Wednesday, December 31

Dozens die in nightclub fire in Bangkok


The Associated Press: Dozens die in nightclub fire in Bangkok
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — A fire swept through a high-class nightclub jammed with several hundred New Year's revelers early Thursday, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 200, officials said.

A number of foreigners were among the casualties from the blaze that erupted shortly after midnight at the Santika Club in an entertainment district of Bangkok.

Victims died from burns, smoke inhalation and injuries during the stampede to escape from the club, which had only one door for the public, police Maj. Gen. Chokchai Deeprasertwit said. Firefighters said a door at the rear was known only to the staff, while an Associated Press reporter saw a third door at one side of the building.

Video footage of the disaster showed bloodied, bruised and burned victims being dragged out of the burning, two-story club or managing to run through the door or shattered windows. The video — provided to AP Television News by rescue workers — showed flames racing through the entire building even as the rescue operation was going on.

Click on the title/link above for the rest of the story.

Mythbusters: Fire Without Matches

They try lots of different ways- from sticks to chocolate bars! 17:09

Job Security....


Video From TooShocking.com

Idiot sets himself on fire.

U.S. Fire Administration Training, Resources and Data Exchange Network (TRADENET) Update

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You are subscribed to Training, Resources and Data Exchange Network (TRADENET) for U.S. Fire Administration. This information has recently been updated, and is now available.

 

Welcome to TRADENET, TRADE's Training Network, a National Fire Academy sponsored activity.  The objective of TRADENET is to provide a forum for members of Fire Service organizations to maximize performance through quick and easy information sharing.

 

The information provided here must be non-commercial and non-copyrighted.  None of the material shared should be incorporated into any copyrighted programs.

 

The TRADENET newsletter is distributed through the USFA/FEMA server.  This allows you to control your subscription easier by allowing you to add new email addresses or delete old ones.  There are over 26,153 subscribers worldwide to the weekly newsletter, an increase of 362 subscribers over the previous week.  If you know of someone who wishes to subscribe, all they need to do is go to the following site, http://service.govdelivery.com/service/multi_subscribe.html?code=USDHSFA and enter your email address.  They will then be taken to a page which will allow them to select their choices of newsletters.

 

If you have a question or comment for inclusion in the weekly TRADENET newsletter, please send it and your contact information to robert.w.campbell@dhs.gov.  Please be sure and include your Department or Organization name, your email address and any other method you wish to receive feedback.  USFA reserves the right to edit content submitted or reject any material submitted.

 

Are you familiar with the training program called “Coffee Break Training?”  It is on the USFA website and can be found at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/nfa/coffee-break/.  Please access this training and provide any feedback to the Deputy Superintendent Robert Neale at Robert.neale@dhs.gov.  He will be happy to receive any feedback regarding this program.

 

Remember the Website for the National Fallen Firefighters program is http://www.everyonegoeshome.com/.  Also, please visit their Resources page at http://www.everyonegoeshome.com/resources.  This page contains many PowerPoint presentations and downloadable video clips available for your use.

 

Fire and Emergency Services Higher Education Program

 

Be sure to check out the new look for the model curriculum in its print-/handout-ready format. While there, view the new FESHE bachelor’s courses outlines that reflect the new Web-based formats delivered by the Degrees at a Distance Program schools. You can also download under the “Tools and Resources” section the new FESHE brochure in its DHS/FEMA configuration or take the same marketing piece without our logo and customize it with your own logo and content. You can also download the artwork for a FESHE tabletop display for conferences and classroom buildings which, again, is in both formats.

 

Visit the new page at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/nfa/higher_ed/index.shtm.

 

The link to the USFA/NFA TRADE Site is: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/nfa/trade/

 

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To enroll in NFAOnline, visit www.nfaonline.dhs.gov and browse the course catalog through the ‘New Students’ option.

 

Go to NFAOnline to see the complete COURSE CATALOG

 

Additional courses are now available on NFA Online:

 

Q494 – NFIRS Course

Q123 – Applied Research Course

 

ICS Simulation Courses: Ranch House, Mansion, Nursing Home, Town House, Wildland, and Strip Mall

 

Distance Learning Courses (1)

NFA Online Tutorial (PDF)

 

Emergency Medical Services Courses (1)

EMS Operations at Multi Casualty Incidents

 

Emergency Response to Terrorism Courses (1)

Emergency Response to Terrorism: Self-Study

 

Fire Prevention Courses (3)

Alternative Water Supply: Planning and Implementing Programs

Testing and Evaluation of Water Supplies for Fire Protection

Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators

 

Incident Management Courses (5)

ICS-100, Introduction to ICS for Operational First Responders

ICS-200, Basic NIMS ICS for Operational First Responders

ICS-300 Intermediate All-Hazard NIMS ICS Review for Expanding Incidents

Awareness of Command and Control Decision Making at Multiple Alarm Incidents

ICS-400: Fundamentals Review for Command and General Staff  

 

Management Science Courses (1)

Fire Service Supervision

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PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

Temporary Appointment as Acting Deputy US Fire Administrator

 

On behalf of U. S. Fire Administrator Gregory Cade, the following message is for your information and use.

 

Effective January 20, 2009, Dr. Denis G. Onieal will be temporarily appointed as the Acting Deputy U. S. Fire Administrator.

 

Dr. Onieal will serve in this capacity to provide the necessary continuity for the US Fire Administration during the transition period to the new Administration.  He will serve in this capacity until a new Fire Administrator and/or Deputy Administrator is appointed.

 

I would ask that you support Denis is this temporary role as the U. S. Fire Administration continues its mission.

 

 

Gregory B. Cade

United States Fire Administrator

 

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The Incident Management Systems Integration (IMSI) Division just announced the following updates:

 

1.      The finalized NIMS has been released and can be accessed at: http://www.fema.gov/emergency/nims/index.shtm

 

2.      The Credentialing Guideline has been posted to the Federal Register and can be accessed at: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064807e68fa

 

3.      The Intelligence/Investigation Function Guide has been posted to the Federal Register and can be accessed at: http:// www.regulations.gov.

 

 

These links have also been posted to the NIMS Working Groups Team Sites.

 

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#1

My Name is Lt. Mike Mattix and I am the Training Officer for the Dowagiac Fire Department in Dowagiac, Michigan. We are a small community of 12,000 residents in Southwestern Michigan. Our department is a combination department consisting of four career and currently, 12 on-call firefighters. The information we are seeking is on how other departments pay their on-call personnel. (i.e.: hourly,  per call or both). In addition, what is your department’s pay scale for on-call personnel and how often do you pay them? ( i.e.: weekly, monthly, bi-annual, or yearly?). Thank you in advance for your help and we look forward to hearing from you. Please send you information to either mmattix@dowagiac.org or dhutchings@dowagiac.org.

 

Stay Safe

Lt. Mike Mattix

Training/Public Education Officer

Dowagiac Fire Department       

 

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#2

Is anyone aware of training record software that is easy to use and easy to produce reports of training records?  I am looking to improve the access to the information as well as improve the information captured.  Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you

Captain Helge Nordtveit
Cranford Fire Department
Cranford, NJ

H-Nordtveit@CranfordNJ.org

 

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#3

My name is Rudy Horist..  I am an Assistant Chief with the Elgin Fire Department and a student in the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy.  I am completing an Applied Research Project on developing an officer development program to prepare individuals to serve as Acting Battalion Chiefs within my department.

 

I am asking for the assistance of departments that utilize Acting Battalion/District Chiefs or Acting Shift Commanders to complete a short survey on how they prepare individuals for this position.

 

To access the survey, please go to:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=yOZUhc43Ui8ayeJk8rJR4Q_3d_3d

 

The aggregate date from the survey will be shared in the final paper.  Please contact me if you would like a copy of the paper or if you have any questions.  Please complete the survey by Monday, January 12, 2009.

 

Thank you in advance for your assistance and cooperation,

Rudy Horist

Assistant Fire Chief

Elgin Fire Department

550 Summit Street

Elgin, IL 60120

Office: 847-931-6182

Fax: 847-931-6179

horist_r@cityofelgin.org

 

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#4

We are looking for information on Career Development in the fire service.  We want to put together a list or course catalog for education at each level of the fire service, i.e., firefighter 1, 2, and Officer levels.

 

Does anyone have anything created in a policy, or catalog of suggested and required courses that they use in their department.  I am looking for something like is used in colleges or Universities.  We are trying to provide a path for further development of individuals for future positions in our department that would prepare them for Assessment Centers.

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Ron Wieland

The Training Division

City of SeaTac Fire Department

206.973.4509

rwieland@ci.seatac.wa.us

 

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#5

When you have a few minutes, please respond to one more EFO project survey, located at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2bSWW1pzEQwiD0_2bRFRd5Tmw_3d_3d

 

Thank you for your response.

 

Dave Bailey
Battalion Chief Operations Division
Chesterfield Fire and EMS
baileyd@chesterfield.gov
(804)323-5400

 

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#6

I am a Battalion Chief at the Cedar Hill Fire Protection District in Missouri about 30 miles south of St. Louis.  We are a combination department with 15 full time firefighting staff and about 20 volunteers.  We are in the process of updating our SOP's and SOG's.  We have both paid and volunteer officers.  I would like to know what other departments are doing for promotions of officers.  What are the qualifications, testing procedures, interviews, etc.?  Any information would be greatly appreciated.  Thank You,

 

David W. Jones

Battalion Chief

Cedar Hill Fire Protection District

6766 Cedar Hill Rd.

Cedar Hill, Mo 63016

 

djones@cedarhillfire.com

 

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#7

We are aggressively monitoring fire gases, particularly in the salvage and overhaul stage. Although we do monitor for the presence of carbon monoxide, we trigger operations on the presence of hydrogen cyanide. We have read the literature published by the brothers in Providence, R.I.

1. Does anyone happen to have an air monitoring program directly related to the presence of hydrogen cyanide?
2. Do you actively monitor firefighter gear and the materials that it may/may not off-gas when not cleaned adequately?
3. Do you have information about any studies conducted within the fire service related to exposure to hydrogen cyanide, it's long term effects on firefighters, etc?

Thanks for any information

Otto Sandleben
Assistant Chief
Training/Safety
Largo Fire Rescue
727-587-6740 ext. 2111

osandleb@largo.com

 

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#8

While conducting Quantitative FIT testing for firefighter mask fit/seal has anyone had a firefighter that could not pass the FIT test? How was the situation handled? Any related information would be greatly appreciated. Using the TSI Port-A-Count equipment.

 

Steve Moore

Jacksonville Fire Department

Jacksonville, Arkansas

Training/Safety

smoore@cityofjacksonville.com

 

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#9

We are in the process of developing a user level P25 Radio course.  Many of our state/county volunteer 1st responders have had little experience using the new P25 radios.  So we want to provide them with 3-4 hour course with a classroom Power Point presentation and then a practical exercise (hands on experience).  Has anyone developed a 101 basic radio communication course that might work well for volunteers? If you get a new cell phone within a matter of a couple of days you have it completely figured out but for some reason giving someone a new radio they just freeze. Hopefully a basic P25 course would be helpful to them.  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  My e-mail address is enclosed. Thank you.

 

Rick Moszer

Homeland Security Training and Exercise

Office:  701.328.7314

Cell:  701.220.2845

 

rmoszer@ndaco.org

 

---------------------------------INFORMATIONAL ITEMS-------------------------------------

 

 

2008 U.S. Line of Duty Deaths                         112 LODD’s

2008 Worldwide LODD's                                51 LODD's

 

Visit FIREFIGHTERNEARMISS.COM and check out the Report of the Week(ROTW) for an incident description followed by review questions designed to spark discussion.  We can all learn from these.

 

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VIRTUAL TRADING POST

 

If you find the Virtual TRADEing Post useful, please send an email to Nashid Hasan mhasan1@lsu.edu.  Nash is the mastermind behind the structure of the Virtual TRADEing Post.  So, please let Nash know how much you appreciate the availability of this material and how useful you find it.

 

Several people have experienced difficulty accessing the TRADE's Virtual TRADEing Post through the address published and have contacted me for suggestions.  The system was unavailable for a short time but is back up and running.  Go to Louisiana State University Fire and Emergency Training Institute's NFA TRADE page: http://feti.lsu.edu/municipal/NFA/TRADE/   and access it there.  Look for improvement on how the material is organized very soon.

 

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LESSONS LEARNED INFORMATION SHARING

 

LLIS.gov Partners with US Fire Administration

As part of its continual effort to improve information sharing across the emergency response and homeland security communities, LLIS.gov launched a new partnership with the US Fire Administration (USFA). The USFA strives to provide national leadership to local fire and emergency services departments. To highlight the new partnership, LLIS.gov has created a new USFA Resource Page where members can access USFA technical and special reports, related LLIS.gov original content, featured documents, and valuable links. To access the resource page, log onto LLIS.gov and click on US Fire Administration under LLIS.GOV PARTNERS.

The LLIS.gov Team continues to post new Lessons Learned, Best Practices, Practice Notes, and Good Stories to the system on a regular basis. Weekly updates about new original content can be found in the NEW LLIS.GOV CONTENT box on the homepage of LLIS.gov. LLIS.gov recently posted the following original content documents drawn from USFA Technical Reports:

Lessons Learned

 

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LLIS.gov has partnered with the Emergency Management and Response – Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC) to provide LLIS.gov members access to the EMR-ISAC’s free, critical infrastructure protection (CIP) information. Located at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, MD, the EMR-ISAC was developed to collect, analyze, and disseminate timely, consequential information to assist in the practice of critical infrastructure protection by the leaders, owners, and operators of the nation’s Emergency Services Sector.

 

The EMR-ISAC, a no-cost information sharing program within the Department of Homeland Security, specifically provides information necessary to protect local internal critical infrastructures (i.e., personnel, physical assets, and communication/cyber systems that must be intact and operational 24 x 7) against all hazards, from natural disasters to terrorist activities. The program’s main focus is ensuring that emergency response leadership, their organizations, and local policy leaders have both the internal and external support and resources to aid in disaster protection, prevention, and response to enhance survivability, continuity of operations, and mission success.

 

The EMR-ISAC can be contacted at emr-isac@dhs.gov or 301-447-1325. To view the EMR-ISAC page on LLIS.gov, please click here or login to LLIS.gov and click on the EMR-ISAC link on the homepage. To subscribe for the free critical infrastructure protection (CIP) information disseminated by the Emergency Management and Response—Information Sharing and Analysis Center (EMR-ISAC), please click on the following link: http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/subjects/emr-isac/infograms/index.shtm.


The United States Fire Administration recommends everyone should have a comprehensive fire protection plan that includes smoke alarms, residential sprinklers, and practicing a home fire escape plan.

Update your subscriptions, modify your password or e-mail address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your e-mail address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact support@govdelivery.com.

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U.S. Fire Administration · U.S. Department of Homeland Security · Emmitsburg, MD 21727 · (301) 447-1000

U.S. Fire Administration Firefighter Fatality Notification - East Pembroke, NY

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Please reply to this message if you are experiencing technical difficulty. For all other inquiries, please Contact USFA.

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) has received notice of the following firefighter fatality:

Name: Norm Koch

Rank: Fire Police Captain

Age: 79

Gender: Male

Status: Volunteer

Years of Service: 50+

Date of Incident: 12/30/2008

Time of Incident: 1245hrs

Date of Death: 12/30/2008

Fire Department: East Pembroke Fire Department

Address: 2623 Main Rd., PO Box 44, East Pembroke, NY 14056 (USNG: 17T QH 1947 6386)

Map:

http://www.fidnet.com/~jlmoore/usng/?zoom=13&usng=17TQH19476386&disp=m

Fire Department Chief: Robert Yungfleisch

Incident Description: Fire Police Captain Koch suffered an apparent heart attack while assisting at the scene of a motor vehicle accident. Koch was transported to the hospital but all efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

 

Funeral Arrangements:  Pending

Memorial Fund Contact and Address:  In honor of Fire Police Captain Norm Koch, c/o East Pembroke Fire Department, PO Box 44, East Pembroke, NY  14056

Tribute is being paid to Fire Police Captain Norm Koch at http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/fatalities/

To date, 112 firefighter fatalities have been reported to USFA in 2008 as a result of incidents that occurred in 2008 and one from a prior year incident.    USFA does not have a Line-of-Duty-Death (LODD) criterion nor does it make LODD determinations. Please note, running totals of firefighter fatalities used on these initial notices do not necessarily reflect the number of firefighter fatalities used in totals for the (provisional) monthly year-to-date USFA firefighter fatality reports, or year-end (provisional) reports posted online (http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/fatalities/statistics/ff_stats.shtm). Firefighter fatalities in USFA reports are summarized by date/year-of-incident. Initial notices posted online (http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/fireservice/fatalities/) and distributed via USFA listserve do not represent the final on-duty firefighter fatality determination by USFA for such reports, nor LODD determination made by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (http://www.FireHero.org) for names added each subsequent year to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial at the National Fire Academy in  Emmitsburg, MD, they are the beginning of a research process for each firefighter fatality reported so that such determinations can be made.


The United States Fire Administration recommends everyone should have a comprehensive fire protection plan that includes smoke alarms, residential sprinklers, and practicing a home fire escape plan.

Update your subscriptions, modify your password or e-mail address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your e-mail address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact support@govdelivery.com.

This service is provided to you at no charge by the U.S. Fire Administration.

Privacy Policy | GovDelivery is providing this information on behalf of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and may not use the information for any other purposes.

U.S. Fire Administration · U.S. Department of Homeland Security · Emmitsburg, MD 21727 · (301) 447-1000