Operation Get Out Alive
Although numerous articles have appeared about the dangers of residential window burglar/security bars for residents and firefighters during emergency operations, few workable solutions have been offered.
FE Volume 153 Issue 2
The Latest
Apparatus Chassis Selection Criteria
In an open letter to the fire service that appears as an advertisement in several industry trade publications, Freightliner Corporation (parent company of America LaFrance) President and CEO Jim Hebe states, "The cab and chassis are the foundation on which everything else depends ... the chassis gets the hardest workout and is subject to the most wear and tear ... the cab and chassis have been willfully ignored as the key components of a fire truck."
New Generation Carbon Filament-Wound Composite Cylinders for SCBA
Filament-wound composite cylinders have been authorized and used for commercial high-pressure gas storage applications since 1976, when glass filament-reinforced and Kevlar® filament-reinforced aluminum design and construction was first authorized for production by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Preplanning Building Hazards
Editor's note: For further reference, consult Building Construction for the Fire Service (BCFS3), Third Edition. Page numbers, where applicable, are included after the caption.
More FE Volume 153 Issue 2
Applying the Perception Test
Sometimes what you think the troops think is nowhere close to what they really think.
Company/Association News
The company has also expanded it Sanford, Florida, Medical Products division distribution warehouse by 25 percent, to 12,000 square feet, and will be ready to process on-line orders by mid-2000. MedicMaster and RescueMaster ambulances are also manufactured at Sanford. The division provides sales, distribution, and service functions for emergency medical supplies and equipment for the fire, emergency service, and other industries.
Even More on Apparatus Positioning
At larger dwelling structures-multiple-story dwellings that are of combustible construction, the first-arriving ladder generally should take position perpendicular to the main and observable objective-the fire floor or the visible life hazard. The ladder unit should be prepared here for many things-entry to the fire floor, if tenable; removal of and additional search for victims indicated on arrival by continuous size-up; entry to the floors above the fire floor for search and ventilation; roof
Off-Campus Courses
Probably a week doesn't pass that someone doesn't ask me why the United States Fire Administration's National Fire Academy (USFA/NFA) doesn't have courses available for local delivery. For some time, there has been a perception that the USFA/NFA Emmitsburg campus is the only place students can attend USFA/NFA training; but we've been conducting courses at local sites for years!
Roundtable
Various standards and regulations directed at fire department operations over past years have required us to significantly change some of our operating procedures.
Letters to the Editor
I would like to make a thematic connection between Bill Manning's excellent article "A Right Way and a Wrong Way" (Editor's Opinion, December 1999) and the December 1999 articles "Hurricane Tests Emergency Communications" and "Dispatchers: Some Things Haven't Changed (And They Should!)."
Fire Service Court
Firefighting, rescue, and fire investigation are extremely dangerous, critical operations. Firefighters are faced with risks every time they respond to an incident. However, should a firefighter or surviving family members be forced to accept workers' compensation or death benefits if a dangerous product causes death or injury?
A Cohort Mortality Study of Philadelphia Firefighters
Firefighters are exposed under uncontrolled conditions to a wide variety of toxic chemicals including known and suspected carcinogens, such as benzene and formaldehyde in wood smoke, polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soots and tars, arsenic in wood preservatives, asbestos in building insulation, diesel engine exhaust, and dioxins.1-5