Fire Service Today

Study correlating firefighter crew size and rescue times highlighted in NFPA Journal

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently released findings from a study pinpointing how firefighter crew sizes impact operations and safety in high-rise settings. Highlighted in the latest issue of NFPA Journal, the results shed light on a topic that has gained significant attention following budget cuts, staff shortages, and fire department closures.

The study's aim is to help guide future provisions in NFPA 1710, Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments.

“NFPA 1710 technical committee members have been limited to anecdotal info [on high-rise fires] in the past,” says NFPA regional director Russ Sanders, a technical expert for the NIST study. “I can’t overemphasize how important it is that this scientific information is now available to the committee, which will closely review, consider, and implement these lessons learned into this standard."

Check out this story and others from the In A Flash section of the May/June issue ofJournal.

Work in Progress: America Burning at 40 - We need data!!

This is the second in a series of posts about the 40^th anniversary of America Burning and the related NFPA Journal article. The National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control was frustrated by how little was known about the causes and circumstances of fires. In the very first chapter, the Commission recommended “that a national fire data system be established to provide a continuing review and analysis of the entire fire problem. USFA’s National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), the source of detailed information in most of NFPA’s statistical analyses, was the result. 

The country also needed a better understanding of fire behavior and fire department productivity. This led to NIST’s Center for Fire Research and fire.gov – “Better firefighting through research.”

We still have data needs. Currently, NFPA is entering the public comment phase for the second draft of the proposed NFPA 950: Standard for Data Development and Exchange for the Fire Service and seeking input or proposals for the proposed NFPA 951: Guide to Building and Utilizing Digital Information.

What kinds of data or information do you use or need about fire? Where or how do you get it? What are the obstacles? How could we get better data?

Listen to John Hall, Division Director of NFPA‘s Fire Analysis and Research Division, discuss data issues. Dr. Hall was involved in the early years of NFIRS at the USFA and is still using it today. After you listen, please share your thoughts.

 

U.S. Fire Administration's National Arson Awareness Week gets kicked off

The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) chose “Reducing Residential Arson,” as the theme for the 2013 Arson Awareness Week (AAW) which got kicked off yesterday, May 5th.  

USFA and its partners will use the week of May 5-11 to focus public attention on residential arson and provide communities with tools to reduce the incidence of this crime. The goal for this year’s Arson Awareness Week is to provide all residents with strategies to combat arson in their neighborhoods.

The topic of arson if a very timely and important one. As detailed in a recent Fire Service Today blog post, recent research showed that April of 2013 saw a spike in the number of arson fires. 

Here are some of the resources and information provided by USFA to help you learn more:

• Why Arson? - information about the primary motivations behind the burning of homes.
• Residential Arson Facts - statistics about the U.S. arson problem.
• U.S. Fire Administration Arson Resources - Publications, training and data collection resources to help fire departments combat residential arson in their communities.

NFPA also has several research reports, stats and even a free presentation, “Preventing Arson Together” available as resources on this important subject. 

New reports available on Risk-Based Decision Support in Managing Unwanted Alarms

From 1980 to 2009, the number of fire department emergency responses more than doubled, from 10.8 million to 26.5 million, primarily driven by the more than tripling of medical aid calls, from 5.0 million in 1980 to 17.1 million in 2009. Fire department budgets have not kept pace with this rising volume of workload, and particularly in recent years, there has been increased concern about the cost of unnecessary responses. From 1980 to 2009, the number of emergency responses to fires fell by more than half, from 3.0 million to 1.3 million, and the number of emergency responses for fires or mutual aid fell by about one-fifth, but emergency responses to “false” alarms more than doubled, from 0.9 million to 2.2 million. The unwanted alarm issue changed over the past third of a century from a problem of malicious false alarms to an issue of non-fire activations of automatic detection and alarm systems.

From the point of view of the fire department, a response to a condition that does not need fire department action in order to avoid loss is both a waste of resources and a needless risk of injury during the response. Response to unwanted alarms is an issue that is receiving increasing attention at the community level. 

This project was initiated by the Fire Protection Research Foundation to develop and implement a tool that can be used at the community level to assess risk, sand cost/benefit of strategies to reduce these risks, including appropriate emergency response protocols, enforcement of inspection and maintenance requirements, community education, etc. The goal of this project was to develop a practical, model-based tool that can be used by local fire departments with local data (to the extent possible) when deciding among courses of action to deal with unwanted alarms. The tool uses a generic model, combined with local data when available and national data when necessary, to estimate costs, fire losses and other impacts of strategies. 

Three reports were produced for this project. The first is a literature review, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, the second, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, is a report that describes the tool and the underlying model that estimates costs, losses and other impacts for alternative strategies. It includes national data needed for calculating fire losses under alternate strategies. A third report, Development of a Risk-Based Decision Support Tool to Assist Fire Departments in Managing Unwanted Alarms, details a local data form that was also developed to collect data for use in the tool.

If you are interested in exploring the application of this methodology in your community, please contact the Foundation for more information. 

New NIST study evaluates effectiveness of crew sizes in high rise fires

A major new study released today by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), concludes that firefighting crews of five or six members—instead of three or four—are significantly faster in putting out fires and completing search-and-rescue operations when responding to fires in high-rise buildings.

"Unlike most house fires, high-rise fires are high-hazard situations that pose unique operational challenges to fire service response. How big a fire gets and how much danger it poses to occupants and firefighters are largely determined by crew size and how personnel are deployed at the scene," says lead researcher Jason Averill, a NIST fire-protection engineer. "It's not simply that larger crews have more people. Larger crews are deployed differently and, as a result, are able to perform required tasks more quickly."

The Report on High Rise Fireground Filed Experiments explores the outcome of the experiments funded by the FEMA Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program and conducted in a 13-story vacant high-rise office building in Crystal City, Va., with the support of local-area fire departments. The study involved 48 separate controlled experiments, plus 48 corresponding computer-modeling simulations, which evaluated three types of representative fires, from slow- to fast-growing.

The report is the latest in a series of firefighter safety and deployment studies conducted by NIST, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and four other organizations, including the IAFC.

In an analysis of 14 critical tasks, the high rise study found that three-member crews took almost 12 minutes longer than crews of four, 21 minutes longer than crews of five and 23 minutes longer than crews of six to complete all tasks. Four-person crews took 9 minutes and 11 minutes longer than five- and six-member crews did, respectively.

On the basis of the results of computer modeling, which incorporated data from live experimental burns, the study team concluded that smaller crews end up facing larger fires because of the additional time required to complete tasks.

The study also explores such variables as the effect of using fire service access elevators to move firefighters and equipment up to the staging floor and the differences in sounding a higher initial alarm with smaller crews vs. low-alarm response with larger crews.

While much less frequent than house fires, about 43 high-rise fires occur in the United States every day, according to the NFPA.

"Rather than providing a one-size-fits-all answer, our study provides a scientific basis for discussions in communities as they consider matching resources deployed to their particular risk levels." says Averill.

Download the Report on High Rise Fireground Filed Experiments. Also, for more information, view a recent Fire Protection Research Foundation report on total evactuation systems for tall buildings or a an NFPA report on high-rise building fires. 

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.

NFFF soliciting quotes from web development and consulting firms for online Vulnerability Assessment Tool

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) is soliciting quotes from web development and consulting firms across the US for the purposes of building an online Vulnerability Assessment Tool that will provide fire departments with an easily accessible and low-cost systematic process to evaluate the risk of firefighter injuries and deaths within their organization. Our objective is to determine level of interest, appropriate qualifications, and estimated cost from a select list of companies. After which, we will issue an RFP to the quote finalist for the contract to build the tool.

We would hereby like to invite your company to submit a quote in accordance with the guidelines in the attached Request for Quotations (RFQ)

. Your firm has been referred to us as a supplier of high quality work.

Within the RFQ, you will find all the information necessary to conduct a proper assessment of the NFFF’s requirements.

If you would like to submit a quote, please confirm your contact information by replying to this email with the following details by January 16, 2013. Please direct your email to Dr. JoEllen Kelly (jkelly@everyonegoeshome.com ):

 Institution name

 Contact person (First Name, Last Name)

 Email address

 Telephone number

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Ronald J. Siarnicki, Executive Director

Chief Ron Siarnicki

Executive Director, NFFF

For more information on the Vulnerability Assessment Tool visit http://www.firehero.org.

Download NFFF VAP RFQ__January_10_2013_Final2

Take our survey on emerging issues in fire and electrical safety

In 2008, the Fire Protection Research Foundation published its 5 year Strategic Research Agenda, which played an important role in guiding The Foundation's activities over the past four years. That agenda was developed in part through a broad outreach in our community to identify emerging issues likely to impact NFPA codes and standards in the future.

We are revising our agenda and we need your help. Please take a few minutes to provide us with your input on the key emerging issues likely to impact fire and electrical safety in the next five years. Your candid insights are very important to us. We value your feedback.

The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete. Your answers are confidential and will only be used in combination with responses from the other participants.

To participate, please click on the following link, or copy and paste the link into the address line of your browser.

https://www.research.net/s/G7BKNJN

We appreciate your taking the time to complete our survey. Thank you!

Comments or concerns? Contact Janet Halpern. 

New NFPA report looks at volunteer firefighter injuries

A new report, by NFPA's Michael J. Karter, Jr., presents an analysis of volunteer firefighter injuries between 2009 and 2011. The report was undertaken to compare the experience of volunteer firefighters to all firefighter injuries. Departments that protect communities of less than 10,000 population are comprised mostly of volunteer firefighters.

Among the findings of the report:

• For injuries by type of duty, volunteers (56.6%) were more likely to receive injuries at the fireground than all firefighters combined (43.3%), and volunteers (12.1%) were less apt to be injured at nonfire emergencies than for all firefighters (19.9%). This is due to the fact that many smaller departments do not provide EMS service, so nonfire emergencies are a smaller component of their overall incidents, while fires are a larger component.
• For injuries at the fireground, the leading types of injuries were strain, sprains, muscular pain, accounting for 2,145 injuries; wound, cut, bleeding, bruise, accounting for 1,450 injuries; frostbite, heat stroke, accounting for 1,200 injuries; and smoke or gas inhalation, accounting for 710 injuries. For all types of duty, wound, cut, bleeding, bruise and strain, sprains, muscular pain accounted for the largest shares of injuries.

Read the entire report, available for free on NFPA's website.

Changing Technology and the Potential Impacts.

With the holiday travel season well upon us, I urge you to check out this link to a pretty interesting video. I don't want give away too much about the content of the video but I guarantee you that you will find it rather amazing. Once you have seen it I think we would need to ask ourselves that if this new technology were to gain traction, would we need to change or modify the current way we approach aircraft? Not only might is change the way we approach aircraft, but think of the many other applications or technologies this could be introduced to.

Have a happy and safe holiday season.

Ken Holland