My Three-Part Risk Management Plan: Alex, Laurie and Kathleen

Despite the fact that I wrote this piece for Fire-Rescue Magazine last year, I’m pretty sure its content is still relevant as we ponder recent and not so recent events during Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/usfa-reminds-you-that….

As I stated in comments to another blog by John Mitchell (www.firedaily.com) titled: “The Charleston 43″ (http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/the-charleston-43) — if we don’t make these incidents personal to us, incidents like these have the unique ability to quickly become personal for us.

Thus, I present for your review, a re-post of “Make It Personal” http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/09/07/make-it-personal/

Let me know what you think of the piece and what you’re doing to make Safety Week 2010 personal for you.

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From www.FireRECRUITER.com:

In honor of EMS Week-2010, I thought I’d promote the (dare I say) sexiest video I’ve ever seen come to volunteer recruitment and retention.

“Roll With It!” is a part music video, part movie trailer — full-on high energy – high impact web site for the recruitment of fire and EMS personnel.

Celebrate EMS Week in style: “Roll With It!”

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Now I’m not the biggest EMS geek but two fellow Fire-EMS Bloggers have embarked on their own home-grown exchange student program that has proven to be pretty darn entertaining so far.

Justin “The Happy Medic” Schorr is hosting Mark “Medic 999“ Glencorse for eight days in San Francisco — the San Francisco Fire Department being Justin’s place of employment.

Following those eight days, Mark will swim home and  Justin will head to England a couple of days later to have tea and crumpets and a ride along with Mark. The North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust being the place of Mark’s employment.

Their real-time information exchange is being chronicled across a variety of social media platforms so quickly that I think these two “world-apart paramedics” are feeling a little jet-lag.

Follow their adventures as they discover together that the more things are different – the more they are the same – at least when it comes to comparing cross-continental EMS delivery systems. 

Check out the full summary including links at: http://firecritic.com/2009/11/your-unofficial-guide-to-the-project/

And of course, visit the blogs of this “pair-a-medics” at http://www.happymedic.com and http://www.999medic.com for the latest posts, videos, photos and more.

PS – Their work is also being filmed for a pilot episode of a web series called Chronicles of EMS….stay tuned for more on that!

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Buffalo News Photo of 16-year old Amanda Hansen whose life was snuffed out by Carbon Monoxide - the silent killer

This morning’s Buffalo News headline featured the photo of a bright, beautiful 16-year old girl with a promising future, her life snuffed out by a silent killer yesterday.

Carbon Monoxide (CO) is colorless and odorless. It strikes with symptoms that could easily be mistaken for the flu. Small doses accumulated over time can be as dangerous as a prolonged exposure. Left undetected, there is potential for harm and death in almost every household in America.

Carbon Monoxide is a normal by-product of combustion. Natural gas fired appliances (stoves, boilers, hot water tanks, furnaces, etc.) give off carbon monoxide. So do wood burning stoves and fireplaces. However, under normal operating conditions and with sufficient ventilation, the CO does not accummulate to levels that can be dangerous to your health.

It’s when there is insufficient ventilation, incomplete combustion or a lopsided air to fuel mixture that problems occur. Such was the case with the hot water boiler that is believed to be responsible for Amanda Hansen’s death as she slept on a basement floor with her best friend and fellow swim team mate.

There are lots of steps to take in preventing its build-up, but the most important safety tool is a Carbon Monxide detector.

They’re not cheap but they are affordable, depending on the value you put on your life or that of your family. And, they are readily available at your local hardware store and even in many supermarkets, so there’s really no excuse for not having one.

Every house needs at least one and the best place to install them is closest to a potential source of CO build-up (gas or wood burning appliances) AND closest to where you’ll hear them.  The more the better. They’re designed to alert you long before readings reach deadly levels.

I’ve listed some resources that will help you understand what CO is and tell you lots of ways you can keep safe from Carbon Monoxide poisoning. But, all of this information is useless without a CO detector installed in your home.

So, I’m asking you this one favor, actually I’m begging you: Please CO-operate by purchasing a CO detector for your home today. Don’t wait. Don’t put it off until tomorrow, for as this most recent tragedy teaches us, tomorrow could be too late.

It’s a matter of life and death.

Buffalo News Article: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/552790.html

Carbon Monoxide Safety Information -

EPA – http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/coftsht.html

US Fire Administration – http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/all_citizens/co/index.shtm

CDC – http://www.cdc.gov/co/

Home Safety Council – http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/safety_guide/sg_co_w001.aspx

Home Safe – http://www.homesafe.com/coalert/

Links to other Fire & Life Safety Sites – http://www.erie.gov/fire

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