Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Medium and the Message
Janet Wilmoth, Editor
The message is basic firefighter safety to prevent fatalities and the National Fallen Firefighters' Foundation has the medium: six slides that you can use to keep safety at the forefront in firefighters' minds. ...
Highway Hypnosis May Affect Scene Lights
Douglas Page
Do emergency warning lights cause accidents that injure firefighters? The jury's still out, but the Society of Automotive Engineers has been asked by...
NFFF Promotes 16 Strategies
Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service realting to safety, incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability...
Summit Nets Methods to Lower LODDs
The fire service needs a cultural change to dramatically reduce firefighter line-of-duty deaths. The prevailing attitude that accepts losing an average...
Preventing LODDs, Step Two
Janet Wilmoth, Editor
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the U.S. Fire Administration took the next step in a national plan to dramatically reduce firefighter fatalities this week. ...
National Life Safety Summit Initial Report Released
A Staff Report
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the United States Fire Administration on Thursday announced the release of the initial report from the National Life Safety Summit the NFFF hosted in March, detailing a strategy to dramatically reduce firefighter line-of-duty deaths....
DHS Approves CBRN Ensembles, Detectors
In late February, the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Division approved standards for first responder PPE and radiological and...
The New Normal
By Mike McKenna
The world order is changing, and many of those changes will have a direct impact on the fire service's role as primary first responder. In that role,...
Training Accounts for 10% of Fatalities
An analysis of statistics from the U.S. Firefighter Fatality Database shows that while the number of firefighter fatalities have remained fairly consistent...
New Survivor Benefits Mean Changes to SOPs
[ Lawrence Bennett ]
Last December, President George W. Bush signed into law the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act of 2003, which extends the federal death benefits under...
SAFETY'S CHOICE
By Charles “Sandy” Davis
Whether they're volunteer, career, combination, metropolitan or rural, fire departments all face the same issues regarding firefighter health and safety....
Recent Violence Against Firefighters Requires Action
In light of several recent shootings of firefighters and paramedics, the International Association of Fire Chiefs recommends fire chiefs takes several actions to prepare personnel for violent calls....
On-Duty Deaths Rise 11% Last Year
According to a USFA provisional report released in January, 111 firefighters died while on duty in 2003, an 11% increase over the 100 deaths recorded...
National LODD Prevention Summit Slated for March
FIRE CHIEF Staff
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation will hold a National Line-of-Duty Death Prevention Summit March 10-11 to discuss strategies for reducing firefighter fatalities by 25% in five years and by 50% in 10 years....
2003 Was Deadlier Year for Firefighters
FIRE CHIEF Staff
Firefighter on-duty deaths increased 11 percent in 2003 over the previous year, despite advances in technology and safety equipment. With 29 deaths, wildland firefighters suffered the highest casualties since 1994....
Firefighter Fatality or LODD?
Janet Wilmoth, Editor
A new law passed just before Thanksgiving qualifies deaths from heart attack and stroke as line-of-duty for the purposes of federal death benefits. Recognizing the health hazards of firefighting is a step in the right direction, but it's not a cure....
RISING STAR
By Douglas Page
The dispatcher activates emergency traffic tones, then announces a collapse where firefighters have been trapped. Command adjusts tactics from suppression...
Together, Not Alone
By Ronald E. Kanterman
The National Fallen Firefighter Foundation is more than an annual memorial weekend -- it's also a means of moving beyond tragedy through scholarship programs and other services....
NFFF Task Force to Develop LODD Prevention Program
Ron Siarnicki, executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, is forming a task force to help the nonprofit organization develop a...
Rethinking Safety
Janet Wilmoth, Editor
Let's face it, safety is just an old-fashioned, out-of-date word. Safety officers used to get a bad rap for trying to control adrenalin and make sure firefighters followed safety precautions on and off the fire ground -- at least their influence is accepted in most departments....
IAFC, NVFC urge action on Hometown Heroes Act
On May 16 the Senate passed S.459, the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefits Act of 2003, which is sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.). The House of Representatives...
Watch your backs
By Bttn. Chief Porter T. Shellhammer ,Sarasota County (Fla.) Fire Department
Proper vigilance can protect your responders from secondary threats at incident scenes....
We wouldn't need RITs if ICs did their jobs
Glenn D. Usdin
There’s no such thing as a perfect fireground, but careful situation evaluation can lower the risk of accidents....
Time for a check-up
By Chief Ronny J. Coleman, President, Fire & Emergency Television Network, Carrollton, Texas
Straight talk about prostate cancer asks the question, “It’s your health, so why not do something about it?”...
Not without warning
By Portia Rawles, Psy.D., Assistant Professor, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Va.
Training firefighters to recognize the signs of suicide in their peers and creating a support system can help prevent tragedy and ease the grieving....
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