One of the ways that business leaders keep their firms stable, progressive and improving is by participating with others in joint-programs such as trade associations and collective research projects.  A good example close to home in the Fire & Rescue “business” is the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC).  By pooling their resources, both financially and intellectually, they are able to explore modern techniques and efficiencies that can make their departments’ perform better.  One of the biggest benefits comes from the simple device of just sharing knowledge.  At the annual conferences (don’t dare call them “conventions” anymore since they took the dancing girls away) a major part of the meetings comes from just listening to peers tell what they’ve been doing, how it worked, and what didn’t work.

It appears to me that the people who run the EMS/Ambulance services come up way short in the knowledge-sharing department, though.  I think part of the problem is that so many EMS agencies are privately run (sometimes closed family operations) and are thus more isolated from each other than the governmental and volunteer squads are.  And that is contrary to how other private industries operate.  The trucking industry executives certainly cooperate with each other heavily.  So do the casinos, for example.  So why don’t the emergency ambulance executives work harder at helping their industry improve?  After all, isn’t the EMS field the one that’s gowing by the proverbial leaps and bounds?

What is making me dubious about the effectiveness of the EMS’ industrial interactions is this continuing stream of ambulance thefts that is occurring these days.  While I post some of them, sometimes a couple of times a week, I don’t begin to cover all of them that are happening.  And all the time I’m thinking, “Don’t these ambulance guys even talk to each other?”  Sometimes they are so wrapped up in their own little world that they don’t even know what’s happening.

I recall an article that I posted  over a year ago about an ambulance joyride in a unit stolen from a small, private firm where the owner of the company told the reporter that he had never heard of such a thing happening before.  And right then I was wondering, why not?  If people like him are so isolated from what’s going on, you wonder about the level of care that their patients are receiving. 

From my little isolated cubicle just on the other side of a cable modem, even I have learned that there are several devices on the market, and successfully in use, that simple and inexpensively keep ambulances from being stolen.  Of course, the easiest and cheapest device is to shut off the engine and take the key.  But that’s not practical when you’re on-scene and treating a patient.  For one thing, you need to keep the climate in the back tolerable for the patient and the meds stored there.  You already know all that.

But I have read about gadgets that are very low-priced and easily installed that will permit you to leave the engine running while you are at the scene or loading dock and yet will disable the operation of the truck if an unauthorized attempt at driving it is made.  There are also separate keylocks for the doors that differ from the iginition lock, etc., etc., etc.  So what’s going on here?  I contend that there’s virtually no excuse for allowing an ambulance to be snatched while it’s unattended.  C’mon, EMS Guys.  Start talking to each other.

(Scroll down to see the video update to yesterday’s stolen ambulance story)

And let’s get ourselves over to our own trucks and get the equipment checked out.  I need to start up the latest version of the Bunn-O-Matic and get us some fresh coffee.

One of the sorry states of affairs in this current decade is the desperation of local, state and the federal governments to seize as much of our money as they can by becoming more and more innovative with their taxing authority.  I thought the most egregious money-grab was when New York State imposed a “birthing tax” on every newborn.  That’s right, those folks up there are taxed for living and breathing as soon as they show up in the world.

Now the federal IRS is considering a novel interpretation of an existing law that will affect many of us.  They want to tax as a “fringe benefit” your personal usage minutes that are applied to a cellphone that your employer provides as a part of your business responsibilities.  Never mind that the phone is already taxed by both the feds and your state every month, now they want to penalize you for using it.  Instead of bothering with proving or disproving your personal usage by tediously logging every minute of your calls, the IRS is proposing that a flat 25% of the phone’s usage minutes are to be presumed to be personal calls.

Let’s say you’re a fire inspector and when you set out each morning on your rounds you take along the FD’s assigned cellphone which you will be using a lot during the day.  Perhaps you also take it home at night because you’re on-call.  Well, you’re going to be presumed to benefit from it personally because you obviously call your pals or spouse during lunch break.  You can expect to pay an additional $105 per year in taxes, on average, for this wonderful “benefit.”  They expect to ram this one through in September.  The cellphone industry is lobbying to repeal the law entirely.  Reuters has the details on this controversial money-grab HERE.

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Everybody has their own little “pet peeves.”  Usually they’re of no consequence to anybody else, but they niggle and bother you just the same.  One of my pet peeves has just developed recently as the excessive use of the word “actually” has slipped into mainstream discourse.

Actually, “actually” is a pretty good word and it actually comes in very handy at times.  But it has come to be a substitute for “like, you know…” as a filler for people who are trying to extend the length of a sentence or emphasize an adjective.  Nobody actually writes that way, but many people are actually talking that way and when you load up a 3-sentence phrase with a repetition of a word six or eight times, well…. it actually bothers me no end.

But don’t let my pet peeves bother you.  Let’s get the equipment checked out including the Monday weekly run-throughs.  I’ll get some more coffee going and meet you later in the day room.

This morning we’re getting another front-row seat to the “new media” in action.  By now, every department should have at least one I.I.O. (Internet Intelligence Officer) who is Web and Twitter-savvy, whether it’s an appointed position or just an “I’ll do it” volunteer.  FossilMedic first proposed this last year (HERE) after watching the activities live from the Mumbai terrorist bombing incident.

This time it’s the large and growing public revolt in Iran over the sham election that took place a few days ago.  The day after, crowds started gathering and protesting the election while creating chaos and starting fires, the usual civil unrest actions.  But this wasn’t completely spontaneous.  The opposition made up of mostly younger citizens who are demanding freedom and democratic government, has been planning this action for a couple of years now.  But what’s been going on there over the past 48 hours is largely unknown outside of Iran because the traditional news agencies aren’t able to get in and report on them.

The first photographs that came out immediately were posted on Flickr pages (such as HERE) and then the Twitter correspondents started getting reports from the inside and posting them.  The goverment immediately shut down all cellphone service, but alternate paths were all set up and ready to go.   Once again, we are able to sit a half-world away and watch the events unfold.  This is really big, but you’d never know it if you are relying on TV and newspapers.  For instance, just prior to starting today’s Lineup I was reading about the Iranian palace guard storming a first-aid center in an attempt to arrest and take away the severely injured protesters that they had already beaten earlier.  After a 2-hour battle with the opposition defenders, the soldiers were rebuffed. 

You can go to the Twitter home page and enter the hashtag #IranElection in the Search box and watch it for yourself.  Reports are coming in at the rate of one every 5 seconds.  You’ll also be picking up links there that take you to the TwitPic images that are now getting uploaded (such as THIS).

Why am I talking about this today?  Well, not only is this possibly going to be a historic event that you can witness as-it-happens, but I would like to see all you budding I.I.O.’s get some good practice in gathering information (and learning how to dispense it) and thus improve your own ability to do the same.  Trust me.  It won’t be long before the I.I.O. will have a rolling seat inside the Command Post bus at every major event.  Start honing your skills now.

But not until we get this equipment checked out.  I’ll go start the coffee.

I.I.O. video report from Tehran

Tomorrow, June 14 kicks off the annual Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week.  This event is co-sponsored by the IAFC and the IAFF and is structured to devote all training activities in the stations to firefighter/emt safety procedures and good health practices designed to make YOUR job safer and prevent injuries.  This year’s theme is Protect Yourself: Your Safety, Health and Survival Are Your Responsibility.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) is encouraging all fire/EMS departments to devote this week to reviewing safety policies, evaluating the progress of existing initiatives and discussing health and fitness. Fire/EMS departments should make a concerted effort during the week to correct safety deficiencies and to provide training as needed. An entire week is provided to ensure that each shift and volunteer duty crew can spend one day focusing on fire fighter safety, health and survival.

This year’s concentration in the Safety category is centered on safe driving.  Read the IAFC’s outline for the week’s program HERE.

Chief Glenn Gaines, acting Administrator of the USFA has this message for us:

The USFA, NFFF, IAFC and NVFC invite you to participate in a national safety Twitter and Podcast event on Monday, June 15th from 1pm to 2pm eastern time.  In cooperation with www.Firehouse.com , you will be able to ask and discuss critical Firefighter Safety and Survival topics with Chief Billy Goldfeder and Chief Robert Dube of the IAFC; Rich Duffy and James Brinkley of the IAFF; Phil Stittleburg of the NVFC; Ron Siarnicki of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation; Acting Administrator Gaines and other Firefighter Survival experts from the USFA.  In order to ensure a successful discussion, you are invited to submit your questions ahead of this event.  Please submit your Firefighter Survival related questions and comments to www.Firehouse.com  to ensure these individuals have your concerns and interests when they start their presentation on Monday. The live Twitter will also allow for spontaneous interaction by all participants during the 1PM-2PM time frame.
 
Take Care-BE CAREFUL,
Glenn Gaines – Acting US Fire Administrator

So make sure that there’s plenty of coffee in the cupboard  for the upcoming week and let’s all do our best to get focused on our own safety.  After all, sometimes you don’t get a second chance.

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