U.S. DOT to states: Consider extra weight on bridges during construction, repair
In the aftermath of the collapse of the 40-year-old Minneapolis (MN) I-35W bridge on August 1, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters has asked states to carefully consider the additional weight that might be placed on bridges during construction or repair projects.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has indicated that the gusset plates on the bridge may have been a factor in the collapse and that the weight of construction equipment and materials on the bridge may have been a source of stress, Peters said in a news release. She said she would immediately share with states information obtained through the NTSB investigation.
The bridge, constructed in 1967, was built with a single 458-foot-long steel arch. Peters has also asked that all states immediately inspect any steel-deck truss bridges similar to the Minneapolis bridge.
FEMA advises House committee of reforms in hurricane response
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator David Paulison recently testified before the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee concerning the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act. The Act, he said, has made FEMA “stronger and more nimble than it was a year ago.”
Paulison cited the following actions the agency has taken to expedite its response to disasters:
- adding new and experienced leaders to the staff,
- having in place “prearranged contracts” for supplies and other elements,
- establishing “engaged partnerships” with state and local governments,
- facilitating an effective unified command across all levels of government,
- interacting with hurricane-prone states to get a better understanding of their vulnerabilities,
- improving logistics and communications capabilities, and
- enhancing disaster-assistance capabilities for recovery efforts. www.continuitycentral.com/news03392.htm, Aug. 3, 2007
USFA releases 2006 firefighter line-of-duty death report analysis
Following is an overview of the details relevant to the 106 firefighter line-of-duty deaths that occurred in 2006, based on the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) “Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 2006” report.
- Seventy-seven volunteer and 29 career firefighters died while on duty.
- Twenty-two firefighters were killed while engaged in activities related to brush, grass, or wildland firefighting.
- Sixty-one firefighter deaths were related to emergency incidents.
- Thirty-six firefighters died while engaging in activities at the scene of a fire.
- Fifteen firefighters died while responding to or returning from emergency incidents.
- Nine deaths occurred while the firefighters were engaged in training activities.
- Twenty firefighters died after the conclusion of their on-duty activity.
- Heart attacks claimed the lives of 50 firefighters.
- Vehicle crashes killed 19 firefighters.
The entire report is at www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publication/ff_fat06.pdf/.
ICC: No wildfire protection plan for most at-risk communities
“More than 90 percent of the 44,000 U.S. communities at risk for wildfires do not have a community wildfire protection plan,” according to a Blue Ribbon Panel organized by the International Code Council (ICC) and other public safety organizations, federal agencies, forestry programs, local government associations, insurance companies, and conservation groups.
The National Association of State Foresters reports that only 3,300 communities out of the 44,000 communities in 46 states at risk have a community wildfire protection plan ready for implementation. The organization also noted that an additional 450 communities are in the process of preparing a plan.
Referring to the number of wildfires burning in Montana, California, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming at press time, the ICC said community leaders should develop protection plans. Information on how to prepare a wildfire protection plan is at www.iccsafe.org/wildfireplan.
New York extends workers’ compensation eligibility deadline
Responders to the World Trade Center have until August 14, 2008, to file form WTC-12 for workers’ compensation benefits. State law S4067/A 4940, which took effect July 3, 2007, extended the deadline from August 14, 2007. WTC workers or volunteers can register with the Workers’ Compensation Board and reserve the right to claim benefits if they become ill at a later date. http://www.insurancejounal.com/news/east/2007/08/15/82672.htm?print=1
FCC announces rule for wireless spectrum, addresses public safety needs
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced at the end of July the conditions (open-access rules) for the auctioning of 22MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band by early next year. The sale is expected to bring in $10 billion.
The successful bidder, the FCC says, must allow any wireless devices to connect to the network-in other words, wireless telephone customers could bring handset devices from other carriers. The agency also would prohibit the owner of the portion of spectrum from blocking or slowing wireless and Web content from competitors.
The FCC also combined 10 MHz of commercial spectrum with 12 MHz of spectrum in a public-private partnership to create a nationwide network for police and fire departments. These actions were largely based on a plan proposed by Frontline Wireless LLC, comprised of wireless industry veterans and former FCC officials.
Presently, U.S. television channels 52 to 69 are operating on the 700MHz spectrum. In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed legislation requiring that the stations move to digital broadcasts and vacate the 700 MHz spectrum by February 2009.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International has endorsed the FCC’s “public-private partnership model.” Some industry advocacy and business groups would have preferred that the FCC would have also required that the auction winners provide wholesale access to competitors. Some carriers and some conservative economists and think tanks argued against imposing the auction conditions. www.washintonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/31/AR2007073101221_pf.html, August 1, 2007
Study: Sounding alarms more likely to awaken hard of hearing
“The most effective alarm to wake a sleeping person with mild to moderately severe hearing loss is one that sounds,” according to Waking Effectiveness of Alarm for Adults Who Are Hard of Hearing, released by the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF), an affiliate of the National Fire Protection Association, in July.
Evaluated were several auditory signals and a range of alternative alarms that use methods other than sound, such as bed shakers, pillow shakers, and strobe lights used to alert hard-of-hearing, sleeping individuals of an emergency. (The waking effectiveness of deaf individuals was not tested.)
Following are some of the key findings of the study:
- Standard audible emergency evacuation signals (a repeating pattern of three tones and a pause) with a lower pitch tone (520 Hz square wave) awakened 92 percent of the hard-of-hearing participants when used at or below the code-minimum sound level of 75 decibels (dBA) for 30 seconds. The lower pitch tone was found to be significantly more effective than the higher pitch tone (usually 3,150 Hz) often used in smoke alarms and other alerting appliances.
- The same device awakened 100 percent of the participants when raised to 95 dBA (the sound level typically produced by smoke alarms).
- Participants who awoke to signals were most likely to do so within the first 10 seconds of the signal’s sounding.
According to Kathleen Almand, FPRF executive director, “This is the latest in a number of studies focused on high-risk groups that found low-pitch alarms to be most effective for waking-an area that merits further examination.”
Health Coalition issues recommendations for improved disaster response
Aconsensus report issued by a coalition headed by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA) lists 53 strategic recommendations for legislators, government officials, and organizational leaders for more effective preparation for and response to catastrophic emergencies.
The objective of the recommendations, developed at the AMA/APHA Linkages Leadership Summit, which met in 2005 in Chicago and in 2006 in New Orleans, is to promote “a coordinated national agenda for strengthening health system preparedness for terrorism and other disasters,” according to the Coalition. “Critical” recommendations include the following: (1) appropriately funding for adequate response to day-to-day emergencies and catastrophic mass-casualty events; (2) fully integrating and ensuring interoperability of public health and disaster response systems at all government levels; (3) maintaining an appropriate level of education and training among health care and public health professionals; and (4) providing and ensuring adequate legal protections for health care and public health responders in a disaster. The 54-page report may be downloaded at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/6206.html; click on “Full Report.”
IAFC announces Fire Institute
The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) has announced the formation of The International Fire Service Research Center and Policy Institute (The Institute). According to an IAFC press release, “The Institute was created to fill an international need for quality, unbiased research as a component of effective public policy.”
An international board of directors, which will also fund the organization, will manage The Institute. At its first meeting in May, the following officers were elected: president-Ernie Mitchell, director, National Firefighter Technology Resource Center, former IAFC president and former chief of the Pasadena (CA) Fire Department; secretary-Bruce Moeller, chief, Sunrise (FL) Fire-Rescue; and treasurer-Bill Metcalf, chief, North County Fire Protection District (NCFPD), Fallbrook, California.
Members of the board of directors include Roger Bradley, chief, Hanover (NH) Fire Department; Garry Briese, vice president, Emergency Management & Homeland Security, ICF International, and former IAFC executive director; Rich Carrizzo, chief, Southern Platte (MO) Fire Protection District; Dennis Davis, independent fire service consultant, formerly chief inspector of fire services for Scotland; Amy Donahue, head of the Department of Public Policy, University of Connecticut; Bill Killen, a former chief and past president of the IAFC; Tom Looney, industry director for Justice and Public Safety, Microsoft Corporation; Bill Metcalf; Jim Milke, associate professor and associate chair, Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland; Ernie Mitchell; Bruce Moeller; Tim Riley, former chief, Newport Beach (CA) Fire Department; Julian Taliaferro, city council member and former chief, Charlottesville, Virginia; and Tom Von Essen, former New York City fire commissioner and senior vice president of Giuliani Partners.
Bill Pessemier, former Littleton (CO) chief, will serve as chief executive officer for The Institute and will manage day-to-day operations. The Institute’s offices will be at 4025 Fair Ridge Drive, Fairfax, VA 22033; telephone: (703) 463-6094.
Fires during surgery more common
The American Society of Anesthesiologists soon will issue its first guidelines for preventing fires in operating rooms. Although there is no requirement to report these fires, the Society has noted an increase over the past two decades, when the use of lasers and electric-run tools have become more prevalent. A major cause of these fires is the buildup of oxygen under surgical drapes when electric surgical tools are used to cut or remove tissue or control bleeding, according to the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health research agency. ECRI says one to two people are killed annually in these fires, and 20 percent of patients suffer serious, disfiguring injuries. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/l9980347, July 27, 2007
AMA launches disaster medicine journal
The American Medical Association (AMA) introduced at the end of June the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness. Its goal, according to the AMA, is “to integrate many different medical as well as nonmedical disciplines.”
The new journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins and is not part of the editorially independent JAMA-Archives journal family. The AMA will have editorial control and owns the publication, according to Robert Musacchio, Ph.D., AMA senior vice president of publishing and business services. The journal is scheduled to be published twice in 2007 and quarterly beginning in 2008 and will be available online. It will be financed primarily through subscriptions and advertising.
CDC: Dengue fever found in south Texas
In its August 9 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that there was a potential for future outbreaks of dengue fever along the Texas-Tamaulipas, Mexico, border. It warned that mosquito vectors’ presence and ongoing circulation of dengue in Mexico warrant concern for outbreaks along this region.
The announcement followed tests of the blood of hundreds of residents living on the U.S. and Mexico border after a Mexican-born woman, who had lived in the border town of Brownsville, Texas, for 16 years, developed hemorrhagic fever/dengue shock in 2005 and was treated in Mexico and Texas.
CDC and Mexican health officials found 1,200 Mexican cases of dengue-like fever (18 percent of the dangerous dengue hemorrhagic fever). Twenty-four cases of laboratory-confirmed dengue fever were identified in Cameron County, Texas, where Brownsville is located. Additionally, there were two more cases of locally transmitted dengue and 22 cases associated with travel to Mexico. The CDC says early diagnosis of dengue hemorrhagic fever and careful fluid management can decrease the fatality rate in cases with shock to less than 1 percent.
The symptoms of dengue include fever, muscle ache, and bleeding from the eyes or skin. It can be identified through certain blood tests.
The CDC noted also that dengue hemorrhagic fever outbreaks have “become increasingly common” in Latin America and the Caribbean within the past two decades.
Fire sprinkler union pledges to work with fire service to upgrade codes
As a result of the Sofa Super Store warehouse fire in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 18, in which nine firefighters were killed when the building collapsed, the United Association (UA) Fire Sprinkler Fitters Union has committed to work closely with the fire service and building department groups to upgrade codes, making the buildings safer for occupants and firefighters.
The Sofa Super Store warehouse was not protected by fire sprinklers, because the structure was built before codes required fire sprinkler systems, according to the UA Fire Sprinkler Fitters Union. “We need to remove the deadliest fire code of them all, the ‘grandfather clause,’ ’’ says John Zubricks, business manager of UA Local 281 in Chicago, Illinois. “We support the fire service and building officials who want to upgrade their codes. They need our help to educate elected officials and legislators so they understand why there is a need to do away with dangerous ‘grandfather clauses’ that permit the lack of fire safety measures or allow for substandard measures to exist,” he explained.
Additional information is at http://www.ua.org/.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
July 24. Firefighter Jon Trainer, 38, Mechanicsburg (OH) Fire Department: head injury sustained from a fall while laying hose on the fire apparatus in the station.
July 25. Firefighter Cornelius “Storm” Nolton, 37, Newark (NJ) Fire Department: cause to be determined; he complained of back pain after setting up two ladders at a working residential structure fire.
July 27. Firefighter James “Shib” Miller, 43, Sesser (IL) Fire Protection District: struck by a bus while replacing hose on the apparatus after extinguishing a fire in a semi-trailer truck on an interstate highway.
July 27. Firefighter/Fire Equipment Operator Nemeth F. Sanders, 43, North Carolina Division of Forest Resources, Raleigh: injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident while returning home from pumper training.
August 3. Captain Kevin Williams, 42, Noonday Volunteer Fire Department, Tyler, TX: overcome by fire conditions during search and rescue operations.
August 3. Firefighter Austin Cheek, 19, Noonday Volunteer Fire Department, Tyler, TX: overcome by fire conditions during search and rescue operations.
August 8. Deputy Chief Jerry Donley, 41, Swetsonville (NC) Volunteer Fire Department: cause to be determined.
August 10. Lieutenant Paul D. Baker, 39, Turtle Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Benton, AR: injuries from a fall from an Interstate bridge over the Saline River while working to extricate a victim from a single-vehicle motor accident.
August 11. Firefighter Todd W. Hage, 43, Wesley Chapel Volunteer Fire Department, Waxhaw, NC: lost control of pumper while responding to a false alarm at an elementary school; incident under investigation.
August 13. Captain Anthony P. Cox, 44, Topeka (KS) Fire Department: suspected heart attack; cause to be determined.
August 15. Chief Mike Heuer, 55, Sierra City (CA) Fire Department: apparent heart attack.
August 17. Probationary Firefighter Glenn Williams Miller, 34, Whispering Pines (NC) Volunteer Fire Department: apparent heart attack while participating in firefighter level 1 training.
August 18. Firefighter Robert Beddia, 53, Fire Department of New York: trapped on the 14th floor during a fire in a high-rise undergoing demolition.
August 18. Firefighter Joseph Graffagnino, 33, Fire Department of New York: trapped on the 14th floor during a fire in a high-rise undergoing demolition.
August 19. Firefighter Jeffrey Swartz, 36, Wagener (SC) Fire Department: carbon monoxide inhalation and thermal injuries resulting from an accident involving his private vehicle while responding to a cardiac distress call.
Source: USFA Firefighters Memorial Database
World Trade Center Responders Fatality Investigation Program
The New York State Department of Health is collecting information on all deaths to responders or volunteers who worked at the World Trade Center (WTC) site, pile, and surrounding areas, including barges and landfills, between September 11, 2001, and June 30, 2002. Information on all deaths that occurred after September 12, 2001, is needed. Categories of responders include firefighters, police, EMS, contractors, demolition and reconstruction workers, volunteers, media, and members of the Legislature.
Send information by e-mail (WTCFatalityhealth@health.state.ny.us); by phone [(1-866) 807-2130 New York state or (1-518) 402-7900 (outside New York state)]. It can also be mailed to WTC Responder Fatality Investigations Program; NYS Department of Health; Flanigan Square, Rm. 230; 547 River St.; Troy, NY 12180.
Source: http://www.disasternews.net/blog/index.phy?/archives/195-World-Trade-Center-Responders-Fatality-Inv…, August 17, 2007
News Glimpses
Cade sworn in as USFA administrator. Chief Gregory Brian Cade was sworn in by Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff as the administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration in July. Cade began his 40-year fire service career as a volunteer with the Glenn Dale Volunteer Fire Department in Prince George’s County, Maryland. He then served as a career firefighter for 20 years in Prince George’s County; as chief of Hampton, Virginia; and as chief and emergency management coordinator in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
PTSD can include physical problems. Researchers have established a statistically significant relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and physical problems. Dr. Anja J.E. Dirkzwager, of the Netherlands Institute for Health Services, and her team studied 896 men and women who survived an explosion at a fireworks depot in 2000 in which 23 people were killed and some 1,000 injured. The team found that the subjects who developed PTSD symptoms were more than twice as likely to have vascular problems years later. The problems included atherosclerosis, varicose veins, swelling, headaches, and indigestion. Physicians should monitor disaster survivors for physical health problems, the study concludes. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19957256. July 26, 2007
Senate passes Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act. Colleges and universities would have to make public statistics covering every student housing facility fire within the past two years-the number of deaths, injuries, and structural damage resulting from the fires-as a result of the Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act of 2007, passed in July by the U.S. Senate. They would also have to make public information on the training given to students, faculty, and staff and their future plans for improving fire safety. The National Volunteer Fire Council is urging that members and supporters of the emergency services contact their U.S. representatives and ask them to cosponsor H.R. 592, the House version of this Act.
Should FEMA be relieved of its responsibility for long-term recovery efforts? At press time, there was discussion in Washington about relieving the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of duties associated with long-term recovery efforts following disasters. Senator Mary Landrieu (LA), chair of the Senate Homeland Security Disaster Recovery Subcommittee, has proposed that other federal agencies experienced in specific areas such as housing, road repair, hazardous materials, and economics be delegated those responsibilities. Landrieu said FEMA would still be in charge of the initial response. Once the area has been stabilized, the rebuilding functions should be turned over to the respective agencies. She has been conducting hearings relative to the recovery efforts after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Depending on the information obtained in these hearings, Landrieu said she may author legislation that would require FEMA, within a few months after a disaster, to turn over the long-term recovery operations to other federal departments and that the functions would be coordinated by a new “multiagency long-term rebuilding authority.” Charles Savage, Globe Staff, www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/08/09/lawmakers_weight_cutting_fema_dut…, August 17, 2007
