Fire
MIKE COFFEY | 04/26/2010

I come again to you, the respected readers of this blessed periodical, in hopes to attempt to open eyes and expose those of you looking for “new” ways to train. We’ve all heard the term “Back to Basics” for a while now, and to be honest, I’m tired of it.

By Michael Smith and Chad Guillot | 04/26/2010

(This is part three of a three part series on telemedicine.)

FIRE
Dave Murphy | 07/25/2010

Do you remember the Whiners on Saturday Night Live?  The Whiners were recurring characters on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1984. Joe Piscopo playing Doug Whiner, and Robin Duke playing Wendy Whiner, spoke all their lines in a whining, nasal tone, hence, a double meaning of their name. They struggled with the everyday rigors of life and constantly whined about everything.

Rescue
DAVID GREENE | 04/26/2010

Despite all of the other things with which we are tasked, fire is still our middle name. We spend the bulk of our time doing down time stuff — check and clean trucks, train, and prepare for calls — more than we spend time actually operating on calls. Take nothing away from this. Our monotonous tasks that are labeled as routine and boring are very important.

Imagine your favorite football team playing your biggest rival without ever practicing plays or checking to see if their helmets and pads fit properly. Such an occurrence may result in an outcome similar to the football game in 1916 during which the Cumberland, Tennessee Bulldogs were beaten unmercifully by the then called “Engineers” from Georgia Tech. The final score of that game was 222 to zero. That is not a typo. 

Fire
SANDY WILBORN | 04/26/2010

Monty Hall used to say, “Let’s see what’s behind door number one.” Or, “I will trade what you have for what is behind door number two,” and so on.

Fire
DAVE MURPHY | 01/11/2010

Our essential mission and number one priority is to deliver the best possible service to our customers —or is it?

Do we only show up when someone calls 911? If this is the case, I maintain you are not providing the best possible service to your customer, the citizens that pay your salary, or provide the necessary resources for you to operate.

Communications
Lorraine Murphy | 10/18/2009

As firefighters battled flames inside the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001 they were faced with an even larger obstacle. Fire rescue personnel, lacking communications equipment compatible with that used by other responders at the scene, including members of the New York Police Department, were unable to receive warnings of the buildings’ inevitable collapse.

EMS
BRADLEY DEAN | 10/18/2009

Through the development of technology, pulse oximetry has become a standard vital sign for prehospital providers. Why then do we not pay attention to the data and studies and avoid the use of them on the fire scene or in the monitoring and treatment of burn and smoke inhalation patients?

EMS
| 04/26/2010

The EMS Administration and Medical Disaster Management Program at the University of North Carolina is accepting applications for the inaugural EMS Administration and Medical Disaster Management certificate program at the University of North Carolina, School of Medicine. This will be a 110 hour continuing education program taught in a cohort fashion to begin in Asheville for a 16 hour session in July. The following four sessions (in order) are taught in Greensboro/October, Chapel Hill/November, Wilmington/February 2011 and returns to Chapel Hill to finish in April 2011.

HAZMAT —NCAHMR
Glenn Clapp | 04/26/2010

Hazmat personnel are regularly faced with the question of where do we — hazmat teams and related personnel — fit in within the overall scheme of things in the incident command system (ICS)? Some folks, my wife included, will oftentimes state that we hazmat types don’t ever “fit in” in a given situation. All kidding aside, the ICS template mandated by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) serves as a clear roadmap to our success as hazardous materials responders in relation to the “big picture” of incident or event management.