FireLink

I hope everyone’s summer went well. You know we tend to do less training in the summer, due to the heat, vacations and other family things. Now that fall and winter are here, our training will probably pick up some, as it should. Of course, when you read this, we will be into or finishing the holidays and the winter months ...

When traveling, it is important to become familiar with your surroundings. The United States Fire Administration would like you to review the following safety tips to assist you in preparing for fire safe traveling. +*Plan Ahead*+ p(. -When making your reservations, ask if the hotel or motel has smoke detectors and fire sprinklers. p(. -When traveling, take a flashlight with you. ...

By Kelly Leveque-Weesner, Lieutenant, Mancelona Fire District I would like to express my total appreciation and enjoyment in the Michigan State Firemen's Association, Fall Fire School, held at the Ross McMullen DNR center in Roscommon. Many of the departments in Michigan are not afforded the large budgets to maintain the expensive training that some of the large cities have, never the ...

This is a question that I ask myself, while preparing a vehicle fire class for our local department. In Oct. 2003, as a training officer for our department, I was putting a two hour class together on the dangers of vehicle fires. In a previous airbag class, I had used some pictures that I thought would be helpful in this class. ...

Written by BURTON A. CLARK Firehouse.Com Contributor Thanks to the cooperation of the Anne Arundel County Fire Department (AACOFD), the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute (MFRI), and the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department (LVFD) the firefighter MAYDAY concepts presented by Clark (2001, 2003) and Clark, Auch, & Angulo (2002, 2003) were put to the test and passed with high marks. The Mayday Doctrine ...

Landing a job in the fire service is truly a unique challenge. On average, there are over 100 candidates who apply for each opening. Since the competition is so intense, what does it take to be the top candidate? Many candidates believe it is important to be the "most qualified" individual in the testing process. The truth is that we are ...

This is another excellent article on CAFS. It's pretty long, but well worth reading. http://www.cafsinfo.com/compressed_air_foam_systems.htm

This is an online class & exam on Firefighter Forcible entry-Ballistic glass. If you've never dealt with this, you might want to take it. It offers cert wallpaper last I knew. http://www.oca.gsa.gov/firefighter/index.php

I had to put this here to add the photo. This is from a Lincoln Navigator crash. The guy was doing over 100 mph and veered off an overpass road and flew all the way across an interstate, striking the wall sideways, so hard that it left an imprint of the entire vehicle in the wall.

As vehicles become more complicated, so does pulling them apart or determining what areas to avoid to prevent further injuries. Airbags, hydraulic cylinders, spring loaded rollbars that pop up, hybrid high voltage lines and batteries that produce over 133 AMPS, there are many hazards. This is a link to a news video briefly covering this class. If you ever have the ...

This is an interesting chapter (13) from this publication. Here is the link: http://www.ufologie.net/books/firemenguide.htm

Firefighters Face New Hazard Article I found early this year-unknown author other than the KDSK. (KSDK) - Firefighters put their lives on the line day in and day out, but now there's a new hazard that's putting them even more at risk. It's a type of floor construction that burns and falls apart faster than traditional floors, and it's found in ...

This is an article from Firefighterclosecalls. It covers the risks of hydraulic cylinder struts used in rear hatches, windows, and even bumpers. On July 14, 2006 T@ 01:15 our FD responded to a report of a car on fire in the garage. Upon arrival of our Deputy Chief, a 21’ x 18’ alley garage was fully involved with a car inside. ...

This is just a link to a very cool site that shows animations of how to tie specific rope knots. It covers many different types, from Rescue, to sailing. http://www.animatedknots.com/index.php

This was written by one of our own. Mookie may be able to elaborate who wrote it. Last shift, I observed an issue that occurs too many times every day in the emergency services and I wanted to comment on it. We arrived on a major, t-bone style collision with approx. 20 inches of intrusion on the passenger side of a ...

No matter how safe you think you are, how many lights, vests, cones, cops, whatever, you must still treat every call as though some idiot or drunk is going to not see any of it and come crashing or speeding through, aimed at you. Always think of this, have an escape point you can jump or dive to within one to ...

Article written by one of our locals: Commentary: The Missing Link with CAFS By Nick Perkins For more than two decades, compressed air foam systems (CAFS) have been called "new" structural firefighting tools. The benefits of CAFS, as pointed out in magazine articles and by salesmen, are based on studies that are several years old. Also, many of these studies are ...

When this column reaches you, school for the most part will be out for the summer. However, there are year around schools all across the state. My step daughter Taylor, attends a year around middle school and attended a year around elementary school. So just because it may be summer, doesn’t mean that some of the school buses are not still ...

I hope this finds everyone well and the winter was not too bad. Sometimes it is a slight disadvantage when I write an article or column and it doesn’t reach everyone until several months later. I attended the Piedmont Fire Seminar in Winston Salem and had a chance to talk with a lot fireman. The seminar looked like it went well. ...