Archive for February, 2019

Fatal fire in Aurora, 2/27/19

Excerpts from abc7chicago.com:

Firefighters responded to a fire in a four-unit townhouse in the 1800-block of Carnation Court on the city’s west side around 1:57 p.m. where a 4-year-old girl died and two other people were injured in a fire Wednesday afternoon in Aurora.

A 25-year-old woman and a 5-month-old girl were being treated at Loyola University Medical Center for smoke inhalation and burns.

 

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Waukegan Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

The City of Waukegan and the Waukegan International Association of Firefighters Local 473 are in the midst of negotiating a replacement to a three-year contract that expired in April 2018. Part of the negotiations are over whether two of the five stations should always have five people assigned instead of at least three. The department’s Belvidere Road headquarters is manned by nine, while the other two outlying stations each have five.

The union’s advocacy for higher staffing levels is backed by an analysis of three years’ worth of data commissioned by the union, which found the lower staffing levels led to higher response times and higher demands on firefighters.

The implication that the city’s current staffing approach could lead to people dying or being injured led the mayor to ask the city’s lead negotiator to speak during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. The move comes about two weeks after two aldermen said they want to see the city increase how many firefighters are assigned to fire stations in their wards.

Currently the two stations being discussed — Station 2, off McGaw Road near O’Plaine Road and Station 5, off North Green Bay Road near West York House Road — house an ambulance and engine but sometimes only three crew members, enough to operate either unit, but not both.

That means when a call comes in for that station’s area, the crew will take the equipment applicable to the call and go, but if a second call comes in, instead of that same station responding, another station, either in Waukegan or another nearby town, will take the call.

Fire Chief George Bridges added the department shares the conviction that these follow-up incidents should be planned for and that sufficient redundancies should exist to make sure emergency services can be delivered in a timely manner. The fire department has also been supplementing the three employees at those stations with another two through overtime when possible and as long as the department can afford it, Bridges said.

To staff those stations at those levels consistently, the city would need to have 29 firefighters working each shift, up from 25. That could cost as much as $1.8 million for 12 new employees over three shifts. The real cost doesn’t have to be anywhere near the $1.8 million figure, according to the union, who has quoted a figure closer to $300,000.

The city currently budgets for 84 firefighters, and if all those positions were filled, that would work out to 28 firefighters per shift. That is one person shy of the 29 threshold. An increase in the overtime budget would cover the times when firefighters are off because they’re sick, on vacation or receiving training.

thanks Ron

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Excerpts from chicagoinfrastructure.org:

The Chicago Infrastructure Trust (CIT), in coordination with the City of Chicago and the Department of Fleet and Facility Management (2FM), is pleased to lead the Chicago Joint Public Safety Training Academy (JPSTA) Project procurement. Intended to consolidate and replace various Chicago Police Department and fire department training facilities to a new centralized campus, designed to provide all of Chicago’s first responders police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel with modern facilities for learning and practicing the latest techniques in emergency response. The multi-stage CIT procurement is structured to identify highly qualified Design-Build teams with the requisite experience, capacity, and capabilities to work with the city to design and ultimately deliver the comprehensive training academy campus at 4301 W. Chicago Avenue.

The JPSTA Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued on October 11, 2017. Statement of Qualifications (SOQ) in response to the RFQ were received on November 20, 2017 (click here for list of respondents). On December 21, 2017 five RFQ Respondents were selected as eligible to respond to the JPSTA Request for Proposals (RFP). A list of the five JPSTA Shortlisted Respondents can be found here.

The JPSTA RFP was issued on May 31, 2018, soliciting proposals from five pre-qualified JPSTA Shortlisted Respondents. The JPSTA RFP is comprised of three volumes, which can be accessed through the links below and the documents tab of this webpage:

Volume I: Instructions to Respondents
Volume II: Contract Template
Volume III: JPSTA Reference Documents

thanks Dennis

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New engine for Bloomingdale FPD

engineering drawing of a new fire engine for the Bloomingdale FPD to be built by Sutphen Fire Apparatus

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Cancer in the fire service

Excerpts from usfa.fema.gov:

Routine firefighting can expose firefighters to substantial cancer risk. A study in 2015 estimated that firefighters have a 14 percent increased lifetime cancer risk compared to the general public.

The decon challenge

Protective gear — pants, jackets, boots, gloves, facemasks, helmets and hoods — gets contaminated from emergency vehicle diesel exhaust and from toxic smoke arising from fire incidents. Exposure can occur from the off-gassing of toxins while removing gear post-fire or absorption through the skin from contact with dirty gear.

Using cleansing wipes on skin and field decontamination of dirty gear can significantly reduce these toxic exposures, but researchers have found that firefighters often don’t perform systematic decontamination procedures. The reasons for this vary but often relate to group norms, attitudes and perceived barriers.

The researchers’ hypothesis

Firefighters work in what researchers call high-reliability organizations, where the environment is high-risk and the organizational culture places emphasis on peer-support, teamwork and expertise. Group norms exert a very strong influence in that setting.

If firefighters believe that post-fire decontamination is effective, if they perceive their group of peers recognize the value of it, and if they can overcome any time or resource barriers to performing decontamination, then the researchers would expect to see an increase in post-fire decontamination behaviors.

The intervention

The program to increase decontamination behaviors relied on face-to-face presentations delivered by a member of the research team to audiences of 12-18 firefighters at a time. They presented it to 226 firefighters in the Palm Beach County and Boynton Beach Fire Departments (Florida).

The program had these parts:

  • An overview of firefighter cancer risk (PowerPoint presentation, 5-7 minutes).
  • Role of firefighter culture in addressing cancer risk. The messages were designed to show changing norms and culture, for example “clean gear as a badge of honor” (PowerPoint presentation, 7-8 minutes).
  • Overcoming logistical barriers to decontamination. (PowerPoint presentation, 5-7 minutes).
  • Overview of specially designed campaign materials available for use around fire stations. The messages promoted the seven steps to decontamination and the new norm of clean gear. (5 minutes)
  • Videos showing the spread of toxins from bunker gear using invisible dye and highly respected firefighters talking about culture change and the decontamination process.

Intervention takeaways

  • Researchers measured a significant increase in firefighters’ intention to clean their gear following the presentation.
  • Firefighter attitudes, perceived norms, and self-efficacy in overcoming barriers all showed substantial increases towards gear cleaning.
  • A key element of the intervention was featuring highly respected firefighters delivering the principal messages and demonstrating the desired decontamination procedures. Peer influence in high reliability organizations like the fire service cannot be underestimated.
  • The high occupational demands of the firefighters, who often were running 20 to 30 calls each day, made the reduction of barriers to decontamination behavior a key component in the intervention.

Key takeaway

An intervention that succeeds in increasing firefighters’ intention to perform post-fire decontamination procedures should result in decreased exposure to carcinogens and consequently a decrease in cancer risk from those exposures.

For more information on this study

  • YouTube: Clean Gear as the New Badge of Honor. This video (25:25) demonstrates one approach to field decontamination. It gives firefighters many of the tools and knowledge they need to engage in field decontamination, as well as helping shift norms and attitudes toward clean gear.
  • Firefighter Cancer Initiative Education Campaign. This site has the materials mentioned above and additional materials including posters used in the campaign, bumper stickers, standard operating guidelines implemented at fire departments in Florida, manuscripts, and additional videos developed by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. (This site requires you to create an account but allows for download and non-commercial use of material.)

1Harrison, T.R., Yang, F., Morgan, S.E., Wendorf Muhamad, J., Talavera, E., Eaton, S., Niemczyk, N., Sheppard, V., Kobetz, E. (2018). The invisible danger of transferring toxins with bunker gear: a theory-based intervention to increase postfire decontamination to reduce cancer risk in firefighters. Journal of Health Communication, published online, 1-9. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2018.1535633

 

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Aurora Fire Department news

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

An Aurora City Council committee Tuesday recommended moving ahead with buying bulletproof vests for firefighters who are part of special tactical units, less than two weeks after they were involved at the scene of a mass shooting.

The move comes less than two weeks after firefighters moved into the Henry Pratt Co. building with police to confront an active shooter who had killed five Pratt workers and was shooting at the first responders police officers and firefighters. As it happens, plans were already underway for purchase of the vests, but those plans did not materialize in time for the Feb. 15 incident.

The firefighters involved were part of a police and fire tactical unit during the incident. It was the first time the city had used the combined units. The idea is that paramedics are on the scene to quickly help with injuries during an incident, such as the mass shooting at Pratt.

Aldermen voted to recommend spending $86,349 to buy 60 bulletproof vests, as well as helmets, accessories, goggles and medical supplies.  At one time earlier in 2018, fire officials applied for a grant for the purchase.

Originally, officials planned to spend $70,000 on the purchase, but had upped that in the budget to $110,000, so the final price was about $30,000 under the budgeted amount.

The City Council Committee of the Whole will consider the purchase next week, and move it to the full council to discuss on March 12.

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New engine for Lake Forest

engineering drawing of a new fire engine for the Lake Forest Fire Department to be built by Marion Body Works

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Chicago Fire Department news (more)

Rendering of new Chicago Fire Station

Rendering of what will be the city’s second largest fire station in West Pullman (DLR Group)

Excerpts from chicagoconstructionnews.com:

The city is preparing to build its second largest fire station for $30 million in the West Pullman Neighborhood. The structure at 11900 S. Morgan Dr. for Engine Company 115 has been designed by DLR Groupand will be developed by the Public Building Commission.

The new building will be the second-largest fire station in the city, housing a Chicago Fire Department (CFD) District Office, an Office of Emergency Management, and Communications (OEMC) radio communication tower, and three ambulances.

The new 25,000 sq. ft. single-story fire station will include an indoor physical training space, full-size living quarters, and a workout facility for approximately 20 firefighters/EMTs/paramedics and eight officers. The facility will also feature a state-of-the-art emergency communication hub, watchtower, open office spaces, and a 4-bay apparatus room with a hose drying tower.

The city plans to build the fire station on vacant land at 119th Street and Morgan Street, replacing the existing Engine Company 115 located at 11940 South Peoria St. The anticipated opening is summer 2020.

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Arlington Heights Fire Department news (more)

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Andrew Larson, a 23-year veteran of the Arlington Heights Fire Department, has been named its new chief. Larson, 46, who had been acting chief since the retirement of Ken Koeppen in November, took on the job formally Feb. 19 at a salary of $153,423. He will manage a $23 million budget, four fire houses and 108 employees.

A resident of Sycamore, Larson said his dedication to public service was instilled in him at a young age.

“I was raised in a family of public servants. It wasn’t really a discussion,” said Larson, who grew up in DeKalb County with grandmothers who were nurses, aunts and uncles who were school teachers, and a brother who was a lieutenant with the DeKalb Fire Department. “Right out of high school, I joined the Sandwich Volunteer Fire Department and fed my passion for this.”

Larson went on to earn an associate’s degree in fire science and was a paid on-call firefighter for the City of St. Charles until he was hired by Wheeling as a firefighter in 1996. He left a year later to join the Arlington Heights Fire Department where he was a firefighter and paramedic for 10 years before becoming a lieutenant, spending five years in public education. He became a battalion chief, then was promoted to deputy chief two years ago.

He has a bachelor’s degree in fire science management from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in strategic public management and leadership from Northern Illinois University.

Last year was the busiest year ever for the department with 10,329 calls for service. Of those, 7,512 were EMS related and the remaining 2,817 were for fire service.

He mentioned how some departments are providing medical care to residents in their homes. Although only just beginning in Arlington Heights, the idea is to prevent repeat transportation to hospitals. Training is being readied, and the department is working with the hospital to identify the types of patients and post-surgical care procedures they will be following. That and communicating what’s happening with patients to doctors will be a multi-year process.

The department also is training firefighters to assist each other following difficult calls, such as the death of a child. 

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2-11 Alarm fire in Chicago, 2-24-19 (more)

More from the 2-11 Alarm fire in Chicago, 2-24-19

flames and smoke from commercial building fire

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Engine 72 with deck gun deployed

Mike Fox photo

flames and smoke from commercial building fire

Mike Fox photo

flames and smoke from commercial building fire

Mike Fox photo

flames and smoke from commercial building fire

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Squad 5A

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Squad 5A

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Squad 5A

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Squad 5A

Mike Fox photo

Chicago FD Squad 5A

Mike Fox photo

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