For the Record 9/22

2023 Health and Safety Conference

Registration is open for the 2023 Fire Department Safety Officers Association’s Health and Safety Conference. It will be held Jan. 17–20, 2023, in conjunction with the First Responder Center for Excellence Health and Wellness Symposium in St. Petersburg, FL. Pre-conference programs will be held Jan. 15–16. They include two-day Health and Safety Officer and Incident Safety Officer academies and a Response to Battery Emergencies program. General session speakers include U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell and Dr. Richard Gasaway, who is the founder of Situational Awareness Matters! training. Conference session speakers include Firehouse Magazine contributors Paul Erickson, Sara Jahnke, Frank Leeb and Aaron Zamzow.

For more information, go to fdsoa.org.

Flashover Prediction

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and other institutions developed a Flashover Prediction Neural Network, or FlashNet, model to forecast flashovers seconds before they occur. In “A spatial temporal graph neural network model for predicting flashover in arbitrary building floorplans,” which was published in “Engineering Applications for Artificial Intelligence,” the paper’s authors wrote that the model boasted an accuracy of as much as 92.1 percent across more than a dozen common residential floorplans in the United States.

To cope with the variability of fires, the researchers incorporated a kind of machine learning algorithm that’s good at making judgements based on graphs of nodes and lines. Researchers digitally simulated 41,000 fires in 17 kinds of buildings. In addition to layout, origin of the fire, types of furniture, and whether doors and windows were open or closed were among variables.

What stands between the research and real-life used? “We actually need to build and burn our own structures and include some real sensors in them,” one of the co-authors said.

For more information, go to nist.gov/news.

Online FSRI Cancer Risk Reduction Course

“Comprehensive Cancer Risk Reduction Strategies for the Fire Service” is an online course UL’s Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) co-developed to help fire departments better understand sources of contamination and methods of control in the fire service to take action and reduce risks. The course supplements “Hierarchy of Contamination Controls in the Fire Service,” a peer-reviewed article that August 2022 Firehouse Magazine “Research Corner” columnist Gavin Horn co-authored with members of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Illinois Fire Service Institute and FSRI Executive Director Steve Kerber. The article was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

The article can be found at tinyurl.com/hierarchyarticle. The online course can be found at tinyurl.com/fsricourse.

Next-Gen WUI Alerting Technology

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) concluded a proof-of-concept demonstration of its Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) integration model. It integrates next-generation technologies with FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), to enable alerting authorities to disseminate wireless emergency alerts with new capabilities, including displaying hazard and evacuation alert information on the “infotainment” screens in automobiles. Integrating IPAWS with new technologies, such as GPS navigation apps, could enable critical information, such as evacuation routes and safety zones, to be communicated to the public in near-real-time in their vehicle’s entertainment and navigation systems, the S&T says.

For more information, visit scitech.dhs.gov.

Siarnicki Is 2022 Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year

The American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA) named National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Executive Director Ron Siarnicki the Fire Sprinkler Advocate of the Year Award winner for 2022.

“If we can ensure everyone gets out of the structure by the time firefighters arrive through working smoke and CO2 alarms and fire sprinklers, firefighters can do what they must do in a safer environment,” Siarnicki says. “Property can be replaced. Lives cannot. Having the prevention pieces improves the safety of the public and the fire service community.”

AFSA created the award to honor individuals who aren’t directly involved in the fire sprinkler industry whose efforts significantly advanced the fire protection industry and automatic fire sprinklers.

8 U.S. firefighters died in the line of duty. Three died in a helicopter crash during wildfire operations, two died of a health-related incident, one died during wildfire operations, one died after suffering a medical emergency at a training exercise and one died from injuries that he sustained when his apparatus was struck by a motor vehicle en route to a fire. This issue of Firehouse is dedicated to these firefighters.

Pilot Douglas Ritchie, 56, died on June 26. Ritchie was under contract to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources when his helicopter crashed after takeoff. He was operating in support of firefighting efforts at the Clear Fire.

Pilots Jared Bird, 36, and Thomas Hayes, 41, died on July 21. Both men were under contract to fight the Moose Fire in Idaho when their helicopter crashed into the Salmon River. Both men were transported to the hospital, but they died from their injuries shortly after arrival at the medical center.

Firefighter Cadet Bryant McGowan, 31, of Huntsville, AL, Fire & Rescue, died on July 28. McGowan was at a training exercise when he suffered a medical emergency and collapsed. He immediately was taken to Huntsville Hospital, where he died a short time later. No results of an investigation into McGowan’s death were announced at press time.

Firefighter Riley Hurias, 20, of the Grand Rapids, WI, Volunteer Fire Department died on Aug. 3. Hurias responded to a working fire as well as to a motor vehicle crash on the evening of July 30. In the early morning hours of July 31, he suffered a brain aneurysm. He subsequently was transported to the hospital, where he died three days later. Hurias also was a member of the Grand Rapids Auxiliary Police Department.

Wildland Firefighter Collin Hagan, 27, of Toivola, MI, who was assigned to the Craig Interagency Hotshot Crew, died on Aug. 10. Hagan was fighting the Big Swamp Fire near Oakridge, OR, when he was struck by a falling tree. EMS personnel who were assigned to the fire attended to him, but he died from the injuries that he sustained in the incident.

Driver David Pleasant, 59, of the Memphis, TN, Fire Department, died on Aug. 10. Pleasant was among four firefighters in the apparatus that he was driving in response to a residential fire when the rig was struck by a pickup that apparently ran a red light. The four firefighters were transported to Regional One Health’s Elvis Presley Trauma Center. Although the other three firefighters were treated and released, Pleasant died from the injuries that he sustained in the crash.

Capt. Michael Fischer (Ret.), 38, of the Island Park Fire Department on Long Island, NY, died on Aug. 14. Fischer participated in a morning training event and then rode on an engine company to where firefighters were holding a fundraiser. Before the event started, he suffered an apparent heart attack. He was pronounced dead on scene.