In an opinion editorial posted this morning in the New York daily news FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Nicholas Scoppetta discusses how the FDNY has been working successfully improve its diversity without imposing quotas How to get diversity -- without resorting to racial quotasRead more:

The Commissioner opened his piece this way The policies and practices used in the past to promote workplace diversity have long been in need of change. The Supreme Court affirmed that last week, when it found in favor of a group of white firefighters from New Haven, including Frank Ricci, who claimed reverse discrimination after that city tossed out results of a promotional exam because it did not advance any black firefighters.

A testing system that favors one group at the expense of another does not create a positive work environment for anyone. How is it fair to minority firefighters when they're brought in under a cloud of resentment? Those tasked with walking into burning buildings must have the mutual respect and trust of their fellow firefighters. Lives depend on it.

He raises some very interesting points going forward is going to be interesting to see how disparate impact is going to be managed in promotional exam
results.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/07/08/2009-07-08_how_to_get_diversity__without_resorting_to_racial_quotas.html#ixzz0Kg7ZkUOG&C;
f
Read more...

posted by Bobby Halton
7/08/2009 10:29:00 AM

Post a Comment

FROM THE IAFF
President Obama Approves New SAFER Rules

In an economic crisis, changes will allow fire departments to use
SAFER grants to retain fire fighters

Washington, DC President Obama today approved new rules that govern how fire departments can use funding from the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response SAFER grant program, an important change during an economic crisis that is responsible for widespread layoffs of fire fighters throughout the country.

The new guidelines will apply to the $210 million that Congress approved for SAFER for Fiscal Year 2009. The IAFF wrote and lobbied for the new provision that was included in HR 2346, the Supplemental Appropriation bill which was initiated and supported by President Obama to allow the use of SAFER grant funding to rehire laid off fire fighters and prevent fire department staffing reductions that occurred as a result of the current financial crisis.

With its passage, the bill grants Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano the discretion to waive the rules governing the current SAFER program and make funds available to save IAFF members jobs. The IAFF will immediately begin working with DHS to develop new rules that outline how SAFER grants can be used to address the current wave of staffing cuts.

Changes in this supplemental appropriation extend a lifeline to fire departments across the nation at a time when fire fighters are losing their jobs, International Association of Fire Fighters General President Harold Schaitberger said. Adequate staffing is the most critical component to effective response and civilian and fire fighter safety.

The SAFER Act provides money for all departments to increase staffing, which is the most pressing need among all departments across the country. The funding is available to all fire departments. Under the original law, passed in 2004, communities could only receive a SAFER grant if they planned to increase fire department staffing levels. Fire fighters hired with SAFER grants had to be retained for at least five years and fire department couldnt reduce staffing levels during this period. Those restrictions have combined to prohibit fire departments from using SAFER grants to prevent layoffs, and have discouraged fire departments from applying for SAFER grants during this current economic recession.

The rule changes approved today by the president eliminate the language that has prevented using this money to alleviate the need to lay off a fire fighter. In addition, President Obama is proposing 420 million for SAFER in his Fiscal Year 2010 budget.
Read more...

posted by Bobby Halton
6/25/2009 01:05:00 AM

Post a Comment

I recently had the opportunity to speak at the IAFC Metro fire chiefs conference, while there; I briefly asked Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran if he was being vetted currently for the job of director for the United States fire administration. While Chief Cochran could neither confirm nor deny that he was currently having his background investigation conducted. It did appear that the chief is under consideration and probably will accept the position, if it is offered to him. In speaking with the chief, he was very clear that he did not apply on his own, others had nominated him for the position. However it would be foolhardy to believe that any officer of his standing and credibility would not accept such an important and influential position.

In speaking with many of the chiefs in attendance at the conference there was widespread belief that Chief Cochran would do a good job. Fire Engineering is sure that there is nothing in the chiefs background, which would disqualify him for the position and believe that he will make an outstanding director of the United States Fire Administration. Perhaps premature however if it is as it appears, congratulations and good luck Brother Cochran.
Read more...

posted by Bobby Halton
6/25/2009 12:54:00 AM

Post a Comment

In case you missed it, NFPA recently formed a committee to write standards for ambulance design. Why? Well, partly because they can. Partly because they were overwhelmingly successful in writing a consensus standard for fire apparatus design (NFPA 1901 - 2009 version), partly because 62% of fire U.S. fire services responses in 2007 were for medical aid calls (59% of fire departments provide EMS), and partly because the feds want out of the ambulance standard writing business. Firstly, as a member of the committee, I'm required to mention that every word you read here is my informal opinion, not the opinion of NFPA. So there.

The Committee, following the usual NFPA format, will ultimately consist of 30 members divided evenly into 10 representatives from manufacturers, 10 from users, and 10 from regulators. The operant words, "open" and "fair" define the NFPA process (http://www.nfpa.org/). What happened at the first meeting? Well, imagine a couple dozen folks from the previously mentioned groups sitting in a room together - any room, anywhere. You could cut the tension with a knife, err - make that a chainsaw. So there were a few presentations: ambulance crash data (or lack thereof), history of federal government ambulance specifications, development process of the NFPA 1901 standard, resources available from NFPA, and the standards development process. Lunchtime.

First problem: define ambulance. Couldn't do it. Created a subcommittee. Next question: what's out there already? Probably the most popular are the federal KKK-A-1822 standard and the National Truck Equipment Association (NTEA) Ambulance Manufacturers Division (AMD) standard (2007 version). Why reinvent the wheel? Another subcommittee. Merge KKK and AMD with the NFPA 1901 format and let's see where the cards lie.

Not a bad start. In fact, the initial nervousness that some cockamamie standard was sure to be concocted that would blow the socks off the EMS world quite obviously was not on any member's radar. Phew! People actually seemed to leave reassured that consensus is within reach, maybe more within reach than it was for writing fire apparatus design standards. There were common goals amongst the players and now a sense of purpose that will lend itself to a deliberate path. The two subcommittees will report by the end of August, probably on a phone conference. Then the real work will begin. Timeline? Anyone's guess. Don't hold your breath. You'll be cyanotic.

Mike McEvoy
EMS Editor
Fire Engineering magazine
(and NFPA Ambulance Committee member)

Labels: ambulance, EMS, Mike McEvoy, NFPA, standard

Read more...

posted by Mike McEvoy
6/17/2009 11:04:00 PM

Post a Comment

June 16, 2009 WASHINGTON Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement following the release of the final round of grant allocations for FY2009 by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano: Im very pleased to see that the President and the Secretary have prioritized homeland security grant funding despite the current economic crisis. The allocation of over 1.7 billion will enhance the Nations preparedness, response, and resilience for all types of catastrophic incidents. In particular, the Committee supports the increase of funding to the Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program and the Urban Areas Security Initiative two vital grant programs aimed at protecting and securing our Nations highest risk areas. We applaud the Departments partnership with State, local, and tribal governments as well as the non-profit sector and appreciate the Departments recent commitment to increase stakeholder outreach moving forward.

This was just posted from the Homeland security chairmans office, 1.7 billion, how much did we give the car companies, the banks, the insurance companies? I hope at the next disaster we see bankers driving insurance representatives in GM cars racing to the rescue. It just seeems like so much is being spent but so little is going to Americas defenders. Maybe we arent too big to fail, or maybe it is because failure to us is not an option.
Read more...

posted by Bobby Halton
6/16/2009 03:20:00 PM

Post a Comment

FDIC Online the only FREE conference in the Fire Service is having a sneak preview TODAY June 3rd. online! The FREE Online Show is June 10 and 11 with dozens of great booths and an incredible lounge to meet and visit with your fellow firefighters and instructors and share a virtual beer!

Here is the line-up: The Politics of Safety Frank Ricci, Director of Fire Services, ConnectiCOSH Engine Company Tips and Tactics Firefighter Jeff Shupe, Cleveland (OH) Fire Department Leading with Attitude Division Chief Eddie Buchanan, Hanover (VA) Fire and EMS Search Operations for Todays Fireground Fire Engineer Jeff Seaton, San Jose (CA) Fire Department Tactical Decision Making Battalion Chief Steve Chikerotis, Chicago (IL) Fire Department The Company Officers Role in Safety and Survial Forest Reeder, Battalion Chief/Director of Training and Safety, Pleasantview (IL) Fire Protection District Wood-Frame Construction, Principles, and Hazards Paul T. Dansbach, Fire Marshal, Bureau of Fire Safety, Rutherford, NJ
The FDIC Online Event Sneak Preview is now open if you neeed to register go to click on this link http://www.fdiconlineevent.com/index.html

Labels: Free Firefighter Training / Frank Ricci / Engine Company / Tactics /

Read more...

posted by Bobby Halton
6/03/2009 11:02:00 AM

Post a Comment

This essay was written by my friend and colleage, Dr. John P. Pryor. He was a trauma surgeon who refused to be idle when so many wounded Americans and Iraqis could be helped by his skills. He enlisted in the Army reserve and wrote this article after completing his first tour in Iraq.

“In other fighting, one marine was killed in the Al Anbar providence after a humvee he was riding in hit an IED.” That was what I read in the AP news piece. It was one line of several paragraphs that summed up the days casualties in Iraq during another day of the war that has gone on for three years now. These reports are so common, most people do not even read them, or listen to the 30 second blurb that follows, “Another day of violence in Iraq where…” on the evening news. For us, the reality is much different, a horrific drama that is played out in the field, in forward surgery tents, and combat support hospitals every single day.

Today the warning came over the radio, “urgent litter coming in by ground” I immediately respond to the ETR where the buzz is usually in full swing. “IED, Marines” is all the ETR nurse said as I walked in. Damn, I thought. One day left – all I asked God for was no more marines with one-day left on my tour. The hospital staff went into full swing – these people are at the end of a yearlong deployment here, they are experienced, hardened, and cool under pressure. The activity was programmed and efficient. I took my position at the head of bed number one, put my head down and waited.

Within a few minutes the litter team burst into the ETR with the first patient. I could see his arms dangling off the stretcher with bone exposed, and I immediately knew that this was going to be a bad one. When the litter was pulled up aside the bed, I saw the full extent of what I was up against. Driver, I thought to myself. The drivers always seem to get the full force of the IED. There is a pungent smell of gasoline and burned flesh. My first order of business was to remove the IBA before we move him over; to do this we have to sit him up in order to pull the arms through the IBA sleeves. When we did, his arms, broken in several places on each side, flopped around like a puppet. As we moved him over, I tried to ignore the massive tissue destruction of his legs, and focus on potential life threatening chest and abdomen. He was moaning, actually a good sign, the brain was still getting blood flow. Anesthesia moved to intubate him, as the emergency medicine physician started the primary survey. Nurses started lines, lab was there to bring blood, medics held pressure on bleeding wounds, all in a dance that has been repeated so many times before.

The other patients began to file in, eventually filling the ETR. One soldier in a bed next to ours was calling out to my patient, ignoring his own gaping wounds “Your going be okay man, hang in there.” I began to focus on the problem and my plan. Both legs had massive tissue destruction. The left thigh was torn apart and burned with a tourniquet at the groin. The right leg was mangled below the knee with a tourniquet above that. There was a neck wound that wasn’t bleeding and shrapnel to the face. Both arms had multiple levels of open fractures. The pulse was weak and the blood pressure was barely readable. We hung blood immediately. The chest x-ray did not show any thoracic injury. We shot an abdominal film to look for shrapnel that may have gone into the belly – none. As we moved to the OR the hospital commander stopped me to ask if he was going to make it. I told him that I was worried that once we start to resuscitate him, the bleeding would become even worse, and I didn’t know if he would make it. His head dropped as he walked back to the chaos of the ETR.

In the operating room we started by getting control of the external bleeding of the legs. There was blood coming from everywhere; bright red arterial blood, dark blue venous blood, and areas where the two swirled together in pools between the flesh. Two orthopedic surgeons and I worked frantically to get control of the bleeding, which as predicted, became worse as we started to resuscitate him. Anesthesia was struggling to keep a blood pressure, infusing unit after unit of packed red blood cells, and plasma. I was having trouble finding the source of some bleeding high on the thigh, and I was going deeper and deeper into the groin to track down the source. Suddenly my hand broke into a space, and a gush of blood came out. I realized that I was in the retroperitoneal space and the bleeding was coming from here. This was the worse case scenario. Bleeding from this location is the toughest area in the body to control. The packing did nothing; blood flowed from the wound in a constant stream. We opened the abdominal cavity and clamped the arteries that feed the pelvis, but it didn’t help. Bleeding from this area is almost always from large veins that cannot be controlled with sutures or arterial control. We packed as tight as we could, and then put a sheet around the pelvis to pull the bones together in an attempt to tamponade the bleeding, but it was not enough. His heart went into a lethal arrhythmia. We shocked him, and pumped epinephrine into his blood stream. After a few minutes, his heart stopped for the last time.

The marine was dead.

There was an immediate silence in the operating room as soon as I announced the time of death. Most of the staff had tears running down their faces; this was a long year for them with so many of these kids dying in this room. I could not physically move for several minutes. I looked at this young kid, a child, and I apologized to him for not being skillful enough to save him. As a trauma surgeon every death I have is painful, every one takes a little out of me. Loosing these kids here in Iraq rips a hole through my soul so large that it hard for me to continue breathing. After a few minutes, I collected myself and began to direct the care for his final journey home. We closed what we could of the wounds, and wrapped the ones we couldn’t get together. We washed all of the dirt and oil off his skin, combed his hair and washed his face. He was transferred to a litter and brought to a private enclosed room where we placed him inside a heavy black body bag. The body was draped with the American flag and a guard was posted. The chaplain gathered some of the providers and we said prayers over the body.

There was, and always is, a palpable grief that comes over the entire staff when we loose an American solider. Everyone is affected, and everyone deals with it in a different way. For me, this is not an objective depressing thing to be a part of; it is very, very personal. I was the surgeon who couldn’t save him. For me the grief is intolerable. I become the focus of the morning for the staff– people come and give me a hug. They ask me if I am okay, they pray for me. I appreciate it and hate it at the same time. Often my misery turns into anger. Sometimes I become angry with God for allowing this to happen. I just want the whole thing to be over, and all of these kids to go home to their families and live long lives. I have seen so many soldiers and marines die here; I just want it all to end.

As I made my way out of the hospital, I saw the marine unit gathered together. Two humvees where parked, and weapons were leaning against the vehicle. I notice this immediately because a marine is never without his weapon, they would never be stacked like that. These were the weapons of all the marines injured in the latest attack. I spoke with the first sergeant, the father figure of a marine unit. I know him well, we have lost several of his marines and had many more injured and treated here. We arrange for his buddies to come in and say goodbye, something that I cannot even bear to watch. After a time of reflection, the unit gathers the equipment and prepares to go out again that night. This is some of the raw courage that I talk about, the ability to loose a friend in battle and go right back into the fight. I love every single one of them.

The body was eventually taken to the LZ and loaded into a helicopter with some of his buddies as escorts. He is taken to BIAP where mortuary affairs prepared the body for transport home. A friend of mine was at BIAP when the body was loaded onto the C-130. All activity on the tarmac stops when the casket is brought onto the airstrip. All personnel in the area stop what they are doing and attend a 45-minute ceremony on the airstrip. They tell me that this happens twice to three times a day, but everyone takes time out to attend the ceremonies. Soldiers manifested in these flights are going home or on R&R, and as anxious they are to leave, they all take the time to honor the marine. An honor guard then brings the flag draped casket onto the aircraft with full military honors. The casket is situated in the center of the aircraft with nothing placed on either side or directly in front or back. Personnel then enter the aircraft and accompany the marine to Kuwait. In Kuwait the casket is removed first, again with a full honor guard. The marine will be brought to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, and then eventually home and to his final resting place.

If I could say something to this Marine’s parents it would be this: I am so sorry that you have lost your son. We, above everyone else, know that he was a true American hero. I want you to know that the Marines, medics, doctors, nurses and of the 344th CSH did everything possible to save him. I want you to know that I personally did everything that I could, and that I am sorry that it wasn’t enough. I want you to know that although we never knew your son, we loved him. I want you to know that although he lost his life, we preserved his dignity after death. We held his hand when he died and prayed for his soul and for God to give you strength. I want you to know that he had great friends who cared deeply for him and that they were also here when he died. He was never alone for his journey back to you. I also want you to know that I will never forget your son, and that I will pray for him and all of the children lost in this war.

IED - improvised explosive device
ETR - emergency treatment room
LZ – landing zone
BIAP – Baghdad international airport
IBA – individual body armor
R&R – rest and relaxation
CSH – combat support hospital


John P. Pryor, MD was a trauma surgeon at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a Major in the United States Army Reserve Medical Corps. He was the general/trauma surgeon for the 344th Combat Support Hospital in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. John was killed on Christmas day 2008 during his second tour in Iraq.

Posted by Mike McEvoy
EMS Editor
Fire Engineering magazine

Labels: Iraq, John Pryor, Memorial Day, Mike McEvoy, war

Read more...

posted by Mike McEvoy
5/22/2009 05:20:00 PM

Post a Comment