AFTER ALL THE RECENT HULLABALOO about the poisonous foodstuffs imported from China, some over-zealous workers at the state-run TV network decided to cash in.  They fabricated a report that claimed to show a vendor selling steamed dumplings stuffed with chemical-laced cardboard masquerading as pork.

Needless to say, the Propaganda Department was not amused.  A general wholesale sacking in the network took place.  The reporter has been “detained.”

Read the Reuters report HERE.

THE PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA FIREFIGHTERS are angered and disgusted with the city officials’ refusal to allow them to take a fire truck to participate in the funeral for the Contra Costa County firefighters.  The council gave some phony-baloney about “liability and safety concerns.”  And yet, somehow 150 other fire apparatus were able to overcome those safety concerns and attended the procession.

Last night two dozen FF’s attended the City Council meeting to protest the decisions and ask for a change in city policy.
The Contra Costa Times has the story HERE.

Firegeezer thinks that the Palo Alto city officials are a bunch of useless weenies.  You may contact them here:  city.council@cityofpaloalto.org

Palo Alto City Hall

THE SHANGHAI DAILY IS REPORTING that a 20-year-old student was electrocuted today by his own computer.  Police are speculating that he took the cover off of his CPU in order to cool it down because he didn’t want to run his apartment’s air conditioner.  Then his sweaty legs accidently came in contact with the wiring, causing a 320-volt short circuit.  Or something like that.

Read about it HERE.

THE HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA CITY COUNCIL met last night to consider the suspension of the FF’s Local president (as reported HERE yesterday).  After seeing the band of supporters outside, the nationwide publicity and the high-powered “observers” in the chamber, they did what politicians who are caught out always do.  They postponed their ruling for 10 days.  This gives them time to think about what they are getting themselves into if they go through with the suspension.

Today’s Huntsville Times article is HERE.

A MASSIVE FIRE IN A KNITTING FACTORY in Bangladesh last night has left more than 40 people injured, mostly because of jumping from upper-floor windows.

Initial reports said that as many as 50 of the 200 workers inside were trapped, but confirmation has not been issued yet.  Also lost were more than 500 knitting machines as well as the on-hand stock of both finished and raw materials.

The early report is file by the Bangladesh Daily Star HERE.

FossilMedic returns:

Firehouse Magazine has published a National Run Survey for the last 26 years.  This year, Trinidad Engine 10, from the District of Columbia returned to the top position with 7217 responses in 2006.

Cincinnati Engine 5 was one of the first companies to achieve acclaim as the busiest engine company.  While attending the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference in the early 1980’s I decided to visit the Over-the-Rhine fire station.  Engine 5 was operating a 1979 Seagrave with a 54’ squrt.  At that time the EMS division was comprised of three paramedic and three BLS ambulances.  I learned from Engine 5 that the poorer neighborhoods, frustrated by slow police response, would exaggerate the extent of injuries from assaults and robberies.  Engine 5 would arrive within minutes, the police within hours.  The department had a dispatch protocol where non-life threatening calls for ems assistance would get a single engine response.  The firefighter/emts would evaluate the patient and then call for a basic or paramedic ambulance.  I remember reading from a CFD annual report that 26% of the calls for ems assistance were handled by just an engine company.

Steve Hagy photos

It was dark and I was going to walk the mile or so back to the convention center.  One of the firefighters working overtime on FDIC logistics insisted that I get a ride from him.  The community I was going to walk through was the scene of riots in 1967 and 1968 as well as a series of shootings between 1978-1979 that killed four black civilians and four white police officers.

Social-economic conditions have not changed.  An April 2001 police shooting of a black teenager touched off another riot.  The poverty rate approaches 95%, with Over-The-Rhine household median income at $8,600 compared to the city average of $26,774 and the Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Area income of $54,800.  In 2001, an income below $17,029 is living in poverty.  This link takes you to a September 13, 2001 story about the efforts of Engine 5 firefighter Peter Deane who was reaching out to the Hispanic immigrants in their district:
http://citybeat.com/2001-09-13/cover2.shtml

Communities in poverty generate more fire and ems calls.  Los Angeles City marries a pumper with a truck company, called a light force, in all but its busiest fire station.  The fire station formerly known as “Skid Row,” includes Truck 9, the only stand-alone truck company in the city.  http://www.firestation9skidrow.com/help.html

Along with Engines 9 and 209 as well as paramedic Rescues 9 and 209, Station 9 ranks #1, responding to six first due fire incidents a day.  They also average

Continue Reading »

Mutual Aid - Automatic and Otherwise

Mutual aid response has been mentioned a lot lately in the Fire & Rescue world.  Most recently it was brought up while reporting on the tragic fire in Contra Costa County.  The nearest fire engine to the fire is in the Richmond city limits and they were actually dispatched on the initial alarm.  However, before they arrived on the scene they were put back in service because the County had units responding.  You can only speculate about how the outcome might have been quite different.

This morning Dave Statter is discussing these issues (HERE) as they relate to the cities of Baltimore and Washington and how they are isolated from their neighboring departments when it comes to the initial dispatching of emergency responses.

Back in 1975 the Virginia suburbs of Washington initiated a landmark pact of automatic mutual-aid dispatching for all fire calls (EMS was excluded at first and it still is but it is now a part of the system).  Arlington County, Fairfax County and the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church initiated the policy that all fire dispatches will be to the nearest units regardless of jurisdiction.  While the fire boxes remained configured within the city/county boundaries, the running order of the boxes was rescheduled for the nearest stations.

Not only did this noticeably improve the coverage in the border areas, but there was also another immediate benefit to the taxpayers.  This pact eliminated the need for some future fire stations that would have been built in the outlying areas.  Fairfax County immediately took 3 future stations off the planning table while Alexandria and Arlington each eliminated one station.   Now you have some interesting box assignments such as Fairfax’s station 28 that actually has first-due boxes in three jurisdictions (Fairfax, Arlington and Falls Church), while just down the road in Station 10’s territory they have a box where the first-alarm assignment includes stations from Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria.

The communications problem was dealt with right at the start.  A new radio frequency was licensed to Arlington and was dubbed the “NoVa” frequency.  It is a selection on every fire and rescue unit in the group and can also be transmitted from the dispatchers of all jurisdictions.  Whenever any “mutual box” is dispatched, all units responding will be on the NoVa frequency and the dispatch center of the jurisdiction housing the box handles the call.

This mutual aid system worked so well right from the start that a few years later all the jurisdictions re-adjusted their shift schedules to run concurrently with each other.  Now when a shift is working the same people are on duty in all stations every day, leading to even better fireground coordination.

This particular mutual aid pact has been tremendously successful.  Its success over the past 30 years is testimony enough.  There are literally scores of communities in the U. S. that could benefit from a similar arrangement, if they would only put aside their petty political differences and put the citizenry first for a change.

*  FIRE CHIEF MAGAZINE posted an article on May 14 that I had missed, so I’ll point it out now.  It tells about a new type of burglar alarm that immediately releases a blinding smoke screen in the area of intrusion.  It is supposed to dis-orient the burglar and incapacitate him until the PD arrives.  The main problem is that the smoke will also trigger a smoke alarm and subsequently dispatch a fire dept. response directly into a crime scene.  Read the full article HERE.

*  VIRGINIA FIRE NEWS is dispensing an interesting history lesson today as they commemorate the 60th anniversary of a deadly explosion in downtown Harrisonburg.  Read the ARTICLE.

*  FIREFIGHTER HOURLY is shifting focus onto lessons to be learned from the past.  He starts today HERE.

*  AMONG DAVE STATTER’S list of hot news items today is a story of a Vol. Fire company in the Bronx that has squandered over $500,000 in 9/11 donations and has nothing to show for it……nor any records of where it all went.  Be sure to catch it HERE.

*  CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS is reporting on still another forestry air LODD.  This time in Canada.  Read the REPORT.

*  THE EDEN PRAIRIE, MINNESOTA FIRE CHIEF talks about his training for an All Hazard Incident Management Team.  That’s an Incident Command System for large events, such as a wildfire with 2,000 FF’s scattered over many square miles.  His personal blog posting is HERE.

THERE HAS BEEN A LOT IN THE NEWS LATELY about some areas of the world suffering from poor response times by their emergency ambulance services.

In England they have tried putting paramedics on motorcycles,  while up in Scotland they are using bicycles.  Down in Australia they just extended the “acceptable” response time to 15 minutes.  And in Montreal they just gave up on it because the hospitals wouldn’t release the ambulance cots to go on another call.

But the spirit of innovation always finds a solution to all problems.  There is now a proposed method that will drastically cut down on the response times and it has another side benefit.  With this new system all those crossover firefighters who have been grumbling about having to pull EMS duty will now be getting in line and begging for the opportunity to drive the……….

JET AMBULANCE

LAST YEAR THE PRESIDENT OF THE HUNTSVILLE, Alabama Firefighters’ union, Local 1833, faced a disciplinary hearing because he criticized the fire chief in the Local’s newsletter to its members.  Throwing the Constitution out the window, the city’s personnel director recommended that he be given six working-days (24 hr. shift) suspension without pay.

Tonight the City Council will hold a hearing at 6:30 to decide whether to uphold or overturn the recommendation.  The rank and file are planning a rally outside city hall to protest the action.

The  Huntsville Times is covering the STORY.