Not just what and how, but why!
LODD in 2008 In 2008, six firefighters in the United States lost their lives in extreme fire behavior events occurring while they were engaged in interior firefighting operations. In 2008 there was only one multiple fatality line of duty death as the result of extreme fire behavior. Of this six, three were career, two were … Read more
Applying NIOSH Recommendations NIOSH Death in the Line of Duty reports generally contain two types of recommendations, those that focus on specific contributory factors and others that address general good practice. As when examining contributory factors, it is important to read the NIOSH recommendations critically. Do you agree or disagree and why? What would you … Read more
Exptertise Knowledge and skill are critical to safe and effective performance during emergency operations and firefighters and officers who perform well on the fireground are respected by their peers. What does it take to develop a high level of expertise? Believing that they are masters of their craft, some firefighters resist engaging in practice of … Read more
Relevance, Quality, & Impact The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted a public stakeholder meeting in Chicago, IL on 19 November 2008 to hear input and recommendations on the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. Dr. Christine Branche, Acting Director of NIOSH opened the meeting by emphasizing that this program must be … Read more
This post is a continuation of my feedback to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that will be presented at the public stakeholder meeting conducted in Chicago, IL on 19 November 2008. My recommendations are presented in the form of an analysis of NIOSH Report F2007-29. This incident resulted in the death of … Read more
Public Stakeholder Meeting On 19 November 2008, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will conduct a public stakeholder meeting to gather input on the Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. This meeting has a similar focus to one held on 22 March 2006 in Washington DC. At the 2006 stakeholder meeting, NIOSH received … Read more
Fire Ventilation by Stefan Svensson was originally written to support ventilation training delivered by the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (Räddnings Verket). However, the English translation of this text is an excellent resource for any firefighter or fire officer. Stefan does an excellent job of integrating practical fireground experience and the underlying science of thermodynamics and … Read more
Quantitative Analysis Quantitative analysis of firefighter injuries and fatalities uses statistics to describe what has occurred and identify patterns and trends. Annual reports and longitudinal (multi-year) quantitative studies provide one way to examine firefighter safety performance. Firefighter Fatalities in the United States 2007, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) U.S. Fire Service Fatalities in Structure Fires, … Read more
In May 2006 US Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management published a briefing paper on Peer Review Process. Later that year, a peer review team used the process to investigate a near miss incident in the Shoshone National Forest and issued a report titled Little Venus Fire Shelter Deployment. This report provides an interesting look … Read more
Structural firefighting agencies can draw some valuable lessons from the wildland firefighting community. Fire behavior training in many structural agencies often begins and ends in recruit academy. For wildland firefighters, fire behavior training involves an extensive, multi-level curriculum (S-190, S290, S-390, S-490 and so on). The wildland community is also more substantively engaged in analysis … Read more