On Christmas Day, Firehouse® Magazine unveiled its long-awaited emergency services Website, www.Firehouse.com. Please visit our site, which will become your one stop every day for all of your interactive firematic needs. We will feature links to other fire service Websites as well as new apparatus deliveries, fire and rescue photos, fire news and information. Updated daily, this special site will keep you coming back time and time again.
We are also proud to present in this issue our preliminary program for Firehouse Emergency Services Expo '99, to take place at the Baltimore Convention Center July 22-25.
Our pre-conference program will commence on Wednesday, July 21, 1999, with both inside and outdoor workshops. We have listened to your comments regarding the Expo's Professional Information Programs, and we have made changes to make the program even better and more educational than ever before. This year, we feature an all-new program with longer, more in-depth sessions, nationally recognized speakers, hands-on outside pre-conference sessions and timely fire, EMS and emergency topics. Watch for the full advertisement in our February issue and sign up soon. Don't miss out on the summer spectacular.
Last month, we published a first report from the scene of a deadly nightclub fire in Sweden that killed dozens of people. This month, we continue with our wide world of firefighting, EMS and rescue with an in-depth look at rescue and recovery operations that were conducted at the scene of the terrible bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (see page 42). Talk about mutual aid! Virginia Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 was assembled and then flew 16 hours to the scene. The crew was split in two and worked side by side with French and Israeli rescuers. Two of the fire officers who helped to supervise the operations provide a firsthand account from the scene of the disaster.
On page 52, we present our annual feature, "Road Warriors," the latest and greatest of America's state-of-the-art fire and emergency apparatus recently delivered and already operating across the country.
In our continuing coverage of the wildland interface fire problem and its related equipment, training techniques and procedures, Contri-buting Editor Robert M. Winston recaps the 1998 wildfire season worldwide (page 60) and, with Mike Tombolato, files a pictorial report from the front lines in Colorado on page 70. A related story about the interface problems facing Colorado firefighters and how they are prepared to meet the challenge appears on page 64.
