Not Responsible Because of an Underdeveloped Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

Parents of teenagers describe a jekyl-hyde pattern in their child’s behavior. One minute they can be very responsible and the next they are wrecking the family’s car, or setting a buddy on fire at the fire station.

Allstate Insurance initiated a teen driving program that identifies social pressure and brain development as the two primary factors in the auto crash rate. http://www.allstate.com/citizenship/foundation/teen-driving/chronic-report.aspx

Allstate notes that:

16 year olds have crash rates three times higher than 17 year olds and five times higher than 18 year olds. Car crashes injure about 300,000 teens a year and kill nearly 6000.

When bright, mature teenagers do something stupid, it may not be their fault. The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex part of the adolescent brain is underdeveloped. This part of the brain plays a critical role in decision making, problem solving and understanding future consequences of today’s actions.

Read more about it here: http://www.allstate.com/content/refresh-attachments/chronic_pages_15_28.pdf

FossilMedic sees the same behavior when dealing with on-campus freshmen. Some of them must be missing their dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. Social pressure and underdeveloped dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex are contributing factors to the hazing incident that burned an out-of-town teenager living at the Riverdale VFD. Dave Statter has been covering this incident and provides the details in an October 22 update: http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/2007/10/new-details-on-riverdale-burning.html

It is not unusual for active members in a suburban volunteer fire company to be comprised mostly of high schoolers and 20-somethings. FossilMedic realized this when he was teaching EMT to high school juniors and seniors as part of a vocational training program in a rural Virginia county. The summer daytime response from both the rescue squad and fire department looks like a boy band in a reality TV show.

Temple University Psychology Professor Laurence Steinberg writes in the Allstate report that “By the age of 15 or 16, for example, most teenagers’ logical reasoning skills are the same as adult’s. Their emotional and social development a this age, however, is still relatively immature.” This explains the relatively tight high school behavioral rules and regulations.

Colleges and universities struggle with this issue when it comes to freshman and sophomore behavior, at one time the University of Maryland suggested moving freshman and sophomore students to regional schools or community colleges, restricting on-campus housing at the College Park campus to juniors, seniors and graduate students. Like the Allstate car crash research, there is a significant decline in damages and “stupid college tricks” once the students get into their 20’s.

Colleges and universities act “in loco parentis.” This refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. Originally derived from British common law, it is applied as a broad provision allowing such institutions to act in the best interests of the students as they see fit, allowing what would otherwise be considered violations of the students’ civil liberties.

Fire departments need to assume some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent if that are allowing teenagers participate in departmental activities, including emergency response. Even for the younger members old enough to drink alcohol, there still is a need to provide structure or boundaries for the underdeveloped dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex.

In a later column we will look at the issue of the 30 and 40 something firefighters who continue to make poor decisions and do not understand the future consequences of today’s actions. Their ex-spouses say it is the firefighter shift-work lifestyle. Maybe it is the diesel exhaust in the station.

EARLY TUESDAY MORNING, NEAR HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND, a fully-loaded tanker carrying diesel fuel collided with a tractor-trailer truck on State Highway 1.  The crash led to an explosion and fire involving the tanker’s load.

Waikato Times photo

Miraculously, both drivers escaped the flames.  Waikato Hospital says the driver of the freight truck, 51, has a chest injury and is in a stable condition in the emergency department. The tanker driver, 28, has a minor head injury and is unlikely to be admitted to hospital. 

 The Hamilton fire brigade was unable to mount much of a fire attack until additional pumpers arrived from neighboring departments.  Even then, the heat was so intense that they were unable to get very close to the fire.

A nearby dairy voluntarily dispatched some tank trucks to use as water shuttles for the fire units.

NZ Fire Service photo

The trucks were traveling in opposite directions, but it was not a head-on collision.  The highway is closed all day today for cleanup of the wreckage and to rebuild about 80 yards of roadway that was destroyed by the fire.

The Waikato Times has the STORY.

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Waikato Times photos

New Zealand Fire Service photos

One of the recurring themes that runs through the Firegeezer blog is the constant turbulence in the nationwide EMS delivery system.  Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read where some community is debating who will provide their emergency ambulance service.

This often pops up when the local provider is a privately-run business and their service is either falling short of the contracted standards, or they are losing so much money that they just up and pull out entirely.  Earlier this month, for example, we reported on the city of Richmond, Virginia, summarily severing their contract with AMR for failing to meet minimum response standards in every month of this year.  And at other times the story has to do with who the locality should have running the EMS service.

Oftentimes, the Firegeezer writers will editorialize that we feel the best system is one that is operated as part of the municipality’s fire and rescue department.  But whenever this happens, we always seem to attract emails and comments from people who see something that we didn’t say, most notably that firefighters don’t have the dedication to EMS delivery that the solely-skilled paramedics do.

That is missing the point entirely.  While it’s true that 30 years ago your ambulance staff was often made up of firefighters who were pulled off the pumper for the day, that practice has mostly disappeared with the onset of higher levels of certification required for EMS personnel.  In those places where the fire department operates the emergency ambulance service, the people on the ambulance are every bit as dedicated and as skilled as those in the private sector.  The EMS branch has evolved into a separate career path that medic-oriented firefighters choose to enter and dedicate their efforts to.

But the difference is in the quality and reliability of the overall EMS service.  For example, in the aforementioned service in Richmond, those paramedics’ wages were approx. 40% of what the state average is.  Virginia is a state where fire and EMS have been combined in most cities for decades.  That has no relationship to the level of dedication to the job that the individual medics have other than its effect on the morale of the staff.

In addition, the combined departments will usually have better quality and maintained vehicles along with a stable labor force.  Add in direct line of responsibility up the chain of command to the elected officials, and you have a more reliable and responsive system.  Again, there is no relationship between the quality of the delivery system and the dedication and ability of the paramedics themselves.

Some may argue that it costs more to have those higher wages and secure pension plans, etc.  But that is largely offset by utilizing an already-existing management level, buildings to house the ambulances, maintenance facilities, and so on.  Add in the certainty that they are not subject to work stoppages for contract disputes or sudden bankruptcy and the citizens are definitely getting their money’s worth.

Firegeezer stands by our opinion that the best EMS delivery system is one that is properly implemented and integrated with the fire department.

It’s time to get this equipment checked now.  I’ll go start the coffee.

AN OCEAN QUAHOG CLAM WAS RECENTLY dredged up just off the coast of Iceland that scientists believe was the oldest living animal ever found.

Researchers at Bangor University in Wales studied the creature and determined that it was between 405 and 410 years old.  They got the number by sectioning the shell and counting its rings, much like dating a tree.

The clam, nicknamed Ming after the Chinese dynasty in power when it was born, was in its infancy when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was writing plays such as Othello and Hamlet.

The scientists believe that this mollusk could help shed light on how some animals can live to extraordinary ages.

BBC News has the STORY.
They also have a short VIDEO.

I will be live-blogging the broadcast.

To listen in yourself, just click on the banner above and it will take you to the webpage with the live radio streaming begining at 4 pm (eastern).

4:00  On the air.  Craig’s 3-min. Rockland intro is running.  Frank De Clercq of San Diego City Local 145 is on standby and he’ll be first on.

4:10  De Clercq is reporting that they’re getting a big break in the weather out there….winds died down and even a light drizzle.  Craig is asking about how they cover these big fires and still handle the routine calls you get every day.

4:12  He’s telling that a resource study the city did shows the city is shorthanded by 22 stations and 300 FF’s.  This week they are having heavy recalls and working 72-hr. shifts.

4:15  Talking about the 5 FF’s that lost their homes to the fires while they were out on duty.

4:20  The FF brothers are taking care of their immediate needs with things like clothing, toothpaste.  But the major need for donations will be money to help with covering gaps in insurance coverage and similar cash needs.

4:22 To donate to the fund, log on to:  sdfire.org

4:33 Interview with Frank De Clercq wrapped up.  Craig chats with the Firegeezer for a while and then we finish the segment.

4:35  Live-blogging completed.

THERE ARE SOME SLEEPY PEOPLE IN CARDIFF, WALES, today after being awakened by a half-naked man sitting in a tree and howling like a dog. 

An ambulance and the police were called and tried to talk the wolf-man down from his perch 15 ft. above the ground.
icWales tell us:

Martin Townley, 43, of Cathays Terrace, first spotted the man hiding between the leaves of the large tree after he woke him up.

He said: “He’s been there since 6.30am. When he woke me up I thought it was a dog howling, he was crying.

“I came out to have a chat with him but he just said ‘leave me alone, it’s my tree’.

Onlookers said that the unshaven man, who had blonde spiky hair, was covered in mud and only wearing a pair of black tracksuit bottoms and had kicked off his shoes under the tree.

After two hours, he was finally coaxed down out of “his” tree.  A spokeswoman for South Wales Police said the man was not arrested but taken to the mental health hospital in Whitchurch, Cardiff, for “his own safety”.

icWales.co STORY.

JUST WHAT WE NEED:  A do-it-yourself home fire department kit.

Bill Delaney at the Montgomery County, Maryland, Fire and Rescue Dept. came across this innovative home DIY gadget at www.HomeFireman.com .

Can’t you just imagine a thing like this in the hands of a Yuppie?

Some of their claims:

It is exceptionally easy to operate. The Home Fireman is for families, not firefighters. The controls are intuitive and take only a ¼ turn to get instant full pressure. The patented hose system eliminates all hooks, hangers and other contrivances that could get in the way. With one pull on the main control you can grab the nozzle in one hand and the BC extinguisher in the other - and be armed to extinguish any small fire - before it can grow.

And

It covers an entire floor in most homes. The 40 foot hose plus the concentrator nozzle (shoots the water another 40 feet), add up to 90 feet of coverage in any one direction - 160 feet across. Precise coverage will vary with water pressure.

Bill is the webmaster of the Washington-Metro Area Fire & Injury Prevention website, and he has some pretty strong opinions on this potential house-warming present.  Read what he has to say about it HERE.

SOME LOCAL COUNCILS IN SCOTLAND are considering letting the community rubbish bins pile up for two weeks before hauling the trash away.

The BBC reports:

The Chief Fire Officers Association of Scotland has voiced concern over plans to move to fortnightly uplift schemes.  Leaving rubbish lying around longer will encourage firebugs, they said.

Chief Fire Officer Brian Sweeney said: “Fire setting is an opportunistic low-level crime mainly carried out by children and young people.

“Overflowing bins and rubbish skips from commercial and household waste, together with illegal dumping of waste materials, is providing a ready source of combustible materials for young fire setters and as a result fire vandalism is on the increase.”

Read the full STORY.

Firegeezer notes:  Can you imagine a neighborhood dumpster with two weeks worth of garbage in it?  Strange.

TWO NEW YORK CITY FIREFIGHTERS were arrested yesterday and charged with setting a fire at a firehouse Saturday morning.  They did not work at that station.

They were apprehended quickly because they were caught on a surveillance camera.

Dave Statter was on the story from the beginning and he has the full story and videos HERE.

Operation Firestorm

This afternoon is when Craig (”Backdraft”) will be running the special call-in show to benefit the fund set up to aid the San Diego firefighters that lost their homes while they were out trying to save others.  Operation Firestorm is set up through the offices of San Diego Local 145 and administered by the IAFF Members’ Disaster Relief program.  So every dollar that’s collected will be going directly into the fund.

This program is being sent out over the internet on the BlogTalkRadio network.  Craig’s shows emanate from his RocklandUSA studio and he has a ready listener base.  But he has plenty of incoming phone lines, so don’t be hesitant about calling in today and joining the gang supporting this great cause.

The show starts at 4:00 pm Eastern/1:00 pm Pacific.  For you folks in Europe, a reminder that the U. S. is still on Daylight Savings time - what you call “summer time” - so we are just 5 hours difference this week (4 hrs. in UK).

You can listen to the show by just clicking on the banner above and it will take you to the program’s streaming site.  We’ll have some fire bloggers on hand, too.  So make sure you tune in and make sure you take a moment to call in and say hello to us.

The call-in phone number is:  646-478-5589.  The number is repeated on the web page that the banner puts you on, so you won’t lose it.  I’ll be live-blogging the show and waiting for your call.  I’d love to talk to you.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out.  I need to start the coffee pot.

HOME THEATER SYSTEMS ARE THE RAGE NOW.  Even if you don’t have room for one, you plan one in your daydreams.  But if you could have it all, what would you come up with? 

Well, here’s that champion home theater…. Home Entertainment Magazine’s “Installation of the Year” winner for 2007.  This house in Austin, Texas, was 5 years in the building phase with all top quality fittings and the entire interior finished with custom wood carved panels and trim.

You enter the theater room through a pair of massive bronze doors similar to the 19th century opera houses.  Once inside on the single-piece carpet, you choose your seat that is covered with hand-screened and embroidered fabric.  Some of the chairs are made without armrests so that you can lay down a la couch.  Then you sit back while the 200-lb. Runco MBX-1 high optics projector (capable of displaying a 40-foot-wide image) lights up the 8-foot screen. 

The twenty four 12-inch sub-woofers have enough drive to vibrate the seats.  There are 38 distinct audio zones.  The least expensive speaker in the system is a $2,000 pair of in-walls.  Every piece of audio cable is trimmed to the precise length and the connectors are soldered on.  The photograph shows the system with the fabric-covered speaker grills removed for inspection.

If you think this room has even more goodies to run the price up to $3.4 million, then you’re right.  You can read all about the rest of it HERE.

 
Star News photo

A FIRE EARLY THIS MORNING IN OCEAN ISLE BEACH, North Carolina, killed at least 6 students from South Carolina colleges with one more still unaccounted.  An additional six people were transported to Brunswick Community Hospital.

The house was completely destroyed.  Investigators will need more time to determine the cause.  The house is one of many in the area that are primarily used for vacation rentals.  However one report says that the daughter of this house’s owner was one of the victims.

The fire department was on scene 6 minutes after the alarm was sent, but the house was completely filled with fire before they arrived, leaving no opportunity for any rescue attempt.

AP photo

The Wilmington Star News has the STORY.

Update:  The unaccounted person has been found and listed as the seventh fatality.  Twelve of the thirteen occupants were students at the University of South Carolina and one of the dead was attending Clemson Univ.

The Associated Press has an updated and expanded story HERE.

AP