Jim Peterson

We've all heard the tale that ends with "... and he ended up right under the truck!" Although these stories are good for a laugh, the reality is there is nothing amusing about a spill that incapacitates a member of the squad.

Indeed, there are multiple costs associated with slip-and-fall accidents, everything from emotional, to occupational, to financial. While many companies can tell you how much it costs to install a new flooring surface in the apparatus bay, I'm here to explain the cost of not installing a safe floor coating.

First, a little bit of background to illustrate why this issue is so important. Did you know that slip-and-fall accidents are:

• The second leading cause of death, injury, and disability in the workplace?
• The third leading cause of workers' compensation claims?
• The number one cause of workplace accidents?
• More likely to kill a worker than any other kind of accident?
• Responsible for 65 percent of lost work time?
• Responsible for more lawsuits against employers than any other type of accident?
• Responsible for more visits to the emergency room than all other accidents combined, with an average cost of $28,000?
• Responsible for more on-the-job deaths than any other accident?
• Responsible for an average of 17,000 deaths each year?

(Source: Andrew Kim Law Firm, PLLC)

Pay Now Or Later

When it comes to floor safety, the common adage is, "You can pay now or you can pay later." It is usually less expensive to take the steps required to prevent an accident than it is to pay for the cost of such things as workers' compensation, disability, medical, and possible legal fees and judgments.

"But Jim," you're probably thinking, "we're a tight-knit squad. We take care of our own. Nobody here is going to sue if they fall." Are you certain about that? Let's examine the case of a church parishioner in Boca Raton, Florida.

In 2009, Andrea Thompson, 34, slipped on the newly installed sidewalk outside of her church, severely injuring her knee. She had to undergo four surgeries, including a knee replacement, and doctors say she might require two future knee replacements. She may never regain full mobility. Thompson sued the Diocese of Palm Beach, which owns the church, and this past January a jury awarded her a total of $2.6 million.

You read that right: $2.6 million.

As reported by the Daily Business Review in Miami, Thompson was forced to leave her job and take a sedentary, lower-paying position. During the discovery phase of the trial, the jury learned that a subcontractor failed to apply a nonskid material on the new sidewalk that would have made it safer for pedestrians. The jury award included $600,000 for past and future medical costs, $87,000 for lost wages to date, and an additional $1.9 million for future lost wages and pain and suffering.

Soon after the accident, a contractor was seen applying a clear nonskid coating to the sidewalk-something that clearly should

By Alan M. Petrillo

Technology has allowed self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) makers to build a number of important elements into their face pieces that give firefighters instant ability to make decisions based on the data they receive.

Face pieces offer cross-contamination protection, have heads-up display (HUD) features that show the amount of pressure left in the air bottle, and incorporate elements such as breathing sensors and radio communication modules.

Protection, Comfort, Visibility

Jeff Emery, director of marketing and product management for Scott Safety, says that for Scott's face pieces the first goal is to provide firefighters with the highest level of protection possible. "That's mission number one for our face piece because respiratory protection is critical," Emery says. "There were significant changes to face pieces after [National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1981, Standard on Open-Circuit Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) for Emergency Services (2013 ed.)] was issued, where there was an increase in testing for high temperatures and radiant heat that meant new lenses made from advanced materials. The new lens materials gave our face piece a big improvement in survivability in a catastrophic event and also reduce the incidents of crazing and spider webbing at higher temperatures."

1 Scott Safety's AV3000HT face piece has an EPIC 3RI radio interface, shown here with a voice amplification unit on the right side, that uses a wireless Bluetooth connection to a lapel microphone, allowing it to connect to a variety of radios. (Photo courtesy of Scott Safety.)

Ben Mauti, fire service market manager for MSA North America, says MSA designed its G1 face piece from scratch by working with firefighters to incorporate their experiences with all types of face pieces. "Our first focus was the fit of our G1 face piece," Mauti points out. "Our medium face piece is designed to comfortably fit most firefighters and is ¾ of a pound lighter than our previous face piece. We removed the electronics and battery from the face piece, which makes it lighter and more comfortable to wear and has less physiological stress for the firefighter."

The next attribute of the G1 face piece is its "extremely wide field of view," Mauti says, "because there are no accessories attached to the face piece to block the firefighter's view." The G1 face piece provides cross contamination protection through an exhalation valve that prevents spit and sweat from getting into the regulator, he adds, and is made up of two parts. "There's one airflow path when the regulator is hooked up to the face piece and a secondary flow path, an open port design, to allow the firefighter to breath without exhalation resistance when in a standby mode."

The G1 face piece places a mechanical speech diaphragm in the breathing zone in front of a firefighter's mouth, with two microphones lining up with the open breathing port. "There is nothing in between the speech and the two microphones picking it up," Mauti says. "It's part of the regulator, so when you click it into the face piece, it's right there. The voice then gets broadcast off a speaker amplifier on the SCBA's

Carl J. Haddon

Although we are typically a public service arm that is steeped in history and tradition, one only needs to turn on the news to see how the world, our country, and what's happening in our response areas have changed.

From wicked extreme weather causing disaster situations on scales rarely seen before to a rise in the number of mass shootings, domestic terrorism, and predictions of cataclysmic western and midwestern earthquakes, it appears to me that the scope of our departments' needs assessments for budgeting and equipment purchasing should be changing or at least evolving to capture our "new normal."

Whether the jaw-dropping events we see and experience are results of natural or human-caused events, I believe that we now live in a world where what once seemed normal has at least changed-perhaps permanently. Many events that were considered anomalies we now see and experience on such a regular basis that it is our responsibility to add them when we conduct our needs assessments for equipment and apparatus purchases.

Changing Needs Assessments

Traditionally we change our needs assessments in a given response area based on new construction of residential and commercial development or redevelopment in our respective service areas. For example, areas adding high-rises where they've never been before trigger the need for aerials and other equipment related to high-rise firefighting.

Although we can't be everything to everyone, it is imperative that we lose the attitude or position of "that will never happen here." I have a feeling that if you talk to the folks in Oklahoma and Kansas, they no longer say that earthquakes won't ever happen there. Some areas in Washington State learned quickly that flash flooding, landslides, and hillside collapses are not anomalies any longer. I also have to believe that many of the areas that have experienced rioting, active shooters, and violent social unrest didn't think such incidents would ever happen in their part of the country.

In many regions, suggested additions may be as simple as adding a snow plow or winch to the front of a utility truck or a couple of water rescue rafts, additional personal flotation devices, and rescue rope. These can be used for a number of different rescue situations in addition to those for which they were originally designed.

Rescue Equipment

When considering equipment like heavy-duty extrication tools, take a broader look at their potential uses. Things like building collapses and other urban search and rescue responses would certainly benefit from the proper choice of rescue tools. Their use can go way beyond vehicle and machinery extrication or rescue.

Proactively broadening the scope of our needs assessments (budgets allowing) to consider some of what I mentioned above will go a long way toward keeping personnel safe while on duty and allowing for the best outcome at our responses. If budgets won't allow for additional equipment and apparatus, we can at least throw down for some additional training opportunities and programs for those disciplines that we "never thought we'd need to know or use."

Historical Perspective

At the risk of oversharing and dating myself, I'm reminded of my days in service in Southern California during the Rodney King and Reginald Denny incidents that resulted in the Los Angeles riots in April 1992. Our "needs assessments" changed on the spot.

By Chris Daly

In "Introduction to Braking Energy" (August 2015), I discussed how a vehicle is brought to a stop by converting its kinetic energy into heat.

The primary tools used to turn this energy into heat and bring the vehicle to a stop are the brakes. Ideally, when you purchase a fire truck, the engineers who built it will properly specify the correct amount of braking force needed based on the size and weight of the truck. As long as the truck stays within the weight parameters set by the engineers and you maintain a safe speed while driving, the brakes that were put on the truck will provide enough braking force to bring the truck to a safe stop. However, problems tend to arise after the rig is delivered and we decide to add more tools or hose than the vehicle was designed to carry. By exceeding the maximum gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) or by driving the vehicle too fast, fire departments are inviting disaster.

What Is It?

Fire apparatus operators must be aware of "brake fade." To understand brake fade, we must first have a basic understanding of how air brakes work. The following is a brief summary; it is not meant to be an in-depth discussion on air brake operations. See "Air Brakes and the Driver Operator" by Terry Eckert (Fire Engineering, March 1998) for an article on air brakes.

1. To apply the brakes, you press your foot down on the "foot valve," aka the "brake pedal."
2. Air travels from an air tank reservoir through the air lines into a brake chamber. Air presses against a rubber diaphragm in the chamber, which in turn pushes a plate and pushrod. The pushrod is pushed out, which pushes a slack adjuster, which turns a camshaft, which twists the S-Cam, which forces the brake linings to make contact with the drum.1
3. The amount of force these brake chambers can create depends on the size of the chamber and the air pressure being applied. The size of this brake chamber depends on the size and weight of your truck as well as which axle it is located on. They can come in sizes that range from nine to 12, 16, 20, 30, and 36 square inches and work along the same principles as a lifting air bag. Applying 100 pounds of air pressure to a size 20 brake chamber results in 2,000 pounds of force on the pushrod.
4. The distance the pushrod has to travel to properly apply the brakes is known as the "stroke." Properly adjusted brakes have enough stroke so that when the brakes are applied, the brake shoes are spread apart and come in full contact with the brake drum. The friction of the brake shoes rubbing against the brake drum creates the heat that "uses up" the vehicle's kinetic energy and brings it to a stop.

The problem arises when there is too much energy to convert into heat so the vehicle can come to a stop. The amount of energy created by a moving fire apparatus depends on how much it weighs and how fast it is going. If you are going too fast or the rig weighs too much, there may be more energy than the brakes are designed to "bleed off." This can result in brake fade.

In a brake fade situation, the excess heat created by the brake shoes rubbing against the brake drum causes the metal brake drum to expand. Each time the brake drum expands, the pushrod has to travel farther so the brake shoes can contact the drum. Eventually, the brake drum may expand to a point greater than the pushrod can travel. In other words, the drum gets too big and the brake shoes aren't able to come in contact with it properly. This results in a loss of braking efficiency and quite possibly the complete loss of braking ability