technology
Interior Firefighting is Becoming Obsolete—We Just Don’t Know It
I’m not saying that firefighting as a whole is becoming obsolete, but I am proposing that we need to get out of the “pot” before we become boiled. Our approach to interior structural firefighting needs some serious restructuring lest we will only see more firefighters encountering flashovers upon arrival, structures weakened to their collapse point before firefighters arrive, and firefighters developing cancers more frequently from airborne and skin exposure hazards.
What They Don’t Know, But We Do
We're not "carrying the day" with effective public fire and life safety programs that provide the factual information about residential fire sprinklers. We're allowing the builders and developers to promulgate the "half-truths" and myths.
The Dawning of the Age of Enlightenment for the Fire Service
Why do I characterize our current day as the Age of Enlightenment for the fire service? Because after decades of firefighting strategy and tactics that are based upon the “I think, feel or believe” method of decision-making we’ve entered into an era where technologies and applied research are yielding the information we need to truly move toward becoming a data driven decision-making profession.
Fire Prevention and Suppression: The Fire Service’s Identity Crisis
Driving a car once was an extremely dangerous activity for the average person (and it still is for people that don’t give it their full attention). In the United States, we’ve made significant reductions in the mortality and morbidity statistics associated with motor vehicle crashes and we’ve done it through education, engineering, and enforcement. We’re far past the time when we need to put more of our energies and efforts into those “3-E’s”—way more!—when it comes to eliminating preventable fires in our communities.
Delivering Customer Service with Lights and Sirens
A Fire Medic Perspective: Delivering Customer Service with Lights and Sirens. Rom Duckworth discusses how a culture of customer service can work in the real-world with retired Battalion Chief (and prolific author) Rob Avsec.
5 game-changing fire truck technologies
Here are five game-changing technologies in fire apparatus that will have a major influence on firefighter safety, efficiency and operations for years to come.
Fire and Injury Prevention for the Communities We Serve: A New Way
We’ve not had a significant impact on preventable fires with our current methodologies. To paraphrase a popular management mantra for change these days, “What got you here, won’t get you there.”
NFIRS Data: Using Thought Leadership Media
Robert - this article is right on track. I've personally been involved in using NFIRS data to justify the need for new Stations, Rigs and Personnel. It was response time analysis that allowed us to show areas of the city where we were falling short. That data helped convince the politicians and taxpayers, both.
Reader Comments: Children Don’t Cause Fires, Adults Do
We focus on the young likely because its easy. But, what we Fire Prevention Demoprovide in education is often lost in an overriding effort to entertain them. Further, without reinforcement of the fire safe/prevention message in their home environment, any value is soon lost to the parent's daily example/attitudes towards fire safety.
What’s your department’s funding strategy?
Let’s “cut to the chase”, shall we? We've got many paradigms in the fire service that we need to “break" and one of them is how we seek resources to get the job done.
What will it take to get HEHLT on every electric stove top in the USA?
Make sure it really works? Are they serious? This is just some of what's been happening while NFPA and its research partners examine "mitigation technologies"...people continue to be killed and injured and property continues to be destroyed because of food-on-the-stove fires that CAN be prevented through the installation of HEHLT.