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JAMES F. CASEY Editor RICHARD PRATT SYLVIA Associate Editor DOROTHY P. FERGUSON Managing Editor ELIZABETH CRIDLAND Assistant Editor
FE Volume 133 Issue 9
The Latest
Marketing Strategies Get Results in Safety Education
Fire Fighters have done commendable work over the years nurturing their fire prevention foster child. But today, there is much more to public fire safety education than taking a reserve engine to an elementary school and squirting water to the squeals of third-graders.
USFA Conference
The USFA will hold its sixth annual conference, entitled “Fire Safety Where you Live,” Jan. 19-21 in San Francisco. The conference sessions will be structured around four strategies for attacking the residential fire problem—technological, managerial, behavioral and environmental.
Planning Mass Evacuation Before Disaster Occurs
A great deal has been written in the past few years about the strategy and tactics necessary for handling a hazardous materials incident. Yet, one aspect of the overall requirement has, unfortunately, been neglected. This area involves the evacuation of citizens as a result of a hazardous materials incident.
More FE Volume 133 Issue 9
Lighter Side Of Hoax
A U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration warning about a disposable butane lighter blew up when a belated search for facts about a fatality and a serious burn injury was found only a hoax. In a recantation last Jan. 11, OSHA conceded that its memorandum on the incidents to OSHA regional administrators last May was based on hearsay.
Why Smoke Detectors Don’t Fulfill Great Expectations for Saving Lives
“A Detector in Every Home Will Save Lives.” “Detection program Dramatically Reduces Fire Damage.” “So go the headlines. And yet, speaking at the 1979 Fire and Life Safety Conference, Gordon Vickery of the United States Fire Administration had this sobering thought: “We put 50 million smoke detectors in buildings in America in a two-year period, and our fire loss and death loss rate goes up.
The Book Shelf
PHYSICAL FITNESS AND PUBLIC SAFETY, D.T. Jacobs; National Fire Protection Association, 470 Atlantic Ave., Boston, Mass. 02210; 120 pages, $7. Muscular strength, diet and coordination are some of the topics discussed in this book, which deals primarily with the importance of being physically fit.
Company News
The Midwestern Safety Manufacturing Company has named Carolyn Ehring as general manager. She has been involved in garment design and business management since the early 1970’s, having owned and operated retail and wholesale businesses in California, and having designed many of the garments marketed by those businesses.
Forest Fire Alert Drive
Eight fire agencies in Yavapai County, Ariz., have developed a public awareness program, Red Flag Alert, which is designed primarily to reduce forest fires through community involvement. The alert takes place when winds of 25 mph or more are coupled with extreme fire danger.
Wood Hotel, Restaurant Swept by $1 Million Fire
A million-dollar fire raged through a restaurant and an adjacent three-story hotel in Avalon, Calif., on Santa Catalina Island. The buildings were over 60 years old and mostly of wood-frame construction. Avalon is a small tourist community on Santa Catalina Island, some 26 miles west of Long Beach, Calif.
Innovative Approach in Twin Cities Seeks Improved Code Enforcement
Adoption of the Minnesota uniform fire code is being coupled with innovative approaches to code enforcement by both the St. Paul and Minneapolis Fire Departments. The state code is based on the Western Fire Chiefs Association code. St. Paul adopted the code with some changes last September.
Volunteers Are Capable of Adding Prevention to Suppression Efforts
The purpose of this article is to encourage volunteer fire departments to engage in comprehensive fire prevention programs. Almost all volunteer departments still devote most of their efforts to activities classed as “fire suppression.”