L-149 Members,
Below is Mike Walkers version of, "War in Peace". Set aside about an hour to read it. Just kidding, it actually is full of a lot of good info.
Be safe!
A. Hummel
Brothers and sisters,
I want to thank the membership for allowing me to attend the 19th IAFF Redmond Symposium last month. There was an incredible amount of valuable information provided that we can all use. I paid for my registration by joining the IAFF FirePAC Leadership trust – it was well worth the $500. I would encourage all of you to consider joining the Leadership Trust, not only for the good work the money supports, but because it waives your registration to great conferences like the Redmond Symposium. For those of you who don’t know, the IAFF FirePAC pays for all the political action that has helped us pass legislation such as the Fire Act Grant, Hometown Heroes Act, and Fire SAFER Act, and is currently helping us get the national collective bargaining law passed.
The following is a summary of the information presented at the symposium. I won’t go into great detail on every item, but will touch on the highlights which will give you a foundation from which to build. If you would like to learn more about any of these subjects, the IAFF website has a wealth of resources that can assist you. All of the Redmond sessions were videotaped and can be viewed online at http://www.fc-tv.com/webcast/sunmountain/iaff-10-07/portal.asp
National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System
The National Fire Fighter Near-Miss Reporting System is a program created by the IAFC and IAFF to collect reports of firefighter near-misses with the goal of improving firefighter safety. It has been around for two years and has already collected 1500 web-based reports. In order to encourage participation, the creators determined that the following characteristics were necessary – it had to be voluntary, confidential, non-punitive, secure, and free of charge. By making it easy to do and with the ability of being anonymous, more firefighters will feel safe to tell others of their mistakes without worrying about being criticized for those mistakes. For every one tragic event (LODD or serious injury) there are approximately 300 near-misses. This is a great way for us to learn from mistakes that don’t have as high of a price tag. I encourage all of you to visit the site to review the reports and at the very least add your own near miss lessons. I believe this is an essential tool for us to increase safety and reduce fire ground injuries and deaths.
Web Address: www.firefighternearmiss.com
PPE changes
Significant improvements are being made to our turnout gear. In an initiative titled “Project HEROES”, the IAFF teamed up with NIOSH, Total Fire Group, and W.L. Gore and Associates with funding from the Dept. of Homeland Security to enhance the protective properties of our ensemble. Specifically this joint venture worked on providing front line firefighters with protection from chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents in our structural turnouts. Critical to the success of this new gear was to ensure there was minimal impact on comfort and functionality. After all, what good would this new PPE be if it was impractical for what we use it for the most – fighting fires?
After several years of work a prototype ensemble has been developed and has gone through initial testing with promising results. The key to the design was to improve the vapor barrier so that no external vapors could enter but would allow perspiration to exit. Apparently, W.L. Gore was able to develop such a barrier. Also, the interface of ensemble components (e.g. where the gloves meet the coat) had to be addressed to prevent entrance of CBRN agents at these points. They came up with a solution that addressed each interface of the ensemble. For example, the hood is now integrated into the coat, the glove seals to the coat sleeve, and there is a booty that slips inside our turnout boots and attaches to the pant at the knee. The most interesting solution was the one that addressed the interface between the coat and pant. Instead of trying to seal this natural break, they created positive pressure inside the coat that would prevent air and contaminants from entering. This was accomplished by routing exhaled air into our coat through a tube in our regulators.
The turnouts look almost identical to the one’s we currently use. Overall, I think this new gear has potential, but I do have concerns. First, I worry that we are further encapsulating ourselves which creates more risk for overheating from our own body heat. The presenters acknowledged this concern and stated that the exhaled air introduced into the coat actually helped regulate the temperature inside. Nevertheless, I believe further encapsulating ourselves encourages us to push ourselves further into a fire without realizing conditions leading up to a flashover. The second concern is that we now have a second tube to manage that could be an entanglement hazard as well as a nuisance. The answer to this was that, with training, firefighters will become accustomed to the second tube and will not be encumbered. Further testing is planned and hopefully all the bugs will be worked out.
Another improvement to our PPE that is truly revolutionary is the new SCBA that is in development. I’m not sure if it is part of “Project HEROES”, but they showed it during the same session. This new air pack weighs only 7 lbs! How is that possible, you are probably asking? The answer is that there is no air cylinder. This is accomplished by using a new high pressure air “vessel” that can hold over 10,000 psi. This vessel looks kind of like a small thermarest pad like you take camping. It’s about a foot wide and a foot and a half long and sits flat to the back. It is very low profile, but most importantly, it’s very light. I don’t have all the details on this device, but you can see it on the Redmond website. Download the session on “Project HEROES” and watch all the way through. A firefighter demonstrates this new device at the very end of that session.
Radio Interoperability
I’m sure most of you have heard of the pressure by the federal government to create a communication system predicated on the concept of “interoperability”. The idea is that all emergency service agencies will have the ability to communicate with each other in the event of a large scale disaster or even for day-to-day operations. The goal is admirable, but the practical application has potential to be disastrous. The system(s) we are being asked to tap into are complex, trunked frameworks that route communications from the sender through a computer network and then to the receiver. This works great in most applications, but fails when the sender’s radio cannot reach that computer network. The most common instance of this is when that sender is in a building…such as during a structure fire. It is conceivable that two firefighters could be 15 feet away from each other inside a building but unable to talk to each other via radio because the radios cannot reach a repeater. Interoperability is great, but not at the expense of intraoperability.
The communication problem is further complicated by digital technology. The problem we are seeing with digital is that the radios do not know how to convert voice and high background noise into a sensible digital code and then decode it on the receiver’s end. It mixes voice and background together into a digital signal that comes out as garbled noise. Unfortunately, there tends to be a little bit of background noise at a structure fire, rendering our radios useless when we need them the most.
This topic is very complex and I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s involved. There is a lot of momentum (and federal pressure) behind interoperability which could force a system upon us which is hazardous to our safety. If your department is in the process of buying new 700mHz radios in hopes of being “interoperable”, I encourage you to do whatever you can to interrupt the process until the concerns are addressed. Paul Roberts with Local 149 has been working on this issue extensively for the past year, working with Motorola to try to solve the problem and chairing an IAFC committee charged with dealing with this issue. If you have any questions give him a call at (208) 378-8517 and he can probably answer them.
Heart disease
Again, there is more evidence showing that our job is a big contributor to heart disease. Firefighting places demands on the heart that can be detrimental to even the most healthy individual. Even so, the best prevention is to lead a healthy lifestyle – exercise, eat right, and reduce stress in your life.
Presumptive illness
This session was fairly valuable for me as our lobbyist. Washington state’s lobbyist and Ottowa’s lobbyist each recounted their quest to get presumptive legislation passed. They both had great advice on how to get it done. The good news is that it can be done, the bad news is that it takes a little while. Washington spent about five years working on it and Canada spent about fifteen years. Both Washington and Canada have some of the best presumptive laws imaginable for their efforts, though.
Behavioral health
In the wake of 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, the fire service is learning how best to deal with traumatic stress. The traditional CISM model has been shown to be not only ineffective, but even counterproductive in some cases. The problem with CISM is that it is too often forced counseling on timeline uncomfortable for the patient. It can lead to resistance to treatment, resentment, and possibly even further mental and emotional trauma. FDNY, Phoenix Fire Dept, and the Louisiana Hurricane Recovery organization have found that a low-pressure, voluntary, peer-oriented support process on a self-directed timeline has greater success. After a traumatic incident, instead of bringing all those involved into a room to talk about their feelings, a “peer counselor” (another firefighter specially trained in counseling peers) comes to the station and offers to assist with whatever needs those involved have. This could be as simple as meeting physical needs such as making them dinner or as involved as one-on-one counseling. The key is to let the firefighter know what resources you have available and then let him or her decide whether or not they want to use any of them. Professional counselors are part of this program, but they must also be specially trained to deal with emergency workers and traumatic stress and no one can be forced to see one.
Burn injury
The main point of this session was that we should be aware of what resources we have available to us in our jurisdictions for burn injuries. Burn centers around the nation have been shutting down over the past decade due to funding. Unfortunately, this leaves burn injury care in the hands of our local hospitals, most of which are ill-prepared and under-trained for such care. The first 24 to 48 hours of care after a burn are the most critical. Poor treatment in this phase will lead to longer recovery time, greater permanent disability, and more pain in the process. I think most of us realize that the closest burn centers are Salt Lake and Seattle. The presenter of this session encouraged each firefighter to know what capabilities their local hospital had as well as what the protocol is to transport to a burn center. I would encourage you to find out what procedures you have in place in your local department in the event of a burn injury. Your local hospital may want to treat you themselves and resist transporting you to a more qualified burn center. Hopefully, we all have a department that assigns an advocate to a burned firefighter and insists on transport to one of these facilities.
Rehab
This session pointed out just how demanding structural firefighting is on the human body. We all know this to be true from our own experiences, but there was interesting scientific studies presented that confirmed this. Most of the data showed the incredible stress put on the body from heat build up. I won’t try to repeat the information verbatim (it was way above my head), but the amount of heat storage (i.e. heat stress) we are exposed to in a sixteen minute period of firefighting is more than 1 ½ times what OSHA recommends for a worker in an eight hour work day. Studies show that our job is physiologically the most demanding for short surge work of any occupation. Needless to say, this underscores the importance of rehab on the fireground. The NFPA 1500 committee has recognized this and has taken a stronger position on it. NFPA 1584 was previously a “recommended practice” on rehab, but the committee has rewritten much of it. One of the most important changes is that if it is passed by the membership and the Standards Council next month, it will become the “Standard on the Rehabilitation Process for Members During Emergency Operations and Training Exercises”.
Cyanide and CO
We all know that fires put off numerous toxic gases. Carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) are gaining a lot of attention as the most serious. The danger of CO is that it binds significantly more readily to hemoglobin than oxygen robbing our bodies ability to use any oxygen we inhale. There is an obvious danger of CO exposure at any fire we respond to. Research is showing that even a single significant exposure can have a long term effect on cardiac health. The presenter of this session suggested that we get CO measuring devices such as a CO-oximetry device or a CO exhalation meter in our medical kits to speed assessment of a CO exposure at a fire. There is not a lot we can do in the field to treat CO poisoning, but if we know the extent of it, it will help the hospital in treatment.
The danger of HCN is that it is highly toxic and can be almost immediately incapacitating. Modern fires burn 2-3 times hotter, progress 1-2 times faster, and produce more toxic gases than those 30 to 40 years ago. With faster moving fires occupants have less time to exit a structure and, if they happen to inhale any HCN laden fumes in the process, they will be unable to continue. HCN is now believed to be the leading cause of fire fatalities. Interestingly, Western Europe and Japan have half the number of fatalities that the US has. This is almost certainly due to the wide-spread use of Cyano-kits in those countries. Now that Cyano-kits are beginning to be used here in the United States, we should see this statistic improve.
Complacency
Two speakers touched on the issue of complacency. The first was Colonel Mike Mullane. Although not a firefighter, his experiences as an Air Force navigator and a Space Shuttle Astronaut are relevant to our service. He spoke of how ignoring safe practices encourages us to continue down a destructive path when we “get away with it”. It’s not until a disaster occurs, like the Space Shuttle Challenger or a firefighter LODD, that we look back and realize we could have prevented it by sticking with the safe practice. He called this phenomenon “normalization of deviance”. Essentially, it’s the process of allowing unacceptable practices to become acceptable out of complacency. I think we owe it to ourselves and our brothers to scrutinize our own practices for any normalization of deviance. The other speaker was Fire Engineering Editor in Chief Bobby Halton. His message was essentially the same except that he used the term “drift into failure”. By this he means that we don’t suddenly make a bad decision that leads to failure, but that over time we gradually drift into practices that lead to failure (e.g. firefighter LODD) due to complacency. Both were excellent speakers with relevant messages.
I attended several other sessions, but I feel these were the highlights. Again, I encourage you to visit the Redmond and IAFF websites to learn more. I hope you have found this informational.
Fraternally,
Mike Walker
PFFI Vice President/Lobbyist
