Friday, November 20, 2009
Disaster Management
Q&A with USFA's Gaines About National Preparedness Month
By Mary Rose Roberts
September is National Preparedness Month. Glenn Gaines, the U.S. Fire Administration's deputy assistant director, and Chuck Burkell, training specialist for the USFA's executive development program, share core lessons learned about recent disasters to hit U.S. soil....
Electric Grid, Emergency Communications Vulnerable to Electromagnetic Weapons
By Mary Rose Roberts
Gale Nordling, president and CEO of Emprimus, recently testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, Science and Technology about how electromagnetic devices can be used against public infrastructure, specifically the electric grid....
Help is a Call Away
By Frank Reiner
A nationwide program offers assistance for chlorine-accident response....
Are We There Yet?
By Donny Jackson
Public-safety communications infrastructure has improved greatly since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. But questions persist as to whether the policies and plans currently in place are adequate for another event of that magnitude....
MABAS Welcomes Oregon Chiefs
By Mary Rose Roberts
The Mutual Aid Box Alarm System's board members hosted fire chiefs from Oregon to educate the West Coast chiefs about how MABAS developed...
Rail Pass
By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)
D.C. Chief Dennis Rubin discusses incident command, multiagency response and media management at a recent train crash....
Nailing Jell-O to the Wall
By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)
The past 10 years have proved to be more challenging than the previous 50 years combined. However, the next year could prove to be more challenging than the past 10....
WHO Declares Swine Flu Pandemic
The World Health Organization this morning raised the H1N1 virus pandemic alert level to Phase 6, its highest level, making the swine flu the first declared global flu epidemic in 41 years....
Unintended Consequences
By John Linstrom
Rescuers painfully find that they too are victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks....
A New Way to Think About the Unthinkable
By Robert R. Rielage
Surprisingly, most mass-casualty incidents are in less densely populated areas served by combination or smaller career departments....
The Time for Tactical Medics has Arrived
By Bruce Evans
If tactical medics are going to be armed, a fire department should consider sending personnel through a law-enforcement academy for liability purposes....
Voice of Experience
By Janet Wilmoth
As he moves into retirement, former FEMA head David Paulison shares some advice for his successor and his ideas on transparency....
Fire Departments Ready for Swine Flu Outbreaks
By Janet Wilmoth
With nearly 100 cases of swine flu in the United States confirmed through Thursday morning, fire departments are preparing for possible outbreaks in their areas....
Call to Arms
By Carrie Cleaveland
State urban search-and-rescue teams can respond to local disasters more quickly than federal teams, and sometimes are a region's best line of defense....
Hazards of Waste
By Joseph D. Rush III
Every community has one, making it critical to conduct a full risk assessment of wastewater-treatment facilities before things hit the fan. ...
Free Speech Liability Targets Middle Manager
[ David Comstock Jr. ]
A fire chief should selectively choose whom they appoint to conduct a disciplinary investigation.… If an employee has any prior experience with the investigator, the employee will use that if adverse action is taken. ...
Push Back
Janet Wilmoth janet@firechief.com
Delivering aid to five million people without power is a daunting task for any agency, made more so by also having to provide for rescue workers. Whose responsibility was it?...
Security Expert: Time to Step up Anti-Terrorism Efforts
Anti-terrorism and homeland security expert, William Loiry, says now is not the time to diminish the terrorism threat levels in the United States and overseas....
Progress Report
By Rick Markley
Fire service experts examine what has changed; and what still needs to change; seven years after Sept. 11. ...
IAFF Calls for Catastrophe Protection
The International Association of Fire Fighters joined ProtectingAmerica.org to call for state and federal laws to provide comprehensive catastrophe protection....
USFA Reports on Extreme Weather
The United States Fire Administration has released a new technical report that examines the impact of extreme weather and natural disasters on the fire service and the types of service calls most likely to arise as a result of these disasters....
Helmet Headaches
By Bill Adams
A proposed change to NFPA 1901 creates potential storage issues that could hinder deployment flow and increase associated costs. ...
Foam in a Crowded Place
By Rick Markley
Maine departments use mini CAFS to protect densely populated events. ...
FEMA Releases Early TOPOFF 4 Observations
The Federal Emergency Management Agency met today with state homeland security advisors, state emergency management directors and participants from the Top Officials 4 exercise held in October 2007 to discuss preliminary exercise observations. During the meeting, held in Oklahoma City at the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, officials briefed out and released preliminary exercise observations and lessons learned from TOPOFF 4....
Top Tier
By Charley Hurley
California is introducing regional task forces to bridge the gap between initial-attack teams and Type-1 US&R resources. ...
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