In the early 1970’s, Ludwig Benner, a chemical engineer working for the National Transportation Safety Board identified a model of container behavior in hazardous materials incidents that provides impact points for risk reduction actions and provides a model for container and product behavior to help guide emergency response. The General Hazardous Materials Behavior Model (GEBMO) is a chain of events from the start of an…
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Added by Dave Donohue on July 25, 2024 at 1:41pm —
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The Totality of Transitioning to a Training Officer
One (1) of the supreme facets of being promoted to a role within the Office of Training, is that you now play an instrumental part with influencing the level of success that the Officers and Firefighters will achieve during their tenure within your respective department.…
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Added by AB Turenne on July 14, 2024 at 9:30pm —
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Ice Bath for Mental Health: Shifting our Mindset
Ice baths are all the rage right now. Most of us in the fire service are familiar with the “fun” times spent in the ice bath back in the day. If you played any sport, there is a good chance you have had the opportunity to experience the cold. It seems like every other social media post or podcast discusses or advertises an ice bath for at-home use. What once was a luxury reserved for professional athletes is now making it into the fire…
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Added by Ben Dubin on July 13, 2024 at 8:54pm —
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Emergency response is the cornerstone of hazardous materials teams. While response is important, there are other activities that hazardous materials teams can be involved in that further integrate hazardous materials into the organization, provided added benefits, and open routes to potential new funding streams.
Support at Fire Scenes
The hazardous materials team is capable of providing support at fire scenes with actions that will improve the health and safety of responders.…
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Added by Dave Donohue on July 13, 2024 at 8:30am —
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Whether your organization is career, volunteer, or combination, it is likely having difficulty finding qualified individuals to fill its ranks. While recruiting new members has been an issue for some time, the changing demographics of the nation are being skipped as an underlying cause. Consequently, we are missing some opportunities for identifying and guiding folks…
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Added by Dave Donohue on July 10, 2024 at 11:00am —
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Hazardous Materials Hot Line© July 4, 2024
CSB Issues Statement on Hurricane & Weather Preparedness
The U. S. Chemical Safety Board has issued a statement cautioning facility owners to prepare for an active hurricane season.
Discussion: The CSB has previously released reports on two incidents that resulted from hurricane & tropical weather. The…
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Added by Dave Donohue on July 7, 2024 at 11:21am —
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Ask your self, “why do we, the fire and emergency medical services exist?” If you are like most of us, your answer will be something like, “to respond to calls to make the community safer and to save lives.” You aren’t wrong, but the question you should be asking is, “why does the community want us to exist?”. That answer is a little different and it is one that we need to answer if we want to communicate our needs in meeting their expectations.
The reality is that communities…
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Added by Dave Donohue on July 6, 2024 at 11:30am —
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Red to Rung and the 2:1
This week, I am going to introduce the idea and concept of utilizing a pre-rigged mechanical
advantage along with a thrown extension ladder as an overhead anchor point that was shown to
me by the senior man on shift when I first…
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Added by AB Turenne on July 3, 2024 at 11:00am —
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"The Rules of Going to War"
With the implementation of Incident Command (IC), the tone for operational success and the overall safety of the Officers and Firefighters working on scene can be determined with what resources are established from the start.
The fire service as…
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Added by AB Turenne on June 24, 2024 at 3:02pm —
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Size-Up Consideration for the Summer Structure Fire
With each changing season here in New England comes a change in approach when performing a size-up and conducting a 360 of a structure potentially on fire and possibly occupied at the time of call.
Being the first week of June 2024, we have already begun to experience exposures to high heat and humidity with many already having their…
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Added by AB Turenne on June 3, 2024 at 3:00pm —
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Many years ago, I was presented with an opportunity to deliver a fire safety talk to a group of visually impaired senior citizens. I struggled a bit wondering how I was going to accomplish that and what I would tell them. I was overthinking it, partly because it would be my first time speaking to such a…
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Added by Andy Marsh on May 21, 2024 at 12:48pm —
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Property Storage or Personal Shelter
It is no secret that today’s economy is having an astronomical impact on the ability for the working class…
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Added by AB Turenne on May 20, 2024 at 2:01pm —
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And the Captain says,..."let there be light"
When implementing a RIT-PAK during FAST/RIT training, a common response from those participating is that “the greatest obstacle is the limited dexterity of a gloved hand and low visibility environment” when trying to manipulate the compartments and applying the hose for…
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Added by AB Turenne on May 6, 2024 at 1:00pm —
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Protest Preparedness – Defeating Demonstration Devices
With today’s political climate continuously escalating from matters both domestic and foreign, incidents of protest (demonstrations) and civil unrest (riots) are becoming more prevalent in both rural and suburban geographical areas of the United States.…
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Added by AB Turenne on April 24, 2024 at 12:00pm —
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Photo Credit: Alan Baker
Customer service has been a buzz word in the fire service for decades now. As the fire service…
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Added by Clay Magee on November 9, 2023 at 9:30pm —
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Added by Terrence on October 25, 2023 at 2:16pm —
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Added by scott corrigan on October 18, 2023 at 1:19pm —
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In the realm of firefighting, leadership is not just about making decisions; it's about ensuring the safety of communities and the lives of firefighters on the front lines. Leadership that forgets about the rank and file can have far-reaching consequences, and it's a critical issue to address. In this blog post, we'll explore what happens when leadership neglects the rank and file in the firefighting profession and the invaluable lessons we can draw from these…
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Added by Terrence on October 16, 2023 at 3:25pm —
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Communication is key in much of our daily life. As much as we try, we sometimes have that “failure to communicate”. That said, to avoid some confusion, there is a need to let go of the term and the concept of “false alarms”. Smoke alarm or smoke detector activations related to “culinary mishaps”, burnt popcorn, or burnt whatever in the microwave or a pot of food on the stovetop, are not false alarms. Those devices did their job. Even in the case of when steam sets those devices off, those…
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Added by Andy Marsh on August 18, 2023 at 1:58pm —
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Rehabilitation for Emergency Operations
Establishing and implementing a strong rehabilitation process for firefighters during emergency operations is extremely important and creates numerous benefits. Due to overexertion on the fireground, combined with the existing temperature and humidity of the 2023 summer season, firefighters face a variety of risks including dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.
In an…
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Added by AB Turenne on July 3, 2023 at 3:00pm —
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