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  • December 2024

    • December 2024

    The December issue of Firehouse includes feature articles on fire instruction, outfitting your truck company, our 2024 product showcase, a report from Firehouse Labs and a special Cancer Awareness & Prevention supplement.
    Photo by Jake Hoffman
    Water-rescue operations in cold weather require additional steps to keep rescuers warm, such as undergarments and enough personnel to maintain adequate work/rest cycles. Extra EMS units should be requested to conduct rehab operations.
    Rescue

    Technical Rescue: Cold-Water Rescue—The First 15 Minutes

    Jake Hoffman
    Jan. 9, 2025
    Jake Hoffman explains the details behind the importance of PPE, SOPs, mutual aid and training at incidents that involve rescues from cold water.
    Photo by Glen E. Ellman
    A full-face respirator that has P100 filters or SCBA should be used by fire investigators when they enter the fire scene, particularly in areas that have visible soot or debris. This investigator should put on gloves if he is going to touch anything that’s contaminated.
    Safety & Health

    Protecting Fire Investigators from Carcinogens

    Jessica HIll
    Jan. 8, 2025
    Jessica Hill sheds light on numerous facets of fire investigation that likely escape many of the people who work on scene post-fire as far as their risk of exposure to carcinogens...
    2412fir_120_cancer_supplr_page_01
    Cancer Prevention

    Firehouse Supplement: Cancer Awareness & Prevention

    Jan. 7, 2025
    Firehouse is proud to partner with the First Responder Center for Excellence, which is a National Fallen Firefighters Foundation affiliate organization, to present the content...
    Curt Varone
    The Fair Labor Standards Act’s meaning of “regular rate” of pay, although precise, allows for exceptions for so-called wage augments.
    Careers & Education

    Fire Law: Overtime, Meal Per Diems and Expense Reimbursements

    Curt Varone
    Dec. 23, 2024
    Curt Varone provides guidance regarding a matter that likely perplexes many: the effect of member reimbursements on base rate of pay and overtime.
    Photo by Michael Ratcliffe
    Hamilton Township Fire Department firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke and fire throughout a 170-year-old former rubber factory that was made up of several interconnected buildings.
    Operations & Training

    Hot Shots 12/24

    Rich Dzierwa
    Dec. 20, 2024
    Hamilton Township Fire Department firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke and fire throughout a 170-year-old former rubber factory that was made up of several interconnected ...

    More content from December 2024

    Maggie Coen-Murphy
    The focus on the use of BWCs by EMS prehospital providers is on how video footage is stored and safeguarded.
    EMS

    EMS: Does HIPAA Permit Body-Worn Cameras?

    Maggie Coen-Murphy
    Dec. 20, 2024
    Maggie Coen-Murphy points out how benefits of EMS providers wearing body cameras conflict with HIPAA's mandate to protect individual's health information.
    Photo by Jamie Little
    Testing in Fairfax County, VA, provided valuable insights into best practices for preliminary exposure reductions. Using a contamination surrogate, the study determined optimal brush styles and usage timing for effective decon. Note the contamination that still is on the mask and neck area.
    Safety & Health

    Exposure Reduction for Aggressive Fire Departments

    Dec. 19, 2024
    Jamie Little firmly believes in maintaining an aggressive nature on the fireground. That doesn't mean that he believes that members must accept the risks that result from exposure...
    John J. Salka Jr
    The fact that one department differs from another as far as managing operations isn’t a concern. It’s mastery of every tactic, procedure and method that’s the vital element.
    Operations & Training

    The Fire Scene: There Is Not One Way

    John J. Salka Jr.
    Dec. 19, 2024
    John J. Salka Jr. has no issue with departments—and even chiefs within a department—having different approaches to managing operations compared with their counterparts. It's mastery...
    Photos courtesy of Ram Air Gear
    The TG-6H heated bunker gear dryer holds as many as 12 pieces of gear, 6 helmets and 18 accessories.
    Safety & Health

    Firehouse Labs: Ram Air Gear Dryer TG-6H

    Firehouse Staff
    Dec. 19, 2024
    The design of the TG-6H PPE dryer from Ram Air Gear combines impressive airflow volume and consistency, specifically engineered with firefighters’ needs in mind.
    Photos by Frank Leeb
    It can be challenging to reapply sunscreen regularly during a day of outdoor training, with so much going on and the least thing that’s thought about being sun protection. Wearing SPF clothing takes sunscreen out of the equation for the parts of the body that the clothing covers.
    Safety & Health

    SPF Clothing: Protect Your Skin On and Off the Fireground

    Frank Leeb
    Dec. 18, 2024
    Frank Leeb taps his inner tailor to provide everything that members must know about clothing that protects against the sun's harmful rays to minimize cancer risks.
    dec_24_product_showcase_header
    Technology

    2024 Product Showcase

    Rich Dzierwa
    Dec. 18, 2024
    Suppliers of products, software and other technology for the fire service display their latest offerings.
    Justin Bailey
    Alternative scheduling and alternative methods of delivery help volunteer fire departments to help their members increase and maintain their proficiency.
    Operations & Training

    Volunteer View: Training to Accommodate Time-Strapped Volunteers

    Justin Bailey
    Dec. 18, 2024
    Justin Bailey challenges fire chiefs and training officers of volunteer departments to explore alternative scheduling and alternative methods of providing training.
    Adobe Stock I ID 158382523
    Firefighters are 1.31 times more likely to develop brain cancer than the general population is. Complacency is members' worst enemy.
    Safety & Health

    Heads Up! Raising Awareness of Occupational Brain Cancer

    John Haseney
    Dec. 17, 2024
    John Haseney shares data from firefighter-focused brain cancer studies and symptoms that members who have brain cancer experience, all in effort to turn complacency into awareness...
    Photos by Tom W. Shand
    The Citizens Fire Company in Charlestown, WV, operates this well-equipped 2017 Spartan Smeal 105-foot, rear-mount aerial ladder that carries 202 feet of ground ladders on a 238-inch wheelbase. Note the floor mounted and adjustable slide trays that provide space for saws, portable lighting and forcible entry tools.
    Apparatus

    The Apparatus Architect: Outfitting Your Truck Company

    Tom Shand
    Dec. 17, 2024
    Tom Shand and Michael Wilbur explain why studying a department's history and the future needs of its response district are key to specifying a new rig's ladder complement.
    Lee Coker
    By doing the work that’s associated with running a station, firefighters are exposed to what might never have occurred to them.
    Leadership

    Leadership Lessons: Promotions—A Living-in-Basket Mindset

    Lee Coker
    Dec. 17, 2024
    Lee Coker explains a concept to better prepare firefighters for next-level responsibilities that springs from an exercise that's included in the promotional process.
    Photo by Courtney Hull
    Don’t assume that students or recruits come in with basic skills. Take time to learn where they are at and to ask them to show you what they know. Then teach them and give them opportunities to demonstrate understanding.
    Operations & Training

    Don’t Blame the Lettuce! Developing the Next Generation of First Responders

    Courtney Hull
    Dec. 16, 2024
    Courtney Hull reminds instructors, officers and senior members that they must not yield to the cliches that generically paint cadets, recruits and probies as substandard.
    Photo by Curt Isakson
    This command post, which was for a four-alarm wildland urban interface fire that involved numerous neighborhoods and damaged nearly two dozen houses, includes a mobile radio, portable radios, numerous cellphones with chargers, and a computer and an iPad with cellular service. The incident involved more than a half-dozen entities and was managed under the Unified Command model. Numerous company officers were assigned to the command post to help to facilitate communications through the use of five channels, numerous cellphones and a computer with CAD to allow the tracking of resources. One channel was assigned strictly for the command staff to communicate nonemergency information regarding coverage, logistics and future potential needs.
    Operations & Training

    Command & Control Success: Considerations on Fireground Communications

    Curt Isakson
    Dec. 12, 2024
    Curt Isakson digs into the details of fireground communication, best practices and the tools to optimize the effort.
    Brian Wilkinson
    Although well-intentioned, an open door policy inadvertently can undermine the very structure that it seeks to support, particularly when it becomes the default channel for every grievance, concern and suggestion.
    Leadership

    First Due: The Open Door Policy—A Double-Edged Sword

    Brian Wilkinson
    Dec. 11, 2024
    Brian Wilkinson supports firefighter access to the chief but warns of four issues that can arise that can affect the department negatively.
    Peter Matthews
    Three pieces of fire service news from around the globe serve as a reminder that, although policies might be up to speed, it always is beneficial to look for areas to improve.
    Operations & Training

    As Firehouse Sees It: International Headlines Could Have a Local Effect

    Peter Matthews
    Dec. 9, 2024
    Peter Matthews points out how three pieces of fire service news from around the globe serve as a reminder that, although policies might be up to speed, it always is beneficial...