The 30-year-old man’s irritable-bowel syndrome was causing severe pain and he could barely stand up. His mother called 911.
It was the third time last week the mother and son had called 911 from their trailer. Both suffer from the same ailment. With no car, no doctor and not knowing many people in Tucson, they found themselves with few choices.
The Tucson Fire Department was dispatched. But rather than sending a medic truck or a fire engine or both — standard in medical emergencies — the department dispatched a much cheaper, two-person extended-cab pickup called “Alpha.”The Alphas — named after the fire dispatch code for low-priority calls — are becoming increasingly important to the Fire Department as its duties continue to shift from putting out fires to medical calls and fire prevention.
A growing elderly population, flagging economy and overloaded health-care system are fueling the need. The Alpha trucks respond to many people who don’t have rides to the hospital or enough money to pay for a cab.
To that end, firefighters working the Alpha trucks have become the department’s “problem-solvers,” adding social-service referrals to their duties. The firefighters carry a list of phone numbers for assistance agencies, including contact information for the Pima Council on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association and others.
“We can let them know about assisted living, for example, if they are having trouble getting chores done, getting bathed,” said firefighter Matt Lott, who works on an Alpha truck.
“Then they might not need to be calling 911 every three days,” he said.
Putting out fires used to be the sole function of fire departments. No longer. About 88 percent of the Tucson Fire Department’s calls are medical-related — everything from the flu to cardiac arrest. Of the department’s 700 uniformed personnel, 250 are paramedics.
Approximately 16 percent of the department’s calls last year were classified as Alphas, and those are predicted to grow in number.
By 2020, about one-fifth of the local population is expected to be 65 years of age and older.
Alphas frequently include calls from elderly people who have fallen. Sometimes they’ve fallen out of a wheelchair. Other times they are being cared for by an elderly, frail spouse who is having trouble coping.
“Some people just don’t know there’s assistance out there, and that’s where we can help with education,” said Pete December, Lott’s Alpha truck partner. “You help people who don’t or can’t help themselves. We become problem-solvers.”
The local Alpha program began in 2006 with one two-person truck. There are now two fully funded trucks and a third that runs when staffing is available. The department’s plan includes four, but officials would like five, Assistant Chief Dave Ridings said.
Ridings, a 31-year department veteran, initiated the Alpha program. As a medic, he had noticed people who were uninsured and underinsured were increasingly relying on 911 for medical issues.
“Frankly, we had a tier of calls being over-serviced,” he said.
The Fire Department has repeat 911 callers — as many as four or five from the same person in one day — often referred to as “frequent fliers.” Occasionally callers are more bored and lonely than sick. Some callers are drug users looking for a ride to a hospital to find pain medications. But department officials stop short of saying the system is being abused.
Some of the “frequent fliers” need medical attention, they say. Other callers can benefit from education.
“The 911 system is free, so we’ve really asked for this problem,” Ridings said. “We need to provide solutions.” Continue reading →
We all remember learning about that Pavlov guy, who taught dogs to respond to the sound of a bell. For 30 years now I have been doing the exact same thing. Not so much the teaching part; I’ve been the dog. Way back in 1978, I received intensive training on how to respond to a bell by immediately stopping whatever I was doing and jumping onto a fire truck. Often the bell rings while I’m doing paperwork or in some form of training. That’s not so bad. The time I least enjoy hearing the bell ring is when I’m in the shower. But as time has gone by (and a lot of it has), what really seems to be getting to me is the bell that rings in the small hours of the morning and forces me to jump out of bed. Many firefighters work 24-hour shifts. This requires fire crews to spend every third day of our lives away from home. In my case, that’s 10 years spent waiting to produce a Pavlovian response.
Lately I’ve developed a cautious fear of these. It’s funny, the things I’ve worried about as I close in on my 50th birthday. Fifty may not be that old in the private sector, but it’s not the perfect age for throwing ladders against buildings or crawling through crashed cars in the middle of the night. I’m not just worried about my overall health—I’m also concerned for the welfare of my specific parts. My prostate, for instance.
Thirty years ago I would not have known that a prostate has a fairly predictable life span. Now I know that it is an organ designed to live a happy life of about 50 years until it swells up and keeps you from properly using a bathroom. I doubt that either evolutionists or creationists can account for that flaw in intelligent design.
And then there’s my heart. I can’t help but wonder what jumping out of bed all these nights is doing to my ticker. I have always been pretty good at waking up quickly for emergencies, but how many more times can my heartbeat nearly double in response to the bell without some kind of problem? Imagine having your spouse wake you up every third night several times to tell you that he or she thinks someone is breaking into the house. Now spread that angst over 30 years. Jumping out of bed is where some firefighters’ careers (and lives) end. In all honesty—and I know this sounds both selfish and melodramatic—if I’m not going to live long enough to see a pension, I think I would rather perish following the performance of an act that at least I was proud of. Who wouldn’t want to be remembered as the guy who “gave it all” after rescuing someone from a burning building? It sure sounds more respectable than “that poor old firefighter who had a heart attack trying to get out of bed.”
My career has had some interesting highs and lows. I have had the honor of taking part in saving lives under dangerous and stressful conditions that I would not wish on anyone (those are the highs). I have also been injured in ways that they never mentioned in the fire academy. I have been bitten by dogs and people. I’ve been kicked, punched, vomited on, overcome by smoke, burned and nearly electrocuted, and I have fallen through floors; one time I was nearly hit by lightning. Those were the lows, but for some reason people seem to enjoy those stories the most. Believe me, I’m not complaining. There are plenty of firefighters not lucky enough to still be here to tell stories. It’s been a great career, and I wouldn’t change a thing—except maybe the guy who bit me.
It would be hard not to love being a firefighter. I appreciate the public’s trust, and I’m especially grateful that I’ve come through the years relatively unscathed. I just hope I can continue to keep all my parts intact long enough to wrap up this career. As with everything else we enjoy in life, the trick is knowing when to stop and go home. Without a doubt, my heart has always been in my work. I just hope that the two of us are able to leave the firehouse for good someday, and in proper working order.
So until the day that I get to go home and stay there, I’ll continue to arrive at the firehouse every third morning prepared for anything. In recent months I’ve found myself staying awake at night later and later. I don’t believe it’s due to fear that my heart might not want to wake up as fast as necessary when Pavlov calls. I just hope that if I become a firefighter health statistic, it’s for being one of the lucky guys, who enjoys his pension for at least as long as he did his career.
In a week long class conducted in San Bernardino, 20 west coast firefighters from all across southern California participated in training simulations for the CSFM Fire Command 2E.
The Class was held at the headquarters for the San Bernardino unit of Cal Fire. Battalion Chief Dave Golder with The California Fire Department lead the instruction for the week with assistance from Battalion Chief Jim Topoleski from Redlands.
In preparation of the 2008 wildfire season, students were able to utilize an incredible tabletop simulation station. The pool sized table consists of dirt strategically arranged throughout, with hills, model homes, and roads. The vegetation was saw dust and wood shavings.
The students were able to simulate operating at wildland incidents and coordinated resources utilizing the incident command system. The uniqueness of the training table left all of the students with laughs, sighs and of course, spotlight anxiety as they each took turns being in charge of resource assignments and establishing a command presence.
Fire Command 2E left a lasting impression, more slides for the carousel, and bettered the skills of all who participated, including myself.
EMMITSBURG, MD. – The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Highway Administration, working in partnership with the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA), have developed a report that provides technical guidance and training programs in traffic incident management for fire and emergency service providers. The report, Traffic Incident Management Systems (TIMS), contains guidance for local-level fire departments on compliance with the DOT’s Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices and the National Fire Service Incident Management System (IMS) Consortium’s Model Procedures Guide for Highway Incidents.
“Too many firefighters and other emergency responders have been killed on duty from being struck by vehicles. Implementing an effective traffic incident management system could reduce this number,” said U.S. Fire Administrator Greg Cade. “The USFA was pleased to work with the DOT and IFSTA to enhance their safety while working on the roadway.”
This project included research into emergency services implementation of TIMS and the IMS Consortium Guide, examining such technologies and practices as effective distance for placement of roadway warning signs; correct amount and type of emergency vehicle warning lighting (e.g., intensity, color, etc.); and training, placement, and protective equipment for “flaggers”.
“We’re committed to protecting the lives of firefighters and emergency responders working on our nation’s roadways,” said Jim Ray, Acting Administrator of the Federal Highway Administration. “We must provide for the safety of these men and women who act selflessly to risk their lives to assist someone else who is in harm’s way.”
The manual includes case studies of roadway incidents that have taken the lives of firefighters, highway scene safety survival basics, incident command for roadway incidents, and examples of effective TIMS programs. It also provides information on the American National Standards Institute/ International Safety Equipment Association (ANSI/ISEA) standard 207, High Visibility Public Safety Vests.
“IFSTA was proud to work with USFA and the U.S. Department of Transportation in this initiative to protect firefighters operating on the roadway,” said Chris Neal, IFSTA Executive Director. “Traffic incident management is an important operational and safety issue for today’s fire service.”
Further information about this study may be found on the USFA Web site here.
A new study conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Health under a grant from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) confirms that there are elevated cancer risks among fire fighters and that these risks are consistent with other studies of fire fighters.
In the current study, “Cancer Incidence Among Male Massachusetts Firefighters, 1987–2003†researchers found that professional fire fighters in Massachusetts had higher-than-expected rates of colon cancer, brain cancer, bladder and kidney cancers and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Data from the Massachusetts cancer registry for the years 1986 through 2003 provided 2,125 cancer diagnoses among professional male firefighters.
This study further supports the position of the IAFF that there is sufficient evidence demonstrating that fire fighters suffer from cancer due to exposures that occur while performing the tasks involved in fire fighting.
The IAFF encourages all members to participated in the IAFF’s occupational health database and cancer registry. The information that members provide by completing the short questionnaire will be used by the IAFF and its scientific partners to identify diseases that fire fighters are most at risk for developing. The results of such efforts will be used to improve the health and safety of fire fighters. Click here for more information.
The tiny hole in the rolled groove in this picture is a sprinkler fitter’s nightmare: a small leak that potentially causes water damage to the building or contents where the sprinkler system is installed.
This leak was caused by Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC), also known as bio-corrosion. It is the result of the metabolic action of microbial cells in contact with a metal surface, and can cause pitting, crevice corrosion, selective de-alloying, stress corrosion cracking, and deposit corrosion. Iron-oxidizing bacteria, such as Gallionella, Sphaerotilus, Leptothrix, and Crenothrix, are the leading sources of MIC.
The microorganisms get into the fire sprinkler piping system through the water supply.
The organisms are aerobic (oxygen consuming) and develop clusters that live off the oxygen in the water or air in a dry-pipe system. Once these microbial clusters develop, anaerobic organisms continue to grow in the stagnant water without oxygen.
Periodic sprinkler system flow tests and other activations introduce fresh water—and fresh oxygen—that spurs the growth of the oxygen-dependent MIC organisms.
This is one reason NFPA 13, Installation of Automatic Sprinkler Systems, does not require that an inspector’s test outlet be located on a remote branch line in a wet-pipe sprinkler system: the fresh incoming water brings additional oxygen to the microbes.
MIC treatments depend on the specific types of microorganisms causing the corrosion, so there is no “one size fits all†solution. One plan, introducing chlorine into a system, may destroy some of the microorganisms, but it also may result in other types of corrosion. It’s essential to obtain a sample of both the sprinkler piping and the water in the system to determine which microorganisms are causing the corrosion and select an appropriate treatment plan. Many sprinkler component manufacturers now produce “corrosion testing stations†to evaluate the water’s condition.
For new sprinkler system installations, NFPA 13 requires that the property owner provide the sprinkler contractor an “Owner’s Certificate†that includes an evaluation of the potential for MIC.
For additional information, refer to NFPA 13, Installation of Automatic Sprinkler Systems.
West Coast 911 training article provided courtesy of the USFA — Helping to enhance awareness to all west coast firefighters and beyond.
In a remarkable show of bipartisan support for the IAFF and its members, 69 senators voted May 13 to consider H.R. 980, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act. The 69-29 vote on the motion to proceed permits the Senate to debate and amend the bill.
“Today, Senators from both parties stood up in support of America’s fire fighters, and stood up in support of our right to collectively bargain,†says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “This vote is truly a testament to the strength of our union and the respect its members garner on Capitol Hill.â€
Eighteen Republicans joined all 51 Democrats to vote in favor of the IAFF motion, marking the beginning of a week-long debate on the bill.
“Although we won this first vote handily, this is only the first of many steps we must take before the Cooperation Act passes the Senate,†says Schaitberger. “Our anti-labor opponents will not rest, and neither can we. It is paramount that every member continue to lobby their senators to pass the Cooperation Act.â€
The Senate is expected to consider numerous amendments to H.R. 980 before voting on cloture and on final passage later this week.
To see how your senators voted on the motion to proceed, click here.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has issued a safety advisory regarding the set-up of aerial ladders with a locking waterway. NIOSH is currently investigating an April 8, 2008, fire fighter line-of-duty-death involving an aerial ladder with a locking waterway. This incident highlights the importance of following the manufacturer’s recommendations for aerial ladder operations to ensure the safety of IAFF members.
Ensure that Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and/or Guidelines (SOGs) on setting up multi-positionwaterways include steps to properly position the waterway and to inspect and verify that the locking mechanism (anchoring pin(s), lever, clamps, etc.) are properly installed and functioning as designed before pressurizing the waterway.
Properly train and practice the correct method of securing waterways and verifying they are secured (per manufacturer’s recommendations)
Circumstances of incident under investigation by NIOSH
On April 8, 2008, a volunteer Deputy Fire Chief (the Incident Commander), was killed when struck by a motorized water monitor and 30 feet of aluminum pipe that was “launched†off an elevated aerial ladder at a fire at an industrial manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. The truck was normally transported in the “rescue mode†with the monitor pinned to the second section of ladder so that the waterway would not be in the way if the ladder was set up for rescue operations. At the incident scene, when the waterway was pressurized, the monitor and its support bracket, along with the last 30-foot section of pipe were “launched†off the aerial ladder by the force of the water pressure in the pipe. The monitor flew approximately 75 feet and fell, striking the Incident Commander on the head, killing him instantly.
After the incident, the anchor pin was found on the ground, in front of the truck’s cab. The waterway did not include any secondary mechanical stops to prevent the separation of the water monitor in the event the anchoring pin was not properly seated. The NIOSH Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program is currently investigating this incident and a full report will be available at a later date.
NIOSH would like to bring this information to the attention of all U.S. fire departments and fire fighters who operate or work around aerial ladder trucks with locking (pin-anchored, lever actuated, clamped) waterways so that future occurrences of waterway monitor “launches†or the unexpected movement of the waterway monitor can be prevented. If secondary mechanical stops are present, the unexpected impact of the waterway monitor against the mechanical stop could cause structural damage to the aerial ladder and jeopardize the safety of any fire fighter standing on the aerial ladder. While not a contributing factor in the fatal incident, NIOSH reminds fire departments to comply with relevant federal regulations and NFPA standards for fire apparatus inspections and certification.
In addition, all fire apparatus, including fire department aerial devices, should be inspected on an annual basis as required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In 1910.156 it specifically states that the “employer shall maintain and inspect, at least annually, fire fighting equipment to assure the safe operational condition of the equipment. Fire fighting equipment that is in damaged or unserviceable condition shall be removed from service and replaced.â€
Further, NFPA 1911 Standard for the Inspection, Maintenance, Testing, and Retirement of In-Service Automotive Fire Apparatus requires the annual inspection and testing of all fire apparatus, including the aerial device. The complete NIOSH User Notice is available online. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/SafetyAdvisory05052008.html
Orange County’s Emergency Operations Center, its nerve center during such disasters as October’s wildfires, needs renovation or it may find itself a victim of a disaster, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday.
Backup power is inadequate, the sewer system can be overloaded, and smoke wafted in during the fires, prompting people to wear breathing masks, the report said.
The grand jury recommended that the county sheriff install an air filtration system before the 2009 fire season and seek additional funding from the Board of Supervisors for sewer improvements.
Assistant Sheriff J.B. Davis, who is in charge of the facility, said the department was reviewing the report.
“Public safety and the health of our employees and staff who man the Emergency Operations Center is our highest priority,” Davis said in a prepared statement. “We are confident that neither public safety nor the health of our staff is in jeopardy at this time.”
Davis said the department would reply to the findings. , — as is required by law.
– and that the response would be made public after a review by the presiding judge.
According to the report, the facility is deficient “in infrastructure, including the access road, sanitary sewer system and fire protection system,” and its heating, ventilation and air conditioning are also deficient.
A sheriff’s assessment found no known issues with the facility’s air filtration system. But the grand jury learned that during the Santiago Canyon fire, staff members had to wear breathing masks for four to six hours because of smoke in the building.
A temporary filtering solution was expected to be installed last month, but the Sheriff’s Department could not confirm Tuesday that it had been done.
It was not the first time a grand jury has examined the operations center. In 2001, a panel found that dispatchers handling emergency calls in the sheriff’s patrol areas suffered from fatigue and stress, often because they skipped mandated work breaks to keep up with the large volume of calls.
Other grand juries have focused on the facility’s ability to withstand an earthquake.
During a disaster, the center is the hub for county emergency communications. It is a critical function and “must not fail,” the grand jury said.
The operations center was examined after discussions with current grand jury members and sheriff’s managers raised questions about the center during a prolonged emergency activation, the report said.
The center opened in 1993 and was designed to house a small staff. But as the department grew, so did the facility. In September, it had 135 full- and part-time employees. In an emergency, that number can grow by 100.
WestCoast 911 story source: LA Times
The following video is excellent example of a modern EOC. Hopefully the Orange County EOC and others in our region will be improved and update.
May 4, 2008 – IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger issued the following statement about the long delay of the Sofa Super Store investigative report announced by Mayor Joe Riley late May 2.
“If Mayor Joe Riley is serious about keeping the fire fighters he is responsible for safe on the job, he needs to release the investigative report by the panel of experts immediately. The report is finished and all stakeholders — Charleston fire fighters, families of the fallen Nine, citizens — want it out now.
“The expert panel that produced the report said they discussed and used information from federal investigations, so that fake excuse used by Mayor Riley to attempt to indefinitely delay and bury it has been exposed as a fraudulent tactic.
“The reality is the report is said to detail flaws in the practices of the Department’s command. Any delay in releasing the report is another day the Mayor is irresponsibly risking the lives of the men and women who serve the city under the most dangerous of circumstances.
“The report is not the property of the Mayor. The report is the property of the citizens of Charleston, reflecting their own civic responsibility to their fire fighters, and releasing it now is the Mayor’s special obligation to the Nine.
“The panel should formally turn the report over to the Mayor and the citizens of Charleston without delay this Tuesday, as originally planned.
“My job is to protect the men and women of IAFF Local 61, and I have already authorized the strongest legal, political and public pressure campaign we can muster to reverse this dangerous, malicious delay.
“We will appeal directly to the citizens and ask them to express their outrage. We will appeal to the media to make sure the Mayor’s negligence regarding fire fighter safety is exposed. We will appeal to the City Council. Beginning this Tuesday, we will appeal to federal and state officials and elected leaders in South Carolina to bring pressure on Mayor Riley, and to the courts if appropriate.”
