Posts Tagged: Disaster
The Right Stuff
There is a profound need to make sure the people we bring in not only have read and signed a memo telling them what our ethics happen to be, but that they LIVE these ethics.
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The Year in Disaster
Join Jeremy Mitchell as he reviews of long duration, large-scale disasters with a focus on how small career, combination and volunteer departments respond to these incidents. We will talk about the impact on the organizations and look at how well disaste…
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Fukushima: Lessons Learned—Conclusion
A Level 7 Incident
After the explosion involving reactor facility 4, the decision was made to evacuate all “non-essential” personnel and 650 workers left the site, leaving just 70 to continue the stabilization work.
In addition to the three rea…
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Fukushima: Lessons Learned (Part Four)
Explosions
As March 12th dawned the reactors continued out of control with the plant largely reliant on the built-in design safeguards to cope with surging pressures and temperatures. There was a vital need for electricity so that operating paramete…
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Fukushima: Lessons Learned (Part Three)
Flying Blind
The incoming tsunamis, much larger than planned for, had destroyed back-up electrical generation capability when the diesel generators were swamped and electrical switch gear wetted. Electricity was vital in order to monitor the conditi…
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Fukushima: Lessons Learned (Part Two)
Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
The plant is located on the northeast coast of Japan about 120 miles from Tokyo. It consists of six (6) GE-designed Boiling Water Reactors. The steam energy from the boiling water is used to drive turbines which creat…
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Fukushima: Lessons Learned (Part One)
Today begins a five-part series on the events which unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant as workers tried to simultaneously stabilize three out-of-control reactors after the deadly earthquake. Fukushima will surely stand as one of the …
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Texas Task Force 1 Deployed to Search Town Destroyed by Wildfire
Texas Task Force 1 has been deployed to Bastrop, Texas (Near Austin) to conduct a search of the scorched town. Approximately 700 homes haves have been destroyed by the wildfire.
The State of Texas has been a leader in enhancing their US&R Task F…
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USAID Deploys VA-TF1 and CA-TF2 to Japan
VA-TF1 and CA-TF2
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Tuscon – There But For The Grace of God Go I
You can speculate, you can imagine, you can insinuate, and you can opinionate, but the long and short of it is that YOU DON’T KNOW.
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DISASTER STRIKES! Live In A FEMA Trailer Or Daiwa’s New EDV-01 Robotic House?
Let's assume a major hurricane similar to Katrina has struck Louisiana coast wiping out all utility centers, shelters, roads and other sources of relief. FEMA is faced with the reality of housing tens of thousands of people AND providing them electricity…
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Will Google’s Global Science Fair Discover The Next Great Life Safety Device?
[fblike]I would venture a guess and say that almost every science fair has at least one experiment dealing with some aspect of Fire Science or life safety. That is why we are going to keep a very close eye on something the folks at Google are doing: The …
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Chicago Fire: Disaster at the Sing Way
Several years ago, I didn't know anyone in the Chicago Fire Department. Now, I would call at least one a good friend. The world has been changed and along with it, so has the American Fire Service. If a brother wants to be a part of the nation of firemen, he or she can be so easily..
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The Whip Tips the Hat to the Man
Giving your people the authority to make decisions and to act in the moment when action must rule the day takes a lot of trust and confidence. Sometimes you are going out on a limb, but if you don't give them that opportunity, if you don't believe in your people, how will they ever master their profession?
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Remembering The Parting Glass
I gathered the shift together to tell them we would soon hear a single tone out over the house radio to mark his passing. I didn't even get finished telling them before it began to sound a long, long, mournful tone. He was gone.
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The Disincentive for Responsible Reporting (Tax and Spend Socialists)
When I decide to offend, I think I'm an equal opportunity offender, because like I stated, I'm not a proponent of either camp. I think for myself.
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9/11 – Remembering the 343 And A Promise Made
" The fireman I was before 9/11 is not the fireman that I am now. That changed in an instant. Before both towers had gone to ground, I had become a different fireman. For myself and thousands of other firemen, we had not only a career changing moment, but a life-changing moment. All things that had been before were somehow less intense, our current time, began when the towers went down."
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If You Really Believe
They had no idea what they were about to face, but they did so with the total conviction of our calling, that of a firefighter.
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Customer Service: A Bad Concept?
While we can quantitatively point out that having a customer service attitude benefits us in public support, there should be a much more altruistic reason for our embracing that belief.
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Where Were You That Night?
It was inevitable that something bad would happen, given what we know now. All we can do now is honor the lives of those who go before us, pray for the families and help them deal with this tragedy, and hope we all learn from the events that evening.
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Breaking News: Huge Earthquake Hits Chile
Quake was reported as being an 8.8 magnitude and is also the cause of a tsunami that is expected to strike various nations in the Pacific basin.
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Capitalize on Your Strengths
When we put together teams, the act of doing so in order to develop effective teams requires some thought as to what is needed by the organization, but to fail to consider the small team dynamics and assume everything is going to go swimmingly, is simply nonsense.
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Trust Is The Mortar
Trust is the mortar, the bond between power and responsibility. Without empowerment, people are unable to act on their vision. Give someone power and they are free to create all kinds of possibilities.
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Report From Haiti
US&R teams from around the world are engaging missions in Haiti: New York TF 1, Florida TFs 1 and 2, Virginia 1, California 2, and Colorado 1 are working in country, as well as teams from Jamaica, Costa Rica, Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Luxemburg, Canada, Russia, Spain, China, France, Iceland, St. Domingo, Mexico, Netherlands, the UK and Colombia.
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Disaster Redefined