Cross-training firefighters as code inspectors

Last night I was working on the discussion board for my Principles of Emergency Services class and I decided to try something new: I enlisted the "voices of experience" by posting the question on Facebook and asking my friends to respond. I want to thank Jerry Michael Allen (Deputy Chief, Brunswick Fire Department), David J. Bullard (Lieutenant,  Columbia County Fire/Rescue Department), Robert J. Duncan (Firefighter, Bradley County Fire/Rescue Department), David Harris (Chief, Mountain Park Fire Department (Ret.)), and Jeff Williamson (Captain, Johns Creek Fire Department for their invaluable input. Here is my discussion board:

Since I know in the past cross-training has been something of a “hot button” topic, I decided to post this question on Facebook to get the thoughts of both current and retired firefighters on my friend’s list. As I suspected I got mixed reviews with some coming out in favor and some opposed. Honestly, I think I have to agree with the mindset of being opposed because, from my experience, department’s that utilize cross-trained personnel tend to have problems with both areas of duty not receiving equal attention. Consider the responsibilities that are already placed on the plate of Firefighter/Medic’s and then add the following duties if they are also responsible for inspection/code enforcement: 1) the design of fire safe assemblies and systems; 2) Review of plans; 3) Inspection of fire safety equipment; and 4) Public education in fire prevention just to name a few responsibilities (Klinoff, 2012). Surprisingly, the strongest opposition did not come from line personnel, but from chief officers – one active and one retired. Explained Deputy Chief Michael Allen of the Brunswick, Georgia Fire Department: “a firefighter doing code enforcement is a bad idea. If a firefighter does all the things expected along with EMS First Responder and all the special ops they shouldn't have time to do other peoples jobs,” (Allen, 2013).

In the interest of fairness, I did some on-line research and found a blog entitled “The Pros and Cons of Cross-Training” written by Mr. Hoyt Mann. In the blog he presented both the pros and cons associated with cross-training (Mann, 2009):

 

Pro	Con
Possible to transfer ideas from one area of responsibility to another	Jack of all Trades is master of none. A limit of two (2) areas to support is probably best.
Keeps you fresh	Burn-out can occur if you are asked to switch back and forth too often or too quickly.
May keep you from being laid off	No time to catch up on reports or other paperwork.
If management is in your future, knowing more than one could be useful	Tends to be more stressful

 

In conclusion, I will leave you with the opinion of retired Mountain Park (GA) Fire Chief David Harris: “If you are at a station which has hardly any calls it would be OK. They had us doing that for a while at FCFD #2's and we were never able to complete the task in our first alarm territory. We were also out of position and or late responding many times because of it,”  

Reference

Allen, M. (2013, September 22). Would you support the idea of cross-training your local firefighters to perform inspection/code enforcement roles? What are the “pros” and “cons” to this idea? [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/wtlittle Retrieved: September 22, 2013

Harris, D. (2013, September 22). Would you support the idea of cross-training your local firefighters to perform inspection/code enforcement roles? What are the “pros” and “cons” to this idea? [Online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/wtlittle  Retrieved: September 22, 2013

Klinoff, R. (2012). Introduction to fire protection. (4th ed., p. 322). Clifton Park, NY: Cengage Learning. DOI: www.cengage.com/ Retrieved: September 22, 2013

Mann, H. (2009, January 12). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.phaseware.com/PhaseWare-Files-blog/bid/12379/The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Cross-Training-in-the-support-center-not-the-gym  Retrieved: September 22, 2013

Farewell to a hero

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(Published: 09/08/2013)

Retired Judge Arthur Kaplan -- who sat on the bench by day and trolled metro Atlanta’s streets at night as a volunteer EMT -- died Friday after a long illness. He was 84. Before he retired a decade ago, the long-time Atlanta Municipal Court judge and former Fulton County magistrate was honored by the Secret Service, trained thousands of law enforcement officers in emergency rescue and on a few occasions personally treated wounded officers even as shots were being fired.

He appeared on the television shows To Tell the Truth and he was featured on This Is Your Life. Newsweek Magazine included the judge on its list 100 "unsung heroes" of America in 1986, and People magazine wrote about his unusual “hobby". Judge Kaplan was recognized for receiving more Red Cross Certificates of Merit for Lifesaving than anyone else in the nation.

“Judge Kaplan was a man of absolute integrity,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vernon Keenan. “He was a war hero and he was a hero to men and women in Georgia law enforcement. He trained thousands of police officers in first aid, specifically in how to treat gunshot wounds. On several occasions, he went in, under fire, to rescue wounded police officers.”

Judge Kaplan died at 1 a.m. at Hospice Atlanta, where he had been for 12 weeks, according to his family.

Judge Kaplan, a Navy frogman during World War II, was in five Pacific island invasions and he survived the sinking of a ship. He was awarded a Naval Commendation for Meritorious Service for helping doctors care for injured sailors under fire at the battle of Okinawa.

After the war he was faced with deciding between two loves -- medicine and the law. He got a law degree from John Marshall Law School while also training as a medic at Grady Memorial Hospital, which led to decades as a volunteer paramedic. He has taught his lifesaving techniques to officers and Secret Service and FBI agents as well as some probation violators who would appear before him in court. “He just loved medicine and he just loved this city,” said one of his daughters, Gwinnett Judge Debra Turner.

Cobb County Public Safety Director Mickey Lloyd once told a story about Judge Kaplan coming to his aid when, as a young Atlanta police officer, Lloyd was hit by a taxicab, "When I opened my eyes the first thing I saw was the sincere and serious face of Judge Arthur Kaplan looking down at me, saying ‘You're going to be all right, son,' " Lloyd said in a previous AJC article. One of his most dramatic rescues was in 1975 when he was first to respond to a report that an officer in DeKalb County had been shot twice and the gunman was still shooting. Returning fire with his own revolver, the judge dragged the officer to safety. One of his shots struck the gunman's pistol and disabled it but the attacker continued shooting with a shotgun while Kaplan began emergency treatment on the wounded officer. After taking care of the officer, Judge Kaplan also treated the gunman who was shot 14 times by officers arriving at the scene. The officer and the gunman both survived their wounds. In 1983, Judge Kaplan heard on his police radio that an officer had been shot in the face by a barricaded gunman. Even as the gunfire continued, the judge provided emergency first aid to officer J.E. Burke and then helped move him to an ambulance. Four years later, marshals summoned the judge to the sidewalk outside the Fulton State Courthouse because a child had stopped breathing. The judge revived the child with mouth-to- mouth resuscitation. "One of the most beautiful things in the world is to see someone breathe again,” Judge Kaplan said  at the time. And in 2003, Judge Kaplan received the U.S. Secret Service Director's Award -- the agency's highest honor – for voluntarily training agents for 35 years. “The Atlanta area has lost one of its greatest volunteers and heroes,” said a former law clerk, Noal Solomon. “It didn’t matter who you were or what your background was – if you needed help, Judge Kaplan was there.”

Judge Kaplan is survived by his wife of 63 years, Frances; a son, Dr. Ron Kaplan; two daughters, Turner and Shelley Wisely; their spouses and eight grandchildren. The family asks that in lieu of flowers,  donations be made the Hospice Atlanta or the Atlanta Police Foundation.

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As I sit here monitoring the mass casualty incident / shooting at the Washington, DC Navy Yard I know with a certainty, had it occurred in Atlanta, Judge Kaplan would have been there because that was what he did. It didn't matter to him that he was a volunteer, he would be right there side-by-side with the paid EMS and fire personnel, and police officers. Often, as Ms. Cook's article points out, he would go about and beyond the call of duty aiding shooting victims even as the gunfire still rang out around him. Not only that, but he served as an inspiration to many - including myself - to enter the EMS field and tirelessly serve others. Thank you Judge Kaplan!

Are we getting sloppy?

West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion aftermath

The unusually high occurrence of incidents that have resulted in multiple Line of Duty Deaths (LODDs) makes me wonder: are we getting sloppy or is it just coincidence? Since I am not a big believer in coincidence, which is defined as "happening without planning; the fact of happening by chance," (emphasis added), then it must be we are tending to get sloppy. Mind you, I am in no way saying that all departments are getting sloppy, just that it is the only way my mind can comprehend it. According to the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) (United States Fire Administration, 2013) there have been 77 firefighter deaths-to-date during 2013; that compares with 83 for all of 2012. According to the 2012 provisional report from the USFA the occurrence of fatalities broke down as follows: volunteer firefighters - 40 (accounting for 49.4% of the total); career firefighters - 30 (accounting for 30% of the total); wildland firefighters (contract) - 3 (accounting for 3.7% of the total); wildland firefighters (full-time) - 2 (accounting for 2.5% of the total); paid-on-call firefighters - 2 (accounting for 2.5% of the total); wildland firefighters (part-time) - 2 (accounting for 2.5% of the total); part-time firefighters (paid) - 1 (accounting for 1.2% of the total); and industrial firefighter - 1 (accounting for 1.2% of the total).

Surprisingly - given the number of multi-fatality incidents - the most frequent cause of LODDs was heart attack with 40 reported (accounting for 49.4% of the total) Other causes - in descending order - included: trauma with 24 occurrences reported (accounting for 29.6% of the total); asphyxiation with five (5) occurrences (accounting for 6.2% of the total); other (non-specified) with four (4) occurrences (accounting for 4.9% of the total); cerebrovascular accident (CVA) with three (3) occurrences (accounting for 3.7% of the total); crushing injury with two (2) occurrences (accounting for 2.5% of the total); violence (non-specified) with two (2) reported (accounting for 2.5% of the total); and heat exhaustion with one (1) occurrence (accounting for 1.2% of the total).

EKG tracing

Have you ever stopped to wonder we, as firefighters, have a higher occurrence of heart attack?  According to Dr. James Howard writing in the National Institute of Safety and Health's (NIOSH) Science Blog, it is a combination of both personal and workplace factors (Howard, 2013). Personal factors include: 1) age; 2) gender; 3) family history of heart disease; 4) pre-existing diabetes mellitus; 5) hypertension; 6) smoking; 7) elevated cholesterol; 8) obesity; and 9) lack of exercise. Add to those these additional workplace factor and you have the proverbial "perfect storm" to cause a heart attack: 1) exposure to fire smoke (it contains carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and particulates); 2) heat stress; 3) noise; and 4) shift work. There are some steps fire service personnel can take to decrease their risk of heart attack such as pre-placement medical evaluations for new hires. This serves two purposes: 1) it provides a baseline assessment of the person's overall health; and 2) encourage participation in a comprehensive wellness/fitness program. Additional he recommends reducing exposure to fire-related smoke and doing our best to ensure our stations are a smoke-free environment.

Reference

Fire Administration, U. S. (2013, January 07). Us fire administration releases 2012 firefighter fatality statistics. Retrieved from http://www.usfa.fema.gov/media/press/2013releases/010713a.shtm Retrieved: September 3, 2013

Howard, J. (2013, November 01). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2007/11/01/fire/ Retrieved: September 3, 2013

Judged by our incident management

This is another discussion board that I originally wrote for my Principles of Emergency Services class and wanted to share here:

The management of incidents is often the standard by which fire departments are judged. Is this the right standard?

Although we rather it not be this way, our reputation as a department is only as good as how we managed the last incident we responded on. We might have the newest, most beautiful station around, but, if the public perceives that we “screwed up” on that fire on Cleveland Avenue the other day, that is what we will be remembered for and judged on. Let’s take the fire pictured at left, as fire service professionals – and, make no mistake, we are professionals – we know the deck is stacked against us when we roll up and have a single-family dwelling fully-involved. The general public does not understand that, they expect us to be able to save the structure (and contents) regardless of what we encounter on arrival.

Sometimes we make parking lots

The heading above comes from Fire Command by Alan Brunacini (ISBN 0877655006) and he is absolutely correct . . . sometimes we make parking lots or, if it is a residential neighborhood, green space (Brunacini, 2013).  Never let it be said this happens because we don’t try, but when you pull up and the house is almost completely involved, it just does not bode well for a good outcome. There are steps that we can take as Incident Commander’s to work towards a favorable outcome (FireScope, 1994): 1) Remove endangered occupants and treat the injured; 2) Stabilize the incident and provide for life safety; 3) Conserve property; and 4) Provide for the safety, accountability, and welfare of personnel. (The latter is a priority that must be ongoing for the duration of the incident.)

Functions of Command

In order to obtain the outcomes listed above, the Incident Commander is the one who must drive his/her command toward that end. To assist us in that task the ICS provides us with functions of command that are imperative for us to utilize: 1) Assume and announce the command and establish an effective operating position (Incident Command Post); 2) Rapidly evaluate the situation (size up); 3) Initiate, maintain, and control the communications process; 4) Identify an overall strategy, develop an Incident Action Plan (IAP), and assign personnel in a way that is consistent with plans and Standard Operating Guidelines; 5) Develop an effective ICS organization; 6) Provide tactical objectives; 7) Review, evaluate, and revise (as needed) the IAP; and 8) Provide for the continuity, transfer, and termination of Command.

Reference

Brunacini, A. (2013, February 01). National fire protection association. Retrieved from http://nfpa.org Retrieved: August 25, 2013

Firefighting resources of California organized for potential emergencies1994. (1994, November 01). Retrieved from http://www.firescope.org/ Retrieved: August 25, 2013

Blog I wrote for my Principles of Emergency Services class

Who says you cannot teach old dog new tricks . . .or, maybe, that should be new resources? As I read chapter five (5) in our textbook, I learned about numerous public and private support organizations that I had never heard of before today. One of these is the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System or MABAS for short. Actually, I was a little familiar with MABAS from monitoring  it on the Broadcastify site (formerly Radio Reference) (http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/511/?rl=rr) (Blanton, 2013). Additionally I was familiar with it because it is similar to the Georgia Mutual Aid Group (GMAG) here in Georgia . (Georgia Mutual Aid Group, 2010).

Founded in the 1960s, MABAS is, as its name suggests, a mutual aid organization. Prior to 9/11, its roots were primarily in northern Illinois. Since 9/11, however, it has spread into other areas including: Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri  (MABAS, 2013). According to the organization’s website, their goal is to “systematically provide speed of response of emergency resources to the stricken community during an on-going emergency.” A neat feature of MABAS, in my opinion, is that they don’t require (emphasis added) a Declaration of Disaster to initiate a routine operation.

References

Blanton, L. (2013, August 13). Chicago northern suburban fire departments and m.a.b.a.s.. Retrieved from http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/511/?rl=rr Retrieved: August 13, 2013.

Georgia mutual aid group. (2010, January 01). Retrieved from http://www.gmag.org/ Retrieved: August 13, 2013

Welcome to mabas. (2013, January 01). Retrieved from http://www.MABAS.org Retrieved: August 13, 2013