Top Photos and Videos of 2011!!

These are the Top 10 Firefighting Photos of 2011 according to FireRescue1

Top 10 Firefighting Photos of 2011

These are the Top 10 Firefighting Videos of 2011 according to FireRescue1

Top 10 Firefighting Videos of 2011

Semi Clips Fire Truck, Tips Fire Truck On Its Side

WARREN, Mich. — Two Michigan firefighters were injured Tuesday when their fire truck was clipped by a semi-tractor trailer.

The fire truck was tipped onto its side in the incident, which happened when it was turning a corner at an intersection, according to WXYZ.

The two injured firefighters suffered only minor injuries and were taken to the local hospital as a precaution, reported The Daily Tribune.

Video from the scene shows the fire truck on its side in the middle of a road in Warren, along with the semi and other vehicles involved in the crash.

Video @ Fire Rescue 1

Robots To Help Fight Fires In Australia

Fan-powered CyberQuad can hover over a fire, detect hot spots
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

MELBOURNE, Australia - The Metropolitan Fire Brigade is testing two new remotely controlled aerial cameras, which will help fight large fires.

The CyberQuad is an aerial platform which will hover above fires and detect hot-spots that are invisible to the naked eye.

The real-time vision will then be sent back to a central control centre.

The MFB has bought two of the aircraft, equipped with high-definition cameras and thermal imaging equipment.

Deputy Chief Fire Officer Keith Adamson says the CyberQuad is designed to deliver information from difficult incidents.

"It will enable us to manage chemical emergencies particularly well, because as we can't get too close to some hazardous chemicals," he said.

"This enables us to have a look at what's going on, see what the chemicals are, from a safe distance."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBL2d59vOFY&feature=player_embedded

CPR Performance Counts

Quality Improves Survival
A monograph sponsored by the CPR Improvement Working Group and published by Elsevier Public Safety. Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the U.S., and the quality of CPR delivered has a direct impact on ROSC. This monograph alerts health care professionals to the disparity between how they perceive their performance and their actual CPR performance; and the role that retraining, monitoring and feedback play in the delivery of quality CPR.

Quality Makes the Difference
Fifty years after the introduction of CPR, we clearly know that immediate, uninterrupted and properly performed CPR saves lives. We know how to do CPR; now we must close the gap between knowing how to do CPR and the way we actually perform CPR. Providers now have more opportunity than ever to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest. The focus must shift from “Do CPR” to “Do CPR right.”

A.J. Heightman, MPA, EMT-P | Bentley J. Bobrow, MD | Marion Leary, RN, BSN

Perception vs. Reality
An international survey of health care providers to assess 1) provider perceptions of their CPR knowledge and ability, 2) recall of recent CPR performance, 3) adoption and implementation of CPR Guidelines, 4) attitudes toward the importance of CPR, 5) perceptions of CPR training and quality improvement, and 6) level of awareness and experience with CPR measurement and feedback systems.

Robert E. O’Connor, MD, MPH

The Science of CPR
Although CPR has been used for many years in conjunction with other resuscitation interventions, recent studies demonstrating the reality of its use in clinical settings and linking its quality to patient outcomes have revolutionized attitudes surrounding the importance of properly performed chest compressions.

Dana Peres Edelson, MD, MS | Deborah Walsh, MS, RN

Retraining Pays Off
Case studies of some interesting techniques and guidelines for improving CPR from around the world.

Teresa McCallion, EMT-B,

Change Our Philosophy From "Do CPR" To "Do CPR Right"

A.J. Heightman, MPA, EMT-P | Bentley J. Bobrow, MD | Marion Leary, RN, BSN | From the CPR Performance Counts Issue

An EMT who recently underwent full CPR retraining using CPR feedback described the experience as “invaluable.”
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“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The impact of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is enormous, taking the lives of nearly 300,000 people each year in the U.S.(1) Although survival rates vary widely, they are still generally low (less than 10%) in most areas of the country.(2) Yet many communities have significantly improved their survival rates.(3-5)

The common theme in the communities saving the most lives from OHCA is high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Growing scientific evidence suggests that simple changes in technique, especially focusing on ensuring the proper compression rate, depth and chest wall recoil, minimizing interruptions and avoiding over-ventilation, markedly improve survival.(3-5)

These concepts are becoming better understood, but there remains a huge gap between what we know and what we consistently do. The 2005 American Heart Association (AHA) Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care (6) stressed the importance of quality CPR. However, an enormous opportunity for improved translation of high-quality CPR into the everyday practice of our EMS systems and hospitals remains. This is why the new 2010 AHA CPR Guidelines (7) clearly advise providers to focus on the quality of CPR delivered throughout resuscitation attempts for adult and pediatric victims of cardiac arrest, both inside and outside the hospital.

The 2010 Guidelines also emphasize that in order to close the knowledge-practice gap and save more lives, emergency medical providers should develop a culture of measuring and ensuring high-quality CPR.

The Physiology of CPR
The goal of CPR is to optimize blood flow to the vital organs, particularly the heart and brain, in order to maximize the chance of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and a good neurologic outcome.

Effective CPR generates blood flow to vital organs until circulation is restored by defibrillation or other therapy. CPR also been shown to prolong the duration of ventricular fibrillation in OHCA victims,(8) thus expanding the window of opportunity for successful defibrillation.

CPR Quality Matters
“CPR is CPR, right?” Absolutely not.

There is a vast difference between the coronary and cerebral perfusion pressures generated by poor-quality and high-quality CPR. It is this critical forward blood flow to the heart and brain during CPR that best determines ROSC and survival.(9)

The Current State of CPR
“Our professional CPR is fine, right?” No, again.

Unfortunately, without any measurement or feedback, CPR quality is usually poor and has been equated with “trying to drive at night with your headlights turned off.” Despite the fact that CPR is a critical link in the chain of survival, it is often unmonitored and performed with inconsistent quality in both the in-hospital
and out-of-hospital settings.(10,11)

Wik demonstrated this during 176 adult OHCAs by continuously monitoring all chest compressions and ventilations using modified defibrillators programmed for CPR data collection in recently retrained paramedics and nurse anesthetists. He found the quality of CPR was dramatically different from that recommended by the AHA Guidelines. Only 28% of the compressions had a depth of 38–52 mm, and chest compressions were given only 48% of the available time during resuscitation.(10) It has been suggested that shallow chest compressions may be identical to interruptions in CPR if the compressions are not deep enough to generate a functional cardiac output.(12)

There are many reasons why manual CPR is difficult to perform, including rapidly occurring physical and mental fatigue (within one to two minutes); changes in chest wall compliance during resuscitation; prioritizing other interventions; and trying to perform CPR on a soft surface or while transporting patients down hallways and stairways, or in moving ambulances. All of these factors make hitting the proper rate, depth and recoil a moving target.(13)

These findings have spurred develop­ment of a variety of FDA-approved CPR feedback and mechanical-assist devices. Feedback devices provide rescuers with real-time audio-visual feedback, instruct them on how to deliver Guidelines-quality CPR, give them the opportunity to precisely review their performance and guide training.

CPR Feedback Strategies
Experts propose three strategies to develop a culture of high-quality CPR and improve outcomes from sudden cardiac arrest.

1. Implementation of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) program. As Lord Kelvin said in 1883, “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

Standardized data collection tools are now available to accurately monitor cardiac arrest and resuscitation metrics inside and outside the hospital. Some of these tools include the National Registry of CPR (www.nrcpr.org) and the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (www.mycares.net).

Monitoring, reporting and benchmarking cardiac arrests are fundamental steps to improve survival and, in some ways, are “interventions” themselves.

2. Use of real-time audio-visual CPR feedback. Feedback devices provide audio and visual CPR feedback, along with prompting, to assist providers in delivering AHA-recommended compression depth and rate, and limit interruptions to compressions. Some devices also provide feedback on chest wall recoil and the rate and tidal volume of ventilation.

There is a perception by health care providers that their CPR skills are adequate, but in reality, when CPR is monitored without feedback, that’s often not the case. Even with feedback devices, it has been shown that proper CPR performance must be continually monitored, “coached” by the feedback device and periodically corrected by the provider.

The gap between the perception of performing quality CPR and the reality of inadequate performance only adds to the many reasons why survival rates for this patient population are so dismal. A recent observational study showed that trained health care providers performing actual CPR at one urban hospital became fatigued after roughly 90 seconds and that their chest compression depth decreased accordingly over time.(13)

3. Utilization of CPR data for provider feedback and training. Although CPR monitoring devices with feedback are one solution, they should be used in concurrence with debriefing after arrest events to bolster CPR education. Two different studies, one simulation and one clinical, conducted in the hospital setting demonstrated that debriefing offered in conjunction with CPR monitoring resulted in marked improvement in CPR quality at subsequent CPR events.(14,15)

Conclusion
Fifty years after the introduction of CPR, we clearly know that immediate, uninterrupted and properly performed CPR saves lives. We know how to do CPR; now we must close the gap between knowing how to do CPR and the way we actually perform CPR. Providers now have more opportunity than ever to improve survival from sudden cardiac arrest. The focus must shift from “Do CPR” to “Do CPR right.”

Santa's Christmas Truck

Here's an interesting video I think we should all take a look at. It's an interesting use of fire apparatus, I quite enjoyed it.

For Santa's Christmas Truck Click Here

Lightweight Wood Structures Are Becoming More and More Dangerous

Lightweight wood frame structure fires are among the most dangerous types of incidents for firefighters

By Chief Gary Bowker (Ret.)

Photo Gary Bowker Today's lightweight wood frame structures include commercial buildings which can be massive in size, creating huge un-sprinklered void spaces with the entire structure being wrapped in foam insulation.

Today's residential structure fire is not your daddy's residential structure fire. Today's lightweight wood frame structure is burning faster, failing sooner, and often doing so with tragic results, much quicker than traditional wood frame structures built in years past.

In just the past few months we have seen three separate fire incidents in Fargo, N.D, Coatesville, Pa., and Harrisonburg, Va., that have involved large wood frame apartment buildings, which resulted in close calls and firefighters being injured.

Each of these incidents occurred in lightweight wood frame "disposable" structures. As the Ol' Professor, the late Francis Brannigan taught "The Building is your Enemy, Know your Enemy." Today the lightweight wood frame structure fire is the enemy. It has evolved into one of the most dangerous types of structure fires you will encounter.

A fire in today's lightweight wood frame structure is a structure fire on steroids and can devastate anyone and anything in its path, including unsuspecting firefighters. To understand why this is occurring, we must first look at the history of wood frame construction in our country and define what a "disposable" structure is.

We must know where we have been in terms of construction and culture in the American fire service in order to understand and appreciate where we are going. Fire officers must understand the nature of the risk we face in order of effectively managing it.

Origins of the constructions
Wood frame (Type V) construction has been used extensively in this country since the 19th century for homes and businesses. During the great American expansion westward, many prairie towns were built exclusively of wood frame material.

Lumber was plentiful and cost effective but the fire problem it posed was significant. As building and fire codes evolved, Ordinary (Type III) construction usage increased for business and industrial use. Quick recovery after a fire was essential for economic survival. Most homes though continued to be built of wood frame construction well into the 20th century.

It is essential to understand that wood frame structural members used in home construction during that time period utilized full dimension lumber, which yielded more mass for structural support during a fire. Floors and roofs were typically built using a minimum dimension of 2 x 8 and 2 x 6 inch solid wood. The walls and ceilings were typically covered with plaster and lath, giving the structure reasonably good resistance to a room and contents fire.

These structures were built to last a lifetime and could survive a moderate to serious fire, generally speaking. Typical fire loads used during that era consisted mainly of natural materials for furnishings and contents, which continued into the 1950s.

It was also during this time that traditional aggressive interior firefighting operations were becoming well established or "hard-wired" into our fire service culture. However, in the 1970s, a significant shift began to occur in the wood frame construction dynamic, with the introduction of smaller 2 x 4 inch lumber use in floor and roof truss support systems.

With the use of smaller dimension lumber in structural supporting systems, "lightweight" construction was born, and has continued to evolve into lighter, cheaper materials with less mass for structural support. Less mass means quicker failure. The combustibility of lightweight building components has also greatly increased from those used in traditional wood frame construction.

The vast majority of new homes and apartments, fast-food restaurants, hotels, and commercial buildings constructed in the past 20 years are lightweight wood frame. Lightweight or engineered wood frame support systems include smaller than 2 inch dimension wood products that are not solid lumber.

Glued and finger-jointed wooden trusses, and Truss/Joist I-Beams (TJIs) made of wood chips or particle board that are pressed together with combustible adhesives to eliminate waste, are commonly found today.

In addition most of these newer wood frame structures are wrapped in synthetic insulating material, which adds to the fuel load, speed, and toxicity of a fire. Wood frame structures today are not built to last like the wood frame structures were prior to the 1970s. Today's wood frame structure is "disposable."

Much in our society has become disposable, from diapers to appliances to homes. Time is money and less material and waste is money. So it should come as no great surprise as to why this has occurred within the building industry.

__________________________________________________________

About the author:

Gary Bowker is a retired fire chief with the U.S. Air Force, and is the past fire chief with the Sumner County Rural Fire District #10. Chief Bowker recently retired as fire marshal with the City of Winfield, Kansas, a community of 12,000 people. Chief Bowker has more than 36 years of fire service experience and now teaches an associate instructor with the University of Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute. He also serves as a Kansas advocate with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Everyone Goes Home program and speaks frequently on firefighter life safety and health issues. You can contact Chief Bowker at glbowker@hotmail.com.