Stafford VA – On November 9, 2011 Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department held a graduation ceremony at Stafford Senior High School for its sixth recruit academy. During the eighteen week academy the students successfully completed Firefighter I&II, EMT-B, Hazardous Material Operations, Mayday Firefighter Down, Vehicle Awareness and Operations and EVOC. The class graduated fourteen Firefighter-EMTs, who will begin working in the Emergency Operations Division on Monday November 14th. Ms. Marla Decker, Virginia Secretary of Public Safety was the guest speaker and the recruits were sworn in by Stafford Sheriff Charles Jett.

 Front Row L-R, P.Cibotti,S.Leone,T.LeClercq,J.Doyle,R.Angel,D.Paul,J.Ayers.

Back Row LR,D.Mechling,E.Depollo,S.Strain, T.Edwards, P.Noonan,N.Vossenberg,P.Richman

Mark L. Doyle, Executive Officer

Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department

August 1^st, 2011- The Spotsylvania County Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management held its commencement ceremony for Recruit Class 7 on July 15^th, 2011 graduating and welcoming seven recruits to the department.

The academy consists of 16 weeks of daily physical training, discipline and skills drills where each recruit proves that they have what it takes to become a probationary firefighter in Spotsylvania County. This recruit class was the first for Spotsylvania that included a full Virginia Department of Fire Programs certified Firefighter I & II curriculum. Those recruits that did not previously have the certifications obtained them in the academy. Along with the two core courses, recruits received all of the classes that they require to meet the minimum training standards as a firefighter or medic for the county, including Rural Water Supply, Vehicle Extrication Awareness & Operations, Hazmat Awareness & Operations, Mayday Awareness & Operations and EVOC II & III.

Recruits also received advanced tactic and survival classes that introduced them to newer ways of air management, fire behavior, large area searches, RIT and self rescue, giving them the leading edge of training and firefighter survival. EMS skills were also tested the last two weeks of the academy for both BLS and ALS providers and new equipment was also introduced and explained. The physical training portion of the academy consisted of three days of cardio and two days of weight training where recruits pushed themselves to their maximum.

Towards the end of the academy, there was a weekly firefighter combat challenge obstacle course, which the recruits went through first in PT clothes, then with gear, and finally with all gear and breathing SCBA. Throughout the 16 weeks, firefighter oriented training was not the only focus, instructors heavily enforced the department’s mission statement and core values of Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Excellence to remind the recruits that the job is not just about putting out fires and cutting up cars but serving the citizens of Spotsylvania County. The seven recruits as a whole overcame many obstacles throughout the academy including the ability to complete a seven mile run.

Additionally, two students who previously did not have fire certifications graduated with Firefighter I & II. Recruit Class 7 will also help the county with staffing levels enabling them to implement 24 hour career coverage, beginning August 22^nd. The department is now in the process of preparing for Recruit Class 8, set to begin at the end of October. Recruit Class 8 will provide additional personnel needed to increase 24 hour career coverage in the first quarter of 2012.

Congratulations to all the recruits on a long and hard journey to success!

Info and images from Jim Hylton
Fire Lieutenant and VDFP Adjunct Instructor

Congratulations to the 20 members of the Roanoke Firefighter Rookie Class #14.
The class graduated on July 7, 2011.
The school is conducted at the Roanoke Valley Regional Fire Training Center.
The intensive 16 week school is designed to train and certify the cadets to meet NFPA 1001: “Standard for Fire Fighter Professional Qualifications” as applied by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs.
Some came with ALS qualifications, others will start as an EMT-B, and all will continue their training in order to meet the EMS requirements of their departments.
In the class picture included here, Roanoke County Fire Rescue Training Officer Tim Craighead is on the left, and on the right is the Principle of the school, Lieutenant Tom Gherman of Roanoke Fire EMS (city).
I wish for them a safe and successful career.

Last week, Charlottesville Firefighters trained with the new Tower 10 at the Downtown Mall. CFD conducted several training exercises with its aerial ladder trucks.  These pictures are of CFD’s new Tower 10 at 5th St SE at the old Army Navy Store.  Firefighters are practicing their positioning skills and to better understand the challenges with building locations, trees and other obstacles.  More training will be conducted later today at the SNL building.  FYI, CFD conducts training on an average of 2 hours per day throughout the year with over 25,000 staff hours of training.

Submitted by Chief Charles Werner

The Virginia Department of Fire Programs (VDFP) presented the “Driver Pump Operator” class for the Roanoke Regional Training Center. The class is pro-board certified and has five days of classroom instruction followed by three days of practical scenarios. Jim Hylton, an Adjunct Instructor for VDFP and a Lieutenant with the Roanoke Fire EMS department said  the students were career firefighters from Roanoke City, Roanoke County and one from Radford.

Photos submitted by Lt. Jim Hylton

Nokesville Volunteer Fire Department Training Burn. Nokesville VFD is located in Prince William County.

Visit their website here

Check out the video below of a recent RIT class in Bedford taught by Traditions Training.

• Beford FD web site
• Traditions Training web site

From Fredericksburg.com – Spotsy fire training will make county safer.

We want to applaud County Administrator Doug Barnes and Fire Chief Chris Eudailey for taking steps to require all firefighters–career and volunteer–to undergo a minimum of training in order to serve the community. We urge the Board of Supervisors to follow through on their efforts and accept these standards.

Minimum training and ongoing education is standard practice in numerous industries. The fire service should top any career list for required skills.

The Spotsylvania County fire and rescue community boasts a proud tradition of com-bining the efforts of volunteer and career firefighters.

Few things are more honorable than volunteering time and personal safety in order to protect the community.

via Fredericksburg.com – Spotsy fire training will make county safer.

Check out this raw video from Bedford, Virginia. The firefighter with the helmet camera slips down the attic fold down stairs and continues down the basement stairs to the basement floor.

He was then found and assisted out of the house.

The fire occurred on February 10th. The helmet camera video was uploaded yesterday. Below the helmet camera footage is some news video from the fire when it occurred.

via Raw Video: Helmet Cam Footage of Mayday in Bedford, Virginia | The Fire Critic.

The Driver Pump Operator (DPO) class presented by the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, is a 64 hour pro-board certified class. This class presents many of the essential principles and applications of pumping apparatus operations coupled with three days of practical exercises. The instructors were Jim Hylton and Alan Hale. The students were from
Pulaski, Radford, Fries, Frog Level, Max Meadow, Fairlawn, Abingdon, Roanoke City and one from Chesterfield.
The class was held in Pulaski.

Submitted by Jim Hylton

Submitted by Stephen Allen
Smithfield Volunteer Fire Dept

Photos taken by: Jennifer Allen

Smithfield VA: On the morning of Oct. 30, 2010 the Smithfield Volunteer Fire Department conducted training and a live burn on a century old house.  The owner of the structure allowed us to conduct bail out training, interior breeching, and finally burn the structure to the ground.  Due to the age of the structure it was not safe to conduct live burn training inside the structure, so SVFD practiced defensive operations on a couple of out buildings behind the house and the main house that the owners live in.  The day was a great experience for not only the seasoned firefighters, but the 3 Junior Members that were in attendance as well.  They got to “play” right along side of the regular members to gain experience that they will carry with them in the future.

A Virginia Fire Programs Vehicle Extrication Class was held in Powhatan on May 15 and 16th. This 16 hour class was attended by 27 Firefighters from Powhatan, Richmond City, Petersburg, Hanover, Chesterfield, and Stafford County’s. This class taught firefighters how to use hydraulic tools and manual tools to manipulate vehicles to rescue people that are trapped in or under them. 13 vehicles were used and placed in different positions from on there side to on their roof for Firefighters to practice their skills. Firefighters learned from the instructors and also learned to work together from different localities as a team to accomplish a task.

Bon Secours Richmond and Henrico Fire are pleased to announce the Central VA EMS Education Expo 2010.  The Education Expo will be held on January 30-31, 2010 at the Henrico Fire Training Center.  See our flyer announcing the Expo.  The Central VA EMS Education Expo 2010 is a free event.

CEU information is available on the class descriptions.

To see more information and to register see the EMS Education Expo 2010 page.

There is NO COST associated and lunch is provided daily.

Please feel free to post a link to the Expo web site and registration page.

http://www.co.henrico.va.us/departments/fire/emseducationexpo/

www.henricofire.org

CENTRAL VIRGINIA – Hybrid vehicles are everywhere. They’re great on gas and great for the environment. As a result, more and more of them are popping up around Richmond but hybrids have a hidden danger; you can’t afford to mess with these cars – unless you know what you’re doing.

“Lady lost control and it was straddling a deep ditch,” recalls Lieutenant Al Thompson of Chesterfield County’s fire department, “We had to open the door and almost climb into the vehicle. The first thing I told my crew was that it was a hybrid vehicle.”

You can’t treat a hybrid like any other car. Under the hood, these high voltage cars can be dangerous.

Continue reading… Hybrid Dangers – wtvr.

This video of made for Namozine’s first Regional School and was designed to inform the public on the hard work training and dedication that the Emergency Services providers go through to provide them with the best services possible. The video includes some video and pictures from surrounding localities such as Petersburg Fire, Colonial Heights Fire and Chesterfield County Fire.

Tactical Simulation – Hazardous Materials Incident
Written by Lt. Brad Dougherty

Scroll to bottom for attachments to help you with the simulation.

Engine 3, Ladder 3, Rescue 1, Medic 3, EMS 1 and Battalion 2 have been alerted to 1178 Pilates Way the downtown YMCA for a hazardous materials response. The caller has reported that there is a strong chemical odor and yellowish haze coming from the custodians supply room in Hallway A, The facility is being evacuated time of alarm is 0552hrs temperature is 65 degrees with a light wind out of the south west and partly cloudy skies. Upon arrival of Engine 3 the facility manager advises that all but one of the occupants are out of the structure and accounted for the missing patrons last known location is not known three staff members and five patrons are complaining of burning eyes and chest pain. The facility manager does provide responders with an MSDS binder for the all of the products stored in the custodians supply room. The officer of Engine 3 observes a haze inside of the structure from A side. Using the information create an incident action plan to mitigate this incident.

click on image to enlarge

Attachments:
MSDS for chemicals found in supply room

1. ammonium-hydroxide-msds
2. windex-original-glasscleaner-msds
3. clorox-bleach-msds
4. pine-oil-msds

Tactical worksheet – tactical-worksheet
Pre-Incident survey – pre-incident-survey-ymca
ERG 2008 edition – erg2008_eng

Credits
MSDS sheets found on the clorox company website
MSDS sheet for window cleaner found on SC Johnson website
ERG found on www.ehso.com

By Lucian Mirra

Complacency in Fire and EMS

If you were to ask at my station, or any fire or EMS station around the country for that matter, how many people cut corners, took the easy way out or were generally complacent with their jobs, if 80% of people didn’t raise their hands, you could suspect that many were lying.

Now I’m not trying to call all Firefighters, EMTs and Paramedics lazy by any means. Perhaps the word “lazy” is the improper term. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines “complacency” as “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies”. That is to say we are satisfied with the way we do our jobs despite the inherent risks and dangers associated with it. As of August 1st, according to firefighterclosecalls.com, 59 of our brothers and sisters have been killed in the line of duty. The reality of our job as firefighters and EMS workers is that we must daily put our lives in unsafe conditions. While safety and techniques have cut down on firefighter deaths since my grandfather’s generation, the reality of the job is that what we do is simply dangerous.

So what does danger have to do with complacency? The answer is plenty. While we may not mean to be, we cut corners in our job on a daily basis. Why? Because 99% of the time, if we take a shortcut in doing something, it will turn out ok. The reality of our job is that while it is inherently dangerous, it is also inherently monotonous. How many Automatic Fire Alarm Activations does your engine company run in week? How many of those actually turn out to be anything more than an accidental/malicious activation or a mechanical malfunction. While despite the statistics being heavily in favor of an AFA being a false call, most departments still require firefighters to dress out in full turnout and SCBA. Even so, how many times are you actually thinking about what you would do if it turned out to be a real fire when responding to these? While we would all like to think that we take every option into consideration while en route to such a call, the majority of us are also thinking, at least in the back of our minds, that we will either get placed in service prior to arrival or arrive on scene to find a malfunction or accidental activation. Maybe every once in awhile someone has burned something or there has been a minor electrical short causing an appropriate activation of a smoke detector, but what percentage of these calls actually turn out to be a working structure fire? Even our respective departments play this number game. My system responds one engine and either a ladder, tanker or engine, depending on the location of the fire and the location of the second due piece to fire alarms. Often times, the second due company is sent non-emergency. Imagine the surprise of the company officer who arrives on scene with only a single engine to what was supposed to be a simple paperwork response to find fire through the roof. The same situation has happened in my department, and quite recently.

How about on the EMS side? How many “sick person” calls does your medic run per shift? Have you ever been dispatched for “chest pains” on a 24-year-old patient? If you’re like me you automatically raise the B.S. flag on this. While its never happened to me personally, I’ve heard other medics tell stories of the 24 year old who is having a STEMI. Does it happen often? No, not at all. Does it happen at all? Of course it does. Just like in the fire service, the dispatcher can only go on a limited amount of information. How do we know that the laceration call that we’re responding to is actually a domestic violence situation, but because the dispatcher wasn’t told what the laceration was from, no police was dispatched. Imagine how surprised you’d be when you walk up to the residence and see a gun in your face. Now to modify the old adage, you’ve brought and oxygen bottle (a great self defense weapon) and a pair of trauma sheers to a gun fight. I’ll be leaving now, thanks.

No matter if its fire or EMS, we tend to get complacent with our jobs. And why wouldn’t we? If you’ve already worked a structure fire and run 8 other assorted calls and you’re near the end of your 24 hour shift on an engine, how much are you really thinking that the “Fire Alarm Activation” call you’re responding to is going to turn out to be a worker? If you’ve run 10 EMS calls on a 12 shift on the medic, how much are you actually thinking that the “sick person” call will turn out to be a working arrest, or the laceration will be a domestic dispute?

There is no solution to this problem. Complacency is human nature, especially when you’ve been doing “the job” long enough or you’ve been awake for long enough. The best thing we can do is be thinking about every possibility when responding to every call (but pay attention to the road if you’re driving or riding officer!). What is my plan of action if this AFA turns out to be a working fire? What am I going to do if this laceration turns violent? Am I prepared for all possibilities? What is my plan of action, what is my mindset? I realize that we will all still be complacent to some extent when we’re working, whether volunteer or paid or both. But if we keep an open mind to every situation, we will be better off in the long run.

By Lt. Brad Dougherty

Firefighter Survival – Breaching a wall down and dirty

View the powerpoint presentation here – breaching-the-wall-ppt

By Brad Dougherty

Attached is a powerpoint presentation by Brad Dougherty. Please review the powerpoint presentation and share it with your crew. It is a review and a lesson in what the R.I.T. is all about.

Click on the document to view/download…ffs-ppt

Firefighters from around the area pulled together Thursday to help rescue a man high above a construction site. The situation may have been a drill but for first responders, it was valuable hands on training.

The Charlottesville Fire Department and other rescue crews spent hours practicing technical rescues at the new Martha Jefferson Hospital construction site Thursday. A dummy was placed on one of the unfinished floors and crews went in for the rescue.

Read More Charlottesville Fire Rescue Training – NBC29.