DISPATCHES
Chief has authority to impose clothing restrictions
The city of Cincinnati has decided that Fire Chief William A. Miller has the legal right to say what firefighters can and cannot wear on fire department property.
Chief Miller explains that the question arose when members of the Black Firefighters Association began wearing T-shirts sporting the association’s logo. As a joke, white firefighters had shirts printed saying “White Firefighters Association.” What the black firefighters objected to was not that the shirts were worn but that they were being sold at the IAFF booth during the FDIC show in Cincinnati in April—by the union to which they also belonged. So Miller set a policy saying the only logo allowed on fire department property was the department logo.
A Cincinnati city council member wanted to know if the chief had the legal right to ban certain clothing on department property. The city solicitor ruled that the fire division is entitled to “reasonably regulate the conduct of its employees for the purpose of promoting efficiency and integrity in the division” and that the chief can indeed ban certain clothing whether members are on or off duty.
1989 U.S. firefighter deaths down
Firefighter deaths in the United States dropped in 1989 for the first time in three years—to 110, from 131 in 1988. This is the lowest number recorded since the National Fire Protection Association began tracking this data in 1977.
Here are some of the findings:
- Stress continued to be the major cause of firefighter deaths in 1989,
- resulting in 52.7 percent of all fatalities.
- The second leading cause of death was exposure or being struck by or coming in contact with an object (25.5 percent). This includes 19 deaths in motor vehicle collisions, three deaths from exposure to extreme weather, two from electrocution, two from gunshots, one exposed to carbon monoxide, and one struck by a falling tree.
- Twenty-two firefighters died when they were caught or trapped in buildings or underwater.
- More than half (53.6 percent) of the total deaths were due to heart attacks, which has been the most frequently reported fatal injury every year except one. Of the 59 victims, 16 had prior heart problems and six had severe arteriosclerosis heart disease.
- Deaths associated with fire scene activities accounted for half of all deaths. Of these 55 deaths, 20 occurred in residential structures.
- The number of volunteer firefighter deaths decreased to 64 from 87 in 1988. Career firefighter deaths dropped only slightly, from 48 in 1988 to 46.
- Slightly more than a quarter (29) of the deaths occurred w hile responding to or returning from alarms, down 10 from 1988.
- Fifteen firefighters were killed as a result of incendiary or suspicious fires.
The NFPA’s special focus in the 1989 report was on deaths due to rapid fire progress in structures. From 1980 through 1989, 455 firefighters were killed during structure fires. Of these deaths, 44 were the result of rapid fire spread such as flashover, backdraft, and flameover. The NFPA considered three hypotheses: (1) Firefighters did not recognize the signs of flashover or backdraft conditions developing; (2) the suppression approach used made rapid fire development more likely; and (3) firefighters were not adequately protected.
Firefighter’s family sues city
The family of Steven Huitt, killed in April 1988 during a training exercise, is suing the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming for damages in state court.
Huitt, a firefighter for the U.S. Air Force, was participating in a training fire at a Cheyenne Air Force base as part of the suppression team. While the Air Force fully investigated the fire, it has not released the details of Huitt’s death. However, the family also is suing an air pack equipment company in federal court. “The family has alleged a defect in the air equipment,” explains Thomas G. Gorman, an attorney from the firm Hirst and Applegate who is representing the city. “They’ll have to prove it.”
Since Huitt was killed in the line of duty, the family cannot sue the Air Force, so it brought suit against the city of Cheyenne, which also participated in the exercise. “Whether or not the city can be sued is still an issue to be resolved,” Gorman says.
“Our defense is governmental immunity,” Gorman says. “In order for the city to be sued, there has to be legislation authorizing it. Our Government Claims Act provides immunity except in certain instances. We claim this is not one of those instances.”
If the city can’t get governmental immunity, Gorman says the case is still very defensible: “The exercise was controlled by the Air Force. The city was invited to participate. Huitt’s death is unfortunate, but it is part of being a firefighter. The city did nothing wrong.”
Gorman estimates that the trial will last at least 18 months. Since the case is in litigation, Cheyenne Fire Chief Charles Garey could not comment.
Computerized wildfire management
The Alaska Fire Service has developed Alaska Initial Attack Management System (ALAMS), a computerized system that tracks information for initial attack of wildfires.
In one application, lightning detectors send a message to the Bureau of Land Management in Fairbanks when lightning strikes. The computer displays on a map where the strike is seconds after it occurs. “This allows us to send detection planes out to where lightning is likely to occur,” explains Sue Mitchell, fire information officer for the Bureau of Land Management. “And lightning is one of the main causes of fire here.”
The system is also used in conjunction with remote weather stations to predict how likely fire is to start. The system has a fire behavior model that predicts the spread rate based on meteorological information.
It also computerizes protection status. Mitchell explains: “The land owners set guidelines on how to fight fires on their land. Some want us to first watch the fire; others want it put out immediately. On our computer data base we can look up the location of the fire and the protection status. It helps the dispatcher decide what resources to send to the fire.”
Mitchell says the system has saved millions of dollars per year in firefighting costs because the fires are caught in the early stages. The Bureau of Land Management devised the system in the 1980s and other states are adopting versions of it. “We started it and experimented with it and the system will be expanded and used for wildfires all over the country,” Mitchell adds.
Data General, the company that manufactured the computers for the system, recently nominated AIAMS for the annual Computerworld Smithsonian Awards. There are nine award categories and five finalists selected in each category. Out of more than 250 entries, the system was named one of the five finalists but did not win.
Yvorra scholarships available
Yvorra Leadership Development, Inc. will award two S 1,000 scholarships this fall in memory of Jim Yvorra, a volunteer deputy chief with the Prince George’s County (MD) Fire Department who died in the line of duty in January 1988.
The scholarships are designed to provide limited financial support to qualified applicants to pursue leadership development training and education. The deadline for applications is August 30, 1990. For more information on applying, contact Michael Hildebrand, YLD, Inc., 2446 Azalea Hoad, Port Republic, Ml) 20676.
