The fire service has been asked to step up in many areas of the country recently. Response to emergencies during severe winter storms with rain, snow, ice, high winds, severe flooding and mud slides were some of the natural wonders of the world that hampered firefighters. Snow and rain fell at record levels during these storms.
As if that wasn’t enough, a tsunami following an earthquake struck thousands of miles of oceanfront around the Indian Ocean and killed over 150,000 people. The U.S. government dispatched several personnel from Fairfax, VA, Fire-Rescue USAR team to Indonesia, and a similar team from Los Angeles County traveled to Sri Lanka to evaluate conditions.
In Arizona, normally dry riverbeds were flowing water at record levels. In Utah, homes were washed away and others in danger of collapse after foundations were washed away. A mud slide in La Conchita, CA, caused a portion of a hillside to slide down, taking numerous homes with it. Ten people were killed; see page 8. These western states had been dealing with many years of drought. Firefighters operating in those areas would have liked a different weather forecast issued, but as we’ve said before, you can’t fool Mother Nature.
• • •In this issue, we present a first look at the train wreck in South Carolina that killed eight and injured 240; see page 8. The freight train struck a parked train. The train had three tank cars carrying chlorine gas. One of these tank cars ruptured, causing the evacuation of 5,000 residents. Also this month, Hal Bruno writes about the nomination of a new Secretary of Homeland Security and what this may mean to the fire service; see page 14. Separately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) just issued its new National Response Program; see page 57. I recommend to every fire chief that you read this document and determine how it will affect your department.
• • •Some departments around the Great Lakes have been experiencing tough times. Budget constraints, people moving out of the cities and reduced tax revenues usually mean one thing: possible fire company closings and layoffs may loom on the horizon. In contrast, Phoenix, which is moving up on the list of the nation’s largest cities, will be adding several hundred firefighters to staff up to 10 new stations. Future plans call for adding 20 new stations in the city by 2016. It is being reported that nearly 6,000 people move in the Valley of the Sun each month.
• • •Statistics were recently released detailing the deaths of 107 firefighters killed in the line of duty during 2004; see page 8. Further information can be found on-line at www.usfa.fema.gov/fatalities/statistics/ff_stats.shtm. The hardest job we do in the fire service is staying alive while fighting fires. Heart attacks killed 49. Responding to the scene and operating near the apparatus is equally dangerous. We have to do a better job.
• • •During a recent series of meetings, I couldn’t help but list a number of initiatives or “buzzwords” that many fire departments are working on. These terms or phrases were from management and labor – “Managing Air,” “Relief,” “Work Cycles,” “Risk Management,” “Close Calls” and “Rapid Intervention Training.” Here are a few more catch phrases: “When the IC says come out, come out”; “Frequent Flier,” referring to repeated calls to the same address; “TMB,” or “too many birthdays”; and “If you can’t exit on your own, you need help.” Other issues on the fire service’s front burner include “Technology,” “Police/Fire Joint Training,” “Human Resource Management,” “High-Risk/Low-Frequency Events,” “Recertify,” “Qualified,” “Succession Planning,” “Replacement Planning” and “Windshield Survey.” When talking about notifications to respond to EMS calls, one department described it like this: “Last to know, first to go.”
• • •A tip of the helmet to Firehouse® contributors Jim Crawford, who recently was promoted to lieutenant in the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, and Decker Williams, who was promoted to deputy chief in the Phoenix Fire Department last year. Good luck and stay safe.
