Fire Service Today

Free California webinar on firefighting operations in the wildland/urban interface

Our friends at the California Fire Science Consortium hold great, FREE, one-hour webinars on all kinds of wildfire topics. Next on their list is "Fire Operations in the Wildland-Urban Interface", presented by CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Phill Veneris on Wednesday, May 22 at 12 pm Pacific Time.    

Chief Veneris is a CAL FIRE ICS Type 1 Incident Commander, Operations Section Chief, and Safety Officer. During this presentation, he’ll discuss Firefighting Operations in the Wildland Urban Interface from a California perspective, using information and products from both his department, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) as well as the latest publications from FIrefightingRESources of California Organized for Potential Emergencies (FIRESCOPE). This information is useful for both the company officer as well as the incident commander when faced with a fire in the wildland urban interface and evacuating residents in the fire’s path.  

You can register here: http://www.cafiresci.org/2013-webinars/. Be sure to also check out the long list of previous webinars, recorded for your listening and viewing pleasure! Topics range from fire behavior to Firewise to planning and community engagement. 

NFPA attends ARFF Working Group's Chief and Leadership school

Recently the ARFF Working Group’s Chief and Leadership school, that was held in Newport Beach, CA, featured several classes on the NFPA standards. Some of those standards were NFPA 1003, Standard for Airport Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications, NFPA 405, Standard for the Recurring Proficiency of Airport Fire Fighters, NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officer Professional Qualifications, NFPA 1006, Standard for Technical Rescuer Professional Qualifications, NFPA 1620, Standard for Pre-Incident Planning, NFPA 1670, Standard on Operations and Training for Technical Search and Rescue Incidents, NFPA 1600, Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs, NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, NFPA 403, Standard for Aircraft Rescue and Fire-Fighting Services at Airports, and NFPA 1561,  Standard on Emergency Services Incident Management System just to name a few.

I had the pleasure of presenting on the NFPA process as a whole and how each individual person can get involved in the work of the technical committees responsible for these documents through applying to be a technical committee member or submitting public input to make changes to these or any NFPA documents.

In the picture is Chief Duane Kann who is the fire chief for the Greater Orlando Airport Authority and NFPA’s technical committee chair for the Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting technical committee. His presentation, while denoting bioterrorism in its title, encompassed much more than that. It covered pre-planning for an incident, incident command, multi-agency participation including local law enforcement, FBI, medical service providers, Center for Disease Control, Food and Drug Administration, and airport management for business continuity purposes. While the presentation highlighted a drill that was conducted at the airport focusing on the detonation of an explosive device that dispersed a biological agent it was also an opportunity to see just how many different NFPA standards there are that cover many of the aspect of the drill. It was interesting to sit in the audience and be able to come up with a list of as many NFPA standards I could and interesting enough they all didn’t revolve around ARFF.

It wasn’t only Chief Kann’s presentation that this applied to but rather it was the majority of presentations that could, in one way or another, be tied or related to an NFPA standard. Another example was a presentation on the underground construction that was being conducted at Washington Dulles International Airport. Before construction could begin the airport fire fighters had to become certified to NFPA 1006 in the event there was a need for technical rescue.

Needless to say the Chief’s Leadership was a great success and it is rather interesting to see just how many applicable NFPA standards there are that can be tied to ARFF and also many other day to day activities. 

Ken Holland

East Providence, RI firefighters forced to escape an intense overnight fire

 

A close call in East Providence occured this weekend and was caught on video. Neighbors say the large home that was destroyed by the fire has been in place for over 60 years. Firefighters arrived around 10:30pm to find heavy fire on the first and second floors. Flames quickly spread throughout the structure. Two occupants who were home at the time were able to escape unharmed while a third could not be located on scene.

During the interior attack, three firefighters were forced to exit through a third floor window after becoming trapped by heavy fire conditions. EPFD Ladder 1 was in place to serve as an evacuation route for those firefighters, who escaped unharmed. Incident command then ordered all remaining firefighters out of the building. Following the evacuation broadcast over the radio, emergency sirens and air horns filled the neighborhood to serve as an additional warning signal to firefighters working the scene. With flames continuing to push from the upper windows and roof area, the third floor roof suffered a partial collapse. Companies were withheld from entering the building thereafter. Master streams were set up to work along with multiple hand lines placed around the home. Firefighters were still actively working on Walnut street into the morning hours.

According to acting fire chief Oscar Elmasian, all available apparatus within East Providence was called to the scene while mutual aid fire companies from surrounding communities assisted to cover the rest of the city.

10th anniversary of The Station nightclub fire

Parallels drawn between recent Kiss nightclub fire in Brazil and The Station Night Club

The recent tragic fire at Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil is reminiscent of The Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island in 2003. As the 10^th anniversary of The Station fire is nearing, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is offering expanded resources on its webpage on nightclub and assembly fires. The Kiss nightclub fire is ranked third on NFPA’s list of the deadliest nightclub fires in the world; The Station is ranked tenth.

“These incidents, and the deaths they caused, clearly could have been avoided if recommended safety requirements had been followed and regulations enforced,” said NFPA President James M. Shannon. “NFPA has a history rooted in modifying its codes and standards based on lessons learned from catastrophic events, including The Station fire, and to see so many lives lost in the Kiss nightclub fire a decade later, reportedly due to obvious fire and life safety lapses, is unacceptable. We need to learn from history and not repeat it.”

 

Video: NFPA President Jim Shannon on NFPA’s response to the nightclub fire in Santa Maria, Brazil and its similarities to The Station. 

 

Video: NFPA’s Robert Solomon talks about why tragic nightclub fires keep happening.

  

Video: NFPA’s Robert Solomon highlights what consumers can do to protect themselves when they visit nightclubs and other public assembly venues.

 

On February 20, 2003, the band Great White was playing at a West Warwick, R.I. nightclub called The Station. When the band released a pyrotechnic sparks display, highly flammable acoustic foam panels in the walls of the club caught fire. The club was beyond capacity, with 462 people in attendance when it was only licensed for 404. One hundred lost their lives.

News coverage of events that occurred at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil on January 27, describe the following:  While performing, the band Gurizada Fandangueira ignited an outdoor pyrotechnic device, which then ignited flammable acoustic foam in the ceiling. The flames spread rapidly throughout the club. The club was overcrowded and club-goers quickly swamped the front door – reportedly the only usable exit – trapping many inside. As of February 5, there have been 238 recorded deaths.

Both of these nightclubs encountered parallel fire hazards:

• They were overcrowded
• They had inadequate exits
• Pyrotechnics were used indoors
• There were flammable interior finish materials
• Neither building had sprinklers installed.

For more information, visit www.nfpa.org/nightclub.

The Roles of Fire and EMS Personnel in Armed Attacks

Posted on January 3, 2013 by U.S. Deputy Fire Administrator Glenn Gaines

More than two hundred and sixty five people have been killed in multiple death armed attacks since the Littleton, Colorado Columbine High School shootings in 1999 through the most recent armed attack at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

As members of the fire service we now know that no-notice events such as Aurora, Colorado; Portland, Oregon and Sandy Hook have and will occur anywhere, at any place, to anyone or demographic. There is not one among us who hasn't been touched by the  more recent events in Webster, New York where firefighters became the target of a planned armed attack.

Accordingly, the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is undertaking a study of these events in both this country and internationally to identify risk commonalities and best practices to successfully respond to these diverse incidents. The topical report will be released later this month and is currently undergoing extensive peer reviews. Extraordinary efforts on the part of local fire/rescue and EMS agencies have to be taken in order to protect fire and EMS personnel and experience maximum success in saving civilian lives. These events may play out over an extended period of time, requiring large EMS triage, treatment and transportation efforts, under dangerous and unfamiliar conditions to fire and EMS personnel.

In the interim, USFA offers these universal steps to ensure fire and EMS personnel are best prepared to meet this unique and challenging threat.

The most important action we can take is to determine the lead agency for these incidents. In the vast majority of cases, law enforcement will serve in this capacity. Regardless of lead agency declaration, make contact with local or state law enforcement officials and special operations team leadership to become familiar with their strategies and tactical operations.  Some possible subjects for  discussion and planning follow:

• Potential roles and equipment law enforcement expects from fire and EMS assets (e.g., forcible  entry, lights, aerial devices, etc.).
• Review command, control and communications operations.
• Review of NIMS terminology along with any technical law enforcement terminology fire and  EMS personnel may have a need to know.
• A discussion of how survivor triage will occur and if law enforcement desires training in same.
• How will injured law enforcement officers be managed? Early on in the incident a  protected area should be declared and communicated to EMS leadership.
• Casualty collection points for citizens, EMS triage and how transportation and communications with area hospitals occur.
• What steps should be taken at high risk occupancies to mitigate the loss of life and coordinate with first response personnel.
• Once the plan is developed, it should be exercised and updated annually.

There is much more valuable information to be learned from past events and the best practices created by those who have experienced one of these incidents. We encourage you to go to the following sources for more information.

• Baldanza, M. V. (2005). Fire department response to "active shooter" incidents. Fire Engineering. 158(9). 105-106. (requires account to access)
• Hamilton,  S. (2012). Responding to scenes of violence. Fire Engineering. 165(9), 26+. (requires account to access)
• Ludwig,  G. G. (2012). The active shooter: A special challenge - plan and practice your fire-EMS response to mass-casualty shootings. Firehouse. 37(7), 34.
• Renaud,  C. E. (2010). Making sense in the edge of chaos: A framework for effective initial response efforts to large-scale incidents. Master's Thesis. Monterey,  California: Naval Postgraduate School.
• U.S. Fire Administration. (2012). Fire service operations for the Southeastern tornadoes: April 2011 (PDF, 1.5 Mb). Emmitsburg, Md.: The Administration.
• U.S. Fire Administration., & TriData Corporation. (1999). Wanton violence at Columbine High School (PDF, 2.3 Mb), April 20, 1999: Special report. Emmitsburg, Md.: The  Administration.
• Vernon,  A. (2012). Response priorities for mass violence incidents. Fire Engineering.  165(6), 95-96+. (requires account to access)
• Wylie,  Rob. (October 18, 2012) Fireground commentary - mass shootings. Retrieved from http://flashovertv.firerescue1.com

Learning to fight the modern fire in a modern way

Until this week, revolutionary firefighting research faced a hurdle higher than the scientific discoveries themselves: How to inform the nation’s 1.1 million firefighters – 70 percent of whom are part-time volunteers – about techniques that should replace decades-old practices?

On October 19, 2012, at the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association Conference, a research team headed by Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) intends to clear that hurdle by unveiling a unique, game-based computer program designed specifically to educate, train, and disseminate information to the nationwide firefighting community.

This methodology is an important step in the translation of research into practice, and an integral part of the fire research being conducted at the University. Previous phases of the ongoing research program that began in 2007 addressed strategies for fighting wind-driven fires in high-rise buildings. The efficacy of these firefighting procedures was demonstrated by NYU-Poly partnering with the Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The potential of these procedures and other research-based firefighting interventions to save lives and property has a significant impact on civilian safety as well. Nationwide last year, firefighters responded to 484,500 building fires, in which 2,640 people died and 15,635 were injured, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Link to complete article.

Steven Sawyer

Draft proposed NFPA 1408, Standard for Training Fire Service Personnel in the Operation, Care, Use and Maintenance of Thermal Imagers Available for Input

A proposed draft of NFPA 1408, Standard for Training Fire Service Personnel in the Operation, Care, Use and Maintenance of Thermal Imagers is available for public input. The pulic input closing date is January 4, 2013. For more information go to www.nfpa.org/1408.

Steven Sawyer 

Tanker explosion caught on tape

Flames burst into the sky on this Louisiana interstate in the middle of the night, sending fire and smoke rolling into the air over Baton Rouge.

The source, a damaged tanker, was part of a multi-vehicle accident that caused a traffic nightmare on an inner-state highway yesterday.

Crews set off this controlled burn to get rid of leaking isobutane — an extremely flammable gas, and stabilize the incident. Sometimes the incident action plan, or IAP, requires that we start a fire or create an explosion as well as extinguish the fire.

Firefighters controlled the flames nearly two hours later.

People living nearby were temporarily evacuated.

New 2012 ERG's Available

The New 2012 ERG's is an important first responder tool that has just completed revision and is now available.  It is the 2012 Emergency Responders Guidebook which DOT produces for first responders who may encounter accidents or incidents involving hazmat. We are trying to get the word out to firefighters, police and others that it’s available for free, along with a intro video narrated by our Deputy Administrator, Tim Butters, who is a former fire chief.

The ERG contains an indexed list of dangerous goods and the associated ID number, the general
hazards they pose and recommended safety precautions. For example, if emergency responders arrive at the scene of an overturned tractor trailer displaying a DOT hazmat placard, they would use the guide to identify the material associated with the placard and how to respond accordingly.

2012 Emergency Responders Guide Intro Video (5 minutes)

For additional quidance on Haz-mat response see NFPA 472.

Federal Highway Administration rolls out traffic incident management public information toolkit

The Federal Highway Administration’s Office of Operations recently unveiled its Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Public Outreach Toolkit. TIM is important to the safety and reliability of our roadways and this toolkit will provide the tools you need to educate the public. These tools were developed to help TIM programs across the country promote their message clearly and cost-effectively. The goal of this toolkit is to help teach the general public about the value of TIM and how we can work together towards the goal of safe, free-flowing, reliable roadways for everyone.

Toolkit materials include talking points, sample press releases, PowerPoint presentations, brochures, posters and more.

View the entire toolkit and begin utilizing it today.