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Explore the poisons in what we commonly call “smoke”

www.FirefighterNetCast.com

On Thursday, July 29th, Firefighter Netcast Presents The Voice of Reason will welcome special guest Shawn Longerich, Executive Director for the Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) and can be found on the world wide web at www.FireSmoke.org.

The mission of the CPTC is to “focus the required attention and resources on the issues, the CPTC aims to increase awareness about the risk of fire smoke cyanide exposure as it relates to Awareness, Prevention, Protection, Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment”.

Please join Art and his guest, Shawn Longerich on Firefighter NetCast at 9:00 pm EDT on Thursday, July 29th for a very special evening as we explore the poisons in what we commonly call “smoke”.

Posted in Firefighter Safety & Health, In the Line of Duty, NetCast, training-fire-rescue-topics

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Posted by John Mitchell on July 28, 2010 • View Comments

360 Degree Burn Size Up of the Fire Webs- 7/12/2010

Third DeKalb Firefighter Reinstated after Dunwoody Incident

Can you see me now?

You may remember the sorry case in which DeKalb County GA firefighters responded to, but were unable to locate a house fire reported by the occupant.  Without exiting their apparatus and walking up the driveway, they instead returned to quarters only to be re-dispatched hours later to the fully engulfed home.  The homeowner, 74-year-old Ann Bartlett, was killed in the fire.

We detailed this incident in a Fire Daily article last February which includes a video report and audio snippets of radio transmissions at the scene.

According to a report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a hearing officer ruled on Friday that Capt. Sell Caldwell was inappropriately terminated and did not neglect his duties as charged when terminated shortly after the incident.

The county indicated it will appeal the decision.

Pumper Valve Sprays Firefighter With… Searing Steam?

Newsday reports on the freak accident that sent a North Babylon NY firefighter on a helicopter trip to the hospital after being burned by steam released from one of the pumpers valves while operating at the scene of a landfill fire on Wednesday.  Not much information is available on exactly what would cause such an incident, but you can bet they are looking into it.  The firefighter, who’s name is being withheld due to federal privacy laws, received steam burns to his chest and arms.  His injuries are reportedly non-life threatening and he is said to be in good spirits.

Man Found Dead Sitting In Lotus Position

Obviously not the victim, just the position.

Another example of why I don’t use this position (despite the fact I couldn’t GET into this position):

A Sydney, New Zealand man was found dead inside his apartment after firefighters finished battling a fire there.

Officials speculate the man died of smoke inhalation while he was “zoned out” during a meditation session.  The fire is not believed to be suspicious.

Stay Stoked!  (that means no meditating)

-J

Posted in 360 Burn, Firefighter Safety & Health, Fires, News, WTF?

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Posted by John Mitchell on July 12, 2010 • View Comments

Ten years later, Worcester tests new technology that could have saved all 6 lives

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.

Posted in Firefighter Safety & Health, Never Forget, News, Technology & Communications

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Posted by John Mitchell on March 1, 2010 • View Comments

In The Blink of an Eye

An Indescribable Sense of Loss on an Incredibly Lucky Day

Fire Daily started just a few scant months ago as a way to stay involved in the fire service after suffering a disability on the job.  Forced into an early “retirement” of sorts, I was surprised at how much I really wasn’t enjoying it.  Beyond the medical issues, I have to tell you about the overwhelming sense of loss which became almost unbearable.

I have been a firefighter all my adult life, starting as a volunteer in my home community and eventually becoming my department’s first full-timer.  After a long while, I started all over again at a career department down the road where I began that special firefighter relationship with a whole new group of guys and gals.  My second job was as a fire and EMS instructor.  My whole life revolved around my family at home, my family at work, and my family of students and fellow instructors.

Then, the accident happened.  Another quarter of an inch shift in location, my neurologist explained, and my skull fracture would almost certainly have resulted in me becoming a quadriplegic.  So I fully appreciate the “luck” that befell me on that warm spring day in May.  But, even with help from above, I must tell you how everything changed in the blink of an eye.

Let me repeat that.

Everything changed in the blink of an eye.

The regularity of having contact with the guys and gals with whom I truly held a special bond was severed.  One day there, next day- crickets.

It’s difficult to try to describe the different relationship that developed when I was no longer part of the “team”, yet always still a part of the “family.”  Although I’m able to pop in anytime I want (there’s an open invitation forever) to break bread and bust a gut with the guys, it just isn’t the same.  I’m not going to be on the line with them for the next “big one.” Or even the next little one.  Or even the advanced living center call for assistance.  Or training.  Or shopping.  Or watching “Family Guy”.

In the blink of an eye, it’s all gone now.

The longer I’ve been away, the deeper the sense of loss of being apart from them and the job I honestly loved.  This emotional response must be similar to the feeling experienced by firefighters that are forced to retire before they want to due to age. Be kind to them, folks.

Enter Fire Daily.

It all started out as a means by which I could remain somewhat connected to the fire service without gearing up and actually battling the red devil.  Blogging has been extremely medicinal for this injured firefighter/paramedic.

Just like the change that happened halfway through my career by switching departments, this new change has brought me into yet another family- a group of bloggers and readers that have quickly become my friends.  As the days and weeks and months plod along, these ties, too, will continue to strengthen.  How can I be sure?  Because we enjoy a certain pact– call it brotherhood- that is inherent to the fire service.  It lives in each of us and continues to develop each day no matter who we are, where we live, or what capacity we hold.

Although I will always have a sense of loss, I thank each and every one of my readers and fellow bloggers for allowing me to remain connected.

As another well-established blogger puts it- “Thanks for taking the time to read my stuff!”

You are my new family.

Posted in Brotherhood, Change, Close Calls, In Da House, Line of Duty

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Posted by John Mitchell on January 7, 2010 • View Comments

Blogger Jeremy Black Canned- John Mitchell Takes the Helm at FireDaily.com

“I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family,” Jeremy Black told a hastily created press conference early this afternoon.  “I’m proud of my involvement in the genesis of FireDaily, and will always look back with fond memories of my short time here”,” he told the completely empty room.

After less than one hundred days, Black was relieved of his post as Executive Editor and Chief Blogmeister at FireDaily.com, an upstart blogging venture experiencing rapid growth.  It became clear last Friday that Black would not be a part of the future of FireDaily.  Black left a comment on FireEMSblog.com partner Mick Mayer’s Firefighter Nation Blog that was the final straw.

“Even if he didn’t mean it the way it came across, his comment was unnecessary and just plain out of line,” crowed John Mitchell.  “Chief Mayers is a highly respected firefighter and champion blogger.  He was put into an awkward situation, and that’s not what FireDaily.com is all about.  We finally realized that his services were no longer needed here.”

Formerly the Vice President of Media Relations and Senior Assistant Blogmeister, Mitchell has tapped himself to replace Black effective immediately.

“We tried to be nice, but he just wouldn’t take the hint.”  Mitchell had to resort to more serious tactics to get the point across.

“First, we took his red stapler.  That usually works, ya know.  Next, we moved his office into the basement.  That’s where the girls like watching Pokemon,” Mitchell explained.  “We were convinced that would do the trick, but his psychiatrist just upped his meds and, to his credit, he hung firm”.

Black smiled wryly at the visual image from Mitchell’s metaphor.

With the holidays approaching, a rash but effective decision was made to avoid a confrontation during a time when interactions with extended families already created a hostile environment. The entire FireDaily staff (of one) met this weekend behind closed doors and came up with a plan.

“How many times did we have to tell him to ‘step away from the comma’?  He had become a comma-holic, dropping them everywhere and anywhere,” Mitchell related, rolling his beautiful blue eyes in disgust as he sprayed the last of a Costco 3-pack of Fabreze into the area around the executive desk.

“We tried getting him to read Frank McCourt’s Eats, Shoots & Leaves countless times, but we knew that would could never tear him away from Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue, especially how painfully slowly he reads, asking for help with the big words all the time.”

So, realizing the comma remained Black’s Achilles Heel, Mitchell sabotaged his laptop this morning by reassigning a happy-face emoticon to the dirty and stained comma key on the keyboard.

“I wish we did that a long time ago, his posts would have made more sense,” Mitchell ripped.

That did the trick.

Comma-less, Black left immediately after the press conference- sans stapler.  He will continue to receive a small percentage of the Adsense profits from the site if they eventually are earned.

As he continued de-lousing the office, Mitchell whined that he hadn’t heard the last from Black.

“We know he’ll land on his feet, he just needs to learn to keep them out of his mouth.”

Posted in Change, Just For Fun, News

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Posted by John Mitchell on November 24, 2009 • View Comments