Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Incident Command
Indy Safety Chief Says Cities Must Address Abandoned-Building Problem
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
To protect firefighters and its citizens, Indianapolis now has a system in place to demolish structures after a fire occurs if it can be proven that there is damage to the structural integrity of the building. ...
NFPA Reports Address Alternative-Energy Technologies, NEC (with Related Video)
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
The NFPA has developed two industry reports on alternative energies that will be discussed and reviewed at the Alternative Energy Technologies and Electrical Safety Standards symposium in Atlanta on Dec. 6....
Fugate Explains National Response Framework to House Transportation, Infrastructure Committee
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
Fugate highlighted FEMA's recovery capabilities and programs that can be provided when a state requests federal assistance for presidentially declared disasters of all sizes, including catastrophic events and terrorist attacks. ...
Change is Inevitable — Will You be Ready When it Arrives?
By Jack Parow
Rapidly evolving technology and the economic climate in which we operate will continue to accelerate the pace of change. As a leader, will you be driving this change or accepting what others decide for you?...
Get Ready, Here They Come
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
When tens of thousands of protestors descended on Madison, Wis., the city's fire department effectively coordinated a multijurisdictional response that included state and local law enforcement. It was able to do so because it planned ahead — and also because it had plenty of experience with large-scale civil-unrest events....
Ariz. Chiefs Take Proactive Role at Wallow Fire
By Janet Wilmoth (janet@firechief.com)
Because of the magnitude of the fire, the Arizona Fire Chiefs Association dispatched a representative to the Incident Command System. Not since the 2002 Rodeo-Chediski Fire burned more than 500,000 acres has the AFCA dispatched members to assist in a wildfire....
FEMA Praises Joplin Fire Chief Randles, First Responders
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
Deputy Administrator Rich Serino noted in his blog how the community came together to provide aid and emotional comfort when they, themselves, had lost everything. ...
Before the Unthinkable Occurs
By Robert S. Cook
Every fire department nationwide lives with the possibility of a mass-fatality incident, but very few of them are prepared to handle such events — which are very different from anything else they experience. Here's what you can do to prepare for the day that everyone hopes to avoid....
A Better Way
By Marc C. Tagliento
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, caused the nationwide emergency-management community to examine how it operates. The result was the National Incident Management System....
Missouri Mutual Aid Activated for Joplin Tornado Response (with Related Video)
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
The Kansas City Fire Department reportedly is overseeing rescue operations in — sending all rescue trucks and 35 firefighters — because the local fire department was incapacitated. ...
Madison Union Protests Put MFD Command Post into Action
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
During the union protests, the Madison Fire Department activated its preplanned systems, including the command post located inside its administrative building where multiple police and fire agencies could converge for communications and operations planning, said Chief Debra Amesqua....
FDNY's Cassano Discusses Modified Response Program
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
Program in which firefighters refrain from using lights and sirens while responding to certain non-fire and non-life threatening emergencies sold itself to government officials, the fire commissioner said. ...
FDNY Spreads its Modified Response Throughout City
By Mary Rose Roberts (maryrose.roberts@penton.com)
Under Modified Response, firefighters refrain from using lights and sirens while responding to certain non-fire and non-life-threatening emergencies, which account for nearly 300,000 of the 1 million responses FDNY apparatus make each year. ...
Failure Simply isn't an Option
By Robert Creecy
Virginia departments find regional consensus on an accountability system that is used during multijurisdictional incidents. ...
ICS Advocate Talks System from Beginning to End
By Mary Rose Roberts
Public-safety leadership must cross jurisdictional lines and partner with statewide agencies to conduct incident-command communications exercises prior to a large-scale incident....
Staffing-, Response-Mapping Site Reaches 75k Users
By Mary Rose Roberts
IamResponding.com, a company that offers a Web-based platform to map first-responder staffing and response, announced that its application is being used by more than 75,000 emergency personal. ...
Contemplating the Toughest Call — Deciding Who Lives
By Robert R. Rielage
Failure to contemplate troubling scenarios will result in a decision by default and become an abdication of responsibility....
A Strange New World
By Howard Robinson
In the United Kingdom, it now is easier to hold fire departments criminally liable if their decisions or actions result in firefighter deaths or serious injuries. Can it happen here?...
Charges Arise in Wildland Sector
By Phil Stittleberg
The incident commander in the Cramer Fire was not actually present on the fireground as the Thirtymile Fire supervisor was, yet he still was criminally charged with the deaths of the two firefighters....
U.S. Not Likely to See Similar Prosecutions
By Phil Stittleburg
The instances where criminal liability has resulted have tended to arise primarily in the wildland-fire arena. In contrast, criminal charges related to structure fires tend to be rare and randomly scattered throughout the country....
Where it Has Happened
By Phil Stittleburg
Criminal charges relating to structure fires tend to be rare and randomly scattered throughout the country....
Prosecuting Corporations for Wrongful Deaths is Difficult
By Jim Juneau
Many also feel that civil damages are a more appropriate means of punishment for death resulting from corporate wrongdoing, because the civil courts typically award compensation and other damages in a manner that is commensurate with the extent of the harm or damage done....
Layout, High Fuel Loads Contributed to Rapid Sofa Store Fire Spread, NIST Study Finds
By Mary Rose Roberts
Researchers estimated that the energy content of furniture in the store's main showroom equaled about 4,000 gallons of gasoline....
NIST's Sofa Super Store Study Recommendations
NIST's recommendations following its investigation of the June 2007 Sofa Super Store Fire in Charleston, S.C....
Sofa Super Store Fire Timeline
Timeline of the Sofa Super Store Fire in Charleston, S.C....
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