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The number of on-duty firefighter deaths across the country is at a 40-year low. Sixty firefighters died on-the-job last year. Flames or collapsing buildings were not the most common cause of deaths. The leading cause of deaths among firefighters was heart attacks The National Fire Protection Association just released its annual fatalities report.

 

Berryhill Fire Department, which has never lost a firefighter on duty, built a station that reduces some of the common stressors firefighters face.

Hall says his department worked with an architect for more than a year to design a low-stress station, like installing a slide instead of a pole.

“This is better on knees, and backs, and necks and nobody falls two stories,” he said.

They also have a smart screen designed to be easier on the eyes, especially when rushing out of bed in the middle of the night.  The screen will show different colors for different call types – red is for fires – and the quickest route will be shown in blue.

“It will give us a different color so that we have the initial knowledge in our brain to go to that, that set of memories,” said Hall.

There’s a room for crews to decontaminate after a call.  They also check each other’s health often.

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WTVM

Columbia County has a new million dollar addition to their community. After the people of Columbia County voted the Columbia County Fire Rescue has a new aerial truck, paid for through the 2016 General Obligation Bond. This customized addition took over a year to make. The firemen say this is not your ordinary fire truck.

The truck also offers a tool to minimize miscommunication among their crew. Firemen now have headphones to communicate with each other that reach up to a 1,000 foot radius. Before the headphones, they were using hand signals to communicate.  "With our communications, we're able to get out of the truck with our headphones on when we're going to an incident then we can actually talk back and forth where there's no confusion from the chaos of the scene," Bleemel said.

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The U.S. Fire Administration has announced the official on-duty death of Firefighter Richard "Andy" Loller, Jr., 42, of the Weatherford Fire Department on June 10, 2018.

While performing wildland firefighting operations, Firefighter Richard “Andy” Loller, Jr. suffered a medical emergency. Loller was flown by helicopter to receive medical treatment and was stabilized before being placed on a medical airplane to receive further treatment at a hospital in Odessa. While in flight, Firefighter Loller passed away from a nature and cause of fatal injury still to be reported. 

Tribute is being paid to Firefighter Loller, Jr. at http://apps.usfa.fema.gov/firefighter-fatalities/

To date, 43 firefighter fatalities have been reported to USFA in 2018.  Year-to-date and annual USFA firefighter fatality reports are posted online at https://www.usfa.fema.gov/data/statistics/ff_fatality_reports.html

Fatality status is provisional and may change as USFA contacts State Fire Marshals to verify fatality incident information.

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released its annual U.S. Firefighter Fatalities report, which showed a total of 60 U.S. firefighter fatalities while on duty in 2017. This number represents the lowest total reported since 1977, when NFPA began reporting on-duty firefighter fatalities; it is the sixth time in the last seven years that the total has been below 70 deaths.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NFPA.org

A DC Fire and EMS report says that improper positioning of equipment and a rookie's inexperience were the biggest contributing factors in an apparatus incident that left a young firefighter with severe injuries in August 2017. Probationary firefighter Dane Smothers Jr. was serving as a lineman (nozzle firefighter) during a Capitol Hill house fire on Aug.
- PUB DATE: 6/12/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Firehouse.com