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lifetime ago when I chased fire trucks for a living as a young reporter, I worked shifts, often 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. when much of the good stuff happened for those of us on the police/fire beat. Later, as an editor for the now-defunct Mail-Star (the afternoon edition of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald), I worked from 4 a.m. until noon. My husband, also a reporter/editor for The Canadian Press, often worked the dreaded 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift. He’d pull into the driveway at 3:30 a.m. or so and leave the car running and I’d hustle out the door at that ungodly hour to start my day.
In 24-7 vocations like journalism or the fire service, shift work is a necessary evil. As the 24-hour shift works its way into more Canadian fire departments, managers are struggling to finding the lesser of those evils to make sure firefighters are alert and astute and can perform their jobs to the best of their abilities.
Sleep deprivation, sleep debt, circadian rhythms and the body’s natural shut-down mechanisms that kick in after about 16 hours are being looked at by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs as it tries to figure out options for manning stations around the clock.
At a recent labour relations seminar in Toronto, a lawyer who spends a lot of time negotiating collective agreements for fire departments asked a sleep expert what shift makes the most sense for firefighters. He recommended longer day shifts, shorter night shifts and, if there’s no option but a 24-hour shift, then as much distance as possible between 24-hour shifts (eliminate the Friday-Sunday rotation, he said). Seems to make sense.
The elephant in the room in these types of discussions about firefighters and sleep, of course, is the fact that firefighters do sleep during the 14-hour night shift and the 24-hour shift, unless they are in extremely busy stations, and even then – as in Toronto – stations shut down for a couple of hours overnight to allow for at least a bit of sleep.
It’s clear that firefighters like the 24-hour shift – the reasons are outlined in our story on page 8 – and that some departments find the shift works great while others struggle with training time, vacation schedules and overtime.
With dozens of departments in Ontario, and some in other provinces – such as the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service – looking at the 24-hour shift, it’s imperative that managers make sure they do what’s best for the health and safety of their firefighters and for the communities they serve, and that unions and management work together to come up with the best possible solutions to the 24-hour shift dilemma. Stay tuned.
This month we’re excited to introduce firehall food writer Patrick Mathieu from the Waterloo Fire Department in Ontario. Patrick’s passion for healthy, nutritious, delicious and reasonably priced firehall meals is clear in his inaugural Recipe Rescue column on page 28. We recognize that many of our readers are volunteer firefighters who don’t cook in the firehall so we’ve ensured that Patrick’s recipes are easy and adaptable for use at home – your spouses or significant others will thank you!
Also this month, Lee Sagert from Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services debuts his column about combined fire and EMS. Lethbridge has been a fire/EMS service since 1912 and most of its members are firemedics who are trained in both disciplines. With the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association promoting combined fire/EMS, Sagert’s column will surely provide invaluable insight.
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Mayday, mayday, mayday. No one, especially a busy incident commander in the midst of managing an already difficult operation, wants to hear these words broadcast over the emergency ground channel. When they are transmitted, either by the affected individual (or crew), or by a colleague who knows or suspects that a fellow firefighter is injured, trapped or lost, the implications can range from serious to disastrous.
A recent mayday in Toronto came to a dramatic but happy conclusion as Toronto firefighters proved they had their stuff together by quickly rescuing two members who had fallen from an exposure building into the unit of origin.
In my department, just days before the Toronto incident, an aggressive exterior size-up of a fire building by RIT members resulted in the discovery of a disoriented firefighter trapped by a rapidly extending basement fire. RIT members transmitted the mayday and pulled the member to safety through a basement window, with just minor burns.
Acting on the assumption that similar events will occur, every fire department must have a comprehensive mayday policy that complements its existing incident/scene management policies of command, accountability, RIT and communication.
lessons learned by departments such as Denver and Phoenix. On Sept. 28, 1992, 16-year Denver firefighter Mark Langvardt tragically died despite the heroic efforts of fellow firefighters to rescue him from a burning two-storey commercial occupancy. The Denver drill was developed as a direct result of the frustrating inability of firefighters to raise Langvardt’s unconscious body to an unusually high office window. On March 14, 2001, Phoenix firefighter Bret Tarver was separated from his crew and became disoriented in a large, burning commercial structure he was searching. Despite repeated attempts by several crews to rescue him, Tarver subsequently died, and his death forced the department to reassess its entire RIT program.
Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini would later say, “Agencies should learn from the death of a firefighter and improve their operations. It’s a tragic way to change, but if we miss those lessons . . . we are being disrespectful to those persons that were lost.”
Every fire department must have a comprehensive mayday policy.
Such a policy must address such issues as enforcement of 2 in / 2 out, establishment of an interim RIT, automatic response to support rescue teams the moment a mayday is received, a predetermined emergency channel, and a protocol for determining which members will change channels (and under what circumstances) and whether a PAR will be conducted. The policy should ensure that all members will react to a crisis uniformly and consistently.
Anecdotal evidence has consistently shown that firefighters who get into trouble either call the mayday too late or not at all. I suspect the simple reason is that firefighters, being problem solvers, refuse to accept the fact that there is no solution to the problem they are encountering at that moment.
The North American fire service has made great strides in the last decades in the areas of crew accountability, RIT, air-supply management and calling a mayday. But have we done enough?
In some jurisdictions, the number of firefighters who can be deployed within the first 10 to 20 minutes of an incident is more than adequate to ensure that one or more RIT can be assembled quickly. Unfortunately, many departments face staffing issues that prevent this.
For these smaller departments, there must be a greater focus on maintaining crew integrity, strict adherence to 2 in / 2 out, extremely disciplined incident command (no freelancing), and constant reinforcement of the message that firefighters should never hesitate to call the mayday.
Regardless of the size of our respective departments, we all need to be reminded from time to time of the tremendous sacrifices and
I strongly urge you learn more about these and similar incidents and then take whatever steps are necessary to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in your department.
Here are some suggestions that might help:
• Don’t be satisfied with a mayday policy; make calling a mayday part of your department’s culture.
• Make sure every member can call a proper mayday instinctively by regularly training on LUNAR (location in the building, unit or company in trouble, name(s), air supply remaining, resources needed for the rescue).
• Establish a predetermined emergency channel so that when command orders the channel clear, all members know where to go on the radio if they are not involved in the rescue.
• Ensure that company/sector officers understand that they must work independently of command while the rescue is being managed.
• Enforce the crew concept and never condone freelancing.
• Develop a workable, user-friendly accountability system and insist on compliance.
• Instil in members the belief that there is nothing routine about a RIT assignment and approach it as though lives depend on it.
• Train all members regularly in techniques of self- and RIT rescue.
NOTE: A great video on self- and RIT rescue, along with direction for building a simulator that will save lives, can be found at www.vententersearch.com/?p=767.
Peter Hunt, a 29-year veteran of the fire service, is a captain in the Ottawa Fire Department’s suppression division. He can be reached at peter.hunt@rogers.com
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By Laura King
The 24-hour shift.
Just four words, but an issue that has created a firestorm in some of Canada’s largest fire departments, as firefighters look for better work-life balance and managers weigh operational realities and public safety.
The issue is expected to come to a head in Kingston, Ont., in the next few months. If veteran arbitrator Kevin Burkett opts to set a precedent and entrench the 24-hour shift in a collective agreement with Local 498 of the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association (OPFFA), the shift is likely to gain even more momentum among Canadian firefighters.
Many fire chiefs in Ontario and across Canada are trying to get their heads around the implications of such a ruling. The 24hour shift is hardly new. It has existed for
decades in the United States and departments in Woodstock and Windsor, Ont., have used the shift for years, as has St. John’s, N.L. Ottawa Fire Services adopted the 24-hour shift on Jan. 1. The union in Waterloo, Ont., has proposed a 24-hour shift and firefighters in Winnipeg, Calgary and elsewhere are talking about it.
In 2010, the Kitchener Fire Department in Ontario started a three-year trial of the 24-hour shift; trials or pilots are the norm and are the preferred structure among human resources managers for the introduction of the 24-hour shift so the department has an out if things go awry and can return firefighters to 10-14s.
So far, the 24-hour shift is most prevalent in Ontario. Toronto, London, Richmond Hill, Peterborough, Belleville, Barrie, Oakville and Mississauga have adopted the shift in the last several years. Many departments work the so-called Toronto model of Monday/Thursday, Friday/Sun-
day, Wednesday/Saturday, Tuesday; others work a modified shift that does not include the onerous Friday/Sunday combination.
As firefighters in other regions hear from their colleagues in Ontario about the benefits of the 24-hour shift – fewer nights away from home, a reduction in child-care costs, availability for sports, hobbies or second jobs, and, overall, better rest than on the 10-14s – and ask their unions to pitch the shift to management, fire chiefs across the country are looking for guidance from Ontario about how to negotiate issues such as training days, overtime and shift schedules. And firefighter associations are watching the OPFFA and learning from its experience negotiating the 24-hour shift.
For the record, the OPFFA says it does not endorse a particular shift pattern – 1014s or 24s, for example – and simply wants it members to enjoy a work week that’s similar in length to other municipal employees.
“I think what’s important to note is
that the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association’s policy on hours of work is simply that firefighters should not work more than 42 hours a week on average and the OPFFA has not taken an official position on the 24-hour shift cycle or any of the other shift cycles that our members are engaged in across the province,” OPFFA president Fred LeBlanc said in an interview.
“But . . . memberships have mandated their leaderships to either look at the benefits of a 24-hour shift or try to secure one through local negotiations. The desire from the membership has been pretty consistent. They’re looking for a healthier work cycle and looking for better balance between their personal and professional lives.”
In late February, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC) ran a day-long
seminar on the 24-hour shift for mid-sized departments that included presentations from chiefs of several departments that use the 24-hour shift. Chiefs spoke bluntly about challenges with training and schedules. Some chiefs said they have difficulty bringing firefighters in on overtime because members live so far away from their departments – they can because they commute only seven times a month – that they can’t get to work quickly enough to do emergency overtime. Some departments find the 24hour shift onerous and frustrating to manage; others – primarily those that negotiated the shift with their unions rather than having had it pushed on them by municipal councils – said the shift has boosted morale among firefighters and allows members to more quickly and thoroughly complete train-
1. Mandatory wellness and physical exams – In some departments with 24-hour shifts firefighters are required to bring in notes from their doctors verifying that they have completed physical exams. Chiefs say this is crucial to the collective agreement to ensure firefighters remain up to the 24-hour shift.
2. Sit down with the local firefighters association and talk honestly about the shift and any operational concerns to see what can be negotiated. Ask the association to be honest about why it wants management to consider a 24-hour shift.
3. Choose a model that works for your department. Many departments are trying to get away from the Friday-Sunday shift model and ensure that firefighters have three days off between shifts.
4. Do not include provisions to make the 24-hour shift permanent; include a proviso to return to the 10-14 shift or to extend the 24-hour trial and make any necessary modifications that are agreed to by both parties
5. Specify the length of sick or lieu days. In many departments with 24-hour shifts sick time is recorded by the hour but there is a caveat that if a firefighter can’t come to work at 7 a.m. to start a 24-hour shift then he must take the entire 24-hour shift as a sick day. In most collective agreements, a bereavement day is 12 hours.
6. Negotiate a station schedule that must be completed. Include the length of lunch and dinner breaks.
7. Negotiate a move to day shifts for training time.
8. Include very specific metrics for measuring the effectiveness of the 24-hour shift. Many proponents of the 24-hour shift say it saves money on overtime and sick time so be sure that those issues are part of the metrics. Set actual targets – for example, a 25 per cent reduction in Absenteeism rather than a generic reduction.
9. Test or use management rights – if you have the ability to move people around to days for training, do so.
10. Think about the operational needs for coverage and after-hours meetings. Don’t put yourself into a situation in which you can’t do things because of the wording in the collective agreement or letter of understanding. Some agreements stipulated the number of hours a member could work after a 24-hour shift; this created issues with early-morning meetings as platoon chiefs were unable to stay after a 24-hour shift for 8 a.m. or 9 a.m. meetings with superiors. Be specific- specify that members can work only a certain number of hours on suppression activities but can stay longer for training and operations issues.
11. Manage the 24-hour shift like any other shifts.
ing modules. Human resources managers and lawyers with experience negotiating letters of understanding for the 24-hour shift shared some insight about how best to prepare for negotiations on the 24-hour shift (see sidebar) and urged chiefs to do their homework on potential health and safety implications of the 24-hour shift before heading to the bargaining table.
The OAFC produced a draft document for the seminar called The Health and Safety Impacts of 24-Hour Shifts in Fire Departments. The final version of the report is available on the OAFC website at www.oafc.on.ca and outlines the risk associated with any kind of extended shift work, including 10-14s, such as increased susceptibility to heart disease, cancers, sleep disorders, diabetes and gastrointestinal disorders.
The OAFC says it reviewed more than 60 published research studies that focused on the health and safety impacts of extended shifts on employees. The studies found that the rate of accidents and injuries increase with hours on the job.
“After 16 hours on the job, fatigue has a major impact,” the report says. “If work tasks require alertness, sleeping on the job may present a safety risk due to sleep inertia or ‘grogginess’ upon waking.”
In other words, going from a sound sleep to the driver’s seat of a $500,000 apparatus may not be wise because the human brain takes about 20 minutes to come on line after being woken from a deep sleep.
The counter argument to that science, says LeBlanc, might be the adrenalin rush that inevitably follows an alarm and, seemingly, eliminates that grogginess.
“I know that when [scientists] have measured heart rates they talk about how we go from zero to a very high heart rate just with the ringing of the bells and then getting down to the vehicles, and it certainly depends on the type of call – if it talks about smoke showing, flames showing, people reported trapped – that just takes it to another level. So snapping out of a sleep or dealing with sleep depravation when an adrenalin kick happens – I don’t know if that’s been studied anywhere but I’m sure that has some mitigating effect.”
Indeed, researchers have tried to measure the impact of the adrenalin rush but according to Ian Crosby, health and wellness co-ordinator for the Calgary Fire Department, scientists have been unable to determine the impact of such a reaction because it’s impossible to replicate in a
controlled setting the sustained rush of 25 minutes or longer that first responders often experience.
“I guess the safest thing is to put us on eight-hour shifts and nobody goes to sleep ever,” LeBlanc says, “but that’s just so cost prohibitive and not viable and it’s obviously something that our members wouldn’t want and I don’t think fire chiefs would want either.”
Chiefs at the OAFC seminar agreed that eight-hour shifts would be ideal but are not feasible. “They’re the safest but it’s going to cost money,” noted one chief of a department that runs a 24-hour shift that management supports.
Sleep expert Dr. Stephen Lockley, who spoke at the OAFC seminar, said it’s strange that firefighters choose to work 24-hour shifts when there may be alternatives with fewer health and safety risks. Lockley and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School are beginning research on the impact of the 24-hour shift on firefighters in the United States.
The OAFC report says that extended work hours that include night shifts are particularly risky.
“There may be problems with the 10-14 shift pattern but 24 hour shifts may not be the solution,” the report says.
The research studies cited by the OAFC show that lack of sleep results in lower levels of performance and noted that sleep deprivation can be a result of lack of hours of sleep or a lack of quality, uninterrupted sleep.
The OAFC notes that the issue of sleep deprivation goes beyond the fire hall and into the personal lives of firefighters and how well rested they are when they show up for work at 7 a.m. for a 10-hour day shift or a 24-hour shift, or at 5 p.m. for a 14-hour night shift.
“It needs to be restated,” the report says, “that sleep deprivation can just as easily be the result of off-duty activities as it can be from on-duty activities. Focusing solely on shift schedules and work hours ignores the fact that lifestyle changes, both off the job and on the job, may be required to manage health and safety.”
One deputy chief at the OAFC seminar put it more bluntly.
“On the 10-14 shift, we had little control over what an employee did before he came to work – he could sleep or not – but we all know many firefighters were working two jobs then too. So nothing really has changed.
“The difference that I see with the 24hour shift is that we the employer are now in control of their lifestyles for 24 hours, so
if we as the employer now know that there are things we could do so make things better for them, we need to take notice.”
The OAFC also points out that in the United States, which has a long tradition of working 24-hour shifts, there are calls to change to shorter shifts for health and safety reasons.
The report says that fire departments working 24 hour shifts have found it challenging to manage fatigue when:
• Call volumes are high, so that the firefighters are not able to get uninterrupted sleep;
• The fire department does not have a sufficient number of firefighters on duty to manage short-term fatigue by rotating crews off during a long fire incident;
• The fire department does not have a sufficient number of firefighters on duty to manage short-term fatigue by providing a guaranteed sleep time while on duty.
So, with little scientific evidence to help managers and firefighter associations determine the health pros and cons of the 24-hour shift as opposed to abstract factors, such as quality of life and morale, the OAFC report recommends that fire departments should not commit to 24-hour shifts until more research has been done.
LeBlanc says his members simply want a work week that suits their professional and personal lives.
LeBlanc, a Kingston, Ont., firefighter who worked a 10-14 shift for 20 years before switching to the 24-hour shift six years ago (Kingston is in its second 24-hour shift trial), says implementation of new equipment and practices is more efficient on a 24-hour shift. He says he believes the 24hour shift in his department has resulted in better crew cohesion and better teamwork.
In its report, the OAFC notes that under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, fire chiefs must take every precaution to protect their employees. It argues that knowing the risks associated with long shifts and, in particular, night shifts, may provide validation for re-evaluating traditional fire-department shifts. Lockley, the sleep expert, told the OAFC’s labour relations seminar in January that switching to 14-hour day shifts and 10 hour night shifts might make sense for firefighters because the body is programmed to be awake during the day and starts to shut down at night.
The OAFC also notes that night-time call volume is likely to continue to grow as
society evolves to meet demands 24/7. Call volume in Ontario has increased by 38 per cent in the last 10 years while the population of Ontario has grown by 13 per cent.
“Increasing the total number of calls in a 24 hour period and increasing the volume of calls at night, means that firefighter fatigue will become a greater concern and extended shifts will pose a greater health and safety risk,” the report says.
LeBlanc notes that much of the research on sleep patterns involves consecutive night shifts, which is a concern for firefighters who work four, 14-hour night shifts in a row, whereas 24-hour shifts are separated by a minimum of one day off.
“I think what the goal should be is to find a shift system that helps mitigate the effects of shift work, period, because we’re here all day every day and we need to find a shift that works,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said he was disappointed that the OAFC’s report did not reference a report by U.S. sleep researcher Dr. Linda Glazner, who surveyed Toronto firefighters about the 24-hour shift.
“The results from her study were that there were benefits from moving to a 24hour shift cycle in comparison to the 10 and 14 that they were working previously,” LeBlanc said, “and that it was allowing firefighters to recover quicker and get back to their proper circadian rhythm, which does help mitigate these effects from the shift work itself.”
The OAFC report did reference Glazner’s work, and the OAFC found research studies that agreed that the 10-14 hour shift pattern results in fatigue on the night shift, eating disorders and increased injuries. The OAFC says other reviewers of Glazner’s Toronto report said they found that the study on 24-hour shifts was inconclusive. The OAFC says it could find no other research study that supported Glazner’s conclusion that the 24-hour shift is better than other shift patterns.
The OAFC and the OPFFA agree that there’s not enough research on the 24-hour shift to make sound decisions. Indeed, both say that finding a shift that promotes better firefighter health and safety is paramount.
“I think there needs to be a wholesale approach to the health and safety of firefighters,” LeBlanc says. “We believe finding the right shift cycle to mitigate some of these effects, along with a wellness/ fitness initiative, will go a long way and we ask the Ontario fire chiefs to join us in that advocacy.”
If someone were to compare the fire service of today with the fire service of 20 years ago, the drastic changes in almost all regards would be obvious. Everything, from the design of and protection provided by present-day gear to the response guidelines and dispatching protocols we use now, is completely different from the equipment and practices of days gone by. Consider some of the equipment readily available to us now: mobile gas detectors, pack/firefighter locator technology, hydraulic tools with more speed and power, carbonfibre breathing apparatuses with heads-up displays, early dispatch-due-to-alarm systems and advances in 911, just to name a few. As a culture of young firefighters, we sometimes don’t give a second thought to having these tools at our disposal; we take them for granted. Sure, all of these items help us do our jobs more safely and more efficiently, but if we stop to think about it, we might wonder how in the world the firefighters of past generations were able to perform so aptly without the advances in technology and the tools that we now enjoy.
As a culture of young firefighters, we sometimes don’t give a second thought to having these tools at our disposal; we take them for granted.
One reason that older generations of firefighters were so proficient at their jobs was because they had solid foundations in the basics. By this, I mean that they spent time training and learning the fundamentals of fire fighting; the technology that we have today was obviously unavailable to them, so they became excellent at getting things done and finding a way with what they had. This way of thinking may be lost on newer generations because we have many tools that take much of the thinking out of our work.
The balance of having good basic ability and using technology to our advantage is a two-edged blade. On one hand, we want to ensure that everyone has an appropriate skill set and is able to function without the crutch of gadgets; at the same time, we value advances in technology and would be well served to put these tools in play to make our jobs more efficient and safer. The key to modernday fire fighting is a hybrid of the basics and technology: we’re willing and able to use technology but we don’t necessarily need it. We must endeavour to possess the skill set to work in conditions in which technology is unavailable or fails. I’m certainly not suggesting that we toss out the multi-million dollar tools we have at our fingertips; rather, I am saying there is value in getting back to basics and training ourselves not to be reliant on technology.
To illustrate the point, consider the thermal imaging camera (TIC). The TIC has been a terrific addition to our toolboxes. It is versatile, compact, effective and, best of all, it helps firefighters work more safely – usually. The TIC can be used to locate hot spots during fire evolutions or overhaul, it can be used to find victims or downed firefighters, or it can help to find the origin of ignition. One of the favourite uses for the TIC is to guide firefighters though smoke-filled environments – deeper and further into large structures – until the battery dies. Oops. Now would be a great time to
fall back on all that training bred into us at the academy or during training as junior firefighters. You know – left/right hand searches, using ropes to mark a path, following couplings of hoses. Hopefully we will be able to work our way out of this situation using traditional techniques, or – even better – by using the effective training that we all have so that we don’t get into this position in the first place.
I certainly see the value and advantages of having technology in our fire halls. I believe any tool that helps me be more efficient, faster, safer and, ultimately, that may provide a superior end result, definitely has a place in my toolbox. I also see the value in knowing how to get the job done without the new technology. I suppose it makes sense, then, that it’s only after we’ve learned to sweat and grind our way through tasks that we are able to start using the tools that do more of the work for us, while still allowing us to control the process. Ultimately, it’s great to have tools in the toolbox; the more we have at our disposal, the more quickly, safely and effectively we can execute tasks. But we do need to remember which tools are appropriate for certain jobs, and when and where technology is a help, and where and when it’s a hindrance.
Another invaluable tool that firefighters of older generations had, and that we all have at our disposal, is common sense. If someone is given all the technology in the world but can’t discern how or when to use it, the technology isn’t much good. But with the proper understanding of the hows and whys, that technology becomes very powerful and effective. Fortunately, we all possess the inherent common sense to know when advanced fire fighting tools will be beneficial and when it’s time to get dirty and use elbow grease instead. Of all the tools we use, our reasoning and thought processes are the most valuable.
It’s interesting to talk with firefighters who have been doing this job long enough to have seen the transition from the old-school styles using tricks of the trade, to the new wave of high-tech hardware. Most of these members have integrated the new tools into their repertoires, but the stories of how they used to do this or that should not fall on deaf ears: a time may come when the batteries die and you find yourself thankful for training in the art of basic, fundamental fire fighting.
Editor’s note: This is Jesse Challoner’s final Between Alarms column. CFF thanks Jesse for his insight and always entertaining and enlightening commentary over the last three years. We wish him well in his fire-service career!
Jesse Challoner is a firefighter/paramedic with Strathcona County Emergency Services in Alberta and an instructor at the Emergency Services Academy in Sherwood Park, Alta. Contact him at jchalloner@hotmail.com.
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By Randy Schmitz
hen rescuers attend collisions involving trapped or pinned patients, standard extrication evolutions such as roof-and-door removal or dash lifts and rolls are often sufficient for removal of the occupants. Sometimes, however, patient removal requires more thought and ingenuity.
Frontal offset collisions are situations in which a driver is trapped or pinned by the steering wheel rather than by the dashboard. Much time can be saved by relocating the steering column rather than by lifting or rolling the dash. The steering-wheel pull has proven effective in these types of entrapments.
Some rescuers believe that they shouldn’t attempt a steeringcolumn pull on a front-wheel drive vehicle because the rack-andpinion steering column can collapse and impale the driver. In fact, a steering-column pull on a front-wheel drive vehicle can be completed safely as long as rescuers take it easy and don’t overdo it.
These collapsible steering columns features two or more sections joined together by knuckle joints. In the1980s, manufacturers such as Plymouth and Honda began to use rack-and-pinion steering assemblies, and rescuers became aware of the issues with the column design. Prior to this, straight columns were used in most vehicles; they consisted of a straight shaft that was connected to a steering box mechanism at the front axles, with gears attached.
Generally, columns failed during extrication exercises because they were over-pulled; this usually happened during training when rescuers were overly eager. Rescuers must understand that they need to displace or relocate only whatever is trapping the driver until the patient is removable. In most cases, that means putting something that has moved due to impact back to – or close to – its pre-crash position. Rescuers seem to overdo this in training; even though a dashboard and steering column displaced four feet in the air looks cool, and even though there are benefits to learning the limits of our tools and efforts, rescuers should refrain from performing reckless displacements beyond what is required as this is dangerous for rescuers and patients and tough on the equipment.
Here is a step-by-step method for removal of a trapped patient. Required tools are a hydraulic spreader, a four- or five-foot section of three-eighths grade-80 rescue chain, a 48-inch 4x4 post, a glass master or reciprocating saw, and dust masks for use during glass removal.
Prior to any extrication procedure, rescuers should try all obvious options first, such as moving the front seat rearward, manipulating the tilt steering mechanism, or cutting and bending the bottom section of the steering wheel ring up and out of the way of the patient. If these options don’t work, the next step may be the steering-column pull.
1. To prepare for the evolution, cut a circle in the windshield just above the steering wheel so there is enough room for a rescuer’s hands to drop a chain down to wrap around the steering column (see photo 1).
2. Place a 4-inch x 4-inch x 48-inch post (hardwood lumber is best but pressure-treated softwood works fine) on top of the
windshield, just over the steering wheel area, so that one end of the post is supported on the fire wall and the other end is just over the top of the windshield where the roofline meets the glass, and over the hole. (See photo 2.)
3. Drop one end of the chain down the hole on one side of the post and wrap it around the lowest part of the column (as close to the instrument panel as possible); a double wrap of the chain around the column is preferred as the chain will bite on itself and this double wrap will minimize slippage of the chain when it is pulled upward (see photo 3).
4. Feed the loose end of the chain back up through the hole and onto the opposite side of the post; attach the hook to the existing piece of chain with about three or four inches of slack in the newly formed loop of chain around the post (see photo 4).
5. Insert the tips of a hydraulic spreader under the chain but on top of the post. The top tip of the spreader will cradle the chain in the engineered grooves and the bottom tip will rest on the top side of the post. If the D-ring end of the chain is available, insert the tip of the spreader into it. Ensure that there is a limited amount of slack in the chain when spreading; otherwise, valuable spreading distance will be lost (see photo 5).
6. Position the spreader so that the coupler end of the tool will not move down into the hood area while spreading.
7. Carefully start to spread the arms of the tool apart and take up the slack in the chain until there is slight pressure on the steering column (see photo 6).
8. Recheck areas of concern – the wrap of chain around the column and the tips of the spreader – and make sure that the chain is well seated in the grooves or D-ring. Also check the condition of the post and the patient’s entrapment area before starting the lifting procedure. It is a good idea to have another rescuer check the setup of the evolution. Have a set of eyes committed to the entrapment area to watch
for any unwanted movement or problems. When pulling a rack-and-pinion steering assembly, the upper portion of the column section will start to move away from the patient. The knuckle joint near the floorboard will also move out of alignment – it is in a slide-in sleeve/boot configuration near where the column passes through the foot-well area. Watch this floorboard area for any undesired movement as you pull the column. Slowly start to operate the tool to force the chain to pull up the column and the steering wheel (see photo 7).
Once there is space between the patient’s extremities and the area of entrapment, check to ensure all is well, then continue until the vehicle components return to the pre-crash state or there is sufficient room to remove the patient (see photo 8). If there has been significant crush damage to the roofline area where the top of the 4x4 post is, you may place another 4x4 post transversely across the roofline and under the other post to spread out the crushing force prior to lifting the column. This same evolution can be performed when the vehicle is resting on its side with the driver’s side on the ground, if the entrapment is minimal; however, if more of the dash and the steering column are on the patient, a greater distance of displacement will be necessary to move or relocate the column and the dash together. The more you displace, the higher the risk of failure; this is generally due to the fact that relief cuts normally made in dash-lift evolutions in the lower A-pillar area will not be accessible because of the position of the vehicle and the driver’s door remaining in position.
If the patient entrapment is extremely severe and the vehicle is in the position described above, roof removal is an option. Once that has been accomplished, the next step is to sever the two dash reinforcement brackets or braces that connect the dash cross-member beam to the floorboard at the transmission hump area. These two braces make up a large portion of the strength that repels crash forces. It is imperative to cut these braces to facilitate any movement of the dashboard
(as shown in photo 9). This procedure allows for only minimal movement at best because typical dash-lift relief cuts are not possible due to the side-resting position. Space for tool placement is extremely limited, so chose your tools accordingly; even a mini ram will be difficult to put into position for a lift. Once the cuts have been made by hydraulic cutters or an air chisel with a long bit, insert spreader tips into the centre where the brackets were cut (see photo 10) but be careful to avoid the electronic control unit. (Caution: locate the airbag control module, which is often high up under the dash near the transmission hump; avoid crushing this box as doing so can set off unemployed airbags if the electrical system has not been shut down.) If the support brackets are not completely severed, it is likely that the tips of the spreader will puncture the floorboard and the structural integrity of the floor will be lost; rescuers may have to place a 4x4 block against the floorboard and under the bottom spreader tip to stop it from punching through the floor.
For everyone’s safety, rescuers should tie off their tools at the handle and have another rescuer hold the webbing to take the weight of the tool away from the operator and prevent it from falling onto the patient.
Communication is key to allow slack in the webbing when the tool needs to be repositioned. Attempt to move the dashboard up by locating the top spreader tip onto the thick cross member that spans between the A-pillars. The operator may have to reposition the tool to lock onto the reinforced cross member. Continue to create space until there is room to remove the patent or to insert a mini ram to finish the job.
The steering-column pull and dash displacement are effective when performed properly. Remember, rescuers need to move the vehicle components just enough to get the patient free, not until they reach the limits of the tools just because they can.
Randy Schmitz is a Calgary firefighter who has been extensively involved in the extrication field for 18 years. He can be reached at rwschmitz@shaw.ca
Firefighters in Sooke, B.C., gained valuable live-fire experience during a training exercise at a hotel that was set for demolition.
By Shannon Moneo
When Steve Sorensen took a level 2 fire investigation course in 1999, all of the analyzing, scrutinizing and theorizing were done among specially built drywall and plywood cubicles – a rather clinical, not-too-realistic setting.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if they had an actual building for this?’ ” recalls Sorensen, who has been chief of Sooke Fire Rescue for two years.
A longtime Sooke resident who joined the volunteer department in 1980, Sorensen was familiar with most of the buildings in the 12,000-person community, about 40 kilometres west of Victoria. One structure – perfect for a training exercise – had caught his eye several years ago. It was a 20-room motel that had changed names three times over. Each time the former Manuel Quimper Motel had a new owner, Sorensen would make his way to the waterfront lodgings and ask the innkeeper what the plans were for the slightly
seedy motel. Finally, in 2009, when developer Mike Barrie bought the property with plans for a new resort and condo complex, Sorensen got his wish. The structure could be used for a comprehensive fire investigation training exercise. “Barrie thought it was a great idea,” Sorensen says.
Not only was the building available, it was perfect for the training exercise due to its construction, says Sorensen, also a journeyman carpenter since 1984. The onestorey motel had a wood ceiling, no attic, wood floors, cement block walls and was asbestos-free.
Sorensen, who is also in charge of Sooke’s five paid and 45 volunteer firefighters, knew he’d need help to recreate different scenarios and organize such a comprehensive event. Shortly after Barrie gave the green light, Sorensen approached the Fire Prevention Officers Association of British Columbia (FPOABC).
Robert Marshall, inspector at View Royal Fire Rescue (a Victoria suburb) and FPOABC vice-president, realized Sorensen’s ambitious vision would be a great training
opportunity but one that needed even further expertise. Eager to take advantage of a partnering opportunity with an organization accustomed to high-end fire investigations, Marshall asked the B.C. chapter of the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI) to participate.
The IAAI wholeheartedly agreed to do most of the training and organize the burns, with 12 of its 18 B.C. board members playing direct roles, says B.C. IAAI president Terry Zweng. The FPOABC held a supporting role, carrying the administrative load and making sure all was ready for the 100 registrants and guest speakers from across British Columbia and parts of Alberta who travelled to Sooke for the Sept. 21-24 training exercise.
It’s not often the FPOABC and IAAI work together, as both have carved out their specialties. In fact, Marshall suspects the exercise was one of the first co-organized events in British Columbia. “The FPOABC have been involved in projects like this, but on our own. This was an opportunity to bridge the gap and work with the IAAI,” he says. “It went excellent.”
Work began in January 2010 when Vancouver-based Zweng did a site visit. Sorensen originally wanted to strike the matches in April, but the motel with a death sentence stayed open for the summer season.
As planning progressed, speakers were secured, including police experts in clandestine labs and investigations, an expert on juvenile fire setters and specialists in arc mapping, fire modelling and fatality management.
To start, the motel had to be prepped and burned. Over two days, 10 motel rooms were set up with different scenarios and then lit. “We had a good old time burning it up,” says Zweng, who has investigated more than 1,000 fires over almost 20 years.
After one day spent in the classroom listening to speakers, the 100 participants were split into 10 groups of 10, with two to three leaders in each group. Each group included fire, police and insurance personnel.
A host provided basic information at each of the 10 fire scenes. Each group was allowed to spend 15 minutes in each room, where their task was to figure out the cause and origin of the fire. Some of the scenarios included the recreation of a homicide with bullet casings on the floor, an electrical fire, a deliberately set fire, an accidental fire and one legendary scenario – gas in a cup that was swinging over a candle, which eventually ignited, as planned, one hour later.
“It was very eye-opening,” said Cam Norris-Jones, a Sooke Fire Rescue volunteer for three years who became one of the department’s paid staff in June. “We saw that what we do on fire suppression influences the success of a fire investigation. If you walk into a room and move something, you have to remember where it was.”
One of the scenarios proved to be a particular challenge, Norris-Jones said.
It involved a coffee pot on a stove, with a wastepaper basket beside the stove. Most would assume the fire started on the stove but it was an electrical fire, started in the kitchen fan’s exhaust system, then spreading to the stove and down.
“A lot of people don’t look up. They focus on looking down,” Zweng says. “You want to make sure you look at all possible ignition sources.” A good fire investigator, he says, is highly curious, thinks outside the box, doesn’t accept the obvious and has an open mind.
Norris-Jones added “patience” to Zweng’s list. “It’s a painstaking process. You have to go through a pile of rubble. A lot of stuff can be missed,” he said.
Once the 15 minutes expired, one group member filled out a form and, based on
A one-storey motel in Sooke, B.C. with a wood ceiling, no attic, wood floors and cement-block walls was perfect for a training exercise that involved 100 participants and 10 live-fire scenarios.
their answers and observations, each group tried to determine the fire cause.
Valuable data was also gathered at the burns. Each of the 10 rooms was outfitted with camera and heat detection equipment and all of the hardware was connected to computers. Students from the University of British Columbia spent one day monitoring the burn patterns in each room using infrared detection equipment. And a B.C.-based sheeting company installed fire-resistant sheeting panels for testing purposes. “They worked remarkably well,” Sorensen notes.
Some of the monitored results involved infrared detection and may bring changes to British Columbia’s fire code, he added.
Another interesting experiment involved sprinkler systems used in two rooms that were not part of the fire cause exercise. One room had sprinklers; a second did not. In both rooms, the fire started in the bathroom. The room without a sprinkler system was allowed to burn for five minutes. During that short time, the room was destroyed. In the room with the sprinklers, the fire was extinguished within 15 seconds. Damage was minimal, a concept that the fire department continues to stress to B.C.’s residential builders and developers who most often don’t want to build homes with the added cost of sprinkler systems, Sorensen said.
A professional photographer filmed the events and will produce a training video with the footage that will be available to fire departments.
The following day, participants did classroom work and, on the final day, a panel of experts (building inspector, electrical expert, sprinkler fitter, fire commissioner) took questions. The session was followed
by a one-hour exam.
“A lot of different things came out of it that we didn’t count on when we first got going,” Sorensen says, including the useful practice the Sooke Department got when it had to put out 20 fires.
Because fire, police and insurance personnel were present, the exercise was a rare opportunity to network. RCMP and municipal force members swapped stories and professional and volunteer firefighters, not known for their affinity, worked side by side. Marshall, who has worked in the fire service for 11 years, was interested in hearing from the insurance side and finding out the difficulties insurance investigators face. Once the fire investigators rake through a fire scene, they’ve pretty well destroyed it, leaving insurance inspectors with a formidable sleuthing task, Marshall says. Often, something as simple as kicking a chair out of the way can diminish the evidence.
The $350-per-student registration fee covered all costs for the four-day exercise, Sorensen says.
Registrants came from all over British Columbia, from as far north as Fort St. John. Calgary and Edmonton sent insurance professionals. There were a few chuckle-worthy moments; for example, when an RCMP officer tried to lob a Molotov cocktail into one of the motel rooms. Not terrorist material, it took him almost 15 minutes to get ignition.
Everyone agreed that the exercise provided a valuable learning opportunity that should be replicated. Zweng hinted that the FPOABC is planning a similar exercise for May in Langley, B.C.
“It’s a great way to throw ideas around and learn from each other,” Zweng says.
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By Mark van der Feyst
During rapid intervention team (RIT) operations, it’s important to consider ways to increase the mayday firefighter’s chances of survival. This can be done by applying the AWARE acronym to every rescue of a mayday firefighter: Air, Water, A Radio and Extrication. This acronym helps the incident commander with the RIT operation and it will help RIT members remember what to address first, second, third and last with respect to the rescue. We have already looked at air, water and radio. Now we’ll look at extrication. Hand and power tools are necessary to help rescuers with rapid intervention team operations. There are many options when considering which tools to use; all tools used for auto extrication and structural firefighting operations are at our disposal. In addition, specialized tools have been developed for the needs of RIT operations, such as the manual hydraulic spreader/cutter shown in photo 2.
It is important to use extreme caution when operating tools in a smoke-filled environment. Safety is the primary concern for all parties involved in a RIT operation. Because visibility can be reduced due to smoke, it is paramount to account for all team members and victims prior to lifting, cutting or swinging, as it is easy to injure another rescuer with a hand tool such as an axe or a maul. Using short, controlled swings is recommended when visibility is limited. To increase safety even further, it is wise to assign an operations officer to be on the inside to co-ordinate the operation while overseeing safety.
When a RIT member is cutting, it is vital to confirm what is being cut to make sure that further damage or injury does not occur. This is especially important when cutting wires or other entanglement hazards from the mayday firefighter. It is very easy to grab and cut a vital piece of SCBA equipment such as the regulator hose, thinking that it is an entanglement hazard. Grab the entanglement,verify what it is, then cut.
This advice can also be applied when using chainsaws or other devices. When making a large opening, the crew on the outside cannot see where anyone is on the inside.
When the chainsaw is plunged through the wall, it can easily injure a rescuer or the mayday firefighter. A safety person is needed to oversee the cutting operation from the inside to keep the area clear of all personnel and to direct the cutting operation. Communication between the interior safety person
and the outside cutting crew is essential. In addition, it is a good idea to bring por table electric lights into the operation area. If this is not possible, setting up portable lights outside the structure at the window will work. The use of aerial devices is an other option when RIT operations are on an
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upper floor – use the spotlights on the ladder tip. Another way to increase visibility is to ventilate the structure. Calling for tactical ventilation by means of positive pressure fans, hydraulic expulsion, enlarged openings or vertical vent holes will remove the smoke and heat.
Another safety concern during RIT operations is the shifting of heaving loads, especially when using lifting devices to raise heavy objects. Stability of the load is paramount to prevent secondary collapse. Using cribbing to stabilize the load as the lift is underway prevents the load from shifting or collapsing. Shifting of the load can be caused by other team members bumping into or leaning on the load, or by the activities of the other operating crews. The interior safety, or operations, officer needs to ensure that all personnel are kept well clear of the load and that the lifting operation is going smoothly. Periodically checking the cribbing will help.
Another important consideration during RIT operations is the use of gasolinepowered tools. These tools work best in a clean-air environment. Chainsaws and hydraulic tool power units run on gasoline and
need to have a proper fuel/air mixture to operate optimally. Power tools do not work well when used in or around a smoke-filled environment. It is best to set the hydraulic generator unit outside the structure and run the hydraulic lines inside the structure using extension lines. Using electrically powered cutting tools such as a reciprocating saw al-
leviates this problem. These types of tools can be powered by batteries for cordless operation or by running an electrical line into the structure. If using cordless tools, the battery life will be the weak link in the operation. Ensuring that the batteries are fully charged, and having a spare set of batteries, is essential. Cordless tools are great for starting the operation until hard-wired electrical tools arrive.
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When using hydraulic rescue tools, it is important to connect the lines before entering the structure (see photo 1 on page 22). If the lines are not connected, it will be difficult to connect them inside in poor visibility and this will add to the length of the response. If the lines are too short or will not work properly, use a manual pump hydraulic spreader/cutter such as that in photo 2 on page 22.
This concludes our look at tactical considerations for a RIT operation. In the July issue, we will start to explore some of the practical drills that can be implemented to increase rescue efforts for a mayday firefighter.
Mark van der Feyst is an 11-year veteran of the fire service. He currently works for the City of Woodstock Fire Department in Ontario. Mark is an international instructor teaching in Canada, the United States and India. He is a Local Level Suppression Instructor for the Pennsylvania State Fire Academy, an Instructor for the Justice Institute of British Columbia and a professor of fire science at Lambton College. E-mail him at Mark@FireStarTraining.com.
Iappreciate reading questions and emails from readers; it’s a pleasure to get feedback from you and I encourage more of it. Your questions make this column possible, and my goal with FitSmart is to write about things you want to read.
I am often asked about basic nutrition and exercise, so I’ve summarized some very key points to answer some of your questions.
Take a multivitamin. Everyone should.
Drink more water. Divide your body weight in half; this is the number of ounces you should be drinking per day. An average male needs about three litres.
Avoid simple, refined sugars. The sugar spikes in our bodies result in a matching insulin spike. Insulin is the hormone that triggers fat storage. In short, the greater fluctuations in your blood sugar, the more opportunity for fat storage.
Eat protein with every meal. The body can absorb about 30 to 35 grams of protein per serving. Every meal without protein is a mistake. Your muscle and other tissues feed off of protein and won’t develop fully without adequate amounts.
Don’t skip breakfast. A balanced breakfast jump-starts your metabolism. Eat breakfast within an hour of waking up.
Be carbohydrate conscious. Not everyone needs to eat a low-carb diet, but most people drastically over-eat carbs, resulting in fat storage.
Plan and pay attention to progress. Meeting short-term goals helps to keep your focus. Just like our mass building plans, if you aren’t seeing the progress you want, re-evaluate the plan.
Metabolic workouts are the most effective way to succeed. Keep your heart rate elevated and push yourself.
Change is good. Use a blend of high-intensity and long-duration cardio.
BRAd lAwRENCE
Diet and exercise go hand-in-hand when it comes to weight loss.
Ditch the calorie-jacked drinks. Whether it’s Starbucks or Gatorade, these drinks are full of empty carbs that will add several hundred useless calories to your diet.
Feed your body within 30 minutes of a workout. Your muscles will thank you.
Plan and pay attention to progress. Make a plan and consistently evaluate how it’s working. If you can’t see progress, or the progress isn’t in the areas you’d like, then it’s time to re-work the plan. There is a reason your program is, or is not, working. You just have to find it.
Volume and load adds bulk. Lift heavy loads and lift them until failure. This will maximize all hormonal release, especially your growth hormone.
Consume one to one-and-a-half grams of protein per pound of body weight. A high-protein diet will help to build mass. Follow a clean diet to increase caloric surplus. Don’t let your body become hungry; your body can’t grow if you don’t feed it.
When you’re training with hypertrophy (increasing the size of your muscle cells) as your goal, the volume and weight should create a feeling of soreness. Your body should be sore until about 48 hours after you train. During this time, your muscles will repair themselves from the training you put them through. Rest those sore muscles for the full 48-hour period and resist the urge to blast them again.
Increase your caloric deficit by burning more calories than you consume.
Don’t expect much from your training if your diet is awful. Diet and exercise go hand-inhand when it comes to weight loss.
The more you cook the better you’ll look. I read this somewhere and there’s nothing I need to add.
I’ve never read a health-food recipe that called for high-fructose sugar syrup, trans-fat, chemicals or any other garbage you’re going to find when you eat out of a gas station or fast-food joint. Coincidence…or proof?
This may sound crazy, but if you want to lose weight consider yourself lucky. The procedure for losing weight is easier than the procedure to pack on weight. The procedure for losing weight, however, is nowhere near as fun.
Read the label while you’re in the grocery store. Keep in mind that some companies say low in fat when they mean low in fat but high in sugar and other chemicals you can’t begin to pronounce.
Barbell upright row: This puts a strain on your shoulder and will damage your rotator cuff and nerves. Use dumbbells instead.
Behind the head barbell shoulder press: This exercise forces the shoulder to move weight at a very extreme range of motion. The shoulder is unstable at these limits and won’t take it forever.
Behind the head lat pull-down: This exercise has similar effects on your shoulders as the previous one, plus the fact that your rear shoulder flexibility is probably different in each arm. This makes it impossible to load your scapula, and properly move it throughout the rep without some sort of imbalance or impingement.
Squat, or some variation of it. A squat is probably the best exercise to do; no matter what your training goal may be.
Pull-up (the upper body squat). Lat pull down is a substitute if you’re unable; however, it’s a very distant second-best to the pullup. Try to work your way into pull-ups.
Chest press. Dumbbells are safe and effective.
See a topic you’d like a full article on? Let me know and I’ll do my best to make it appear in print as soon as possible.
Brad Lawrence is a firefighter with the Calgary Fire Department and a personal trainer. E-mail Brad at bradmlawrence@gmail.com
When I started at Waterloo Fire Rescue 11 years ago, I vividly remember a wise veteran explaining to me during lunch break (which, to him, was the most important part of the day!) that you had one responsibility of two possible tasks: you cooked or you cleaned. In my mind, the decision was simple. Growing up in a French-Canadian home where both parents loved to be in the kitchen, the natural choice was to cook. But I was just a 21-year-old rookie at the time; my only and greatest cooking skill was watching Mom and Dad cook and then eating whatever they had made. Fire hall meals are an iconic part of our culture; what could I offer 11 famished firefighters? In the same instant, the horrible mental picture of doing dishes for all these people came to me and my firehall cooking career began.
Everything started out easily enough; I was simply helping the veterans prepare and cook the usual fire-house favourites: Everything-but-the-kitchen-sink chili, burgers with fries, and, especially in Waterloo, farmer’s sausage, mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Don’t get me wrong – there was absolutely nothing wrong with these meals and they are still enjoyed today, but, while helping to prepare these meals I learned a few things. First, I had a real passion for cooking! It didn’t faze me one bit to prepare different meals for 11 people every day and it didn’t feel like work – I really enjoyed it! Secondly, I love trying to create new dishes and testing new recipes. Lastly, as it turned out, I tapped into an undiscovered talent that everyone soon began to really appreciate. I even entered a few cooking competitions and won! I guess all those nights spent watching Mom and Dad had taught me more than I thought.
Like most issues in the fire service, change does not come easily. As my culinary skills grew with travelling the world and taking cooking lessons, I was ready to spice up our menus by using different types of ingredients and trying new types of cuisine. Not everyone was totally on board at first, but with each new creation, walls came down, and even with the pickiest eaters, palates and taste buds were opened! Three meals a week, three different experiences, and soon lunch break was all about the food!
Patrick Mathieu is an 11-year veteran of Waterloo Fire Rescue. He has won several cooking competitions and has helped raise thousands of dollars for charities by auctioning gourmet dinners at the fire hall. Contact him at patrickmathieu78@yahoo.ca
serves 10
• 5 lbs top sirloin steak
• 10 naan flatbreads or Greek pita flatbreads
• 5 sweet onions, sliced thinly
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 500 g Danish blue cheese
• 1 1/2 cups good quality mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp whole-grain Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp horseradish
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Montreal steak spice to taste
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups arugula
1. Bring steaks to room temperature, brush with vegetable oil and season liberally with Montreal steak spice, fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Heat barbecue to high.
2. In a large sauté pan over medium heat, melt 2 tbsp butter and olive oil. When butter is melted and sizzling, add the onions and fresh thyme. Toss to make sure all of the onions are coated. Reduce heat to medium/low and cook until well caramelized, about 30 minutes.
3. While onions are cooking, make blue cheese sauce. In a large bowl, crumble blue cheese. Add mayonnaise, Dijon, horseradish and fresh lemon juice. Mix together and break up blue cheese. Add freshly ground pepper to taste. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
4. When the barbecue is hot, put steaks on the grill. Grill 4-5 minutes per side, rotating the steaks a quarter turn halfway through. With a meat thermometer, check temperature before removing steaks; 140 C (275 F) for medium rare. Remove from grill and tent in tin foil for 10 minutes. Slice steak against the grain into thin strips. Toss strips in the drippings from the foil package.
5. After slicing the steak, brush some vegetable oil on both sides of the flatbreads. Grill over medium heat until lightly charred but not toasted, about 3 minutes per side.
6. To assemble, spread a generous layer of the blue cheese sauce on the grilled flatbread. Top the flatbread with sirloin slices and caramelized onions, dividing equally among the 10 flatbreads. Finish with a few sprigs of arugula. Enjoy by folding in half or cutting into quarters.
• 5 large russet baking potatoes, scrubbed, skins on and chopped
• 1 pound thick-cut bacon
• 2 sweet onions, chopped
• 4 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped chives
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Directions:
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 cups good-quality chicken stock
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cups 2% milk
• 1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 4 green onions, white and green parts chopped
1. In a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, add the bacon. Cook until almost crisp, stirring often, about 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Add the potatoes, chives, parsley and bay leaves. Mix well until everything is coated.
2. Add onions, celery and carrots. Mix well and cook until the vegetables become soft, about 8 minutes.
4. Pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Continue simmering until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. (Simmer longer, if possible, as this allows the flavours to marry even more.)
5. When vegetables are soft, use a hand blender to puree the soup until smooth. If you don’t have a hand blender just add the soup to a regular blender in batches.
6. After you’ve reached a smooth consistency, stir in the sour cream and milk.
7. Turn the heat to low and add the cheese in small handfuls, making sure it melts before adding more. Taste the soup and correct any seasonings if necessary with sea salt or fresh ground pepper.
8. Top soup with fresh-cut green onions and extra cheese. Enjoy!
During the time of all this cooking (and of course the fun of eating!) our platoon was evolving. Dinner time at home brings family members closer, and the same was happening with our fire hall family. Teamwork to help build the meal, followed by everyone sitting together eating, laughing and enjoying a break in the day, really made for strong bonds within our platoon. Seeing the smiles that a great meal brought to everyone’s face made cooking well worth the time and effort involved.
I’ve learned over countless fire hall lunches and dinners that if you stick to three simple criteria for a meal, everyone is going to be happy:
1. The food has to be delicious. I used to think firefighters would eat just about anything, regardless of taste. However, if the meal tastes especially good, they will appreciate it much more.
2. The meal has to be satisfying and healthy. We have a demanding job and we need the proper fuel to function optimally. Also, we are much more educated now about the benefits of proper eating.
3. The food has to be inexpensive. We all know firefighters are, let’s say, thrifty. Try to keep meals between $5 and $8 per person.
With some creativity using ingredients and a little planning with your local grocery store sale flyer, you and your platoon can create something special and affordable that will leave the significant others at home feeling a little bit jealous. Don’t be intimidated to try new things. There may be some failures along the way (I’m recalling a particular duck experiment that went wrong), but your brothers and sisters at the fire hall are forgiving and will still appreciate your efforts in the end. Have fun with cooking; it will bring much more to your platoon than just full stomachs!
I’ve included two recipes to help get you started. Enjoy them: they have been threecriteria tested, and they’ve brought many smiles to my fire hall family.
Department challenges members to be part of “THE” fire service
Department name/location
King Fire and Emergency Services, Township of King, Ont.
chief/deputies
Chief Bryan Burbidge
Deputy Chief James Wall
Type of department
Composite
(Full-time administration and prevention only)
Mandate
Public education, prevention, fire, rescue services and first-response EMS
number of stations/halls
Three stations
• King City (Station 3-4)
• Schomberg (Station 3-6)
• Nobleton (Station 3-8)
number of firefighters
4 full-time staff
105 volunteers
number of officers
Full-time fire chief, deputy chief and fire prevention officer; three district chiefs; three assistant district chiefs; 15 captains; 12 acting captains.
uniform colour
Standard, using Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs rank insignia
population served
21,000-plus
Geographic area served
330 square kilometres
number of apparatuses
3 rescue pumpers
3 pumpers
2 50-foot tele squirt
5 tankers
1 command/rehab unit
1 heavy rescue
6 utility vehicles
1 public-education trailer
Shift
Volunteer department (pioneers of the 24hour shift!)
Volunteer firefighter recruitment usually
every two years. King Fire & Emergency Services usually takes on 10 to 15 volunteers and creates a wait list of 10 on top of that. Successful firefighters receive 160 hours of training before being permitted to respond to calls. Over the last six years, King Fire & Emergency has averaged an attrition rate of 10 per year due to retirements and resignations.
King Fire & Emergency trains and certifies to the Ontario firefighter curriculum as per the Ontario firefighter standard.
1,100 incidents per year; busiest station is King City (Station 3-4) at 600 a year, followed by Schomberg at 400 a year and Nobleton at 200 a year. During the day, King Fire & Emergency Services responds with two stations automatically to incidents that will involve more than one apparatus.
• Recruitment 2011 – 24 positions (including wait list).
• Review of the fire master plan.
when was the department founded
Three separate departments brought together in 1999.
Station 3-6 – Schomberg – is unique because it has a two-storey training house built inside!
Department’s mantra or saying “That to The” . . . Part of King Fire & Emergency Service’s mission, vision and values statement is to make the service “THE” fire service: “Our daily activities and forward thinking will take us from ‘THAT’ fire service to ‘THE’ fire service.
KFES has produced a “challenge coin” that carries the words duty, trust and honour and “That to The.” The coin is carried by members and supporters of KFES.
Social or athletic activities in which your members participate
KFES hosts an annual firefighter appreciation and awards night that is attended by 90 per cent of the department. Staff have a pick-up hockey league, play baseball in the summer and participate in various fundraising events for charities.
causes your department supports
BullEx Smoke Generators were designed with one goal in mind: to create the most realistic fire training smoke possible. BullEx Smoke Generators fill your training environment with dense heavy smoke in minutes, without recharging or reheating. High volumes of smoke with minimal residue allow you to stage full scale incidents you may face in high-risk buildings in your community. Train to ensure that everyone goes home. To see the Smoke Generators in action, check out our videos at www.bullexsafety.com
Muscular Dystrophy, Camp Bucko, breast cancer awareness, Children’s Wish Foundation.
For Victoria Day, staff from Nobleton (Station 3-8) produce an awesome fireworks display. Over the last 20 years, the Nobleton crew has done the fundraising and organizing and has been responsible for the pyrotechnic display itself. Every year thousands of people come out to view the show, which costs about $20,000 to put on.
Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly welcomes requests for department profiles. E-mail lking@annexweb.com and tell us what’s unique about your department and we’ll follow up to arrange photos and details.
By James Careless
he day of the Sunrise Propane explosion in Toronto in August 2008, Acting District Chief Bob Leek delivered an all-terrain vehicle to onsite colleagues and stayed to help with the evacuation of thousands of residents of the north Toronto neighbourhood where the incident occurred. Leek, 55, was later found collapsed on a sidewalk; he died after suffering a heart attack.
Heart attacks are the biggest killer of firefighters over 40 years old. But new testing and research is available that screens firefighters to determine their risks for cardio incidents. And U.S. cardiologist Dr. Lowell Gerber, the leading researcher for this new testing technology, says even young, fit firefighters should be tested.
Everyone has heard stories of beerleague hockey players with no apparent history of heart problems collapsing on the ice from heart attacks. The same thing can happen to firefighters. This new test, called Microvolt T-Wave Alternans, or MTWA, can pinpoint a firefighter’s – or a hockey player’s – risk for heart attack. Essentially, MTWA is a subtle heart rhythm abnormality that is a specific marker of arrhythmic (heart rhythm) vulnerability and risk of sudden cardiac arrest.
A pilot project at the Freeport Fire Department in Maine in the fall of 2010 determined that the nine volunteer members are heart healthy but picked up signs of potential issues with blood pressure and diabetes.
“I have been very concerned about my firefighters’ heart health, so when I found out [Dr. Gerber] had some ideas that would help me look out for heart attack risk, I was intrigued,” Freeport Fire Chief Darrell Fournier said in a phone interview. Fournier heard Gerber speak at a Rotary Club luncheon and followed up with him about the testing for his crews.
Gerber, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, is at the forefront of this heart-testing research with a company called Cambridge Heart and its MTWA. The treadmill stress test looks for subtle abnormalities in a heartbeat pattern; the test has been shown to accurately predict
Aerobic capacity stress test performed during annual wellness medical at the Calgary Fire Department Wellness Centre.
vulnerability to heart attack – even in a fit, active people who are of ideal weight.
Gerber says the MTWA test is probably the most accurate predictor of people at risk for heart attacks. The test is available in Canada through the University of Calgary hospital and the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto. Until the MTWA test is more widely available, experts recommend that firefighters have regular medical checkups and any other kind of cardio screening available through their physicians or fire departments.
“Fortunately, none of the nine firefighters we tested showed these markers,” Gerber said of Freeport’s crew of volunteer. “But they all had signs of having potential issues with pre-high blood pressure and even prediabetes, so the testing gave us a heads-up before things became more serious,” he said.
The testing builds on a wealth of research into why firefighters are so prone to heart attacks. A 10-year study completed in 2010 by the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta at the University of Calgary followed 1,574 firefighters. At the outset and every six months for 10 years, each firefighter’s brachial artery (in the arm) was measured using ultrasound to monitor its functionality. This data was compared with the ongoing health of the participants, in-
cluding their heart attack history.
“The results indicate that in addition to the function of the heart, the function of blood vessel linings also contributes to coronary heart disease,” says Ian Crosby, fitness and wellness co-ordinator for the Calgary Fire Department. “Researchers found that when the linings of arteries became irregular, or sticky, they were more likely to accumulate cholesterol, which could then trigger a coronary episode, heart attack or stroke.”
According to the NFPA in its report U.S. Firefighter Fatalities Due to Sudden Cardiac Death 1995-2004, of the 1,006 on-duty firefighter fatalities over the 10-year period, 440 – or 43.7 per cent – fell into the category of sudden cardiac death. The report said the largest proportion of the victims experienced cardiac symptoms during fire ground operations – 155 deaths, or 35.2 per cent.
Because Canada does not have a national fire commissioner’s office to compile statistics, the Canadian fire service does not know if firefighter deaths follow the same pattern, says Barry Malmsten, executive director of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs.
“However, given the similarities in both countries’ operating environments and anecdotal information, it seems reasonable to assume that heart attacks are the No. 1 killer here as well.”
Calgary’s Crosby agrees. “In fact, firefighters are three times more prone to heart attacks than people working on other occupations,” he says
While many older, overweight, unfit people – and firefighters – can be prone to heart attacks from overexertion, there are subtle factors (genetic factors and others) that can lead to fit people dying of cardiac arrest while many overweight, sedentary, yet stressed, people live to a ripe old age.
Dr. Stefanos Kales is an expert on cardio health and has done substantial research on U.S. firefighter fatalities.
“The main factors that make firefighters over 40 more prone to heart attacks is being unfit, carrying too much weight, having a history of heart disease and/or an excess of heart disease risk factors, and then having to take part in strenuous work,” Kales said in a phone interview.
Kales said previous studies by his team show that 25 to 30 per cent of firefighters who died of cardio issues had already been diagnosed with heart disease and almost 60 per cent had cardiac enlargement at autopsy, which usually indicates chronic uncontrolled high blood pressure. Additionally, about 40 per cent of those who died were smokers.
More to the point, in a 2007 paper that Kales and his associates published in the New England Journal of Medicine, they proved statistically that cardio-related deaths were between 10 times and more than 100 times more likely to happen during fire suppression than during non-emergency duties. Heart death risks were also elevated in other emergency activities such as alarm response and alarm return, as well as physical training.
The team also found that many new and veteran firefighters are out of shape, and that more than 70 per cent of U.S. fire departments lacked programs that promote fitness and health.
“Most fire departments do not require firefighters to exercise regularly, undergo periodic medical examinations or have mandatory return-to-work evaluations after a major illness,” Kales said.
To make matters worse, Crosby says the physical demands placed on firefighters are often greater than the human body is designed to bear.
“It is not uncommon for firefighters to have their heart rates exceed their predicted maximums for 25 minutes or longer due to their bodies pumping adrenalin at the fire scene,” he says.
“The human body was never meant to operate at this adrenalin level for this time period. We cannot even simulate these conditions on a treadmill to see what they mean, because it is impossible to trigger adrenalin for such a long time period in the lab.”
Wearing heavy protective gear makes it difficult for the body to vent excess heat, while breathing dry, compressed air can stress the cardiovascular system, Crosby says. The result is a perfect storm of factors that can swamp firefighters who are already vulnerable to heart attacks.
While many Canadian departments are adopting fitness and wellness programs and working with firefighters to improve their health and fitness, Freeport’s Chief Fournier says firefighters need to shoulder some of the responsibility.
“After the work I’ve done with Dr. Gerber, I’ve learned to stop packing on carbs at fast-food places,” says Chief Fournier. “What I put into my body matters, both in terms of weight and the health of my heart and arteries.”
Many health and wellness programs, including the International Association of Fire Chiefs Wellness/Fitness Initiative – which has been adopted in Calgary and other departments – ensure that firefighters have regular medical exams that include cardiac testing. Crosby says it is not enough for firefighters to work out and eat right if they have an underlying condition that can make them vulnerable to heart attacks. Knowing that heart rhythm problems exist can allow doctors to treat firefighters with drugs and, if need be, install pacemakers to keep their hearts on beat.
In addition, he says, departments need to ensure that older firefighters with health issues feel safe telling management about health concerns and that jobs are not lost as a result; otherwise, the people who need help most will seek it the least.
“There are many, many things that can be done to help reduce the rate of heart attacks in firefighters,” says Chief Fournier. “Improving fitness, changing diet and detecting risk factors for heart disease will save the lives of our people and the public they protect. It will also make a real difference to their families, who won’t have to be told that their father/husband died on the fire scene. This is all within our reach; we just have to do it.”
James Careless is a freelance writer based in Ottawa and a frequent contributor to Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly.
Wireless and VoIP technology is advancing but regulations and governance are falling behind
By James Careless
Despite advances made in Enhanced 911 (E911) communications, which provides 911 call centres with the physical addresses of callers, Canada’s 911 system is failing to keep up with the pace of telephone technology. As a result, 911 call centres and the first responders they support still have trouble correctly locating callers and struggle to pay for services to help the callers they can locate.
According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA), an Ottawa-based industry group representing Canada’s cellphone companies, 23.4 million Canadians subscribe to some form of wireless telephone service. Half of all phone connections are wireless, and 75 per cent of Canadian homes have access to a wireless phone.
Not surprisingly, this wireless trend is having an impact on 911 call centres. In Alberta, for instance, “Over 50 per cent of all calls to our 911 call centres are cellular calls,” says Chris Kearns, chair of the Alberta E911 Advisory Association, which brings together E911 managers from across the province. Kearns is also communications centre manager with the Lethbridge Fire Department. Concerted action by the CWTA, its member companies and the
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has resulted in substantial progress providing locational data for wireless 911 calls.
“In line with the CRTC rules on E911, Canada’s wireless carriers now provide E911 centres with information regarding the caller’s physical location,” says CWTA communications director Marc Choma. “If the caller’s phone has a built-in GPS unit, this exact latitudinal and longitudinal data can be sent to the call centre. If not, we can still get an approximate location on the caller by triangulating their signal strength with respect to the nearest receiving tower.”
Kearns applauds the progress on wireless E911, although he notes that older wireless devices without GPS are harder to find using triangulation. But what really concerns him is the fact that Alberta doesn’t have any legislation requiring cellular companies to pay for E911 service.
“Our province doesn’t have this kind of law in place; neither does British Columbia,” Kearns says. “Now our overall call volumes are going up, and over half of the calls being from wireless handsets. But since we don’t get paid to handle those wireless calls – and more people are switching to wireless – our operating revenues are going down. It’s an impossible situation that puts more and more pressure on the system, with no relief in sight.” (In other provinces, cellular companies are required to provide support to local 911 call centres.)
Unlike cellphones, Voice over IP (VoIP) telephones send their signals across the Internet. In the simplest sense, they function just like any IP address-identified computer connected to the web, which means it is not necessary to provide their physical location for them to connect. Any location data that the call centres receive comes from the VoIP’s address files, not the caller’s physical location.
This is not a problem in the case of fixed VoIP users (people who have a hard-wired telephone system that happens to be connected to a VoIP carrier, rather than Bell Canada or Telus). But it is a problem with so-called nomadic VoIP users, people who move their VoIP phone to a new address without notifying their carrier of the address change, or businesspeople who take their VoIP phones from place to place as they travel.
Effectively, this state of affairs means that VoIP phones can only access basic 911 service; E911 does not work with this technology. If VoIP users don’t alert their carriers of a location change, then emergency services can end up being sent to their old address after a 911 call. Such was the case in 2008, when the family of 18-month-old Elijah Luck called for help. The family had moved to Calgary, while their VoIP carrier still had them listed as living in Mississauga, Ont. Unfortunately, by the time an ambulance was sent to the right house and got Elijah Luck to hospital, the child had died.
“The high-profile case that occurred in Calgary two years ago underscores the problem with VoIP 911,” says Brian Cornforth, fire
The fire service is extraordinarily different than it was not too long ago. Through common sense, legislation and technical advancements, fighting fires today has become more of an art than hope-for-the-best approach.
However, I am very concerned that we, as a fire service, are not thinking about the big picture. If you were to ask your members what they know about fire prevention and education issues, how would they respond? I ponder why we as a fire service have not made more of an effort to increase our own knowledge of fire prevention strategies and share that information with the public with confidence.
Many of us have heard and probably believe that admitting we have a problem is the first step to dissolving a damaging addiction. Before that admission, there is usually a chain of events that forces us to admit that there is a problem, to recognize the problem and understand that we must play a significant role in order to solve the problem.
cation knowledge or lack of will to attain and share the knowledge – it’s time to do something about it. Educate yourself about fire prevention measures and how to relay this knowledge to the public. This is not rocket science, but it is more than a fire station tour.
Look into what other fire departments are doing to educate their citizens in fire prevention and public education. Meet or call other fire departments and firefighters to pick their brains. Read magazines (like this one), get a sense of what’s going on out there regarding public education and allow yourself to think how you might incorporate strategies for your own community with only one caveat – it can’t cost any taxpayers money, at least not yet (I will discuss financial strategies in the next issue).
I recently joined a support group to help me lose weight. It’s not a diet. They don’t have any special food or anything to buy for that matter. The plan follows the same premise of Alcoholics Anonymous. The same literature is used and the practical steps followed with permission of A.A. Focusing on my addiction to eating and eating the foods that my body does not process well has been an education. It’s the best thing I’ve done for myself in a long time. I’ve learned a key strategy from this. If you want to make a change, you have to change your behaviour. Easier said than done. I have remained committed to my decision and I am reaping many positive benefits such as lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure and more energy.
KEN sHERidAN
I’m a strong believer that passion and influence are keys to unlock the door of change.
I’m not a psychologist, but I’ve drawn a parallel to the way some humans think about their personal conditions and that of the fire service. Some of us may have addictive behaviours and not know it – addictions such as smoking or caffeine or sugary foods. Some of us know we have an addiction and are doing nothing to correct it. Others are working to correct these addictive behaviours with success or a degree of success. Sadly, some don’t care about their problems and how they affect them or those around them.
All of this is metaphoric jargon to direct your attention to our own fire service. Ask yourself, “Do we have a problem educating our citizens about fire?” If you answered “no”, then turn the page and read another article. However, I trust that many of you answered, “Yes, we may have a problem.” In my experience, this is the case for many fire departments across the county.
If you’re lucky enough to have a public fire educator on your department you’ve got a head start. However, all firefighters have a significant role to play in public fire safety education. We have a responsibility to do this.
If we have admitted we have this problem – the lack of public edu-
Find an ally in your department you trust and who won’t laugh at you when you share ideas with her or him. Spend less time with those who don’t have the foresight that you do and your desire to change the status quo.
If you discover a small, simple approach or plan that, if implemented, could make a difference in just one life, explore how it can be accomplished. You may need to do a bit of research and write a short proposal on paper so it makes sense to you and your fire chief, and with his/her approval, give it a try. Don’t think too big here – perhaps a door-to-door smoke-alarm campaign, or a display at a local store or mall with fire personnel promoting fire prevention and education.
That brings me to another issue: the fire chief. Most of what happens in your fire department depends on the fire chief giving a nod to affirm, defer or decline a proposal regardless of what division is asking. You have to educate the chief – gently of course. Don’t laugh – it can be done. Send all sorts of things to your chief via e-mail, photocopies, faxes or whatever it takes to educate her/him about fire issues and how to resolve them through prevention. Meet with your chief (this is easier, perhaps, in a smaller department) or senior officer if possible, and explain your idea or at least explain the problem and the fact that you want to do something about it. I’m a strong believer that passion and influence are keys to unlock the door of change. Be sure not to offend anyone in this process. If you have to go above an officer to meet with the chief, always ensure you follow the chain of command.
If you get the blessing of the chief, put your proposal into action. Make it happen.
Ken Sheridan is captain of fire prevention in Norfolk County, Ont. He is a certified fire prevention officer and certified fire and life safety educator for the Province of Ontario. He is a graduate of the Dalhousie University fire administration program and has more than 21 years in fire suppression and fire prevention. Contact him at ken.sheridan@norfolkcounty.ca
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” –Henry Ford
The above quotation reflects the culture and direction of Canada’s integrated fire and EMS systems. For many communities, this dual approach to saving lives is ingrained and deeply rooted, with a rich history that continues to succeed today.
People have ever-increasing expectations of emergency services. Fire services have had to expand their toolboxes with high-angle rescue, heavy rescue, hazmat and water rescue/ dive teams. EMS has grown, with new protocols, an expanded scope of practice, superior equipment and additional services. With ever-tighter budgets, emergency services are expected to find efficiencies in everything they do. The adage doing more for less applies to today’s emergency services. Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services (LFES) in Alberta is among several Canadian departments that have addressed this issue and realized efficiencies by cross-training staff to be firefighters and EMS providers – one crew, many jobs.
At any time in Lethbridge, the crews on duty may be dispatched to a cardiac arrest call, or to assist a family with a CO alarm; it’s all part of the daily duties for firefighter/paramedics who have been delivering EMS and fire services since 1912. Next year, the department celebrates 100 years of continuous EMS provision. LFES is the oldest dual-role service in North America. All Lethbridge’s trucks are staffed with paramedic and EMT personnel who are cross-trained as firefighters. Four stations cover a population of 86,000, with call volumes of 10,000 EMS runs and 1,300 fire/rescue runs a year. Each station staffs ALS ambulances and ALS engine/rescue trucks. Additionally, Lethbridge is responsible for a rural fire protection zone, inter-facility patient transfers, specialized rescue teams and a fire prevention bureau.
are trained to provide a scene size-up and report findings to the firstarriving officer. Working within the incident command system on all call types, the role of the firemedic can be assigned as needed. On a fire scene, those assigned to the ambulance can act as firefighters, care for fire victims or set up rehab tasks. When asked why this system works so well, many say that being housed in a station together as a team allows joint training, team building and a general sense of collective direction to any emergency.
lEE sAgERT
LFES is the oldest dual-role service in North America.
In an integrated department, it is not unusual for an engine company to arrive first to a medical call – if it is the closest unit – and provide immediate advanced life support care. The value of this care is emphasized with the ability of the first-arriving paramedic to accompany the patient in the ambulance to the hospital. This is truly a seamless transition. Some of the efficiencies are:
1. Everyone has the same training.
2. Staff can change roles when needed.
3. There are always trained medical personnel and equipment available on every scene to which staff respond.
4. Continuity of care for patients – the first paramedic/EMT on scene can do initial assessment/care and transport patients to the hospital.
5. The tax base has to fund only one employee group (this is more fiscally responsible). Separate fire and EMS systems rely on the tax base to fund two employee groups.
Although EMS calls make up the bulk of emergencies in Lethbridge, fire calls are handled the same way. Lethbridge’s firemedics carry turnout gear and breathing apparatus on the ambulances and are simultaneously dispatched with fire units. Often arriving first, they
“The fact that our leaders have worked all levels of the system only strengthens the team,” says Lethbridge firefighter/paramedic Todd Walker. Helping people, regardless of the type of incident, is the forte of Canada’s integrated fire and EMS systems. When demands call for community health care, crews assist with injury prevention in youth, blood-pressure and flu-shot clinics. Or, crews may be called to check smoke alarm batteries or perform home inspections for the community. The system eliminates the need for multiple agencies to deal with emergencies. Leaders of these dual-role departments have big challenges as they supervise such a variety of objectives but bring them together to work as one. Although this structure works smoothly, this all-in-one system has its challenges, including:
• maintaining proficiency and experience on a multitude of equipment
• higher call volume – stations struggle to balance training versus calls
• fulfilling EMS benchmarks and procedures for legislated provincial standards (chute time versus response time and their effect on patient outcome – these may not match local department standards)
• working to rotate staff through ambulance duty and fire duty to maintain competence in both specialties
• co-ordinating responses to best serve the public
• sorting out the various custodians of EMS – municipal or provincial governments, federal or municipal, and urban versus rural challenges
In upcoming issues of Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly we’ll look at those challenges to help open up discussion on various EMS delivery models.
The delivery of emergency care in Canada varies from community to community. Private ambulance services, provincially run ambulance systems, integrated departments and stand-alone fire services all deal professionally with EMS. However, a team approach that focuses on one goal strengthens public confidence. The goal is to care for the community and there is no better exercise for your heart than reaching down to help somebody up.
Lee Sagert is a career paramedic/firefighter with the City of Lethbridge and a volunteer lieutenant with Coaldale Emergency Services. Lee is a former flight paramedic with S.T.A.R.S. and has trained at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland. Contact him at leesagert@shaw.ca
Continued from page 38
chief with the Lethbridge Fire Department in Alberta and president of the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association. “Unless the address information attached to the VoIP user’s IP address is up to date, there is no way for the dispatch centre to locate someone unable to provide voice information.”
Emergency services have been aware of the issues with VOIP since it was introduced, says Bryan Burbidge, fire chief in King Township, Ont., and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs’s representative on the Ontario 911 advisory board.
“We advised of the potential 911 issues at the onset of VOIP back several years ago,” Burbidge said. “The very unfortunate part of this is that Nomadic users of VOIP who need to call 911 may not be aware of the differences in the address that the bill goes to the address where the user is physically located. More often than not the two addresses are different and possibly kilometers, cities, even provinces apart.”
The CRTC has looked at the issue of nomadic VoIP 911 in depth. However, in Telecom Decision CRTC 2010-387 (issued June 17, 2010), the CRTC concluded that the current proposed VoIP E911 Ci2 locational technology is just not up to the task.
“The CRTC notes that no parties indicated that Ci2 or a similar nomadic VoIP E911 service has been implemented in other countries,” says CRTC 2010-387. “The CRTC therefore considers that the proposed Ci2 solution is untested and that actual experience with respect to the feasibility and costs of implementing such a solution does not exist.”
This fact, plus the CRTC’s belief that upcoming next-generation 911 technologies “would support nomadic VoIP service by using location-aware devices to determine a subscriber’s location,” led the CRTC to endorse the VoIP 911 status quo.
“We looked at the cost and implementation time associated with Ci2, and concluded that it would not be a good decision,” says CRTC spokesperson Denis Carmel. “The next generation of 911 technology is coming, and it will be more suitable to addressing this problem.”
In the interim, “it is up to Canadian VoIP subscribers to keep their carriers apprised of their latest addresses, and for the carriers to make this easy to do via their websites,” he added.
One consolation: The CRTC’s research
Cell phones with built-in GPS units can be tracked by 911 call centres, which can relay locations to first responders. But the system can’t keep pace with telephone technology and there’s not enough funding.
indicates that “the number of nomadic VoIP service subscribers declined from 161,000 in 2007 to 153,000 in 2008, and accounted for 0.8 per cent of wireline telephone service subscribers in 2008,” says decision CRTC 2010-387.
“Based on these statistics and assuming no further declines, the CRTC notes that the nomadic VoIP service subscribers who would potentially use Ci2 comprise 0.4 per cent of all 911 subscribers and two per cent of high-speed Internet subscribers.”
Time will tell if the percentage of nomadic voice users continues to decline, or reverses this course and increases again.
In the meantime, wireless use is growing and this growth is hurting 911 call centres in provinces that do not require wireless carriers to pony up cash.
“We are required to have the technology to serve wireless customers,” Cornforth says. “But no funding from wireless providers is transferred to the municipalities to support our costs. The cost and liability associated to running a call centre are extensive and those costs need to be shared with the wireless providers. Do we have the money to keep doing so? That is an entirely different question.”
James Careless is a freelance writer based in Ottawa and a frequent contributor to Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly.
YOUR TRAINING CONTINUES HERE
It’s time to say a prayer to St. Jude. You’ve heard of him, haven’t you? He’s the patron saint of lost causes.
It might seem more fitting in a Spontaneous Combustion column to talk about St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters, but consider this: as chief of a microscopic volunteer fire department in the middle of nowhere, I have experience with lost causes. You’ve read my stories about train wrecks, hazmats, fatal crashes, and buildings burned into the basement. Sure, there were lives and property saved in between, but many, many of those incidents were lost causes before the pagers went off.
Here’s the odd thing about firefighters though. We know we can’t raise the dead, or undo the destruction, or rebuild memories, or heal broken hearts, but we don’t say, “Nah, I’m not going to that call. It’s a lost cause.” We respond because we can take a shot at making a lost cause just a little better.
Last summer, I was paged to a political lost cause. It started with a plea from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs to support the proposed volunteer firefighter tax credit. Having done my fair share of complaining about government apathy toward the fire service, I decided to try something positive for a change. I used the convenient letter supplied on the CAFC website, and wrote my honourable member of Parliament. I assumed the letter would vanish into the abyss of political indifference, so it surprised me when a few weeks later MP John Rafferty’s office called to ask if I would like a meeting. I didn’t have to be asked twice.
of it getting enough support to pass were slim. Second, MP Rafferty had already put forward his one allotted bill for the term. He could introduce the motion, but another MP would have to take up the cause or it would not advance to second reading. Last but not least, the motion would not be binding, even if it did pass. On the plus side, it would cast light on the plight of volunteer departments, whether it passed or not, and it would be less intimidating to support than a bill. And there was always the hope that it might begin the groundwork for future legislation.
Over the next month or so, Rafferty’s office kept us updated on his efforts. He found that while all parties supported the volunteer tax credit, it continued to be a work in progress. His search for other possible funding sources had met with dead ends on every front. He still recommended that we move forward with the motion. The first draft was ready by December and our mutual-aid zone was given an opportunity to comment on it. By the end of January, the motion was ready.
When M-635 was tabled in the House of Commons on Feb. 8, No one expected Ottawa to warm to this idea overnight.
With a population of 180, Upsala is hardly a bastion of constituency power, so prudence dictated that I enlist the support of our mutual-aid zone. It wasn’t difficult to find a few chiefs willing to give a captive MP audience an earful of stories about recruiting crises, funding shortfalls and decrepit apparatuses. In keeping with the theme of my letter, we also discussed the proposed $3,000 firefighter tax credit.
MP Rafferty listened patiently. When we were done, he offered to look into the status of the tax credit initiative and examine a few other sources of possible funding. Then he dropped a bombshell. Canada needed a national strategy to support volunteer fire departments. It was a “why didn’t I think of that” moment. With my background in lost causes, I knew immediately that this one was worth fighting for.
Fire chiefs are realists, and we knew that a request for funding in the current economic climate would be received as warmly as a cruise on Lake Superior in January. No one expected Ottawa to warm to this idea overnight, but even the proverbial journey of 1,000 miles has to start with one step. MP Rafferty suggested that the best first step would be a parliamentary motion.
There were a number of strikes against us from the start. First, it would have to be a private member’s motion, and the chances
When M-635 – the motion calling for federal funding for volunteer fire departments –was tabled in the House of Commons on Feb. 8, I didn’t expect 308 MPs to smack their foreheads and say, “Why didn’t we think of that?” I had higher hopes for the media, but news about the motion fizzled like a spark between two damp fingers on the end of a candlewick. I appreciated that Fire Fighting in Canada gave it a boost with a story on its website. It also posted links on its blog and Facebook page. I took a cue from the CAFC and drew up a sample letter in support of the motion, which is still available on my blog. Constituent letters, whether by mail or e-mail, are still the best way to snag the attention of our MPs. Without a tangible show of popular support, M-635 will remain stalled in a traffic jam of unnoticed motions and bills waiting for someone to rescue it.
So here’s the deal. Unless St. Jude and St. Florian appear on Parliament Hill before the next election, M-635 is likely a lost cause. Perhaps that is why the idea appealed to me so much. I’m accustomed to un-winnable fights, and I’m not intimidated by the fact that help is far away. Firefighters don’t call it quits just because we can’t raise the dead. Even political lost causes can make an impact if people support them, as seen recently in the Middle East. While I don’t expect even a fraction of that kind of support for volunteer firefighters, it’s still worth a shot. Whether M-635 sees the light of day or not, at least we’ve been heard. We cared enough to try, and that may save us in the end. You never know, St. Jude might just come through for us yet.
Tim Beebe is the fire chief in Upsala, Ont. Contact him at upsalafd@tbaytel.net and check out his blog at www.beebewitzblog. blogspot.com.
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