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Posted: Feb 13, 2014

CAFS Technology: Scheduled Maintenance Reduces Costly Repair

Compressed air foam systems (CAFS) have made their way into an increasing number of fire apparatus and the use has grown exponentially. This can be attributed to a combination of factors such as an increased acceptance of this technology, more frequent exposure to the available systems, faster knock down, and the benefit of substantial suppression power when water resources are limited.  As with many technologies that have found their place on fire department vehicles; the reliability and credibility of such equipment is only guaranteed by routine exercise, inspection, maintenance, and deficiency reporting to the maintenance department or service center.
  

Exercise and routine use are the best safeguards against sticking components or failure to perform at an emergency scene. Every system will have a factory predetermined schedule of visual and operational inspection that can easily be incorporated into daily, weekly, or monthly checks already in place...

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Posted: Feb 13, 2014

Developing Soft Skills for Success

In 2012 the Officers Section of the Washington Fire Chiefs was consolidated with the Training and Safety Officers Section.  This allowed for the vision of the Officers Section to move forward and to ensure its message and philosophy on leadership development is not lost.  Officer development at all levels is the mission of this group.  The fire service continually seeks qualified individuals within and outside of their organization who possess the vital skills needed to guide their organization into the future. 

The International Association of Fire Chiefs Officer (IAFC) Development Handbook was created to provide guidance and a “clear roadmap for success as a fire officer”; (Jim Broman).  This program has four levels of preparation; supervising, managing, administrative and executive.  Each of these levels contains four areas of personal development; training, education, experience and self-development.  I will break down each of these areas as they are described in the IAFC Handbook. 

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Posted: Feb 13, 2014

Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Grant Program

This serves as notification that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is releasing the Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) Funding Opportunity Announcement (Grant Program Guidance) on February 11, 2014.  The application period for the FY 2013 FP&S Program will open on Tuesday, February 18, 2014 at 8:00 a.m. EST and will close on March 21, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. EST...

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Posted: Feb 13, 2014

Volunteer Exclusion from Affordable Care Act

The impact of the Affordable Care Act on fire service volunteers, has been a vital fire service issue, which had the potential to impact the majority of departments in Washington state.  The Washington Fire Chiefs have been in contact with the IRS to ensure we can provide you with the most up to date information available. 

Yesterday the US Treasury Department released the new guiding documents giving fire service volunteers a clear exemption from the Affordable Care Act.  Please see the links to the source documents, and the pertinent excerpts included below. 

The Washington Fire Chiefs will be inviting an expert to our WFC Board Meeting & County Presidents Forum which will be held in Sequim, WA on April 1, 2014.  We would like to encourage you to email us any questions you might have on this issue, so that we might address them with our expert.  Please email those questions to wfc@washingtonfirechiefs.org...

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Posted: Jan 13, 2014

Money Talks

Looking back, a lot has changed over the last thirty years in fire and EMS officer development.  Our industry was considered a trade and a high school diploma was sufficient to get hired.  An Associate’s degree was rare and a Bachelor’s degree was unheard of, even as we promoted through the ranks into management positions.  However, as an industry, we recognized the need to move from a trade to a profession.  There were many topics, such as human resources, finance and budgeting, strategic planning, and the like, that were not covered in high school or the fire academy. 

Realizing this, leaders began to focus on encouraging our incumbents to go back to school and earn a two year technical degree.  Employers also began to give more credit to candidates with college degrees who were seeking employment as a firefighter or paramedic.  This slow evolution created a new norm where a two year degree in fire science was an edge for those competing for company officer promotions or entry level positions.  This created a ripple effect upward and soon raised the bar within the profession for senior incumbents and chief officers.  Chief officers and chief officer candidates were headed back to school to earn their four year college degrees, and fire chief hopefuls were seeking post-graduate degrees.  Today, many entry level firefighters possess graduate and post-graduate degrees, and this has also served to encourage incumbent supervisors who want to lead these new firefighters to obtain more formal education...

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