Spokane fire officials said a cell phone charger sparked a fire at an apartment on the lower South Hill Monday morning that killed two cats. Officials said the ceramic register in the charger overheated and started the fire. Fire crews said at least four tenants at the Madison Terrace Apartments are displaced and no one else was injured.
- PUB DATE: 12/1/2015 3:31:47 PM - SOURCE: Northwest Cable News

The way that public safety agencies communicate is changing dramatically. Expanded citizen connections, improved inter-agency collaboration, and a stronger public alliance are the new norm.

Motorola conducted a survey on the latest trends and technology that impact public safety agencies of all sizes. The results reveal that the use of data-driven communications--such as social media, text-to-9-1-1, GPS, video, and cloud technology--are growing rapidly. But there’s still work to be done.

Get the survey results to find out:

• How 55 percent of public safety respondents say they are using social media
• Why there’s a 300-percent increase of agencies able to receive text-to-9-1-1
• Which trends are transforming public safety communications to improve community interaction

Dowload the survey results HERE.

The Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) will offer three popular keynote speakers during its annual Apparatus Specification and Maintenance Symposium and its concurrent Safety Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona, January 18-22, 2016.

The week will feature three of the fire services’ most popular straight-talkers. The three keynote speakers are: James (Jim) Juneau, Gordon Graham and Chief Billy Goldfeder.

James J. Juneau, of Juneau, Boll, Stacy & Ucherek in Dallas, Texas, will kick off the Apparatus Symposium on Monday, January 18. Juneau, a nationally recognized legal authority on issues relating to fire apparatus and emergency vehicle design and operational safety, is a straight-talking attorney on emergency vehicles and firefighter safety training across the United States and Canada. “We’re going to talk about fire apparatus and the law,” says Juneau. “We’ll deal with safety issues, we’ll deal with the kind of things that matter when you go to the court room, and we’ll talk about some of the things that can get you in trouble, like crazy driving, ignoring right-of-way intersections, railroad crossings, and intoxication on the job.” 

Gordon Graham, of Graham Research Consultants in Long Beach, California, will wrap up the Apparatus Symposium and kick off the Safety Forum conference with his comprehensive program: “What real risk management is all about.”.

Graham, a former California motorcycle police officer, is a police/fire service risk management expert and attorney, dividing his time between study, research, writing, speaking, and consulting in the discipline of risk management. “The focus is going to be on all the things that an informed fire department, informed firefighters, mechanics, and safety officers need to know about risk management and what they can do to reduce the injuries and the deaths through the specifying, acquisition, bidding, transport, and the training process,” says Graham. 

 

Billy Goldfeder, deputy chief with the Loveland-Symmes (OH) Fire Department, has been a firefighter since 1973, has served on several IAFC and NFPA committees, and is a prolific writer and outspoken critic of unsafe practices and stupid decisions. Goldfeder’s passion for firefighter safety and “Everyone Goes Home” program has made him the conscience for the North American fire service. Goldfeder, along with Graham, host and sponsor the Web site FireFighterCloseCalls.com. Goldfeder will wrap-up the Safety Forum conference on January 22 with his powerful presentation, “Why Things Go Wrong—And What Safety Officers Can Do About It.”

“There has been no greater time for fire department safety officers to arm themselves with the best information than now!” says Goldfeder. “Never has the fire service and it's leadership been so aware of the issues related to firefighter safety, health, and survival—and it's the fire department safety officer who can make the connection between their ‘awareness’ and the ‘reality’ and importance of leadership related to firefighter survival. Truly, the fire chief’s ‘right hand person’ w

Paul C. Darley

I was educated by Catholic Jesuit priests for most of my life. The Jesuits taught me at an early age to question everything-and believe me, I have.

Largely for that reason, I rely heavily on data-driven decisions more than anecdotal evidence in almost everything I do. My wife Heidi likes to refer to me as “quantitatively quirky,” a term we coined together almost 20 years ago. Knowing the facts just gives me a lot more confidence in my decision-making process.

The Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) collects a lot of data on fire apparatus sold to the fire service. To our members, it’s one of the most valuable reasons they join our association. The detailed data is reserved exclusively for our members, but the FAMA board has allowed me to share the information contained in this article for the purposes of educating the fire service and assisting fire departments in making educated purchasing decisions. If you’re a fire equipment manufacturer and not currently a member of FAMA, I strongly encourage you to join.

Fire Apparatus Market

The market for new fire apparatus sold in the United States hit its high point in 2008 when a total of more than 5,000 new fire apparatus were sold in North America. Considering there are roughly 33,000 fire departments in the United States and another 4,000 in Canada, this was deemed to be right-sized.

As the recession hit in 2009, municipal budgets were among the worst hit. With fire departments reigning in the budgets and avoiding capital expenditures, the market for new fire apparatus sales hit a low in 2011-down more than 40 percent from its peak!

Since that time, the market has recently shown some signs of improvement as the economy recovered, but overall it has remained soft. New fire apparatus sales saw a slight recovery in 2013 as the market saw an increase in new fire apparatus sold in North America but fluttered in 2014 as new truck sales declined about five to 10 percent. This purchase history coincides almost identically with the recent improvements in municipal budgets. From data published by the National League of Cities Annual Report, we know that municipal budgets lag the overall economy by 18 to 24 months. This report has shown that municipal budgets hit their low in 2010 and have steadily improved during the past two years as their revenues continued to increase.

Fire Pump Size Changes

As a pump manufacturer, we pay particular attention to the pump sizes in fire apparatus. Today, the most common pump size in a pumper is a 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, with about half of all new apparatus having this size pump. This compares to only about a third of all apparatus having this size pump in 2011. The 1,500-gpm pump has grown in popularity over the years and seems to satisfy the needs of most city and rural fire departments. The second most popular size pump in 2014 was 1,250 gpm, representing about a quarter of all fire departments. The rivalry that existed 15 to 20 years ago between rural fire departments looking for a pump larger than their neighboring departments’, despite limited water supplies, seems to have subsided over the past five years. While there is certainly a place for pumps larger than 1,500 gpm in industrial and big city applications, these pump sizes have steadily decreased over the past 10 years as departments look to take advantage of the additional space on the vehicle to accommodate more equipment.

What’s Ahead?

2015 has been off to a strong start, with North American sales up almost 15 percent over 2014 levels. If this year plays out similar to the past couple of years with an increase in purchasing during the thi

Paul C. Darley

I was educated by Catholic Jesuit priests for most of my life. The Jesuits taught me at an early age to question everything-and believe me, I have.

Largely for that reason, I rely heavily on data-driven decisions more than anecdotal evidence in almost everything I do. My wife Heidi likes to refer to me as “quantitatively quirky,” a term we coined together almost 20 years ago. Knowing the facts just gives me a lot more confidence in my decision-making process.

The Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association (FAMA) collects a lot of data on fire apparatus sold to the fire service. To our members, it’s one of the most valuable reasons they join our association. The detailed data is reserved exclusively for our members, but the FAMA board has allowed me to share the information contained in this article for the purposes of educating the fire service and assisting fire departments in making educated purchasing decisions. If you’re a fire equipment manufacturer and not currently a member of FAMA, I strongly encourage you to join.

Fire Apparatus Market

The market for new fire apparatus sold in the United States hit its high point in 2008 when a total of more than 5,000 new fire apparatus were sold in North America. Considering there are roughly 33,000 fire departments in the United States and another 4,000 in Canada, this was deemed to be right-sized.

As the recession hit in 2009, municipal budgets were among the worst hit. With fire departments reigning in the budgets and avoiding capital expenditures, the market for new fire apparatus sales hit a low in 2011-down more than 40 percent from its peak!

Since that time, the market has recently shown some signs of improvement as the economy recovered, but overall it has remained soft. New fire apparatus sales saw a slight recovery in 2013 as the market saw an increase in new fire apparatus sold in North America but fluttered in 2014 as new truck sales declined about five to 10 percent. This purchase history coincides almost identically with the recent improvements in municipal budgets. From data published by the National League of Cities Annual Report, we know that municipal budgets lag the overall economy by 18 to 24 months. This report has shown that municipal budgets hit their low in 2010 and have steadily improved during the past two years as their revenues continued to increase.

Fire Pump Size Changes

As a pump manufacturer, we pay particular attention to the pump sizes in fire apparatus. Today, the most common pump size in a pumper is a 1,500-gallon-per-minute (gpm) pump, with about half of all new apparatus having this size pump. This compares to only about a third of all apparatus having this size pump in 2011. The 1,500-gpm pump has grown in popularity over the years and seems to satisfy the needs of most city and rural fire departments. The second most popular size pump in 2014 was 1,250 gpm, representing about a quarter of all fire departments. The rivalry that existed 15 to 20 years ago between rural fire departments looking for a pump larger than their neighboring departments’, despite limited water supplies, seems to have subsided over the past five years. While there is certainly a place for pumps larger than 1,500 gpm in industrial and big city applications, these pump sizes have steadily decreased over the past 10 years as departments look to take advantage of the additional space on the vehicle to accommodate more equipment.

What’s Ahead?

2015 has been off to a strong start, with North American sales up almost 15 percent over 2014 levels. If this year plays out similar to the past couple of years with an increase in purchasing during the thi