Firefighters and their families, friends, and community members from across the nation gathered at historic Lambeau Field on September 22, 2018, to participate in the sixth annual 9/11 MEMORIAL STAIR CLIMB. More than 2,700 people participated. This year’s event raised more than $135,000, with all proceeds benefiting the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), and has again been recognized as one of the largest stair climbs in the nation. 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb participants had the opportunity to ascend the equivalent of the 110 stories of the World Trade Center while wearing a badge with the name and photograph of one of the fallen firefighters. At the 78th floor, the highest floor reached on 9/11, each climber rang a fire bell in honor of the individual on their badge. “Since its inception, the Pierce Manufacturing team has been grateful for the opportunity to cosponsor the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb along with the Green Bay (WI) Metro Fire Department,” said Jim Johnson, president of Pierce Manufacturing. “Not only is it an incredible day of remembrance and reflection, supporting the NFFF helps provide access to critical resources for survivors and co-workers of fallen firefighters.”

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SVI GRAPHICS, a designer and producer of custom vehicle graphics for the emergency industry, recently overhauled its Web site, www.svigraphics.com, to better showcase the company’s graphics capabilities. The redesigned Web site showcases 14 years of industry work in vehicle chevrons, door decals, door kickers, product labels, and fleet vehicle rebranding. The company’s emergency vehicle graphics meet the gamut of NFPA stipulations on coverage and reflectivity to keep crews safe. SVI Graphics offers 3M-certified products, printed with solvent ink and laminated for UV protection for flawless results. The Web site showcases graphics by vehicle type. OEMs and departments can browse fire truck graphics, custom ambulance graphics, police car graphics, and commercial vehicle graphics.

EURAMCO GROUP has partnered with bloom.CAPITAL to launch XFDirect—an independent network of firefighting vehicle and equipment service shops throughout mainland China. XFDirect, over the past 12 months, has completed pilot testing and has now formally launched operations of its mobile application-based case management software for users to quickly create service cases from their mobile devices for their out-of-service equipment, in their own language, which instantly connects to well-equipped, OEM-trained service teams for fast response. XFDirect’s combination of mobile app interface with brick-and-mortar service capabilities, in a regional market where equipment dealers are typically not capable of supporting what they sell, has already gained rapid acceptance among fire departments across the region and leading manufacturers throughout the world.

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Posted: Nov 1, 2018

Official: Wapato house fire causes $100K in damage, 5 displaced

Five people have been displaced from their home after house fire in Wapato Tuesday afternoon. Firefighters were called out to a home at 411 West Wapato Road around noon for reports of a fire on the back porch. One person was inside at the time and evacuated the home safely. When crews arrived, half the home was already in flames and was threatening a neighboring residence about 30 feet away, according to Yakima County Fire District 5.
- PUB DATE: 11/1/2018 10:41:46 AM - SOURCE: YakTriNews

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New SCBA for Florida Department

Posted: Nov 1, 2018

New SCBA for Florida Department

BY CHRIS Mc LOONE

Across the fire service, fire departments are taking a variety of steps to limit firefighter exposure to different contaminants and carcinogens.

One department that has been very proactive in recent years in exposure reduction and cancer prevention is Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue. The department recently replaced all 850 of its self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) through a $6.3 million order with 3M Scott Fire & Safety. The bulk replacement not only brings its SCBA up to the current edition of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, but it also brings SCBA into the department that fit into its overarching program to reduce contaminant exposure.

1 The Air-Pak X3 Pro, from 3M Scott Fire & Safety, combines high-performance material selection with an easy-to-remove harness for cleaning, decontamination, and serviceability. With minimal water absorption, the new harness assembly can be machine-laundered to minimize contamination and reduce long-term carcinogen exposure. Because the gear can be laundered at the station, firefighters have fast and easy access to their equipment when they respond to the next call. (Photo courtesy of 3M Scott Fire & Safety.)

MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is a full-service department that serves 29 municipalities plus unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County. It also provides service to Port Miami, which is the largest passenger seaport in the United States, and protects three airports. “We operate 70 fire stations,” says Chief Dave Downey. “We have 140 front-line apparatus. We have 2,500 personnel, of which almost 2,100 are uniformed firefighters. We serve a population of about 2.5 million, and we cover an area of almost 2,000 square miles.” Specialized fire apparatus include a heavy rescue, three medium rescues, two fireboats, crash fire rescue vehicles, and four rescue helicopters.

THE ORDER

Miami-Dade decided to replace all of its SCBA, although Downey says they might hold onto a few of the older SCBA for training purposes. Implementation played a role in the decision to replace all the SCBA at once, according to Downey. “While the packs are similar, I didn’t want to be in a situation where we were using two different packs at the same time,” he says. “It will still be a monumental task to provide the training and issue the packs in as short a period as possible, so we are using not only traditional instructor-led training but some computer-based training to expedite the implementation. Additionally, we will take the implementation period to provide our annual SCBA refresher training as well.” As far as the purchase itself, the department was able to fun

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New SCBA for Florida Department

Posted: Nov 1, 2018

New SCBA for Florida Department

BY CHRIS Mc LOONE

Across the fire service, fire departments are taking a variety of steps to limit firefighter exposure to different contaminants and carcinogens.

One department that has been very proactive in recent years in exposure reduction and cancer prevention is Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue. The department recently replaced all 850 of its self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) through a $6.3 million order with 3M Scott Fire & Safety. The bulk replacement not only brings its SCBA up to the current edition of National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, but it also brings SCBA into the department that fit into its overarching program to reduce contaminant exposure.

1 The Air-Pak X3 Pro, from 3M Scott Fire & Safety, combines high-performance material selection with an easy-to-remove harness for cleaning, decontamination, and serviceability. With minimal water absorption, the new harness assembly can be machine-laundered to minimize contamination and reduce long-term carcinogen exposure. Because the gear can be laundered at the station, firefighters have fast and easy access to their equipment when they respond to the next call. (Photo courtesy of 3M Scott Fire & Safety.)

MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue is a full-service department that serves 29 municipalities plus unincorporated areas of Miami-Dade County. It also provides service to Port Miami, which is the largest passenger seaport in the United States, and protects three airports. “We operate 70 fire stations,” says Chief Dave Downey. “We have 140 front-line apparatus. We have 2,500 personnel, of which almost 2,100 are uniformed firefighters. We serve a population of about 2.5 million, and we cover an area of almost 2,000 square miles.” Specialized fire apparatus include a heavy rescue, three medium rescues, two fireboats, crash fire rescue vehicles, and four rescue helicopters.

THE ORDER

Miami-Dade decided to replace all of its SCBA, although Downey says they might hold onto a few of the older SCBA for training purposes. Implementation played a role in the decision to replace all the SCBA at once, according to Downey. “While the packs are similar, I didn’t want to be in a situation where we were using two different packs at the same time,” he says. “It will still be a monumental task to provide the training and issue the packs in as short a period as possible, so we are using not only traditional instructor-led training but some computer-based training to expedite the implementation. Additionally, we will take the implementation period to provide our annual SCBA refresher training as well.” As far as the purchase itself, the department was able to fun

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Posted: Nov 1, 2018

Five Questions

Chris Mc Loone

Pat Case
Co-Owner, BA Shields

CM: Provide a short overview of BA Shields, the company.

PC: BA Shields is a firefighter-owned-and-operated company based out of Sparks, Nevada. We make reusable self-contained-breathing apparatus (SCBA) lens protection, which doubles as a convenient blackout training tool. Both Cody [Cavin, co-owner] and I have 20 years of combined experience as firefighters and in emergency medical service. We currently serve as career firefighters for the Sparks (NV) Fire Department and saw a need for a product that wasn’t yet developed. Cody started prototyping, and little did we know, things started to snowball—quickly.

CM: Firefighter-owned-and-operated companies have unique challenges. What challenges did you have to overcome that other firefighters considering launching a company can learn from?

PC: Like any startup, we’ve had our fair share. I come from a finance background, and Cody has always been into fabricating anything he can get his hands on. When it all boils down, we are both firefighters at heart. This means we like to solve practical problems. We figured we would make a product and sell a few dozen here or there because we knew people could really use it. What we didn’t expect was how quickly we went from a “craft project” to a legitimate business and how fast we outpaced our business plan. A huge hurdle for us was the transition: making sure we had a tax ID number, insurance, bank accounts, LLC documentation, marketing tools, etc. Our biggest challenge right now is the fact that we run a two-person business and need bigger manufacturing ASAP.

We don’t have any other staff and we don’t outsource anything, which we pride ourselves on. Every piece is custom made by Cody and me. We touch every shield. Add this to a full-time career, on different shift lines, and this gives us two to three days a week to team up, get orders out, create new ideas, and build the business. Everything else has to happen on our own over the phone or via text. Our thumbs are getting a serious workout!

Both of us are family men, which means those two to three days aren’t always devoted to business. We’ve had to adapt to other ways of getting projects and tasks finished on time and accurately. Not going to lie—sometime

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