keeping it safe robert tutterow
I was shocked and saddened when I received a phone call on October 15, 2017, that Alan Brunacini, chief (ret.), Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department (PFD), had unexpectedly passed away.
I immediately felt sad for his family and his close friends. After a bit, I started to reflect on the times that I was fortunate to be in his presence and to read his writings. First, a disclaimer: I do not consider myself to be one who was in Bruno’s inner circle. However, in addition to hearing him speak at various conferences, I was privileged to participate in a couple dozen small group settings that allowed me to observe and absorb the brilliance of the man.
I first got to know Bruno when I was appointed as a principal member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Occupational Health & Safety technical committee (NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program) in 1989. Bruno was the chair of the committee. This was a very turbulent time for the fire service, as there was a belief that NFPA 1500 would cause fire departments to go out of business. Career firefighters and volunteer firefighters were at odds over staffing. Labor and management were also at odds. Bruno masterfully handled the conflict that was part of the meetings. I recall he had his staff develop a video that depicted the number of firefighters required to successfully extinguish a single-family dwelling fire. The role of each firefighter was clearly explained. Unfortunately, the turmoil about NFPA 1500 within the fire service was more than the NFPA wanted to bear, and it disbanded the committee and established a new committee. When Bruno saw the names on the new committee, knowing the commitment of the previous committee members, he stood by his principles and declined to continue as the committee chair. This decision made quite an impression on me. Ironically, the NFPA then asked Bruno to chair a new technical committee to develop deployment standards (NPFA 1710, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, and NFPA 1720, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments). He accepted the role.
Firefighter health and safety was a common theme in all of Bruno’s teachings and writings. He realized long before others that if the NFPA did not start addressing health and safety issues, then the men and women who wear the long black robes would handle it for the fire service.
I always admired the way Bruno shared the Phoenix, Arizona, story with the rest of the fire service, even if the story did not have a successful conclusion. He wanted the fire service to know the “lessons learned.” These included stories about a firefighter falling through the roof, horrific apparatus accidents, and firefighter fatalities. He was always quick to get a video produced to share these lessons learned within his department and the rest of the fire service. When a Phoenix firefighter lost his life in a supermarket fire, he immediately assigned a chief officer to investigate and disseminate the information gathered. Each PFD company was required to visit the site to get an understan
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Posted: Feb 19, 2018
keeping it safe robert tutterow
I was shocked and saddened when I received a phone call on October 15, 2017, that Alan Brunacini, chief (ret.), Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department (PFD), had unexpectedly passed away.
I immediately felt sad for his family and his close friends. After a bit, I started to reflect on the times that I was fortunate to be in his presence and to read his writings. First, a disclaimer: I do not consider myself to be one who was in Bruno’s inner circle. However, in addition to hearing him speak at various conferences, I was privileged to participate in a couple dozen small group settings that allowed me to observe and absorb the brilliance of the man.
I first got to know Bruno when I was appointed as a principal member of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Occupational Health & Safety technical committee (NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program) in 1989. Bruno was the chair of the committee. This was a very turbulent time for the fire service, as there was a belief that NFPA 1500 would cause fire departments to go out of business. Career firefighters and volunteer firefighters were at odds over staffing. Labor and management were also at odds. Bruno masterfully handled the conflict that was part of the meetings. I recall he had his staff develop a video that depicted the number of firefighters required to successfully extinguish a single-family dwelling fire. The role of each firefighter was clearly explained. Unfortunately, the turmoil about NFPA 1500 within the fire service was more than the NFPA wanted to bear, and it disbanded the committee and established a new committee. When Bruno saw the names on the new committee, knowing the commitment of the previous committee members, he stood by his principles and declined to continue as the committee chair. This decision made quite an impression on me. Ironically, the NFPA then asked Bruno to chair a new technical committee to develop deployment standards (NPFA 1710, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, and NFPA 1720, Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments). He accepted the role.
Firefighter health and safety was a common theme in all of Bruno’s teachings and writings. He realized long before others that if the NFPA did not start addressing health and safety issues, then the men and women who wear the long black robes would handle it for the fire service.
I always admired the way Bruno shared the Phoenix, Arizona, story with the rest of the fire service, even if the story did not have a successful conclusion. He wanted the fire service to know the “lessons learned.” These included stories about a firefighter falling through the roof, horrific apparatus accidents, and firefighter fatalities. He was always quick to get a video produced to share these lessons learned within his department and the rest of the fire service. When a Phoenix firefighter lost his life in a supermarket fire, he immediately assigned a chief officer to investigate and disseminate the information gathered. Each PFD company was required to visit the site to get an understan
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Posted: Feb 19, 2018
to the rescue carl j. haddon
The truth is that the working title of this column was “Extreme Extrication Meets Extreme Tech Rescue, Meets Ultimate Man in Machine, Meets Explosive Dust.” For the sake of space, I’ll leave the explosive (coal) dust mitigation for another article.
Coal Mine Visit
Recently, I was invited to a large coal mining facility in Wyoming to do some product testing/training with an encapsulator agent on raw coal. Never having been to a mine of this size and nature, I was slack-jawed as soon as I entered the gate. I know this statement will date me, but I was instantly transported to a living chapter out of Gulliver’s Travels, except that I was a Lilliputian. In the book, Gulliver found himself on an island (Lilliput) inhabited by a miniature civilization. I first noticed that stop signs were mounted some 20 feet in the air while traffic signals on the site had to hang much higher than that. The manicured dirt and gravel roads were wide enough to land large aircraft. As I parked my truck in the visitors’ lot and got into a mine company pickup, I couldn’t help but notice that all of these full-size pickups had 10-foot whip antennas with bright, colored LED lights at the top of the whips. As my host drove us into the heart of the facility, it all became crystal clear, and as I took it all in, it made the little gears in my brain spin all at the same time.
In the distance was a behemoth vehicle coming in the opposite direction. As we passed one of the largest dump trucks I’ve ever seen, I instantly understood the need for the lighted whip antennas on the mine company pickups. It looked as though the operator’s windshield of these trucks had to be at least 20 feet above the ground, and there would be no possible way that an operator of one of these trucks could see a standard sized vehicle in front of him without the lighted whips. Two flights of railed stairs led from the ground up to the operator’s cab, with the first flight transcending just the face of the truck’s grille! My gracious hosts laughed at my astonishment and told me that “they get that a lot.” Enjoying my disbelief, they brought me to see one of the front-end loader machines that loads mined coal into the giant haul trucks that I was so enamored with. They explained to me that what I was now looking at were $1,500,000 (each) L-2350s, the largest front-end loaders in the world. Me being me, I couldn’t help but ask if open mining operations (in general) ever had these types of vehicles get into trouble, tip over, or get upside down. When they told me yes, this article was born.
Understand that this (and all other mines like it) has its own mine rescue team and equipment and its own fleet of firefighting apparatus. Additionally, as you might imagine, water trucks/tenders are also a huge part of this operation. By the way, the water trucks used for firefighting supply and coal dust control have 40,000-gallon capacities. They’re really big too. And, they are said to be the most susceptible vehicle to rollovers at a mine like this one.
Read more
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Posted: Feb 19, 2018
to the rescue carl j. haddon
The truth is that the working title of this column was “Extreme Extrication Meets Extreme Tech Rescue, Meets Ultimate Man in Machine, Meets Explosive Dust.” For the sake of space, I’ll leave the explosive (coal) dust mitigation for another article.
Coal Mine Visit
Recently, I was invited to a large coal mining facility in Wyoming to do some product testing/training with an encapsulator agent on raw coal. Never having been to a mine of this size and nature, I was slack-jawed as soon as I entered the gate. I know this statement will date me, but I was instantly transported to a living chapter out of Gulliver’s Travels, except that I was a Lilliputian. In the book, Gulliver found himself on an island (Lilliput) inhabited by a miniature civilization. I first noticed that stop signs were mounted some 20 feet in the air while traffic signals on the site had to hang much higher than that. The manicured dirt and gravel roads were wide enough to land large aircraft. As I parked my truck in the visitors’ lot and got into a mine company pickup, I couldn’t help but notice that all of these full-size pickups had 10-foot whip antennas with bright, colored LED lights at the top of the whips. As my host drove us into the heart of the facility, it all became crystal clear, and as I took it all in, it made the little gears in my brain spin all at the same time.
In the distance was a behemoth vehicle coming in the opposite direction. As we passed one of the largest dump trucks I’ve ever seen, I instantly understood the need for the lighted whip antennas on the mine company pickups. It looked as though the operator’s windshield of these trucks had to be at least 20 feet above the ground, and there would be no possible way that an operator of one of these trucks could see a standard sized vehicle in front of him without the lighted whips. Two flights of railed stairs led from the ground up to the operator’s cab, with the first flight transcending just the face of the truck’s grille! My gracious hosts laughed at my astonishment and told me that “they get that a lot.” Enjoying my disbelief, they brought me to see one of the front-end loader machines that loads mined coal into the giant haul trucks that I was so enamored with. They explained to me that what I was now looking at were $1,500,000 (each) L-2350s, the largest front-end loaders in the world. Me being me, I couldn’t help but ask if open mining operations (in general) ever had these types of vehicles get into trouble, tip over, or get upside down. When they told me yes, this article was born.
Understand that this (and all other mines like it) has its own mine rescue team and equipment and its own fleet of firefighting apparatus. Additionally, as you might imagine, water trucks/tenders are also a huge part of this operation. By the way, the water trucks used for firefighting supply and coal dust control have 40,000-gallon capacities. They’re really big too. And, they are said to be the most susceptible vehicle to rollovers at a mine like this one.
Read more
- 433
- Article rating: No rating
Posted: Feb 19, 2018
to the rescue carl j. haddon
The truth is that the working title of this column was “Extreme Extrication Meets Extreme Tech Rescue, Meets Ultimate Man in Machine, Meets Explosive Dust.” For the sake of space, I’ll leave the explosive (coal) dust mitigation for another article.
Coal Mine Visit
Recently, I was invited to a large coal mining facility in Wyoming to do some product testing/training with an encapsulator agent on raw coal. Never having been to a mine of this size and nature, I was slack-jawed as soon as I entered the gate. I know this statement will date me, but I was instantly transported to a living chapter out of Gulliver’s Travels, except that I was a Lilliputian. In the book, Gulliver found himself on an island (Lilliput) inhabited by a miniature civilization. I first noticed that stop signs were mounted some 20 feet in the air while traffic signals on the site had to hang much higher than that. The manicured dirt and gravel roads were wide enough to land large aircraft. As I parked my truck in the visitors’ lot and got into a mine company pickup, I couldn’t help but notice that all of these full-size pickups had 10-foot whip antennas with bright, colored LED lights at the top of the whips. As my host drove us into the heart of the facility, it all became crystal clear, and as I took it all in, it made the little gears in my brain spin all at the same time.
In the distance was a behemoth vehicle coming in the opposite direction. As we passed one of the largest dump trucks I’ve ever seen, I instantly understood the need for the lighted whip antennas on the mine company pickups. It looked as though the operator’s windshield of these trucks had to be at least 20 feet above the ground, and there would be no possible way that an operator of one of these trucks could see a standard sized vehicle in front of him without the lighted whips. Two flights of railed stairs led from the ground up to the operator’s cab, with the first flight transcending just the face of the truck’s grille! My gracious hosts laughed at my astonishment and told me that “they get that a lot.” Enjoying my disbelief, they brought me to see one of the front-end loader machines that loads mined coal into the giant haul trucks that I was so enamored with. They explained to me that what I was now looking at were $1,500,000 (each) L-2350s, the largest front-end loaders in the world. Me being me, I couldn’t help but ask if open mining operations (in general) ever had these types of vehicles get into trouble, tip over, or get upside down. When they told me yes, this article was born.
Understand that this (and all other mines like it) has its own mine rescue team and equipment and its own fleet of firefighting apparatus. Additionally, as you might imagine, water trucks/tenders are also a huge part of this operation. By the way, the water trucks used for firefighting supply and coal dust control have 40,000-gallon capacities. They’re really big too. And, they are said to be the most susceptible vehicle to rollovers at a mine like this one.
Read more
- 327
- Article rating: No rating