Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Breathtaking Tech Detects Disease
By Douglas Page
Exhaled breath may soon be all responders need to detect infection rapidly after potential exposure to a biological warfare agent....
Seeing Is Believing
By Douglas Page
Hazmat cam gives incident commanders a full view of the hot zone....
Dirty Bomb Detection: What's Hot?
By Douglas Page
Byproducts of cosmic space rays may be the key to uncovering radioactive materials — seriously....
TALK FAST
By Joel Greenberg
Friday afternoon and trouble was brewing. Just on the other side of Table Mountain where the Coors Brewing Co. is located in Golden, Colo., a fire was...
The Power of Positive Pressure
By Kriss Garcia & Reinhard Kauffmann
Despite numerous successful tests of blowers' effectiveness during initial attack, many fire departments use them only for post-knockdown operations....
SPOT-ON
By Mike Lee
Three firefighters stood in a fire camp on the Bitterroot National Forest, 20 miles southwest of Missoula, Mont. It was August 2003, and sweating firefighters...
STRONG HAND
By Tom Patterson
The application of geospatial technologies to wildfire management is not a new phenomenon. As a 30-year veteran of public service land management and...
Candid Camera
By Ronny J. Coleman
Ten California departments found a common solution to the growing training dilemma in the form of a video-conferencing system used throughout the region....
Tend Your Grapevine for Better Dispatch
By Ronny J. Coleman
Who hasn't seen and heard the California Raisins' rendition of I Heard It Through the Grapevine? While many of us may know only a couple of bars of the...
Fresh Set of Eyes
By Eric Buzard
When fire broke out at a grain storage facility, this Texas firefighter decided to test out the department's thermal imaging camera. Now he won't leave the truck without it....
Storm Trackers
By Bryce McAllister
The Dexter (Mich.) Area Fire Department is made up of hard-working volunteer and full-time firefighters, 75% of whom work on an on-call basis. If a big...
Responding Behind Closed Gates
By Chief Tom Fieldstead, Hilton Head Island Fire & Rescue
Hilton Head Island, S.C., is an internationally known vacation and resort destination that has more than 70% of its land mass behind gates in private...
Chicago Adopts Segways for Events
The Chicago Fire Department now has a special events emergency response team incident's at all of the city's major special events. We are adapting our...
OVER THE HORIZON
By Mark Lengies
Fighting fires is a team effort, with complex rapidly changing situations that require fast and accurate information in order for the team to work safely...
DHS Funds Biometric Study of Wildland Firefighters During Pack Tests
This Year's Model
Chris Cavette, Correspondent
Wildland engines come in different configurations for different applications. The specific design is often determined by the fuel load and terrain of...
Not So Barren
Kenneth L. Clark, John Hom and Nick Skowronski
As part of the National Fire Plan, weather towers, fuel maps and GIS-based risk assessments will address the needs of New Jersey fire managers....
DHS Funds Pack Test Study
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is funding a project to gather detailed physiologic data on 500 wildland firefighters during their annual work...
UAVs May Take to the Skies
Douglas Page, Correspondent
Engineers at NASA and the Idaho National Laboratory are investigating whether it makes sense to use flocks of small, inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles,...
Incentives Package
By Fred Windisch
The time had come to purchase a replacement fire engine. The Ponderosa Volunteer Fire Department in Texas had established a 12-year engine replacement...
Get with the Program
By Chris Cavette
Anyone who still refers to program apparatus as plain-jane, cookie-cutter trucks probably hasn't looked at the products being offered today. What started...
IAFF Receives DHS Contract to Develop CBRN-Ready Turnout Gear
A Staff Report
Point & Click
By Pat West
When a fire or explosion occurs at a chemical plant, refinery or other site involving any of the thousands of dangerous chemicals and hazardous materials...
Remote Access
Brad Quayle & Keith Lannom
MODIS uses satellite imagery to monitor wildand fire activities and map post-fire impacts for a current, synoptic view of the wildland fire situation....
Initiative Yields Effective Anthrax Detection
By Douglas Page
Scientists continue to pursue better methods of detecting anthrax. An initiative conducted by AOAC International and funded by the departments of Defense...





