I’m always surprised when May 31 shows up.  It just always seems to me that May is supposed to be one of those months that has only 30 days in it.  It just feels and sounds like a natural fit.  Suppose we just took the 31st days from both May and August and added them onto February, bringing it up to 30 where it belongs?

That sounds like an all-around winner to me.  First of all, February would become more normal,  May would then be what it should be, and by shortening August by one day, we’d be getting the kiddies back into school a day earlier each year.  Wouldn’t that be great?

*  *  *  *  *

I saw something the other day that struck me as something really nice.  It was in a health facility where there are a lot of little closet-sized, windowless offices that are lighted by a single recessed fluorescent light fixture.  Kind of like what they give your medic captain to work in.

But the sole diffusion panel for the light fixture had been replaced with one that looks like THIS:

And what a nice change it made.  It reminded me of those hanging lighted pictures that look like a window looking out onto a garden.  It just expanded the space and made it a little more livable.  Apparently you can get quite a few different designs of those things in the standard 2′ x 4′ panel.  But since they cost about $40 each, you won’t be getting the entire ceiling done with them.

But if you work in a place like that you could buy one for yourself and just take it with you when you get transferred (or laid off).  I even found one that FossilMedic could use at his place:

Come to think of it, I should check out those lighted “window” pictures.  They just might have one that has a working warehouse fire going on across the street.  Hmmm.

Before we check on that, let’s check on our equipment and make sure it’s ready for the day.  I will go into the windowless cubicle and start the coffee.

Does your department use the Incident Command System (ICS)?  Recommended practices (standards) call for everybody to be using it by now, but I know that some have been slow to train and implement the practice.  And too, some departments only put it in use during large incidents instead of every working situation.

When you begin establishing your ICS on the scene one of the priority slots to be filled is that of the Safety Officer.  And I emphasize the term priority.  ICS and safety should be implemented in jobs other than fires, too.  But it’s easily forgotten about when there aren’t hose lines and flames dominating the scene.

What brought all this up was this video that was sent along to me yesterday taken at a very challenging auto extrication earlier this week in Massachusetts.  Challenging isn’t too strong a word to use to describe it, either.  These crews did a fine job and you can tell that they are both organized and experienced at it.  But the correspondent who sent the video was concerned with a particular moment in the video and pointed that out.  Around the 40-second mark of the video take note of the man using the chain saw.  From this camera angle, and it could well be just the camera location distorting the actual scene, it appears that the saw blade is just inches away from another firefighter.

Whether that’s the situation or not, I’m not trying to nitpick anybody’s operations.  But I wanted to use this as an illustration to point out the value of having a safety officer on all incidents.  In this case, while everybody is concentrating on the job at hand and intent on what they are doing, it is so easy to let little potentials crop up that can have deleterious effects on the operation and the well-being of the firefighters/medics.  I’m also thinking head and eye protection here, too.

When utilized properly, the Safety Officer has the authority to demand immediate corrections or adjustments during an operation without fear of being overruled by a sector commander.

Another concern that people who are newer to using ICS have is that they seem to think that you have to automatically fill in ALL the command boxes on the chart when you implement the program.  But that’s not so.  When you are well-practiced and experienced with it, you will automatically just set up whatever portions of the command structure are called for by the incident at hand.  But the Safety Officer should always be one of them.

We’re running a little late here, so let’s get this equipment checked out.  I need to get some more coffee going.

I have to admit that I am genuinely upset about this incident in Oklahoma where a couple of badge-heavy highway patrol officers stopped an ambulance that had a patient in the back and then roughed up the medic.  Regardless of what the perceived causes for the altercation in the first place are, the entire episode is simply inexcusable.

The first priority for all emergency personnel, and that includes the police, is maintaining care for the patient.  That’s not just common sense, but it’s the law as well.  Not to mention the matter of personal integrity to protect the citizens who need our help.  Since the ambulance crew were not committing any crimes at the time, nor otherwise endangering their patient, there was no valid excuse for preventing the medics from first completing their transport to the hospital before confronting them with whatever the complaint was.

And what is really going to blow this thing up is Timmy Trooper’s aggressively putting the paramedic in a choke-hold.  Is that even legal?  Perhaps we’ll find out.  The patrolmen’s initial excuse was that the medic had first “assaulted” them.  Technically, if he yelled at them it is a legal assault.  How many of us would be yelling at them for impeding our patient care without apparent cause?  There was also a mention that the medic had “thrown an elbow” at the officer.  But from all that we’ve been able to see on the citizen’s video is that the medic reflexively raised his arms when he was assaulted.

And throughout the entire episode the two OHP officers are continually threatening both ambulance personnel with arrest.  Dave Statter has been keeping in touch with the local news agencies and interviewing the witnesses that he’s been able to contact, so we’ll be following his updates on this continuing story.  And it will be continuing.  And it will probably get even uglier over the next few days.  Especially when the local citizens start reading and hearing the witness statements that are now getting published.  Dave has also posted the appropriate Oklahoma law that prohibits the interference with an EMS crew while performing their duty.  CLICK HERE to get the latest STATter911 update that also has the links to all the other witness statements including that of the patient herself.

I just do not like this….at all.

Now let’s get the equipment checked out.  I need to get a fresh pot started.

The International Assoc. of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) wants to remind everybody that this coming Monday, June 1, is the deadline for application for its educational scholarships program.  Anybody is eligible if they are an active firefighter with three years volunteer or two years paid service in any type of fire department, municipal, industrial, federal or county, etc.

In addition to their general scholarship awards, they have a couple of additional new ones this year.  If you’re interested in learning more, or want to apply CLICK HERE and read all about it.

*  *  *

This recent incident in Oklahoma between the troopers and a couple of paramedics has really “gone viral” since yesterday.  The video has now been played on almost every tv channel in the country and Lord knows how many in other nations.  I think everybody is wondering, why didn’t they wait until the transportation of the patient to the hospital was completed?  I have no doubts that the higher-ups in the Oklahoma State Police are mightily embarrassed by this whole thing.

Threatening to arrest the paramedics even though it was the police officers that were interfering with the medical treatment certainly doesn’t help their cause any.  It was a disgraceful display of the troopers putting themselves ahead of the safety and well-being of the citizens that they are supposed to be helping.

There’s new information on this incident this morning.  The noted newshound Dave Statter has been chasing down more information including the statements from the two medics explaining their side of the story.  If you missed the original story yesterday you can catch up on it and everybody can also read these latest revelations at STATter911 HERE.

*  *  *

And finally, one last little factoid from the “fun” category.  Toys R Us announced this morning that they have bought the FAO Schwarz  stores and brand.  FAO Schwarts is that high-dollar toy store that has been famously anchored on Fifth Ave. in New York City since 1862.  They went into bankruptcy proceeding in 2003 and were picked up by one of those investment companies.  They never could regain profitiability and apparently Toys R Us thought they would make a nice addition to their games empire.

I’ve never been in an FAO Schwartz store, but I always enjoyed looking through their catalog of unique toys and games.  It seems to me that for the first 100 years their name was F. & A. O. Schwartz before they modernized their logo.  Anyway, I hope they can continue selling fun.

Now let’s have some fun checking out the equipment.  I’m going to have fun with the coffee maker.  See you back in the day room