Posts Categorized: Safety
Airbag Safety Video
THERE IS A GOOD REASON WHY you are instructed to always use your seatbelt, even though you have airbags installed in the car.
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Mercaptan Mania
Each year our Department visits the Suffolk County Fire Academy to attend a lecture and do hands on work in the techniques needed to battle fires and incidents involving flammable gas and liquids.
I always enjoy this drill both as a firefighter and a PIO. Quite frankly the hands on portion, as any of know who has taken this kind of training is quite spectacular as LP gas creates a pretty intense fireball.
As a PIO I look forward to the drill because I get some pretty neat pictures when I am not involved in an evolution and I get plenty of food for thought on how I can let the public know about flammable gas safety.
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A Little Safety Parable
Firefighting isn't Jackass: There is a serious difference between taking stupid risks and calculated risks.
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Stuck In The Past
When your organization is experiencing such dysfunction that it is obvious even to the newest recruit, then how clueless are you to insist that everything is coming up roses?
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The Roto-Ray: Beauty or Beast?
I guess the Roto-Ray is the Philadelphia Flyers of warning devices: You either love them or you hate them.
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Our Favorite Forefather – Benjamin Franklin
I think we should all take a moment out of our Fourth of July festivities to think about, and express our deepest gratitude to the founding fathers of our great country for what they did in establishing the framework of a democracy that has survived the test of time.
Of all the forefathers, the one we should place on the highest pedestal is Benjamin Franklin who among his greatest accomplishments was the founding of the volunteer fire service.
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Balance and Equilibrium
Unless I am compelled to do so for official business, or intend to engage in a learning session in which I can take away lessons from the event, I'd just as soon do the things I do and avoid hanging around to look at the carnage of someone else's bad day.
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In Search of Tactical Patience
Today commemorates the anniversary of the Sofa Superstore fire in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine firefighters lost their lives while engaged in aggressive interior operations at a commercial building occupied and operating as a furniture store…
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IAFC FIRE/EMS Stand Down
IAFC Confined Space stand-down, with resources
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Bee Bang-up Brings Big Response
The bee truck was carrying 700 hives that housed 17 million bees, many of which were released when the load broke up.
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Beware the Dangerous Yell
Suddenly a panic swept through the crowd and a stampede started, leaving dozens injured.
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Haz-Mat? Who Needs One of Those?
...the sheriff's department along with the North Vernon-Center Township Fire Department shut down busy U. S. 50 for more than an hour while they mitigated a leaking gas cylinder problem.
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NIST Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiments ISSUED
Report-on-Residential-Fireground-Field-Experiments
The NIST Firefighter Safety and Deployment Study; Titled- Report on Residential Fireground Field Experiements was issued this morning. A copy of the report is attached. The report is also available f…
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Blue Light Blues
It seems blue lights have this hypnotic, mezmorizing effect that causes most motorists to become totally oblivious to your attempt to get to the fire house as quickly as possible while staying within the speed limit and rules of the road.
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Public Information goes both ways
A fire incident in my own town, created serious circumstances that could have easily become deadly serious. While we strive to be as transparent as we can with the public, it is also the responsibility of citizens to be transparent with us, especially when potentially deadly conditions exist on the fireground.
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Maintaining Situational Awareness
Maintaining focused situational awareness while recognizing and processing a wide latitude of incoming information and observations at complex and multiple alarm incidents is a significant challenge to even the most experienced of incident command teams.…
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On Fire Watch
During my quick trip to Las Vegas, I’m glad someone was on fire watch at The Fire PIO desk. I want to thank Bill Carey at Fire EMS Blogs who does such fantastic work managing these blogs as well as well as websites for FirefighterNation.com/ Fire Rescue Magazine /JEMS.connect/JEMS.com LawOfficerConnect/LawOfficer.com.
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Firegeezer hits a Geyser of Public Information
As a PIO I always look for opportunity to educate the public as the result of a specific incident that my department responds to. When we have the first chimney fire of the year in the fall I usually float out to the media a story on chimney safety. Similar lessons to be learned are sent to the media after CO incidents, MVA’s, electrical fires etc. It’s a great way to let the public know about an incident and ultimately how it can be avoided.
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LAS VEGAS FIRE DEPARTMENT GYM USE POLICY IN BAD SHAPE
The Las Vegas Fire Department is catching the ire of many residents who are upset at seeing fire apparatus parked in front of health clubs while entire crews workout during shift hours. This is a potential full community mega ton public relations bomb that can be diffused with some communications finesse.
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Twitter as an Emergency Tool
The most practical government applications for Twitter are in public safety and emergency notifications. I’m currently kicking around a blueprint for exactly how I can use Twitter more effectively to keep the community instantaneously informed of fires, road closings from MVA’s, power outages etc.
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More Surreal Blather surrounding the deadly Flint, Michigan townhouse fire.
From a PIO standpoint, I thought I would never say this, but I would rather see a total press blackout then continue to allow the blather coming out of government official’s mouths about the tragic fire in Flint, Michigan last Saturday night that took the lives of four young children.
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Double PR Disaster looms in Flint, Michigan
From a community and public relations perspective things are not looking good in Flint, Michigan. First, response time was questioned in the tragic fire last Saturday night that took the lives of four children ages 1-4, and now the Mayor of Flint announced today that 23 firefighters will be laid off tomorrow. The layoffs will leave just 65 firefighters in a city of 118,000. Flint can also lose two fire stations, which would leave just 3 for the entire town. The city is trying to close an $8 million budget shortfall.
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Watch Ray McCormack’s FDIC Speech From Last Year
Go over to the Fire Critic Facebook fan page to view the two part speech of Ray McCormack at FDIC last year. This speech sent ripples through the firefighting community. Some loved it and others hated it.
Now that I have finally had the opportunity to view the entire speech I think that those who did not like it should pay closer attention to the message contained within.
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A moving seat belt PSA
This television PSA is from Great Britain. “Embrace Life” is an extremely creative and well done commercial about the importance of seat belts. It’s free to share on YouTube.
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Get Your Facts Straight
What facts may seem to be in evidence right now may not always be accurate, thus the need for continual re-evaluation of your situation. Even though something appears to be true right now, it might not be in a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days.
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