Tag Archives: safety

Search-and rescue operations in remote wilderness locations or in urban situations following a natural or man-made disaster require specialized tools and equipment for the first responder. Here are 10 search-and-rescue tools and technologies that can improve a department's operations and make them safer, more effective and more efficient.

Nobody in a fire department’s chain of command should have more influence on the safety performance of its firefighters than the individual company officer. Think about that statement for a moment and see if it doesn’t fit your department.

Reducing firefighter deaths and injuries is, or should be, a top priority for all fire departments in the USA in 2014. The 16 Lifesafety Initiatives from Everyone Goes Home provide the framework for a department to develop strategies for making the job of a firefighter safer, more effective, and more efficient. This article takes a closer look.

Nobody can, or should, have more positive influence over the behaviors of a firefighter on the emergency scene than his or her tactical leader.

In contrast, nearly 95 percent of the firefighters who have attended the class have made personal behavioral changes in their tactical approaches to fireground operations. While it’s a great feat to see individual firefighters taking note of the education, it’s disappointing that the majority of departments are not immediately taking action to protect the lives of their firefighters.

In support of our brother and sister firefighters and "industry insiders" who are in Tampa this week, I'm going to repost a couple of the blogs I've written in this space on the topic of firefighter deaths and injuries and our progress--and lack thereof--in reducing both of those outcomes. The first is Smoke and Firefighter Disorientation: The Link to Firefighter Fatalities and Injuries.

In the end, firefighters contract disease, illness and death through inhalation, ingestion or absorption. To prevent exposure means wearing air and USING it, clean bodies and clean PPE. While the prescription for prevention is simple, the process is complex.

As much as I was saddened to learn of Frank's death, I was even more sad at the fact that he never got the chance to share that passion and his perspectives on his cancer treatments with his brother and sister firefighters. I'm sure that they would have come to know and love the man that was Lieutenant Frank Vento.

I’ve come to realize that firefighters dying in fires is our very own inconvenient truth in the fire service…In spite of all we know about fire, in spite of all of the advances that have been made in technology, in spite of all of the advances in the science of fire prevention and suppression, in spite of the billions of dollars spent—firefighters still die.

I know that I learned a great deal from everyone whom I facilitated, and my officers and their firefighters really looked forward to our short but productive sessions. They always said that they appreciated the time I spent with them because they learned how to be better initial incident commanders, and they learned what my expectations were for them at the emergency scene in that role.