or federal needs.
North Carolina’s Cape Fear Community College Fire Training installed the ILMS platform in January 2005. CFCC Fire Training runs ILMS in two firefighter computer training centers-one that networks 20 computers at the training center’s headquarters in Hampstead, NC, and another that networks 12 computers at the Myrtle Grove Volunteer Fire Department near Wilmington, NC. The computer centers offer Action Training’s Firefighter I and Firefighter II series and are approved for delivery of certification training by the Office of State Fire Marshal under the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
The computer center’s main mission is to support training in the Cape Fear region, but about 20 percent of users come from fire departments across the state. Although computer-based training is ideally delivered in a blended learning environment as a complement to live instructor training, the computer training centers also provide an alternative for firefighters who can’t attend classes or prefer computer-based learning.
The Georgetown City (SC) Fire Department, a combination fire department with 36 paid members and 12 volunteers, installed the ILMS platform on new desktop computers in its two fire stations. A five-year client of ATS programs, Georgetown City Fire’s system includes Firefighter I and Firefighter II, HAZMAT Response, Rapid Intervention Teams Assessments, and the Pumper/Operator and Aerial Apparatus series. The system helps firefighters prepare for certification and all members are required to go through the curriculum once a year as a refresher. For refresher purposes, firefighters able to score 90 percent on a pretest get credit for taking the course without going through it. According to the department, the computer-based training network has become vital to keeping pace with the increasing demands for firefighter training. Relying strictly on instructor-led training was becoming increasingly impractical because of the challenge of bringing together instructors, class space, and scheduling for career and volunteer members.
