Grant Schwalbe's Blog – December 2014 Archive (2)

Each year we loose approximately 100 firefighters in the line of duty.  While all of the deaths are tragic and traumatizing to those involved, sadly many of them are the same story repeated over and over.  Vehicle accidents and heart attacks are common themes in the LODD notifications, while “combat casualties” seem to be the exception rather than the rule.

We vow “never to forget” and “not to let our brothers die in vain”. Do we really do this?  Do you pull up the NIOSH…

Today I read the US Fire Administration’s report on the Worcester Fire from December 3^rd, 1999.  It’s a significant fire in terms of life lost and lessons learned.  I’ve read the report before and many others like it, but today something struck me.  It was the description at the front of the report on the condition of the Fire Department at the time of the incident.  I’ve never given too much thought to it before. In some LODD reports you can see obvious problems (now that we know…