Firefighter Safety & Health

The contractor started knocking out the bottom row of cinder blocks from the inside of the structure. With one block to go they took a sledgehammer to the final block in the center of the wall. Immediately, the wall collapsed and fell outward unexpectedly.

The video below demonstrates what happens when you cut the high voltage wire in a hybrid car. Interesting, but don't do it. Look at the damage to the high dollar Hurst edraulic cutter blades and the total destruction of the sawzal blade.

Then, over the next 2 days we were in the water covering defensive swimming, throwbags, shallow water crossings, swiftwater rescue boards, 2 and 4 line boat operations, high line boat operations, and victim rescue.

Summer is coming to a close and the farm fields will be getting more active again. We've kept this post fairly short with some patient management thoughts, but have included several links below that touch on: haybines, augers, combines, anhydrous ammonia tanks, corn headers, grain bin rescue, and rope systems.

Last month while at the School Transportation News Expo in Reno I learned about the new 98 gallon propane tank we will be seeing on some of Blue Birds school buses.

Yesterday on Facebook we added a picture of a guy wire into a car that a Brother shared. A pretty good conversation about how to deal with these wires took place. If your able scroll back on the FDT facebook page to check it out.

As more and more alternative fueled vehicles hit the road, we still haven’t really seen an industry standard that identifies these vehicles easily for first responders.  Little hybrid, propane, or CNG stickers on the trunk or fender can be hard to see at night and/or destroyed during a crash.  The tale is similar when talking about school buses.  Take for ...

Over the last few days I've been in Reno, Nevada presenting and learning at the School Transportation News Expo. Here's yesterdays post on some leadership lessons the fire service can learn from the transportation industry. READ ON. STN puts on a great conference. Be sure to follow them on Facebook to stay current with the technology we will see on the road and to show them the fire service cares about the transportation of our children.

There are three separate parts to this post, but lots of good stuff to think about.

The Toledo Fire & Rescue Department responded to what was dispatched as a car crash on July 3, 2013. Upon arrival they found a huge sinkhole that swallowed up a car with the driver still inside.