Wednesday, May 15, 2013 

How to cope with firefighter non-LODDs



Just because the firefighters did not die in the line of duty does not mean their fellow firefighters can cope with the loss without help

By Ronald J. Siarnicki



Recently my community of Kent Island, Md. suffered a tragic loss of four young men. These close friends, ages 18 and 19, went for a ride mid-day and were involved in a fatal motor vehicle accident.

There are no real answers as to how or why this occurred, but now my community is faced with addressing the aftermath.

In addition, the impact of this tragedy has affected my local fire service as one of these young men was a ... [ more ]

Wednesday, May 15, 2013  For firefighters, facing deadly situations is part of the job, but a study getting a fresh look in New Hampshire indicates that a major threat to firefighters' well-being is a higher risk of cancer.


After 18 years as a Salem firefighter, Capt. Steve McKenna is now facing another challenge. Doctors discovered Stage 3 cancer in his digestive tract in 2009.

"They took out part of my duodenum, part of my pancreas, part of my stomach," he said.

The cancer has since spread to his lungs and his liver, and McKenna said he's not sure how long his body can hold out.

"I don't know how you say it. It's just inevitable," McKenna said. "The outcome's not going to be any different months down the road here. Maybe a year, at best."

McKenna's illness is not unique among firefighters. A 2006 study garnering increased attention in New Hampshire shows firefighters are at increased risk for multiple cancers.

They'... [ more ]

Wednesday, May 15, 2013  Clarkston Fire Chief Steve Cooper said Monday a residential fire that caused multiple injuries over the weekend was not an incident that should’ve required mutual aid, but he is not opposed to getting agreements with neighboring agencies back on the table.

“By the time four of our firefighters were injured, we were a bit thin and could’ve used another half dozen of our volunteers,” Cooper said.


Fire crews from adjacent agencies, such as Asotin County Fire District No. 1 and the city of Lewiston, weren’t called for backup because it wasn’t a life-threatening incident, Cooper said. No mutual aid agreements with those agencies are in place.

Asotin County Fire Chief Noel Hardin said Monday his crews would have responded if the commanding officer called for backup.

“If they put out a call for help, we would have been there,” Hardin said.

Although no lives were threatened and the fire at 1040 McCarrol... [ more ]

Wednesday, May 15, 2013  We regret to advise you that a 59-year-old Tacoma Firefighter has died after suffering an apparent heart attack while working at an EMS scene.

Tacoma Firefighter Albert Nejmeh died in the Line of Duty last night at St. Joseph Medical Center.

The 12-year Fire Department veteran was given immediate basic and advanced life support by fellow firefighters after he collapsed Tuesday morning. They then took him to the hospital where he was pronounced. Our condolences to all affected.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013  A former Bainbridge resident identified as having allegedly stolen and then crashed a fire truck Friday has died.

Monday morning, the Ross County Sheriff’s Office identified Brentley S. Montgomery, 19, as the suspect in the incident involving the Harrison Township fire truck. By Monday evening, the Ohio Highway Patrol confirmed that Montgomery had died.

Montgomery had been at the Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University, where hospital officials had said he was in surgery Monday morning.

Patty Dennewitz, of Bainbridge, said she has known Montgomery since he was in third grade at Paint Valley. She was at Wexner during the weekend with her husband praying for Montgomery and had been told he was brain dead by Sunday evening and that there were plans to donate his organs. That organ donation plan could help explain the discrepancy between the fact that his obituary indicates he died at the hospital Saturday and that he was involved i... [ more ]

Sunday, May 12, 2013  It is with deep regrets to inform you that this afternoon, we lost a “Man for the Ages” with the passing of Jim “Lord Jim” Ellson, Sr. He lost his battle to cancer.  He gave more to his family, his fellow firefighters and to the many friends he made along the way than to his own personal self. Chief Jack Murphy provides us with just a brief histroy of Jim:
 
Jim’s stellar fire service career began in 1960, where as a Probie he responded to his first of many numerous major incidents, when two planes collided over the city (12/16/60) with one plane crashing in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn and the other coming down in Staten Island. Within 3 days after this mid-air collision, he was battling the famous major fire on the USS Constellation aircraft carrier that killed 50 workers.  The ship was under construction in the Brooklyn Naval Yard.  
 
Some Fire & OEM Career Highlights... [ more ]

Sunday, May 12, 2013  A Houston firefighter is in the hospital after the fire truck he was in was hit by a suspected drunk driver last night in northwest Houston.


Police say the fire truck had its emergency lights on while responding to a call on the Northwest Freeway at 34th around 10:30pm.

That's when a truck slammed into the fire truck, injuring one of the firefighters. He was taken to the hospital but is expected to be OK.

The driver of the truck was taken into custody.

Saturday, May 11, 2013  Now that Firefighter Gene Kirchner has been laid to rest, we must get to the task of determining the circumstances surrounding his death.   Gene’s death is the second firefighter, line-of-duty death in Baltimore County in the past 2-1/2 years.  On January 19, 2011, FF Mark Falkenhan of the Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company died in the line-of-duty at a fire in Towson.

The most amazing, and tragic aspect of these firefighters’ deaths is that they were both doing the same thing – searching for victims trapped in a dwelling fire.  Statitics show that in the U.S., few fire department line-of-duty deaths occur as a result of firefighters becoming trapped in a burning structure.  Most line-of-duty deaths are the result of a heart attacks or other serious medical conditions. 

With the knowledge that two firefighters from the same jurisdiction have died within 2-1/2 years of each other while engaged in the same tacti... [ more ]

Saturday, May 11, 2013  STORY COURTESY OF OUR PARTNERS AT www.NORTHEASTBRAVEST.com


On arrival the first due engine had heavy fire blowing out of the 2nd floor of a 2.5-story duplex.
Attack lines went to work on the 2nd floor with heavy fire extending into the attic. Two minutes into the video a Easton Firefighter fell off the main roof onto onto a 2nd roof after missing the ladder rungs. The firefighter appeared to be uninjured and continued to work. Firefighters were eventually forced to evacuate the building due to conditions quickly deteriorating a loss of water pressure and dead hydrants. Companies used all hands with multiple large lines, ladder pipes and ground monitors.

Companies On-Scene: Easton Fire/EMS, Wilson Boro Fire, City of Bethlehem Fire.
Cover Assignments: Palmer Municipal Fire,West Easton Fire

http://www.northeastbravest.com/2013/05/city-of-easton-house-fire.html

Saturday, May 11, 2013  McLean County State's Attorney Jason Chambers said the truck driver that allegedly fatally struck a Hudson firefighter in March has been indicted on reckless homicide.

Thirty-nine year-old Chris Brown was killed in March while working with the Hudson Fire Department at the scene of a weather-related accident on Interstate 39 when a semitrailer hauling cars hit several of the emergency responder's vehicles. Five other firefighters were injured.

Mansur Shakirov, 28 of Spokane, Wash. was originally charged with driving too fast for conditions and violating Scott's Law, but those were dropped in April as the office was waiting for the State Police accident report. Chambers said that came back this month and a grand jury indicted Shakirov Wednesday.

"We had some eyewitness accounts originally, but we can't press charges until we have a final investigation," Chambers said. "We had to do due diligence to evaluate that before we could make... [ more ]

Saturday, May 11, 2013  A volunteer fire department in rural Ross County is minus a fire truck after an early-morning joy ride ended in a crash that destroyed the tanker truck and critically injured the suspected thief.

A man broke into the Harrison Township fire station, jumped aboard a 2003 Kenworth tanker truck and took off down Charleston Pike east of Chillicothe with the lights flashing and the siren wailing, authorities said.

The thief didn’t get far. The westbound fire truck ran off the road about 12:08 a.m., hit a guardrail and overturned, throwing the man from the vehicle, according to the Chillicothe post of the State Highway Patrol.

The man did not have any identification in his possession and has not yet been identified, said Lt. J.M. Moore, commander of the Chillicothe post.

The man was flown to Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State University in Columbus, where he remained unconscious and in critical condition this morning, Moore said.

The Ross Cou... [ more ]

Saturday, May 11, 2013  Detroit’s fire commissioner said Wednesday that he will continue to crack down on internal drug abuse after a recent audit found the Fire Department failed to follow its substance abuse policy.Four employees who tested positive for cocaine or high blood-alcohol levels — but faced no disciplinary actions — were among a handful of incidents described in an auditor general’s report presented to a City Council committee Wednesday.

“If there is one member on the department that uses any of these illegal substances, that’s too many,” Fire Commissioner Donald Austin told the council’s Budget, Finance and Audit Committee. “The problem I have, it’s a cultural thing here of acceptance through pressure.”

The report also found that 21 on-duty Fire Department workers tested positive after a urine drug screening and seven tested positive after a breath alcohol test between January 2008 and September 2011. Those with a positive test inc... [ more ]

Friday, May 10, 2013  The first stop for burned firefighter Jahwann McIntyre after his release from a Miami hospital Friday — was his fire station in Stuart.

One of his conversations at Martin County Fire Station 23 was with firefighter Garrett Smith, who pulled him out of the fire.

“It felt really good to see him,” McIntyre said, after leaving the fire station. Conversations at the station had been private.

McIntyre said he plans to return to the job.

“Once you’re a firefighter, you’re always a firefighter. I have to work hard to getting back to 100 percent.”

McIntyre had been a patient at the University Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital burn center since being flown in Dec. 27 with severe burns to more than 50 percent of his body.

From the station, he went to his family’s home, where he was met with blue, black and white balloons and group of neighbors, family and friends. Blue and black are the colors of ... [ more ]

Friday, May 10, 2013  THE ambulance service has warned it will not tolerate abuse against its staff after a paramedic was subjected to a hate-filled verbal assault.



Paramedic Joe Hunter, who works for South Central Ambulance (Scas), was called homophobic names while answering a call to help a drunk woman.

During the incident the woman spouted abuse and even tried to punch the medic who had come to help her.

The tirade came in February this year after the paramedic was called to George Street, Buckland, Portsmouth.

The 22-year-old said: ‘We were called to an unconscious female off New Road, Portsmouth, and found her to be under the influence of alcohol.

‘She requested a lift home before becoming verbally abusive.

‘She shouted abuse, asked if the ambulance service knew we were gay and made abusive comments about homosexuals.

‘She even tried to punch me. When she did that we called the police.

‘It�... [ more ]