FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate and some other guy

Unless, by some horrific coincidence, something really bad happens at the same time.  Then we're screwed,

Wednesday at 2pm ET, in partnership with the FCC and local and national broadcasters, FEMA is participating in a national test of the Emergency Alert System.  This will be the first nationwide test and will involve broadcast radio and television stations, cable television, satellite radio and television services and wireline video service providers across all states and the territories of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa.

The test will not involve other communication devices such as the Internet, LAN and mobile telephones. No other communications networks or devices will be impacted by the test, meaning that people will be able to continue use their cell phones, the internet and other communications channels during the test. There will be no disruption of those services.

Here’s the rub: some TV stations across the country may not have the ability to change the text seen on screens within their viewing area to read “This is only a test”.  They will only have a voice saying it’s just a test.  This is a limitation of the old system.  Sight- and hearing-impaired citizens may be alarmed by what they may think is an actual emergency.

FEMA and the FCC are actively developing a new system which would address this and other issues, including those which may affect disabled people.

FEMA is trying to spread the word to those persons who may be alarmed by what they may think is an actual emergency.  If you know anyone who may be affected by this limitation, please let them know that this is only a test.

As the nationwide test takes place, this is an excellent opportunity to take a quick look at your personal disaster plan.  What actions would you take in the event of a true emergency?  Are you prepared to move quickly with the items you’ll need should you be directed to do so?  Alternatively, are you prepared to shelter in place (SIP) for a period of 3-6 days?  What items would you really wish you had that you could lay hands on now BEFORE the event? 

Check out www.Ready.gov for useful information on how to ready yourself and your family (not ‘if’ but) when the next emergency surprises you!

So don't worry when the test occurs.  It should be only about 30 seconds, then Maury will be right back with the DNA findings and lie detector results…

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The citizenry in FDNY’s East Village are being notified when their local apparatus is unavailable to respond to their potential emergencies.

According to a story out in the New York Post today, firefighters of Engine Company 28 and Ladder Company 11 have been tweeting these unsanctioned announcements.

“We’re just trying to let people know when we’re not around,” said a source familiar with the instant-messaging tactic, which has nothing to do with the FDNY’s official Twitter account.

The holiday staff at Fire Daily, after checking out yet another installment of Dave Statter’s new-found hilarity, “Animated Comments- Thanksgiving Edition”, quickly returned to reality long enough to scrub their eyes and ears clean of all they had just witnessed before checking into the reported tweetster.

Some of the tweets are coming from ManCB3FireWatch who offers up the following for a profile on his account on Twitter:

Manhattan Community Board 3  We serve as a method of letting the residents of Alpha City & LES know when their local fire companies are closed for the day or placed out of service.

FireDaily is now following ManCB3FireWatch on twitter, although there is no guarantee as to how long the account will remain active.

Until then, what we have NOT got here…is a failure to communicate.

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I saw this bumper sticker while speeding down the Northwest Tollway on my way home from O’Hare the other day. I knew I had to have one.

So I whipped out my iPhone and went to “store”.

I searched for, located, then downloaded the iPhone app that connects me directly with eBay.  After logging in with my username and password “eastcoaster”, I simply typed in “h-a-n-g-_-u-p-_-a-n-d-_-d-r-i-v-e” in the search box.

As usual, I had to backspace a few times to get the correct term typed in, but I eventually persevered.  Alas, too many results came up.

Blowing past Elmhurst Rd, I tried again, this time typing in “h-a-n-g-_-u-p-_-a-n-d-_-d-r-i-v-e–_-b-u-m-p-e-r-_-s-t-i-c-” before some jerk-off driving his wife’s mini-van while chatting away on his phone nearly cut me off before I could finish.

I quickly stashed my venti vanilla skim latte in its holder and simultaneously honked and waved with less fingers than my left hand contains, while clutching my iPhone in my right.  What was this chucklehead thinking?

By the time I was ready to exit onto Barrington Road, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for on eBay.  I was miffed until I realized how the trip down the tollway seemed to take no time at all.  In fact, I couldn’t really remember driving it.  What just happened for the last 20 minutes?

I decided to postpone my eBay search until I got home.  It was time to pay some serious attention in case a deer decided to jump out in front of me.  Gotta be extra alert out by me…

That’s one of my peeves, and I would bet many of you share it as well.  It’s the self-important “distracted drivers” that piss me off as they try to multi-task while guiding a multi-ton vehicle hurtling down the road.

Losers.

The whole episode reminded me of a story I had seen in at NewYorkTimes.com, that addressed the increasing amount of gadgetry gradually accumulating in the cabs of emergency vehicles.  In addition to the normal gauges, lights, dials, mirrors, radios, and sirens, more and more electronica is competing for our attention as we attempt to safely navigate our way through traffic as quickly and as safely as possible.

Like a litter of eleven puppies competing for six nipples, we’ve been inundated with computers, map routing and GPS devices, cell phones, and multiple radio frequencies- all looking for a spot in our collective cerebrums as we try to wrap our heads around pre-planning our first few steps upon arrival at the emergency scene.

I ask you this: How much is too much?  When do WE cross the line and become just another distracted responder?

As the NYT article explains, there is no data currently being collected regarding accidents involving emergency responders distracted by TMI.  But there are several anecdotes:

“Philip Macaluso, a New York paramedic, recalled a moment recently when he was rushing to the hospital while keying information into his dashboard computer. At the last second, he looked up from the control panel and slammed on his brakes to avoid a woman who stepped into the street.

In April 2008, an emergency medical technician in West Nyack, N.Y., looked at his GPS screen, swerved and hit a parked flatbed truck. The crash sheared off the side of the ambulance and left his partner, who was in the passenger seat, paralyzed.

In June 2007, a sheriff’s deputy in St. Clair County, Ill., was driving 35 miles per hour when a dispatcher radioed with an assignment. He entered the address into the mapping system and then looked up, too late to avoid hitting a sedan stopped in traffic. Its driver was seriously injured.”

Even my own friend and fellow podcaster Greg Friese was quoted in the article, citing his own experience in which he felt it necessary to demand the distracted driver of his ambulance to step away from his cell phone:

“My partner was checking baseball scores as he was driving a patient to the hospital. I looked through the passageway and said, ‘You’ve got to stop that right now,’ ” recalls Greg Friese, a paramedic in central Wisconsin, who was treating a patient in the back. Mr. Friese also develops online training programs for medics, E.M.T.’s, police officers and firefighters.

“We’re dealing with the carnage, which ranges from the trivial to the tragic, of distracted driving,” he said. “We should know better.”

Yes we should.

As we decide how to utilize the constant array of new technology, we need to address the amount of distraction we’re placing upon our responders.  We need to recognize and accept that too much input may result in a decreased ability to process the information in a way that is useful.  Worse yet, distracted emergency responders may bring increased civil and criminal liabilities upon our departments.

The last thing I need is another fire engine flying past me with a distracted driver while I’m trying to surf the web and revise my fantasy hockey roster.

Jerks.

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A view of Los Angeles 2009 Station Fire.  (Kevin Dean/Flickr.com)

Just like Groundhog Day kept kicking Bill Murray’s ass, we can count on the upcoming wildfire season to provide a boot of its own- yet again.  As she has for ages, Mother Nature will provide wildland firefighters with more than enough with which to contend.

As state and federal agencies face dwindling resources and taxpayer funding, wildland firefighters find themselves thinking outside the box- looking for new and creative methods to meet these challenges.  Constantly-evolving 21st-century technology are generating some pretty cool new arrows to fill their depleted quivers.

Personal Personnel GPS

Even the simplest GPS navigational devices can also prove indispensible in the hands of out-of-town firefighters trying to locate water sources fast while working in unfamiliar territory. Devices like the Spot Personal Tracker, a budget-friendly gadget and service combination used by some hikers in mountainous terrain, also has potential. It sends signals to a satellite where there is no cell tower or pager network. Just as it does for hikers, it could send “here I am” messages from firefighters back to a server, which would mark a global map with dots or spots giving fire commanders critical firefighter location information at a glance.

Flying Eyes

Imagine you are footing it around the side of a mountain, looking for the best way to attack the fire as it burns in areas close by, yet unable to be seen due to terrain. Wouldn’t it be nice to fly your eyeballs around your immediate area to avoid wasting time and energy going somewhere to look?  Now, an innovative system designed to fly small unmanned aerial vehicles around, rather than above, forest fires. It’s so compact that it could be used by firefighters on scene and stored on fire trucks when not in use. SwissCopter’s Fire Mission system consists of a mobile cockpit, a backpack and the Peyelot helmet, a headset that can pick up signals within the UAV’s 10-kilometer (6.2 miles) range. If you move your head while wearing the helmet, the camera on board the UAV will follow your movements in real time. It looks like you are on board the UAV, and you see everything as if you were on board. No time is lost in getting the images and information to the firefighters; because they are operating the system themselves.

At a potential cost of zero, San Diego State University has an interesting take on another UAV that can be used virtually anywhere by almost anyone. The drones are demonstrated in this video.  They carry two cameras, one for high-resolution photos, and another for real-time video that can be monitored by an IC on the ground. They offer better imagery than NASA’s Ikhana UAV for a mere fraction of the cost and immediacy that can’t be beat.

These UAVs clearly are a welcome new tool. Improved models are definitely viable and will likely be developed as budgets permit, so it can be expected that the civil use of UAVs in wildfire fighting will expand. With the optimal craft, you could fly around a fire, collect imagery, process it, send it down to the ground, and maybe get a fire perimeter every 10 minutes.

Tree-mounted sensors

Better situational awareness is only the beginning. Knowing precisely which areas are at highest risk of fires could transform how we fight them. Voltree Power in Canton, Massachusetts, has developed a shoebox-size sensor that, planted one per acre, could gather microclimate information, such as spikes in temperature and drops in humidity, that signal a nascent fire. In April the Forest Service began field-testing the device, which can run for a decade on voltage generated from the pH imbalance between a tree and soil.

Tree-mounted Weather Sensor: One of Smokey’s new tools for keeping fire at bay  Courtesy of Christopher Huang

To help deal with the flood of new information, the Forest Service and the National Park Service will use the the Wildland Fire Decision Support System, an online tool that crunches data in real time, using fire behavior models and weather forecasts to determine whether to attack flames on foot or call in planes to dump fire-suppressant gel.

Even with technological advances in firefighting, perhaps the best way to minimize damage is to recognize that fires play a necessary role in restoring certain ecosystems, and so we should stop building in at-risk areas and use fire-retardant materials, says fire ecologist Max Mortiz of the University of California at Berkeley. Mortiz recently published data predicting that climate change will increase wildfire activity across much of the U.S. “We don’t fight earthquakes and floods — we coexist with them,” he says. “We need to learn to do the same with wildfires.”

As we progress toward this end, we may begin to see Groundhog Day scenarios give way to the the upcoming advent of spring- and St. Patrick’s Day!

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The Dance of the Company Officer

We start out this week by pointing to one of my “favoritest” partner bloggers at FireEMSblogs, Mick Mayers of FirehouseZen.

You know, I really enjoy the dance that occurs between the top and the bottom in the fire service organization.  At the top, the vision and direction of the group are put into play.  Those at the bottom need to accept, or buy into that vision in order for the group to move forward in a unified and cohesive manner.

In the middle we find the officers and supervisors.  Their commitment to the success of the organization is demonstrated by the way they convey the direction and vision from the top to their subordinates.  If they are effective, the organization becomes a well-oiled machine.  However if they don’t buy into the message, there is little hope for their subordinates to do the same.

This is where the officer needs to be able to put the needs of the organization ahead of the need to be pals with their guys.  This is one of the most difficult issues facing company officers.

Therein lies the dance.

As usual, this issue of change and leadership is best addressed by Chief Mick Mayers over at FirehouseZen.  From his latest post entitled “Get Everyone on Board”:

“Regardless of your organization, you are going to have personnel who are resistant to change, and while the troops may or may not decide to go willingly, it is a requirement that your officers or supervisors are.  If your small unit leaders aren’t on board, don’t count on the personnel they supervise joining in to resist them.  It will be much easier on those troops if they can get along with their misdirected officer than if they embrace the change, so you can count on the message not getting through when it is most needed.”

Read his post as there is much more on this topic that is important for all your officers to understand.

Fire Rescue TV

Check out Fire Rescue TV- a new website for firefighters that brings breaking news,new product reviews, and a special weekly fire rescue TV news segment.  All the video is extremely professional and rivals anything found on your home TV.

When we spoke with Executive Producer Martin Grube last week on Firefighter NetCast, he revealed an additional exciting element they have planned.  They will be visiting various firehouses and accompanying their crews during all aspects of the cooking portion of their shift.  Starting with planning, then shopping, then cooking and eating, Fire Rescue TV will follow the entire process from start to finish.  If the station’s crew draws a call, the video crew tags along as well. It’s a unique way for non-firefighters to witness this daily station activity.

So if you are in the mid-Atlantic region and want some excellent exposure of your department, invite Fire Rescue TV to your station!  They also welcome video submissions as well.  Make this new site a regular stop when perusing the interwebs.

Pole-Dancing Fireman

Speaking of videos, here’s some dessert for making it this far in the 360 Burn today.  This came to me courtesy of a tweet from our friend Chester Kopco, AKA FatherCabbage on the twitters.  It reminds me of someone I know.  Howabout you?

Stay stoked!

-J

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New system enhances situational awareness

Ten years of research and development will be put to the test as the Massachusetts Fire Academy’s burn building is fitted with sensors designed to detect changing fire conditions- offering real-time situational awareness to the incident commander.

Firefighters will also be fitted with sensors on their SCBA harnesses.  The sensors will constantly track their location within the fire building, and monitor the environmental conditions as they move throughout the structure.  All information is sent to the IC’s laptop where it is integrated into the strategy being deployed.

Separate sensors in their masks will track their heart rate, respirations, and pulse ox.  Heart attacks are the leading cause of firefighter line of duty deaths.

Firefighters will also deploy an environment-sensor box that extends a mast to measure floor-to-ceiling heat differences. The system has been developed by James Duckworth and David Cyganski, engineering professors at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  They are looking to simulate conditions that lead up to flashover during the testing situations at the burn building.

Worcester (MA) Fire Chief Gerard Dio is helping test the system.  Chief Dio lost two of his men in the 1999 cold storage fire, then lost four more who went in to rescue them.

From the article in Popular Science:

“Years ago, before we got hoods, we’d burn our ears and necks, and that would tell us ‘That’s too frickin’ hot, let’s get out,” says Chief Dio.  Now, firemen feel the intense heat only when it’s seconds from flashover.

“Considering that they’re risking their lives, it’s pathetic that firefighters are using what’s essentially 19th-century technology,” Duckworth says. “This will bring them up to date.”

“I know we did the best job we could at the time,” Dio says, “but this system could have saved all of their lives.”

The researchers hope to have the system in the field by 2013.  Click here for further details and photos.

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Head on over to Backstep Firefighter and watch this interesting video from 1982.

After watching the video, editor Bill Carey suggests some thoughts to contemplate as he begins his focus on “whether or not various safety initiatives and programs have developed a culture of digital safety officers and keyboard battalion chiefs.”

Like it or not, tomorrow’s technology is here.  In fact, next year’s technology will be here within months.  Such advances in the internet and social media continue to have profound effects on each of our departments and agencies (think back to all the “what the hell were they thinking?” YouTube videos as examples).

Bill also steers us to the last Firefighter Netcast which featured the topic of old-school vs. new school firefighting and the effects of social media and the internet.  You can link to that program here, or download the podcast for later listening over at iTunes.

So are we ready to handle all this technology?

When we see firefighters making mistakes on a video, the unfortunate yet inherent desire to criticize others combined with the immediacy and worldwide distribution that new technology offers often results in departments shying away from such exposure.

Yet, the same technologies that scare some away presents unparalleled opportunities for all of us to learn.  And the curiosity to continue learning is exactly what makes you a smarter, more professional firefighter (as opposed to the comfy-yet-surprised 4-year veteran I posted on earlier).

My hope is that we all reach a certain level of new-age maturity, where knee-jerk criticisms can be throttled so that departments increasingly share the wealth of what they have learned from their mistakes.

Because the reality is simple: with today’s technology, far away is now in your day room, and tomorrow is here yesterday.

Stay Stoked!

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photo: Firenews.net

More Apparatus Accidents

Apparatus Accidents are headlining the news far too frequently again.  After medical issues, vehicle accidents kill more firefighters every year.  Read up the horrific injuries sustained by by firefighters in New Jersey, Kentucky, and North Carolina as related in FirefighterCloseCalls.com Then, take an active role on doing whatever you can to keep your department out of these types of headlines.

Do that today.

When Maydays Bring Crickets

While looking for a way out during a search, two veteran Cincinnati firefighters became trapped by a burning stairwell after one of them tumbled face first down six stairs, knocking his helmet and air mask off.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday!” his partner called out over his fire radio.

Silence.

“Mayday, mayday, mayday!” It was so quiet they wondered aloud if they were on the wrong channel. “Is anybody copying?” he asked as both men got critically low on air.

Why was this happening?  Read the article in Cincinnati.com by Sharon Coolidge to find out more on a new threat to modern firefighters.

Virginia Firefighters in Haiti Safe Following Aftershock

As if they didn’t already have enough on their plate, Mother Nature continued to keep things interesting as a 6.1 aftershock hammered the disaster area Wednesday morning.

All 83 members of the Virginia Task Force 2 were unscathed and are continuing their efforts at this moment.  You can follow VTF 2 on their cool website.

Despite all the obstacles that have been overcome by all of our heroic expert rescuers, the worse may still be on the way. Unfortunately, civil unrest is already making the situation more dangerous as Haitians increasingly turn to violence in their quest for the basic needs of food, water, and medicine.

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When Iranian citizens took the streets to challenge the Presidential elections last year it was difficult to obtain any real time reporting from traditional sources in the mainstream media.  The government had cracked down on all foreign media, and threatened severe retribution.

But while CNN, ABC, and NBC all struggled to keep the video and audio flowing, we saw the emergence of an entirely new form of communication in street-level reporting.  Anyone and everyone with some type of connection to the internet suddenly had the instant ability to become the next Christiane Amanpour, Anderson Cooper, or Wolf Blitzer.

During no other disaster has the entire world depended on cyber space as we do today.

This week, the internet faces it’s greatest test to demonstrate its capacity for good as it continues to establish a firm foot hold during history in the making.

Social media has developed into a modern technology which allows us to reach into areas of the world with immediacy in a way traditional systems can no longer match.

Facebook has 1500 status updates involving Haiti in every minute.  Relatives and friends are utilizing the power of Facebook as a tool to obtain information about missing loved ones who have .

In some cases, the first long awaited message that a family member is OK has come in the form of a tweet.  A Twitter message of less than 140 characters can carry this type of news more easily, more quickly, and more consistently when telephone and other traditional communication systems no longer can function.

Celebrities and musicians with hundreds of thousands of followers on twitter have established fund raising efforts with incredible results. Those followers join the cause, but then create an entirely new group of donors simply by re-tweeting the information to their own followers.

The result?  Millions and millions of dollars in donations in just a few days from this twitter effort alone.

Haven’t given in to lure of your Tweeps, or have yet to take the dive in creating a Facebook presence?  No worries.

Just today (January 14, 2010), the American Red Cross reported that over 3 million dollars has been raised- ten dollars at a time- from people simply texting in donations from their cell phones.

We are truly at a turning point in communications worldwide.  As social media continues to demonstrate its value in Haiti, we begin to wonder what new technologies will grow from this point forward, and dream of how different it may be in just a few years.

Whether in a fund-raising role, or by providing a critically important communications ability, social media is no longer only a means by which to just chat with friends.  This week, it has evolved into an entirely new animal, demonstrating just how invaluable it can be.

Added Jan. 15-  Be sure to check out a post this morning from PIOSocialMediaTraining.com written by David Konig entitled “Social Mddia- The Real First Responder in Haiti” He lists details and  links to several social media efforts to communicate and donate to the disaster in Haiti…

was written by @DavidKonig for PIOSocialMediaTraining.com

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We Danced With the Devil

Thanks to Bobby G at FireFighters Close Calls for pointing me in the direction of this emotional story of a firefighter’s battle with cancer.  The full story is in the December issue of Firehouse Magazine.  It’s a riveting account filled with emotional looks at what our fellow brothers and sisters face when first hit by the bulldozer of a cancer diagnosis.  This is a super-rough read, but carries some very crucial advice for us all.  Read it and weep.  But then learn and act.

DHS Announces Text Messaging of Threats and Alerts

Yesterday, FEMA and the FCC announced they have adopted design specs for the development of a gateway interface that will enable wireless carriers to provide its customers with timely and accurate emergency alerts and warnings via their cell phones and other mobile devices.  It’s another component of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), the nation’s next generation of emergency alert and warning networks.

The Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) is one of many projects within IPAWS intended to provide emergency mangers and the President of the United States a means to send alerts and warnings to the public. Specifically, CMAS provides Federal, state, territorial, tribal and local government officials the ability to send 90 character geographically targeted text messages to the public regarding emergency alert and warning of imminent threats to life and property, Amber alerts, and Presidential emergency messages. The CMAS is a combined effort of the federal government and cellular providers to define a common standard for cellular alerts.  More information can be found at FEMA’s website here.

Man Drives Tractor Into Manure Pond

United States (California) – A dairy worker drove a tractor into a manure pond this morning at a farm south of Fresno. The Fresno County Fire Department reported the worker became disoriented by dense fog near Manning and Marks avenues and drove the machine down an embankment just before 7 a.m. The tractor ended up in about seven feet of water, spokesman Chris Christopherson said.

As firefighters prepared to rescue him, the man rolled down a window, dived into the water and swam about 20 feet to safety, Christopherson said.

He was not injured.

Written by The Fresno Bee

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