Great Message

The following post (and few more to come) are published by the MN State Fire Marshal Office and more specifically, fellow fire fighter, LT 7 and now Deputy Fire Marshal Public Educator...Becki W.

Becki publishes a newsletters with some great content.

Children Playing with Fire

NFPA just rereleased their latest study on Children Playing with Fire. The report summary stated that in 2006, an estimated 14,500 child-playing structure fires were reported to U.S. municipal fire departments, with associated losses of 130 civilian deaths, 810 civilian injuries, and $328 million in direct damage. Fifty-eight percent of these structure fires took place in the home. Most child-playing home fires begin with lighters or matches. The items ignited by home fire-play are principally mattresses, bedding, or clothing followed by magazines, newspaper, or writing paper, and upholstered furniture or vehicle seats. Nineteen percent of people who start reported fires by playing are four year olds. Nearly two thirds (63%) of all fatal victims of fires by play are children five years old and younger. There is a fact sheet available at nfpa.org.
Source: Children Playing with Fire, by Jennifer Flynn, NFPA, Quincy, MA, January 2009

A downloadable factsheet is available at: www.nfpa.org/assets/files//PDF/ChildrenFactSheet.pdf

One video worth watching.

Fire + Oil + Water = Explosive Fireball This is a great example that was demonstrated at the EPFD Open House this weekend. The ingredients are simple…..heat (stove top) a pan of hot oil (think deep frying) and water. Stove top cooking oil can easily catch fire and sustain a flame. When this happens the best way to extinguish the fire is to remove the oxygen by placing a lid on pan. Pouring water into the oil fire will …..well cause a giant fire ball. I may not get this exactly right but water vaporizes (steam) around 212 degrees. The oil is likely at 500 degrees. When the water hits the 500 degree oil it quickly converts to gas. As it expands into gas the oil droplets adhere to the water molecules and as the steam rises (water), so does the fire-based oil and there you have it…..a huge and dangerous fire ball.

EPFD Open House

EPFD (and EPPD) hosted their annual Open House yesterday. Besides a the weather (blanket of snow, wind and 30 degrees) we still had a few thousand people come through! The event would not have been as successful if it were not for all different organizations that provided volunteers (above and beyond EPFD) including CenterPoint Energy, LifeLink Helicopter, HCMC ambulance service, CERT (community emergency response team); MN State Fire Marshall for Sprinkler and Kitchen Fire Demo’s and many more.

I think one of the most exciting parts to the day was for the crowd to see how quickly we actually respond to real incident. During the middle of the day we had a (real) kitchen fire that took half the department (T41, E41 & E21) to respond. It was ‘cool’ for the group to see how quickly we transitioned from public educators to public service. (The good news it the responding squads knocked down the fire before it extended beyond the kitchen.

Great Demonstrations including two car fires & extrications, what happens in a kitchen grease fire when you add water (not good) plus EPPD showing how to properly secure car seats.

Pre Open House plan...

Going into the open house tomorrow morning I thought I would take a stab a setting the plan to see how well it actually come to fruition. I guess being out of the country four consecutive days prior and not attending the final staff meeting did not help but I think it is come together.

11:00 New Crash/Engine 12 – we have a brand spanking new engine that is ‘officially’ going into service at 11:00 as our Mayor cuts the ribbon.
11:15 we’ll demo auto extrication
11:45 we’ll begin to prepare for a vehicle fire. The thick black smoke usually gets the attention of the crowd.
12:30 the EPPD will demo their police dogs
1:30 will be the second auto extrication
2:00 being the final vehicle fire

In between the events there are a number of other demonstrations and things to see & do including:
Kid Photo in gear
Kitchen Fire Demo—what can happen with hot oil/grease fires
Safety Trailer – how smoke behaves in a room
Sprinkler Trailer – How sprinkler systems can help suppress room/content fires.
Technical Rescue – Demo of neighboring technical rescue
Show/Tell:
• LifeLink Helicopter
• HCMC Ambulance
• Technical Rescue Trailer
• Engine
• Tower
• Crash
• Rescue
• Police Car
Plus free treats & goodies including cookies, bars, hotdogs, popcorn, t-shirts and more……

Hopefully it goes like clockwork. Although the weather forecast is calling for high 30’s and snow the crowd might not be as large as years past.

No. 4 Year Olds Allowed

Spent last week entertaining half dozen 4 & 5 year olds at Station #4 for a birthday party. The birthday boy was concerned because when they drove by the station earlier in the week he saw a large sign that read: No. 4 and he thought four-year olds were prohibited from visiting the station.

The good news is he was turning 5 but some of his friends were still 4! Once assured that we would ‘bend’ the rules he as a happy camper.

Although you think 5 year olds would be excited they were a little intimidated at first. But after donning some gear, climbing on the trucks and throwing a little water they felt much better.

TLA…..not during EMT Class

EMT Week 3 (or four)....

Three Letter Acronyms are the least of my concerns during EMT training. The entire course is littered with MLA (Multi-Letter Acronyms) which are actually very helpful in assessing patients and performing treatment.

Lets start with the simple one:

• PPE: Personal Protective Equipment
• ABC: Airway, Breathing, Circulation
• AVPU: Alert, Vocal, Painful, Unresponsive
• DCAP-BTLS: Deformity, Contusion, Abrasion, Puncture/Penetration, Bruising, Tenderness, Laceration & Swelling
• SAMPLE: Symptoms, Allergy, Medicines, Pertinent History, Last oral intake, events leading up
• OPQRST: Onset, Provokes, Quality, Radiation, Severity & Time

That is only the first few chapters of training. So far we have managed trauma and medical assessment, airway management, vitals, scene size up and lifting.

Great class.

Time to Start Blogging EMT

EMT Training

Two weeks in and we finally started some hands on training. The first few classes have focused on the physiology & anatomy. I enjoyed back in high school and still find interesting. I think I’ll experience more medical/rescue calls than I will fire calls during my time in Eden Prairie so I am very motivated to learn it and perform it well.

Hands On tonight is not quite the same as the fire department but still very interesting.
Tonight we focused on three stations:

Chair Stair- a uniquely designed chair to transport people up/down stairs to an ambulance/stretcher. This device will certainly save backs and make life easier for patients and EMT’s.

Stretcher Operations – Operating a stretcher is more than pushing a wheeled cart from door to ambulance. It looks simple (and it is) but getting some hands on experience in lowering, raising and moving in/out of an ambulance certainly helps.

And finally, we did airway management. O2 Operations; oropharyngeal & nasopharyngeal airway; suction and artificial respiration with a Bag Valve Mask.