Finishing up our chat about fire and rescue funding, I want to mention a couple of things about FEMA grants.  After the 9/11 attacks on our citizens in New York, Pennsylvania and D.C./Virginia, Congress came to the conclusion that the entire emergency preparedness nationwide was lacking.  A great number of police, fire and EMS departments were working with outdated equipment and, in some cases, lacking basic tools altogether.

So for the following years and currently, they have been appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade the abilities of public safety agencies to respond to major emergencies.  Much of the money has been rightly used to implement regional tools such as disaster-level ambulances and multi-agency radio systems.  And a lot of it was set aside to bring up the abilities of outlying towns and rural areas to provide basic protection.

So while the population centers were buying new vehicles and gadgets that would enhance their preparedness to handle new challenges, many towns and districts were equipping their firefighters with new running gear and SCBA’s.  In most cases they were using the largess of Uncle Sam to replace the basic funding that they should have been doing all along.

Now there’s not much of a problem at all when Babbling Brook VFD uses a grant to buy SCBA’s or portable radios.  They’re in an area that will never see that kind of money to spend in the first place and everybody is glad to be able to help them out.  But to nobody’s surprise, quite a few places have come to rely on the federal handout to replace their own budgetary responsibilities, using the funds to buy chief’s buggies and even paying for salaries.

This short-sighted practice is now coming back to bite the politicians who decided to try and shift their communities’ responsibilities onto these temporary grants.  In an ARTICLE from the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper group titled Fire Chiefs Worry FEMA Money Drying Up, there are interviews with a variety of suburban fire chiefs and administrators who are now in a pickle because they are not able to continue recieving other people’s money to fund their agencies.

Not only are more and more smaller FD’s learning how to play the grant application game, but the amounts being offered by Uncle Sam are starting to shrink.  Not that the need is diminishing, but the Congressmen are quietly asking themselves why their constituents in places like Fargo are being required to pay for basic tools, such as radios, in more wealthy areas like Miami.  Or why should Nebraska be providing running gear for Georgia’s rural VFD’s?

Reading the article you see that some places are bemoaning the fact that without the handouts they cannot maintain adequate services to a “rapidly growing area.”  Logic tells you that if an area is “rapidly growing,” then the property tax revenue is exponentially growing also.  So what are they doing with these new-found revenues?  Inquiring minds want to know.

But first we need to get this equipment checked out.  Fortunately we still have enough funds to stock the coffee maker, so I’ll get that going, too.

The other day I was thinking about the anomoly that firefighting tools and techniques have improved a thousand-fold in the past 100 years, and yet we are still having too many large-loss fires, too many fire engines crashing, and too many firefighters getting hurt and killed.

The advances in clothing and related wearable running gear alone is remarkable.  But still they go down.  Until about 60 years ago, fire engines didn’t have radios.  In the larger cities after a fire company was finished up on a job, they would go to the nearest fire alarm box and use the telephone line to check in with dispatch.  The smaller communities (and a lot of the bigger ones, too) had a policy of responding back to the fire station with lights and sirens engaged because that was the only place were they could receive a call.

Nowadays every vehicle in the department has an advanced radio system, a computer terminal feeding up all kinds of information ( some of which is actually useful) and there is a growing movement of equipping every single FF on the call with a personal transceiver.  But still they go down.

Protective clothing has completely changed with advances in insulating design and the development of Nomex fabric along with the introduction of the balaclava.  Helmet design and construction has been advanced beyond imagination.  And don’t forget the SCBA.  But still they’re going down.

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Newton Fire Museum

No longer are there FF’s standing on the running boards and tailboards of the trucks.  They are strapped inside the truck, surrounded by a metal cab and kept constantly informed during the response.  And still……

You can undoubtedly add some more things to the list.  And many people are constantly trying to figure out why we are still failing to protect not only the firefighters, but the citizens and their properties as well.

One of the biggest barriers that is always confronting us is put up there by the politicians and legislators who control the activities of so many people.  On one side of this barrier is the fire service with all this wonderfully advanced equipment.  On the other side of this barrier of laws, codes, funding and hiring policies is the same old set of challenges. 

What I’m getting at is the point that no matter how much we do to get better, our destinies and ability to perform are controlled, even limited, by people who don’t know the first thing about fire suppression.  No better example of this has been given that what happened in South Carolina this week.  On the very week that the people of that state took time to memorialize the nine (nine!) firefighters who perished in a fire one year previously, their governor vetoed a bill that would have provided incentives and greater ability for business to install sprinkler systems in commercial structures.  What a dunderhead.

It’s time to get the equipment checked out now.  I’ve got to get another pot started on the coffee maker.

Welcome to June, folks.  I don’t know what more to say about it, other than make sure your air conditioner is checked out ok. 

Over the past three days we’ve been reporting on the fire at the Matt Brewery in Utica, N.Y.  There was something that struck me as a bit odd and I wonder if you noticed it, too?

There were about a half-dozen fire departments involved in helping the Utica FD with the fire and I can’t tell just by looking at the pictures who was who on the scene.  And I wasn’t there, so I don’t know very much of what actually went on during the fire.  But in none of the pictures that I have seen was there ever anybody wearing an SCBA.

Now I understand that when you’re on outside operations many people tend to drop the air tanks in order to be more mobile and less fatiguing, despite what the safety experts keep telling us.  But still there are times where you need to put self-preservation ahead of comfort.  One of the videos shows a clip of an entire company standing on the roof of the fire building, and not a one of them had his air-pack on.  Not one.

“But wait, there’s more….” as that guy who yells at us on the tv likes to say.  Here’s what I was wondering whether you noticed it.  In the video report from the first day (HERE) the tv reporter is interviewing Utica’s Public Safety Commissioner and throughout the interview he is stressing to the citizens why it is important to stay away from the fire, telling them that they think there may be dangerous levels of ammonia in the smoke.  And after telling us that the people have been cooperative in the evacuation he repeats:  “Don’t go near the black smoke….it could be toxic.”

All the time I’m thinking the people must be wondering, “If the fire department doesn’t believe this guy, why should we?”  Indeed.

Well, believe me that we need to get this equipment checked out this morning.  I’ll go start the coffee.

This is the time of year that a lot of local governments are working on the next fiscal year’s budget.  And in many cases the politicians are continuing their attempts to shortchange the fire and rescue departments so that they can have more money to spend on more visible projects.  After all, most people don’t really see us performing our jobs.  Or infrequently at best.

Without getting into it here, I’ve always wondered why the fire departments, especially, don’t justify their expense by simply pointing out how much it would cost the locality if there wasn’t a firehouse in the neighborhood.

A very large percentage of fire calls are successfully completed by getting to an incipient fire and eliminating it before any measurable damage is done.  Finding where that “smell of something burning” is coming from and then removing it prevents an entire house from burning down, which would happen if nobody was there to fix it.

So what if it costs $2 million a year to staff and operate a firehouse?  How much in property loss would there be if they weren’t there?  Why aren’t we being more aggressive in pointing out that kind of stuff?

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On another note, yesterday LightRock pointed out something that could surely stand some discussion.  Take a look at these two photos that were making the rounds of the fire news world recently:

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One of them shows a couple of firefighters working an auto fire without wearing any SCBA.  The other picture shows a couple of firefighters working an auto fire without wearing any SCBA.

One pair of FF’s was chided and then suspended without pay.  The other pair of FF’s was admired and applauded.

Whyzat?

Well, if you want to be admired and applauded today, then let’s get this equipment checked out.  I’m going to make some fresh coffee.

Those folks up in Montreal always serve up good show.  Last night we reported (HERE) about the FF’s decorating the bay doors of their fire stations with the hockey team’s colors and fan slogans.  In response, the mayor issued an order that the “graffiti” and “vandalism” all be removed immediately.

The union and the ranks, in turn, obeyed the orders as well as a puppy and just redoubled the team spirit and decorations.  Labor vs. Management in Montreal is a true blood sport.  And both sides are well skilled in the battle tactics.  It seems like they’ve been practicing at it for decades now.  I’m beginning to wonder if maybe the FF Recruit School doesn’t have a 2-day session on labor tactics and strategy.

If you missed it last October, go back and read the Firegeezer story HERE about all the Battalion Chiefs’ offices suddenly having their windows painted over with white paint, then the doors to the offices being bolted shut and the key locks in the doors filled with epoxy.  Now that’s hard-core negotiations, folks.

A little more on the amusing-but-harmless side of things, for the past month or so the FF’s have been flying city flags on the engines and trucks.  Thing is, they’re City of Toronto flags.  I think the message is that Toronto is much nicer to their firefighters than Montreal is.  So you’ve got all these Montreal fire trucks breezing around town with Toronto flags flapping in the wind.  This is better than television.  Stay tuned.

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On a more serious side, Firefighter Close Calls is reporting this morning on a serious FF injury in Sedalia, Missouri.  Take the time to read THE STORY and note carefully two key points:  1) the FF had full protective gear including SCBA and the mask stayed in place.  2)  He was discovered and rescued by his crew because of a properly-functioning PASS alarm. 

Those are wondrous little devices and there’s no reason for you to not be using them.

So when you check out the equipment this morning, make good and sure that you are giving your PASS alarm the correct test, too.  I’m going to start the coffee now.

On Tuesday a press release was issued jointly by the IAFF and a firm called the Masimo Corp. announcing a safety campaign being launched by the International union to monitor carbon monoxide (CO) levels in fire and EMS workers.  (You can read the entire announcement HERE.)

They are promoting the use of a device called a “Pulse CO-Oximeter ” which is a non-invasive appliance that can measure the CO level in your bloodstream quickly and easily.  From the press release:

In a letter to all local union presidents in North America, the IAFF highlighted the need for a new protocol whereby any fire fighter potentially exposed to CO and presenting with headache, nausea, shortness of breath, or gastrointestinal symptoms should be assessed using a Pulse CO-Oximeter. IAFF General President Harold A. Schaitberger acknowledged the prevalence, severity and frequency of the detrimental effects of CO. “We believe that many of the cardiac arrests fire fighters are experiencing may well be attributable to CO exposure,” President Schaitberger said.

This is good and welcome news.  Carbon monoxide tends to stick around once it gets into your bloodstream and can accumulate over time.  But it also has the ability to hide in the atmosphere that you breathe so that you are unaware of ingestions of it while you are working.

After the fire is out and everyone is taking a break, we use the time to let the fire building ventilate before going back in for the overhaul.  And this leads to a false sense of security with the infusion of fresh air.  We feel like it ok to breathe in their now, so we can drop the SCBA’s and move more freely.  When it comes to ripping walls and prying up floor boards, it is restrictive to do prolonged, heavy manual labor with those bulky air tanks on our backs.  But those fire products are still around pumping out high quantities of CO right where we’re working, sucking in large breaths to feed the exertion from heavy work.

Despite all the warnings, and even though the FF’s acknowledge that it is dangerous, the overhaul crew still tends to shed the SCBA in order to get the work done efficiently.  And later on the chief officers take a tour of the fire zone, followed up by the investigators.  All without breathing protection.

At least if we can get these oximeters on the ambulances, we’ll be able to monitor people better and just maybe get them to “see the light” and take better notice of what they are sucking into their lungs out there.

Ok, let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll make sure the coffee gets started.

Results of clinical case studies using the Masimo CO oximeter HERE and HERE.

As soon as I hit the “Send” button for yesterday’s Lineup posting, I said to myself:  “You know, some people are going to completely misinterpret what I just said.”  And boy, was I right!  We get emails, and I want to thank all of you for taking the time to write to us.  We’re talking about the Goshen/OSHA/SCBA controversy here.

Even though I said what they did was wrong and questioned their decision to do what they did, I was still accused of “defending” their actions.  Where did I say that?  I wrote that “Basic training includes learning that SCBA’s are part of your equipment at all times,” and moved on to my complaint that OSHA was being too public about chastising the FD and too heavy-handed with the threats before finding out what’s going on.

Reader John O. did point out to me that Connecticut is one of the states that has its own OSHA agency and these weren’t Feds making the announcement that they’re looking into the matter.  I’m glad to make that correction.

But my point was, and I still believe, that I don’t like this policy of publicly threatening thousands of dollars worth of fines before they even look into it.  That smacks of thuggishness and I don’t like it.

All right, let’s get the equipment checked out.  I’ll go start the coffee.

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Is the Federal OSHA office going off on a power kick these days?  As if there aren’t enough genuine problems that should be triggering their enforcement programs, they seem to have become fixated on bringing the hammer down on little VFD’s that don’t have the resources to withstand OSHA’s heavy-handed actions.

In the last couple of days there has been a lot of buzz around the fire community about the YouTube video showing a VFD training session for new members that involved a live burn.  The problem was they didn’t include SCBA’s as part of the training.

Most people agree that on first glance it looked rather careless (to say the least) to do that.  But the storm of public derision that cropped up when the video became publicized was certainly emphatic enough that I think they probably got the message:  Basic training includes learning that SCBA’s are part of your equipment at all times.

And yet some bureaucrat at OSHA felt the need to thrust himself into the middle of it all and make a very public announcement that they are going to bring the full force of the U. S. Government down on these guys and maybe slap them with thousands of dollars in fines.  Money that could have been better spent on buying some good quality, used SCBA’s for the department, perhaps.

This comes right behind the disclosure last week that OSHA entered a new (arbitrary) ruling in the Federal Register on Nov. 15 that by May 15, 2008, all fire departments will have to issue full PPE for every individual.  That sounds kind of reasonable on the surface and certainly redundant in the case of paid fire depts.  But what about the little country VFD that operates on scant revenues from Saturday morning pancake breakfast fund-raisers?  Jane Wilmoth, editor of Fire Chief magazine, passes along:

Hoffman read the report and contacted OSHA’s Compliance Guidance Group and asked how this ruling would affect volunteer departments.

“According to OSHA guidelines, any person receiving pay, regardless of the amount, is considered an employee and therefore must receive all of their PPE at no cost to them,” Hoffman said. “I asked about the volunteer departments that only pay $1 per call to help cover the cost of gas, and OSHA told me that they would be considered an employee. They also said that all employees are required to each have their own PPE; an employer cannot purchase one set of safety glasses for 20 employees.” The OSHA final rule contains a few exceptions regarding footwear, but does not specifically exempt firefighter boots. 

In other words, no more grab racks for the country firehouse.  This is typical government heavy-handedness.  Just mandate some pie-in-the-sky program without studying the full costs and results of implementing it.  Now before you get all excited and accuse me of propping up unsafe practices, let me point out that I’m in agreement that the ideal is something to strive for.  But this sudden policy of dropping in and forcing results by intimidation is not the way it should be done.

It looks to me like someone at OSHA is on a power grab right now and you have to be careful.  Who knows who will be the next public victim?

Here are the videos that wrought
the fury of the pencil-pushers.
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Let’s get the equipment checked now.  I’ll go start the (UL approved) coffee pot.

It sure doesn’t seem like it’s Monday already.  But by the time this week is over, all of us will be confused in the mornings.  Just two or three days of normal schedules and then the 4-day weekend for Thanksgiving.  Or is it up to 5 now?

When I was a child (and yes, I can remember that far back) the schools closed on Thursday for the holiday and then we were back in class the next day, Friday.  But you see, back then the educators were serious about educating.  They actually held classes and required you to learn.  And the teachers were dedicated to their mission and every June they felt that true inner warmth of accomplishment when the next batch of moppets moved up the achievement ladder to the next grade.

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But not anymore.  The teachers and school administrators have gradually established a system where they can arbitrarily shut down the schools for long periods so they can stay away from work and still get paid.  Many years ago, they added the Friday after Thanksgiving to the list of days off, making a 4-day break for a one-day holiday.

Where I live they brazenly added Wednesday to the “celebration” a while back.  Then last year they helped get the holiday going by making Tuesday an “early release” day and closing the school right after they’ve had their subsidized lunch.  Now they’ve got 5½ days to cook a turkey.

Despite all the chest-thumping and public proclamations at contract-renewal time, there’s not much dedication there anymore.  All they’re looking for is an excuse to get away from the little buggers and education be damned.  And you can see the results for yourself.  Children grow up into adulthood never being required to actually learn how to learn.

We’re getting new-hires now who cannot write a simple paragraph, cannot do basic mathematical calculations, have a limited vocabulary and cannot even read a map.  Ask anyone who teaches fire hydraulics about this.  How do you learn how to calculate friction loss when you don’t know how to square a number or multiply something X5 in your head?

I could go on and on, but you know what I’m talking about.  I think that partially explains why today we are still constantly seeing photographs of fire scenes where the FF’s are running around without SCBA’s on, or failing to don basic things like helmets and gloves.  “Learning” is a foreign word to many people now.  They just keep blundering along expecting somebody else to bail them out of any difficulties of their own making.

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Well, just in case nobody shows up to bail us out today, we’d better get this equipment checked out.  I’ll go start the coffee.

NFPA at the PASS

Yesterday we had a brief discussion about NFPA Technical Committees and then later on there was, coincidentally, an article that mentioned a LODD that was aggravated by a faulty or poorly-designed PASS alarm.

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It has been brought to my attention that the NFPA standard for PASS alarms has just been upgraded substantially and went into effect on September 1st.  Any alarms sold after that date cannot be labeled as “NFPA Compliant” unless they meet this new standard.  The relevant document is NFPA 1982 – Standard on Personal Alert Safety Systems, 2007 edition, and is maintained by the Electronic Safety Equipment Committee.

In a nutshell, this revised standard includes four demanding tests on the devices that are really quite stringent:

1. A water immersion requirement where the device is exposed to 350º for 15 minutes and then immersed in water for 15 minutes.  After six cycles it must still function properly and be completely dry inside.

2. New high-temperature requirement calls for it to be subjected to 500º heat for five minutes without any melting or destruction and maintain all functions including the 95 dBA alarm sound level.

3. It is tumbled in a rotating drum for three hours and then tested to see if it remained fully functional.

4. A new “muffling” test where a subject wearing full gear lays in five prescribed positions and the alarm signal must still be emitted at the required 95 dBA sound level.

It should be noted that the three leading SCBA manufacturers, Scott, MSA and Survivair have all indicated that they will be producing PASS alarms that meet these new standards.

You can look at this new standard HERE.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “View the 2007 edition of this document.”  You’ll still have another couple of clicks to go through after that, but it’s easier than coming up with the $33 to buy one.

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Arrrrrgh !!!

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Yer was warned, Mateys….yesterday was International Talk Like A Pirate Day.  You motley collection of slop buckets wuz tole ter git yer pirate-talk practice in last month.  Now yiz gots ta puts it to use.  Extra bonus points fer yappin’ kerectly in thems comments.  If yiz fails, its a grand keel-haulin’ fer ye.

If any of yer useless scum-puddles needs ta do some last-minute brushin’ up on yer vocablary, go HERE and HERE.

Now git that ‘quipment checked out.  I’ll sees you belowdecks at the coffee barrel.