Pledge to Continue USFA, Academy Is Made to Metro Chiefs by Giuffrida
FEATURES
Metropolitan fire chiefs received assurances that there will continue to be a United States Fire Administration and a National Fire Academy.
These pledges were made by Louis O. Giuffrida, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during the spring conference of the IAFC Metropolitan Committee at Annapolis, Md., May 12-14.
“There will be a fire administration,” Giuffrida declared and added that it will be headed by a level IV administrator appointed by the President, as in the past. The FEMA director also asserted that there will continue to be a National Fire Academy (NFA) and that it will be run by a professional.
At the start of his talk to the metropolitan chiefs, Giuffrida blasted aside rumors of dark days for the fire service during the new FEMA regime by declaring, “My point of view is pro-fire.” We recalled that when he was a boy growing up in Middletown, Conn., fire was always a problem to fear in his neighborhood, so he “can’t help but be awed by people who suit up and go into a building … to save people.”
More than passing interest
The new FEMA director commented, “I have more than a passing interest and involvement in the fire service. I also have an interest in training and planning.”
Giuffrida, who previously headed the California Specialized Training Institute that includes both fire and police training, said the “responsibility to bring a community back to some semblance of safety and orderliness in on fireman and policemen.” All others are support services.
Giuffrida said his administration would “increase dramatically the outreach programs that come out of Emmitsburg” as that represents the best use of NFA funds. He also disclosed that Fred J. Villella, who was on Giuffrida’s staff in California, would be FEMA associate director for training and education. He will be stationed at the Emmitsburg campus of the NFA. The Emmitsburg campus will become the National Emergency Management Training Center, but the NFA will retain its present identity, Giuffrida explained.
Plans real critique
“We’re going to run the place on a business basis,” Giuffrida promised and stressed a need “to look at what we’re doing now.” He added that “we’re going to do a real critique right away” and students would be asked to critique the academy.
The FEMA head told the chiefs that he would talk with the chiefs about any substantive changes he planned and would give them enough time to write a position paper with options.
“We’ve got to do better with the bucks we’ve got.” he declared.
He stated that he is “sensitive to the need for fire data” and “will emphasize training.” He also commented, “If I start out on something and we find out we’re feeding straw to a dead mule, we’ll drop it.”
Giuffrida started his talk to the metropolitan chiefs with an apology for what he termed “unacceptable comments” made to the chiefs the previous day by Joseph Moreland, who was then acting administrator of the USFA. Harry Shaw, who was USFA director of home and public building safety, later was named acting USFA administrator.
Moreland told the chiefs it was his personal opinion that the fire service had been “counterproductive” in achieving common goals because it doesn’t “speak with a common voice.” He added that the Joint Council of National Fire Service Organizations “has done a rather terrible job in presenting that image (of unanimity) in many instances where it most counted.”
He noted that the Joint Council is hampered by not being able to act without unanimous support of its members and commented, “I don’t know whether that’s good or whether it’s bad.”
Takes issue with remarks
Moreland saw a “critical opportunity for the fire service to get its act together” and voiced the feeling that some fire service organizations don’t represent their membership.
Chief Jack Lee of Charlotte, N.C., president of the IAFC, took issue with Moreland’s remarks. In reply, Moreland said he had been referring to efforts to establish budget priorities in the past and he stated that there had been good cooperation between the USFA and the present individual leadership of the national fire service organizations. He emphasized that the IAFC and the metropolitan chiefs were in no way the subject of his comments.
At a later session, Lee said he saw the IAFC as “a cooperating association with the other associations” and a supporter of fire protection programs of all agencies. He commented that it was difficult to accept Moreland’s call for unanimity and “having an act together is a matter of perspective.”
Better turnout gear
In a report on project FIRES, Andy Sears of the USFA voiced optimism in developing more satisfactory turnout gear that has now reached the fieldtesting phase. He said that the project has come close to meeting its goals for weight reduction and price and that increased protection has been provided. The turnout ensemble of high-bib pants, short jacket and lightweight polyurethane boots with an integrated connection to the pants has passed a variety of heat and cold tests. The outer shells of the coat and pants are made of 50-50 combination of Nomex and Kevlar or polybienzimadiazole (PBI). The garments have a Cortex vapor barrier and a Nomex quilt thermal barrier. The helmet shell is made of two layers of fiberglass with a retracting face shield of optical quality polycarbonate that, Sears stated, will stand up to heat. He added that he hopes to have a tempered glass shield available soon.
The ensemble has been subjected to simulated flashover tests, including one in which the garments were exposed to 1500°F for 10 seconds, and they would have protected a wearer from irreversible injury. Sears reported plans to have 14 fire departments in municipalities throughout the country field test the ensemble. Among the departments are two volunteer departments—one small and one large.
Sears also disclosed that the Bureau of Mines is working with the USFA to develop a lightweight rebreat her type of breathing apparatus and commented, “I think we’re going to get somewhere with breathing apparatus.”
Project FIRES also plans to test a one-way communication device and a lightweight rechargeable hand light, Sears added.
Women in fire service
Efforts of the United States Fire Administration to aid the integration of women in the fire service were described by Laura Buchbinder of the USFA. She said the USFA has a recruitment package available as well as a training program to help women pass a physical agility test. In addition, the USFA can provide technical support service to assist in the recruitment of women. A manual on hiring women is due to be issued by the USFA this fall.
Buchbinder reported that a survey made by the International Association of Fire Fighters for the USFA has identified 255 paid women fire fighters in the nation. She commented that all-male fire departments gave far greater importance to physical performance than did departments that employ women fire fighters.
As for physical performance, Paul O. Davis, president of the Institute of Human Performance in Fairfax, Va., cautioned that testing does not warrant making “too many projections on how an individual will perform beyond two to three—maybe five years.” He also commented that “regression on the part of women is going to be significantly more than for men.”
Davis stated that body fat probably has greater impact on an individual’s performance than any other single factor and he estimated that it takes at least 144-145 pounds of lean body mass to be a fire fighter. He declared that body fat can be controlled by an individual.
Stressing the need for a physical fitness program, Davis pointed out that fitness is covered in the employment contract for fire fighters in Alexandria, Va., and he asked, “Is this legal? We don’t know. If you have administrators who are willing to go to court, we will find out.”
Describing the suspended maneuvering system (SMS) as a “very, very complex system” Chief John C. Gerard of the Los Angeles City Fire Department cited high operational costs associated with operating the fire fighting and rescue platform that is suspended from a helicopter. In addition to the SMS cost, Gerard explained, a heavy-lift copter is required with a price tag of $5 million to $12 million if a fire department desires instant operational availability. Also two pilots are needed on each shift.
“It does what they say it can do,” Gerard said and added that the SMS can be used to get to some places that normally cannot be reached.
The Los Angeles City Fire Department borrowed an Army Chinook helicopter to test the SMS and found that it cost close to $700 an hour to operate the system.
Although contract use of a privatelyowned helicopter has been suggested as way for fire departments to limit costs, Gerard commented, “I believe the real key (to SMS usefulness) is helicopter availability.” He added, “We calculate we could have had uses for it five or six times in the last 20 years.”
Home sprinkler system
Noting a two-year reduction in fire fatalities from 8500 in 1977 to 7800 in 1979, Harry Shaw, declared that “detectors have contributed to the reduction in fire losses” and they have prevented injuries and deaths in 27 percent of the incidents. The director of the USFA home fire protection program, who most recently became acting administrator of the USFA, described the administration’s interest in attaining increased sensitivity for smoke detectors and developing an automatic home sprinkler system. The two objectives in the home fire safety program, he states, are to provide early warning and get enough water on the fire.
Shaw pointed out that 75 percent of the fire deaths occur in residences and he regarded the new quick reaction heads for home sprinkler systems, as a major step forward. The new heads react in one-fifth the time of ordinary industrial sprinkler heads and apply about 18 gpm to the fire. Shaw also said that an on-and-off head that will shut off when the flames are extinguished is being tested and he declared, “I’m confident that a modest investment in a home sprinkler program will be a good investment for the dollars spent.”
The USFA also wants to cut the cost of home sprinkler systems by using plastic pipe.
Maryland EMS
The total EMS system in Maryland was described by Dr. R. Adams Cowley, director of the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services System, who explained that the system was based on the concept that every injured person has the right to the best medical care regardless of geographical location or the extent of the injury. To get severely injured persons to the appropriate medical facility, Maryland now has five helicopters.
Cowley explained that 85 percent of the injured can be treated at the nearest hospital while 10 percent need further care and 5 percent require special total care. For these last 5 percent, he pointed out, death would have been an acceptable fact a few years ago. He referred to the first 60 minutes after an injury as the “golden hour” when EMTs, fire fighters and policemen in the field “convert this victim into a patient.” If necessary, the patient might be sent to one of several hospital trauma centers with dedicated systems of care for one or more such problems as burns, eye or hand injuries, central nervous system damage or pediatric trauma. Making a total care system work, Cowley declared, requires “fantastic educational programs.”
The USFA involvement in EMS involves “a lot more hard work and many more challenges,” said Joanne McGlown, EMS staff director at the fire administration. She reported that the USFA has recently published an EMS management guide to aid the more than 15,000 fire departments providing EMS, and added that Oak Ridge University is completing a radiological response guide. The USFA also is developing an EMS resource exchange center and is studying the causes and extent of paramedic burnout. Mention of burnout brought some questions from the audience as to whether such a condition really exists.
Code enforcement
In a panel discussion of both the MGM Grand Hotel fire and code enforcement, Anthony O’Neill, NFPA vice president of operation, pointed out that there has been a rise in the percentage of incendiary fires in hotels. He noted that of 12 recent fires that claimed five or more lives, 50 percent were incendiary.
“If there ever was a time for strict code enforcement in hotels and motels, the time is now,” he declared.
O’Neill observed that in the hotel and motel fires that have killed 138 persons in recent months, the causes have been the same as those present in the Hotel Roosevelt fire in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1963—smoke spread from the ground floor, unsprinklered areas and openings. The speaker stressed the need for continuity of code enforcement and maintained that if the appropriate NFPA standards were fully applied, fire safety would be attained. O’Neill predicted that not much progress will be made in fire safety until building owners and operators are held liable in civil litigation.
Randall Scott of the American Bar Association reported that in the brief time it was allowed, the Nevada governor’s commission on the MGM fire came up with 13 legislative recommendations that included such long recognized life safety measures as automatic sprinkler systems, smoke detectors and control of elevators. Scott said that if Nevada adopts the proposed legislative proposals, the law will be retroactive and he ventured the opinion that if a retroactive law is properly written, it probably will stand up in court.
Scott stated that no one knows the fire chiefs liability for the quality of fire safety code enforcement and that “on the average, fire departments are probably doing a pretty miserable job of code enforcement” because of a lack of money, political support and courage.
Sees economic moves
In discussing the effect of the future on fire chiefs, Robert W. Grant, president of the National Fire Protection Association, saw some form of consolidation and regionalization as the answer to the economic pressures on the fire service. He also predicted a trend to increased built-in fire protection as a means of shifting the cost of public fire service to the private sector.
Grant said that low cost residential sprinkler systems are now regarded as a reality and that insurance industry is already issuing credits for sprinklers in homes. He pointed out that 83 percent of the fire deaths occur in fires that have been burning for more than 10 minutes before discovery and that residential sprinklers are now designed to operate within 10 minutes of the start of a fire.
Vickery tells plans
Gordon Vickery, former administrator of the United States Fire Administration, told the metro chiefs that he would become the director of the newly organized Foundation for Fire Safety, a privately funded corporation in Washington, D.C. He pointed out that most projects are affected negatively by the current fiscal situation in the federal government and it is felt that private funding can help research, training and education efforts to reduce the effect of fire.
Vickery said that the foundation hoped to work with the USFA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to enhance the funding of their projects.
