johnvv

I recall this fire-as it occurred on my shift. The fire happened in the early Am, and the only occupant in the bus at the time of the incident was the driver. The driver was also the person who called 911, and took the video.

I recall this fire-as it occurred on my shift. The fire happened in the early Am, and the only occupant in the bus at the time of the incident was the driver. The driver was also the person who called 911, and took the video.

I recall this fire-as it occurred on my shift. The fire happened in the early Am, and the only occupant in the bus at the time of the incident was the driver. The driver was also the person who called 911, and took the video.

Samantha @ Charlotte FD provides the street address, rigs responding, tactical channel, and a one or two word nature of the call- person shot, trauma, structure fire, fire alarm, etc. The rest of the information is delivered by dispatchers over the radio. If the information is sensitive,it's sent to the rigs computer.

At Charlotte Fire Department, Samantha is only used to dispatch to the stations. Human dispatchers then send out the incident over the radio with all the details from the call-taker. I agree with others, you can't replace human interaction with the 911 caller.

At Charlotte Fire Department, Samantha is only used to dispatch to the stations. Human dispatchers then send out the incident over the radio with all the details from the call-taker. I agree with others, you can't replace human interaction with the 911 caller.

Charlotte Fire Department (NC) has used "Samantha" to dispatch for about a year. It does take a little while to get used to hearing her. They do give her a day off every once in a while to allow the dispatchers to train if the system goes down. She is also turned off during storms, because she has a hard time keeping up when the calls back up. Overall they system works good.

Charlotte Fire Department (NC) has used "Samantha" to dispatch for about a year. It does take a little while to get used to hearing her. They do give her a day off every once in a while to allow the dispatchers to train if the system goes down. She is also turned off during storms, because she has a hard time keeping up when the calls back up. Overall they system works good.

Interesting question so I did a little research...
A few storms have hit us especially hard including Floyd, Irene, the unnamed storm of 1938, Donna, and the Nor'Easter in 1992. The tracks of Irene and Floyd were very different from Sandy; they both moved up the coast where Sandy appears to be taking a track more like the 1938 storm (which was about category 5) for a direct hit on the DelMarVa Peninsula. Definitely not good news for them but we're still well within the tropical storm wind cone and will also receive heavy rain and wind.

(Irene is the other track along the coast with Floyd and Donna, the tag got cut off.)

Intensity wise, Irene hit the metro area as a hurricane before weakening as it moved inland. See the track here: http://www.nhc.noaa....loop_5NLW.shtml
Irene was a big storm too. The satellite image shows Irene to be almost one third of the size of the U.S. east coast. The distance from Augusta, Maine to Miami, Florida is 1662.55 miles. Hurricane Irene's tropical storm force winds extended 255 miles from the center making Irene 510 miles in diameter, almost one-third the size of the U.S. Hurricane-force winds extend 70 miles from the center, or 140 miles in diameter.

Sandy is also really big, and it’s getting bigger. Tropical storm force winds now reach 450 miles out from the center, so at its forward speed of 9 mph, places could experience tropical storm conditions almost 48 hours prior to the arrival of the center. That's a LOT of rain and wind for 2-3 days.
Floyd hit the Carolinas as a strong type 2 hurricane and eventually reached us as a tropical storm. The issue with Floyd was it's size, it was HUGE - much bigger than Andrew, the hurricane that decimated south Florida. Near its eye, Floyd's winds were 130 miles per hour, earning it a Category 3 rating from meteorologists and it was almost twice the size of typical Atlantic hurricanes, Floyd was some 580 miles across and packed tropical storm-force winds (40 to 73 mph) or greater across that entire span.

The big thing that I picked up from all this research; there are so many variables it is hard to really "compare" storms. Water temperature, wind speed, other frontal activity, location, speed, size, lunar cycle, etc. all make it very hard to say one is more or less devastating than another.
Hurricane Sandy is a very large storm and no matter where exactly it hits we're going to feel its punch.
Stay safe!
More on Floyd for those with nothing else to do today - http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/1999floyd.html

No we are here to respond to emergencies, the majority of these are not emergencies and therefore it takes us away from other emergencies.
If we find the alarm went off for a "real" reason, like smoke from cooking. No problem. (unless we have been there 3,4, 5 times) then maybe the head needs to be moved. A little fine (that escilates) will convince them its cheaper to move it. If its dust from contractors, maybe the contractor will learn to work properly if the property owner hits him with the fine, otherwise we get to follow this contractor all over town.
No. We do not send PD or THe chief. But we need to correct the problem so its not a repeat. When you go to the same location over and over for a problem system, then the property is crying wolf. They will not get the same response from many depts. (as stated in the article).
We do over 1,000 of these every year, we are not going away, but after a while it does hurt moral.
Fair enough, but in busy depts, this is not as critical.
Our stats show its less than 0.1% turn out to be the "real thing". Thats about a dozen fires in 25,000 responses. We actually found the chance of find a fire was greater when we just drove down the road and spoted one. We also had far more fires that were phoned in for another location while we were out of position at automatic alarms.
Also remember, Alarm companies sell this service and promise property owners that they will keep them safe. Then they send us. Maybe they should have to give us a cut of the profits.

With the new current staffing levels at WPFD, I don't think there is enough firefighters left on shift to fight two trash can fires burning simultaniously in different locations!
So how did the city with "its large tax base" end up in this sorry situation: 1) Fat Cat developers (Cappelli and others)were given property tax breaks for numerous years. These are the same structures that put a strain on public safety services with additional hazards for public safety personnel to deal with. 2) The revenue used to fund city services is based on sales tax which fluxiates with the economy instead of a stable property tax. If the city had raised property tax as the cost of living increased, they would not be in this situation.
You don't need to be an economist to see that the city politicians recklessly mismanaged where the revenue to operate the city came from, and now Public Safety workers are made jobless and their lives are put at further risk because of their actions. Shame on the Mayor, Common Council and the residents of the city for their short sightness. In my 20+ years of fire service to the city, I would have never thought the city would lay off firefighters. Most know that the WPFD already operates on minimum staffing already, and their salaries are on the low side of the scale already. I only hope that WPFD firefighters and police aren't hurt or worse by the actions of mindless politicians.
My thoughts are with my WPFD brothers - Be vigilant- I don't think the city is finished trying to take things from you....

It's refreshing to read a good story in the papers about the fire service with all the bad press we have been getting recently. I worked with Jim on occasion shortly before he retired, and am not surprised by his actions or his modest response. I think these types of stories happen all the time, but sadly the papers don't want to cover it. Another reason may be the off duty/ retired emergency workers often provide lifesaving care, then fade into the crowd with modesty,without accolades. That's the type of people the fire service draws to it- people wanting to provide service to the community, and to help them in their time of need, with no desire to get attention for their actions. Great job Jim.
Thanks to LoHud for the good press

It's refreshing to read a good story in the papers about the fire service with all the bad press we have been getting recently. I worked with Jim on occasion shortly before he retired, and am not surprised by his actions or his modest response. I think these types of stories happen all the time, but sadly the papers don't want to cover it. Another reason may be the off duty/ retired emergency workers often provide lifesaving care, then fade into the crowd with modesty,without accolades. That's the type of people the fire service draws to it- people wanting to provide service to the community, and to help them in their time of need, with no desire to get attention for their actions. Great job Jim.
Thanks to LoHud for the good press

It's refreshing to read a good story in the papers about the fire service with all the bad press we have been getting recently. I worked with Jim on occasion shortly before he retired, and am not surprised by his actions or his modest response. I think these types of stories happen all the time, but sadly the papers don't want to cover it. Another reason may be the off duty/ retired emergency workers often provide lifesaving care, then fade into the crowd with modesty,without accolades. That's the type of people the fire service draws to it- people wanting to provide service to the community, and to help them in their time of need, with no desire to get attention for their actions. Great job Jim.
Thanks to LoHud for the good press

I'm interested in the thread- 2004 Road King- Keep it going!

I'm interested in the thread- 2004 Road King- Keep it going!

I'm interested in the thread- 2004 Road King- Keep it going!

With the new current staffing levels at WPFD, I don't think there is enough firefighters left on shift to fight two trash can fires burning simultaniously in different locations!
So how did the city with "its large tax base" end up in this sorry situation: 1) Fat Cat developers (Cappelli and others)were given property tax breaks for numerous years. These are the same structures that put a strain on public safety services with additional hazards for public safety personnel to deal with. 2) The revenue used to fund city services is based on sales tax which fluxiates with the economy instead of a stable property tax. If the city had raised property tax as the cost of living increased, they would not be in this situation.
You don't need to be an economist to see that the city politicians recklessly mismanaged where the revenue to operate the city came from, and now Public Safety workers are made jobless and their lives are put at further risk because of their actions. Shame on the Mayor, Common Council and the residents of the city for their short sightness. In my 20+ years of fire service to the city, I would have never thought the city would lay off firefighters. Most know that the WPFD already operates on minimum staffing already, and their salaries are on the low side of the scale already. I only hope that WPFD firefighters and police aren't hurt or worse by the actions of mindless politicians.
My thoughts are with my WPFD brothers - Be vigilant- I don't think the city is finished trying to take things from you....

In December 2008, I had the opportunity to assist in a live burn of a MCD's. The live burn was jointly conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Engineering Department of the University of North Carolina. The structure was constructed in the 1980's and had a wood truss roof. Heat measuring thermocouples were placed in the building and the entire structure was fully documented with sketches, measurements,video and photographs.The purpose for the live burn was to collect data on how these structures hold up under fire conditions. The results of the burn are to be part of a future NIST Report. The fire was started using ordinary combustibles in a garbage can in the managers office. This room was located in the center of the structure.
Its my estimation that the roof held up for approximately 15-20 minutes from the inception of the fire. I quite frankly expected the truss roof to fail earlier in the fire since the roof components were unprotected.
Attached are the photographs from my position on a roof top across the street from the MCD's.

In December 2008, I had the opportunity to assist in a live burn of a MCD's. The live burn was jointly conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Engineering Department of the University of North Carolina. The structure was constructed in the 1980's and had a wood truss roof. Heat measuring thermocouples were placed in the building and the entire structure was fully documented with sketches, measurements,video and photographs.The purpose for the live burn was to collect data on how these structures hold up under fire conditions. The results of the burn are to be part of a future NIST Report. The fire was started using ordinary combustibles in a garbage can in the managers office. This room was located in the center of the structure.
Its my estimation that the roof held up for approximately 15-20 minutes from the inception of the fire. I quite frankly expected the truss roof to fail earlier in the fire since the roof components were unprotected.
Attached are the photographs from my position on a roof top across the street from the MCD's.

In December 2008, I had the opportunity to assist in a live burn of a MCD's. The live burn was jointly conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Engineering Department of the University of North Carolina. The structure was constructed in the 1980's and had a wood truss roof. Heat measuring thermocouples were placed in the building and the entire structure was fully documented with sketches, measurements,video and photographs.The purpose for the live burn was to collect data on how these structures hold up under fire conditions. The results of the burn are to be part of a future NIST Report. The fire was started using ordinary combustibles in a garbage can in the managers office. This room was located in the center of the structure.
Its my estimation that the roof held up for approximately 15-20 minutes from the inception of the fire. I quite frankly expected the truss roof to fail earlier in the fire since the roof components were unprotected.
Attached are the photographs from my position on a roof top across the street from the MCD's.

In December 2008, I had the opportunity to assist in a live burn of a MCD's. The live burn was jointly conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Engineering Department of the University of North Carolina. The structure was constructed in the 1980's and had a wood truss roof. Heat measuring thermocouples were placed in the building and the entire structure was fully documented with sketches, measurements,video and photographs.The purpose for the live burn was to collect data on how these structures hold up under fire conditions. The results of the burn are to be part of a future NIST Report. The fire was started using ordinary combustibles in a garbage can in the managers office. This room was located in the center of the structure.
Its my estimation that the roof held up for approximately 15-20 minutes from the inception of the fire. I quite frankly expected the truss roof to fail earlier in the fire since the roof components were unprotected.
Attached are the photographs from my position on a roof top across the street from the MCD's.