Monty

I got sent a pdf email of this D.C. Firewatch presentation. I'd upload it, but it's too big! Actually, I just realised - this pdf includes some of the powerpoint that Don links to, but it also includes details of another situation.

Details being added here. Seems like Fire 19 on the truck radio. Scarsdale Ladder, Fairview Engine station 6. New Rochelle with 2 engines and a ladder as mentioned. County Car 2 just called switching to Channel 19.

ROTFLMAO

I don't particularly want to drag this out .... but this makes me think of Jay Leno and his pieces that he does - especially the Jay Walk all stars. It's a good question about the media - and the impact it has. With Mr Leno's pieces - that I find quite entertaining, how many people don't make it to air (because they actually know the correct answers)? There was a piece where he was asking how many people knew the name of the national anthem - and the first line. They showed quite a few people with very wrong answers. How many actually had the correct answer? Of course they don't mention that. As far as the you tube pieces go - I bet you could do the opposite and find a similar result.

It sounds like the departments involved here are thinking about this situation. Kudo's to them for being pro-active and not waiting to be forced in to something by someone else. On another note, this doesn't only apply to fires. There are also MVA's. I know of one that was just down the road from Millwood Station 2, but in Yorktown's district. At that time, there was a Millwood Chief on the scene, but the Rescue was from Yorktown and they had to wait for that to arrive before they could extricate the patient. I believe they actually used air bags, which maybe Millwood doesn't have - although they may have had Rams, or something else that could have been used. Maybe this will be a step to improve and standardize further the use of inter-agency resources!

So FF McKinney who was injured was wearing his vest - it doesn't say whether the Brother he saved was wearing one. With almost all of the dangers associated with this line of work, we're not going to be able to eliminate them. However, there are lots of things we can do to reduce the risks - slow down, wear seatbelts, wear vests, wear SCBA etc .... it may be just enough to save YOU!

There are limited things that you can buy from GSA contracts .... This is from Oct this year: http://www.govtech.com/em/articles/421247 http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/channelVi...hannelId=-13528 Don't know if this helps though. Good luck!

One point to think of in this case is that once the person goes down - it can be very difficult for anyone in the crowd to avoid them. The push from people behind is so intense that you will get swept along. I recall an incident at a 1989 football (soccer) game in England where 96 people died as a result of the crowd dynamics ... http://www.crowddynamics.com/Main/Crowddisasters.html Hopefully, being slightly optimistic, retailers, and others can learn something from this tragedy.

Looks like a good article to me. Maybe someone could approach the Journal on the same topic and help educate the community - with the offer to still help those that need it.

Attached is an interpretation that DES sent out: This image comes from a presentation I found a while back on the subject. Maybe it's just me, but seems the vest is a lot easier to see than the FF - especially if you are just seeing the reflective stripes. I'm sure other places are different, but we have so many people on a highway scene that aren't in the hot zone - some without ppe at all, that the vest has got to help us - even if there are only some of the FF's wearing them.

The show is a bit corny - and could probably be edited down - but ... they do have some interesting, out of the box ideas. Looks like this episode is following that theme - I like the idea of the pyro-pack, the heads up display, firefighter locator and stuff. However, I was thinking earlier, how receptive is the Fire Service to new ideas? How about the FIT-5? How many departments are actively using something like that? I was reading the November issue of Fire Rescue. They had a good article in there about CAFS and a case study of a department using it with positive results. How come more folk aren't? It seems to be that there is a lot of resistance to any change. I wonder how much of this is resistance by troops on the ground? How much by leadership at the top? How much by the municipal / budget manager? As a whole, do we really want things that are going to make our job easier / safer / quicker????

http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=36726642

From the Firegeezer: The Welsh Ambulance Service dispatch crew that tracked down the Nevada ambulance. Apparently, thanks to google they called NYPD, got a number for Nevada EMS and got paramedics to the callers pregnant girlfriend in Vegas who was having difficulties! Nice feel good story. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7664710.stm

30" Water line broke at around 4am in Jersey City. Newport Mall, numerous office builds shut down. Ban on use of torches on construction sites within Jersey City. Boil water advisory in effect, http://news.google.com/news?q=water+break+jersey+city http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2008/10...ects_50000.html Seems like Emergency Management is doing a good job - the local water utility ????

Fairly recently came across the Fire Geezer blog - a lot of good info. http://firegeezer.com/2008/10/07/3-alarms-...ows-that-again/ Makes the issues we have here about staffing seem pretty small in comparison.

Very Cool ....

Came across this story at http://rochesterhomepage.net/content/fulltext/?cid=34691 They have 26 volunteers covering more than 26 square miles. The Chief reckons if they get 10 more volunteers, they'll be OK. Not sure that I agree with the quote below ... The article goes on to say that the cost would be around $200,000 / year and that no decisions were made at the meeting (there's a surprise!). It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the months to come.

Yeah good job - it's always good to come here and see what I missed while I was doing my 'day' job.

Came across this info http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=...&id=6132891 And ... http://www.firerescue1.com/volunteer/artic...-to-stay-alive/ This could never happen here could it ?????

I think there are places for non-firefighters to help out. In fact there is a whole program to do that http://www.firecorps.org/ - from the site:

200 years of tradition - unimpeded by progress. Different (Wrong) priorities?

Global Warming ?? Heading South for the Winter??

I've seen a couple of articles now on 'Ventilation Controlled Fires'. The most recent article was in one of the Fire Magazines, I forget which one though. This article was talking about the fire curve and which side is the fire on (before or after free-burning stage). As others have said - in this situation breaking windows, opening doors could have been just the thing to cause a backdraft. What I took away was that with light smoke, you should look for other signs, blackended windows, signs of high heat, witness reports of flames showing previously. The other thing in general, is to control the urge to ventilate and take out all the windows!

Hey Congrats ALSFF - well deserved!!!!!! Always has constructive stuff to say.