Apr 10, 2013
The Scottish Crown has now decided to invoke criminal charges under their health and safety laws against the fire service. They are charged with breaching section two of the Health and Safety at Work Act, which states “it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees”.
A second charge pertains to failure to carry out risk assessments at work.
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Apr 10, 2013
The fire department is using social media as part of a new initiative to make appeals and provide arson awareness messages after incidents.
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Apr 10, 2013
There is an email going around suggesting that egg whites may be a miracle cure for burns. Urban Legends discounts this claim.
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Apr 4, 2013
After a five-year study, a leading research group has concluded that loud, blaring sirens on fire trucks are ineffective at getting cars to clear a path. In response to the study there is a new standard for apparatus sirens that replaces the familiar sirens with a soothing British aristocratic voice that nicely asks motorists to please move over.
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Apr 4, 2013
If you substitute “fire chief” for “business owner” and “organization” for “business” you will see this article is very relevant to the fire service.
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Apr 4, 2013
The city says it needs to save millions of dollars and one way is to put the firefighters onto a 24 hour shift. The union argues the move would represent a cut to their hourly pay and also consider the new schedule potentially unsafe, citing fatigue near the end of a 24-hour shift.
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Apr 4, 2013
Some fire departments have had GPS units in their vehicles for only about a month, and already there is an internal investigation of at least two fire battalion chiefs who were traveling in excess of 100 mph in city-issued SUVs. Firefighters are upset that tracking devices were installed without warning, with no policy in place and without an administrator to oversee what data are reported.
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/30/police-fire-unions-urge-gps-limits.html
Apr 4, 2013
While smoke detectors are key in alerting occupants of fire, they are also a reactive form of fire protection, and can only save those who are able to react. Fire sprinklers, on the other hand are proactive, providing firefighters the time they need to extinguish the fire and help avoid potential tragedies and severe structural damage.
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Apr 4, 2013
Some fire departments that employ business owner self-inspection programs have found that many were not as compliant as they said they were.
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Mar 27, 2013
FM Global Insurance has a grant program available to fire departments and other groups for funding in support of fire and arson prevention, pre-fire planning and education and training programs.
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