Thursday, August 21, 2008
Safety on Campus a Priority
The Center for Campus Fire Safety went on the offensive on Capitol Hill in May, holding a summit to seek solutions to college student deaths in fires...
Magic Numbers Do Departments No Favors
[ Ronny J. Coleman ]
How many firefighters should a community have? How many should your community have? Despite a 300-year history of fire protection in this country, there's...
Drawn to Scale
By Steve Meng
As the population grew and became more mobile, volunteer departments could not attract enough members to provide adequate service. To expand, paid crews...
Who Protects the Protectors?
Dick Mangan
Few will argue that firefighter safety and interface fires aren't among the most important issues in wildland fire suppression. Firefighter safety on...
Brand Dilution
Joseph W. Mitchell, Ph.D. M-bar Technologies and Consulting, Ramona, Calif.
With wind-driven embers as one of the greatest wildfire dangers, homeowners need to consider new techniques for protection....
Newspaper Finds Deadly Delays in Response
An extensive investigative report published by The Boston Globe in January found that once a day on average in the United States, someone dies because...
NIOSH Reports on Nightclub Fatality
The National Institute for Safety and Health Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program provides report F1999-03 on a collapse and fire...
No Man's Land
By Darren Hutchinson
For a number of years, I've been fortunate to work with some amazing command teams, structure protection group supervisors and specialists, task force...
Alarm-Processing Times Still Need More Study
[ Ronny J. Coleman ]
Over the last decade there's been a great deal of debate over fire department deployment. The vast majority of the argument has been over the location,...
Cooking Causes 73% of Dorm Fires
Statisticians with the National Fire Incident Reporting System at the U.S. Fire Administration said the most recent data collected by NFIRS reflects a...
Forest Service, University Develop WUI Tools
The Forest Service and the University of Wisconsin Madison have released scientific maps depicting the communities and lands within the wildland-urban...
Insurer Demands Payback for Wildfire Costs
Allstate Corp., which expects to pay out $290 million to $330 million to policyholders as a result of last fall's fires in the San Diego area, is demanding...
Ohio County Unifies RIT Program
The Warren County Fire Chiefs Association, which includes 15 fire departments north of Cincinnati, recently completed rapid intervention team training...
Exchange Students
By Robert R. Rielage
Although the world may be getting smaller, the fire service is becoming more global. While the third engine on your next fourth-alarm assignment won't...
Researchers Find Hot Spot with Simulation
By Douglas Page
A hot spot in fire research has broken out in the development of simulators designed to anticipate the previously unpredictable behavior of wildfires....
NIST Addresses Arson's Burning Issues
By Douglas Page
Arson investigators face a bewildering range of ignitable chemicals, all with similar characteristics, making the task of distinguishing and identifying...
Systems Approach
Pat West, Senior Editor
Forest Service Fire & Aviation Management Director Jerry Williams talks about the role the department plays in homeland security and how it works with local firefighting forces....
A View from the Other Side
Janet Wilmoth
A few years ago, I attended a wildfire conference in Missoula, Mont. I fell hopelessly in love with Missoula, and the conference also opened me up to...
Good Defense
By Susan DiMauro Public Information Specialist, Los Alamos, N.M.
When the Cerro Grande Fire swept through Los Alamos, N.M., in May 2000, it forced the evacuation of more than 18,000 residents. By the time the fire was...
Pride Can Come from More than Run Numbers
[ Ronny J. Coleman ]
Who has the busiest fire company in the entire United States? Probably somewhere in a major city, and I'm sure that the firefighters who work in that...
Chiefs Urged to Prep for Scorching Season
California saw several early fires in May, and with long-term drought affecting many areas of the United States, climatologists predict that 2004 will...
Grounded for Life?
On May 10, just as the 2004 wildfire season was beginning, federal agencies announced the immediate termination of contracts on all of its 33 large air...
No New Lessons
Last November's California wildfires prompted former Gov. Gray Davis and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to appoint a 34-member panel to make recommendations...
Austin City Limits
By Asst. Chief Kevin Baum Austin (Texas) Fire Department
Following the devastating 1999-2000 fire season, the secretaries of Agriculture and Interior made the following ominous prediction in a letter to President...
Field Guides for Healthy Forests Issued
The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and the Interior have issued field guidelines to help land managers begin implementing the Healthy Forest Restoration...





