Will someone please help me understand! In the next two days, two highly respected Texas firefighters will be laid to rest. One a seasoned veteran and one an up and coming leader. These two men did not start the day with a reckless sense of duty. They were being pro active and training, doing something that they probably did before, only this time something went wrong. Was it the equipment? Was it human error? Was it lack of supervision? Was it experience? Only time will tell. My intention is… Continue
My brother has fallen. His name is Johnathan. We don't have the same family, but we are still family. He lives in one town, I live in another. It doesn't really matter because this man is my brother. My brother I call him because he has worked by my side on almost every call. I have brothers and sisters all over the place. You see we are firefighters and our families are one. Around the world, a brotherhood of unity. A closeness, a bond that most people could never understand. I watched your… Continue
Added by Christian Cossey on January 26, 2009 at 11:46pm —
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I wish you could know what it is like to search a burning bedroom for trapped children at 3 AM, flames rolling above your head, your palms and knees burning as you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the kitchen below you burns. I wish you could comprehend a wife's horror at six in the morning as I check her husband of 40 years for a pulse and find none. I start CPR anyway, hoping to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But wanting his wife and family to know everything… Continue
Added by Christian Cossey on January 26, 2009 at 11:43pm —
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I am goint to attend this in March. I am really looking forward to this, especially the presentation on the Charleston fire. It will be my first time to attend anything at the NFA, and I am going alone. Is anyone on this site going to attend also. I would love to meet some of the great fire service people from this community. Stay safe and take care.
After almost 17 years with the state of Ohio I decided it was time to move on. On December 15th I began working for a government contractor called L-3 Communications. They are the 8th largest contractor to the Feds and part of an even larger conglomerate. I am assigned to the Ohio Emergency Managment Agency and tasked with working on a team that develops and delivers exercises to the state agencies and the counties of Ohio.
Added by Robert Rhoades on January 19, 2009 at 5:34pm —
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Here in Southwestern Pennsylvania, we have been experiencing colder than average temperatures lately. Potentially, we will be responding to more furnace malfunctioning calls, CO calls, water break calls, wires down calls, in addition to our fire calls and vehicle crashes. Please take care and buckle up when responding to the fire station. We need you to arrive safely in order for us to do the job efficiently.
Some tips:
Dress in layers when responding and just in general… Continue
Added by Andy Marsh on January 18, 2009 at 7:08am —
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What is everyone's thought on these? We currently don't have anything in place formally for tool assignments, I am in support of the concept and just looking for more pro's and con's that I may have overlooked.
If you played organized sports, you were assigned a position, and, a task with that position. If you didn't do it, you sat and the coach found someone that would. Why are more departments not creating riding assignments? It can be done from the largest to the smallest department. It creates accountibility, reduces duplication of effort, and gets the job done.
Does your department have a good foundation for its SOG/SOP's do they make sense? Do they build from simple to complex? Does the first alarm have pre-determinded assignments? What is your staffing like? Does the SOG properly address the fireground basics ? lets talk about these questions what can we do to fix or change broken SOG's or create ones where none have existed.
Added by Dave Gallagher on January 16, 2009 at 11:33am —
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January 1, 2009 the Cloquet Fire Department merged with another local jurisdiction to form the Cloquet Area Fire District. Please feel free to visit our new websit. It contains contact info, a training/incident blog, and department history. It is currently still under construction, but content is being added daily. www.cloquetareafiredistrict.com
Added by Kevin Schroeder on January 15, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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Be careful tonight, we're in for 20 below zero temps with wind chills near 40 below tonight! Water freezes faster and our muscles tighten up exceptionally fast in this type of weather! Take it easy and do some stretches today to keep in shape. Call for manpower if needed!
Take Care and Stay Safe,
-Rob
Added by Rob Cannon on January 15, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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I am writing this blog for all everyone to get to know who I am and what my experiences are and where I am going in the fire service. Feel free to message me any advice... I want to learn and never stop!
Well I am from Northern Illinois, born and raised. I grew up like many families, mom,dad and siblings. my mom knew I destined to for the fire service when I was 5 years old when we tookt he first trip to the fire station. I climbed on every piece asked every typical question a 5 yeat… Continue
If you're checking this out, I hope this finds you well and ready for a great new year! I have the great honor of knowing some of the contributors here and I look forward to interacting with this community.
Wow! There were 114 Line of Duty Deaths for 2008. Did you see the statistics? So many categories, so many stats. Tucked inside those numbers are the stories, brief as they are, of how those firefighters died in the line of duty. Pennsylvania was tied for second with Oregon in LODDs behind North Carolina. It sickens me to have to state it that way, but however its said, the fact remains the same. Here in PA, we have had 203 fire departments suffer at least 1 lodd. That's about 10% of our State's… Continue
Added by Andy Marsh on January 11, 2009 at 6:25am —
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I'm a computer programmer and one of my current interests is "community" software.
I started creating software 30 yrs ago and have been a paid professional for 19 yrs now. My wife and 2 sons and I reside in Broken Arrow, just outside of Tulsa, OK.
When I joined PennWell in July of 2008 the first website I updated was the Courage & Valor Foundation. Since then I've become involved in an effort to be able to provide all the PennWell websites with "community" features,… Continue
Added by James Stansell on January 10, 2009 at 1:35am —
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Things have been pretty crazy over and up here for the last 3 weeks with the hard hitting snow, now it has all melted within two days plus 14" of rain within the last 60 hours. The flooding is amazing and devastating. The fire departments across Western Washington have had their hands full with water craft and helicopter rescues consistant for the last 3 days. Amazingly enough, there has yet to be a loss of life that I know of. Knock on wood(if you see…
Most people who are killed in structure fires die from the smoke not the flames or fire. Generally they are overcome by the smoke and lack of oxygen as the fire takes all the oxygen and replaces the airspace with smoke. There needs to be a way to get these people out of the fire situation and structure immediately to prevent loss of life, however without good visibility one cannot see to get to a fire escape, stairway or exit.
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