Largo Fire Rescue is celebrating more than one achievement. According to a baynews9.com article, a new station has opened and a new chief has been appointed. Station 39, located on Jackson Street, includes cancer prevention measures and new sleeping arrangements.

Lt. Jorge Olivera shares that a lot of carcinogens get on firefighting gear, so having a bunker gear room with specialized equipment to remove contaminants is a game changer.

In addition, the new station has individual rooms and alert systems, meaning that call tones will not go off in every room. This will assist in regulating sleep patterns for staff on call.

Station 39 is also welcoming Matt Carpenter as the new chief. Oliveria shares that Carpenter has been with the department for seven years. The department is excited for Carpenter’s leadership in this new station.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the station will be held the week of August 18.

The post Largo (FL) Opens New Fire Station, Welcomes New Chief appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

The city of Albany, Georgia, made a large investment in life-saving gear for the Albany Fire Department (AFD) by purchasing HURST equipment, known as the “Jaws of Life.”

According to a walb.com article, the tools are important because they assist first responders in getting car crash victims out of crushed vehicles.

Assistant Fire Chief Marcus Glass shares that being able to have a high level of response for local citizens is important to the AFD. These tools will not only increase response time but will increase patient care.

According to Glass, the department was able to replace the old HURST equipment that had begun to show signs of wear and tear.

Although AFD hopes to rarely use this equipment, having it ready to go could be a key factor in saving lives.

The post Albany (GA) FD Receives New Life-Saving Equipment appeared first on Fire Apparatus: Fire trucks, fire engines, emergency vehicles, and firefighting equipment.

Roberta Burkhart
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
(TNS)

Aug. 18—It sounds simple: remove harmful chemicals from firefighting foam to both keep public water supplies pure and protect the health of firefighters.

But finding an effective substitute, figuring out how to pay for it and retraining firefighters adds several layers of complexity to a bill currently moving through the state Legislature, says Brian Kokkila, assistant chief for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire.

The bill in question aims to prohibit “the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of firefighting foam that contains toxic PFAS chemicals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl manmade substances that have been linked to a wide range of serious health issues, including cancer,” per a press release issued by Rep. Brian Munroe, D-Bucks.

Munroe, a former firefighter, was the prime sponsor of House Bill 1261, which passed by unanimous vote on July 1.

Removing PFAS chemicals is essential to stop these chemicals from leeching into the ground and water supplies to prevent other areas to become as contaminated as his home district, he told the Post-Gazette on Friday.

Munroe represents a region heavily affected by PFAS contamination because of its heavy use at former and active military bases in his legislative district, notably the former Naval Air Warfare Center Warminster and nearby Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Willow Grove.

But for Mr. Kokkila, there are two main worries on his mind as the bill moves to the state Senate for consideration: whether the new foam will work as well as the PFAS-containing varieties and how fire departments will pay for it.

PFAS-containing foams were used for a reason: they were really great at extinguishing liquid fuel-based fires, he said.

Firefighters rely on Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF), which contains PFAS, to suppress and extinguish flammable liquid blazes — known as Class B fires, such as those fueled by petroleum products, per the U.S. Fire Administration.

The foam works by creating bubbles, which do a couple of things: “They seal off the surface layer of flammable liquids to kind of trap the off-gassing or the flammable vapors that are actually burning. So we’re able to seal them off and encapsulate them,” Mr. Kokkila said.

The bubbles also create a cooling effect, which assists in extinguishing fuel fires.

The reason PFAS foams have been “so, so effective is that the PFAS helps the bubbles maintain their strength when they’re being applied. So it helps resist breaking of the bubbles. It helps them resist the impacts of friction and motion. And, you know, just does a really great job.”

PFAS have been shown to cause various harmful health effects in humans and animals and have been found in water, air, fish and soil across the world, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA estimates that there are thousands of PFAS chemicals found in a variety of consumer, commercial and industrial products.

Mr. Kokkila said, in his experience, the foams without PFAS don’t work as well.

The bubbles break down faster, requiring more foam to achieve the same effect, he said. He estimated that using the new foams could double the volume of product needed — which could potentially double the price tag of fighting a liquid fuel fire.

As a hypothetical example, if a gasoline tanker truck flipped over within city borders and ignited, he estimated that firefighters would need about two 330-gallon totes of the PFAS-containing foam to fight the ensuing fire. Each tote costs about $15,000.

If the replacement foam works half as well — which is what he says he’s witnessed thus far — the amount of foam doubles as well as the

Kurt Bresswein – The Express-Times

Allentown with its fire department and firefighters union this past week partnered with a health-care testing company for a cancer screening.

Awareness is on the rise surrounding cancer as an occupational risk for firefighters. The National Fire Protection Association says federal studies show firefighters face a 9% increase in cancer diagnoses and 14% increase in cancer-related deaths, compared to the general U.S. population.

The Allentown Fire Department in June 2023 lost retired Assistant Fire Chief Christopher Kiskeravage following a battle with cancer that his colleagues say was linked to his job. He was 56. A year ago in July, retired city Fire Marshal Jeff Tomczak died after fighting the disease for 15 months, at age 44. The union considers both line-of-duty deaths.

“For us it’s a very important thing,” said Lt. Jeffrey Warmkessel, president of the IAFF Local 302 Allentown firefighters union. “So anything we do for early detection or prevention is just a natural progression of steps that we want to take.”

The city included the screening test offered this past week, called EsoGuard, as a covered benefit under the department’s medical insurance plan, according to Warmkessel.

A team from New York City-based Lucid Diagnostics set up in an office of the city’s Mack Southside Fire Station and Training Academy, 1902 Lehigh St., to conduct the screening Tuesday through Thursday. Allentown heard of Lucid through union conventions and other events, Warmkessel said.

As the tests were wrapping up Thursday afternoon, 117 firefighters had participated with two more appointments to go.

EsoGuard specifically tests for Barrett’s esophagus, a risk factor for a form of esophageal cancer.

“Firefighters are 62% more likely than the average person to develop esophageal cancer and 39% more likely to die from esophageal cancer compared to the average population,” said Kelley Skantz, a registered nurse and clinical specialist with Lucid. “So we’ve been targeting them and going to different fire departments across the country to help them get access to the screening because we’re looking for the pre-cancer to esophageal cancer.”

The test involves swallowing a vitamin-sized capsule that inflates inside the esophagus and swabs for cells. It’s then deflated and pulled out, with the cells sent for testing at Lucid’s laboratory in Lake Forest, California. Results available in two to three weeks are then shared with the patient by a physician working with the company.

While considered rare, making up about 1% of cancer cases in the U.S., esophageal cancer has an overall five-year survival rate of about 20%, according to the National Cancer Institute. The survival rate rises the earlier it’s caught.

The link between firefighters and cancer is the focus of studies that include a National Firefighter Registry for Cancer, the largest effort ever under