Friday, November 21, 2008
EFO Symposium to Focus on Safety
The U.S. Fire Administration has scheduled the 19th Annual Executive Fire Officer Program Graduate Symposium for April 13-15. Attendance and participation in the symposium are limited to graduates of the EFO program. ...
USFA Highlights Near-Miss Successes
In the U.S. Fire Administration's "Chief's Corner," Acting U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson turns the spotlight on the milestones achieved by the International Association of Fire Chiefs' National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System in its first 15 months. ...
Generators Recalled for Shock Hazard
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the DEWALT Industrial Tool Co. of Towson, Md., has announced a voluntary recall of about 13,000 portable electric generators. A ground fault circuit interrupter installed on the generator could fail to operate properly, posing a risk of electric shock...
Dress the Part
By Donna Brehm
As the release date of a new NFPA standard approaches, we NFPA standards committee members are filled with a moment-of-truth type of trepidation. We look...
Exit vs. Exit
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
Last month in Command Post, our weekly e-newsletter, I wrote about the exit lights in a nearby movie theater. My companions and I had noticed the exit...
Welcome 2007?
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
Can you believe it? 2007? Seems like it just turned 2000! For some inexplicable reason I have some pretty positive feelings about 2007...
NIOSH Offers Updates on PPE Activities
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory has established a new service to automatically send information relevant to personal protective equipment documents and meetings to subscribers....
IAFF Study Shows LODD Clustering
A study released by the International Association of Fire Fighters examining fire service line-of-duty deaths that occurred from 2000 through 2005 finds that more than half of those deaths can be attributed to health-related factors. “This is a stark reminder that many firefighter deaths are preventable,” said IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger...
First Responders Need Special Gear for Special Tasks
Erin Lang, RAE Systems
First responders deal with an almost unimaginably wide range of hazardous environments, and radiation detection technologies have been developed to better...
Empowering Safety
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
The Fire Department Safety Officers Association held its annual meeting in Orlando last week. Among the programs was one of my favorite speakers, attorney Jim Juneau, who talked about apparatus safety...
New Best Friends
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
When we looked at the floor plans for the larger facilities submitted for this year's Station Style Fire Station Design Awards, we usually could figure...
Near-Miss Report Total Reaches 1,000
Barely a year following its inception, the National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System has received its 1,000th report of a near-miss event....
IAFC, USFA Develop Program for Emergency Vehicle Safety
The International Association of Fire Chiefs and the U.S. Fire Administration have announced the release of a Guide to Model Policies and Procedures for Emergency Vehicle Safety. This new, Web-based educational program is aimed at reducing the impact of vehicle-related incidents on the fire service and the communities they protect....
NFFF Stages 25th Annual National Memorial Weekend
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the U.S. Fire Administration have announced events for the 25th Annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend on Oct. 5-8, 2006...
Fashion Forward
By G. Jake Jaquet
Turnouts. Bunkers. Personal protective ensembles. Regardless of what you call them, the coats, pants and associated garb a firefighter wears at a fire...
NVFC Award Winner Promotes Fire Safety
Johnson County (Ark.) Rural Fire District #1 Public Fire and Life Safety Educator Dayna Hilton, the recipient the National Volunteer Fire Council's 2006...
Safety Matters, from Large to Small
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
Last night I had the opportunity to meet the winner of last year's Fire Emergency Manufacturers & Services Association's Survey. Justin MacDonald is a first responder/firefighter with the Egg Harbor (Wis.) Town & Village Fire Department. He told me that he filled out the FEMSA survey online from his home. MacDonald said he was really surprised when he received the phone call telling him that he had won $5,000 worth of equipment from FEMSA members, just for filling out the survey. His fire chief, Mark Bogenschutz, couldn't believe it either ...
Illness Persists in WTC Responders
Nearly 70% of the workers and volunteers who spent time at Ground Zero and other sites following the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center reported a new or worsened respiratory symptom that developed during or after their time working at the sites....
Happy New Year
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
Perhaps it's ingrained from having children, but September always feels like a new year to me. Not only that, but for me, the Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer (and white shoes!) no matter how hot it gets mid-month.
As the school year cranks up, so do fire drills and fire prevention classes for students of all ages, particularly those in college...
No More Excuses
By Janet Wilmoth, Editorial Director
Our interviews with this year's fire chiefs of the year offer an interesting contrast. Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix Fire Department, our 2006 Career...
OSHA Revises Respiratory Protection Standards
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has revised its standards for respiratory protection programs to incorporate “assigned protection factors” that indicate the level of workplace respiratory protection a respirator or class of respirators is expected to provide....
Agencies Differ Over LODDs
Eighty-seven on-duty firefighters died in the United States in 2005, according to a new report released by the National Fire Protection Association. That...
9/11 First Responder Claims Multiplying
The New York Post reports that legal actions filed against the City of New York in connection with the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have tripled in the past year. More than 1,100 notices of claim, which potential plaintiffs are required to file before suing the city, were filed against the city during the fiscal year that ended June 30....
Grant Funds NFFF Firefighter Life Safety Resource Kit Program
A $329,000 grant from Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. is making it possible for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to provide its Firefighter Life Safety Resource Kits to more than 30,000 U.S. fire departments....
When Will We Start Listening?
By Dave Malinow
It was Wednesday, June 21 — Safety Stand Down Day. I stood before a group of emergency responders, preparing for the presentation I was to give. But all that was on my mind was the thought that in the previous 72 hours, five emergency responders had died in motor vehicle accidents....
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Mutual Aid is a blog of news and views from FIRE CHIEF staff and industry experts — a virtual conversation about the issues important to you as a fire service leader. |
In Service provides information on fleet management, apparatus specifying and maintenance. Keep abreast of new trends and changes to emergency vehicle apparatus. |
Station Style focuses on the architectural design and needs of fire and emergency stations today. See the latest in design trends and learn about the Fire Station Design Awards. |
