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Blog
The first two days of the trip have been very informative. We got a chance to
see the production facility at Task Force Tips and attended some great sessions
today in the pre conference sessions. The tour of the facility was very
impressive, learned alot about how the nozzles and appliances are made and what
is coming new for 2010. The sessions I attended today covered scene sizeup and
tactical decisions where we reviewed helmet cam footage from an Oklahoma Batt
Chief on three different calls, going through the call and looking at the
decisions that were made and the difficulties that they faced. This afternoon I
attended a session on storage tank facility fires. Great review of application
methods and tank construction features. Looking forward to the opening of the
general sessions tomorrow and the opening of the trade fair floor later in the
week.
by Heith Johannson, Lacome Fire Departent | 04/21 POST A COMMENT | 0 COMMENTS |
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Sunday night got initiated into the Buffalo Club and have since become TATONKA
(Buffalo King) and will be walking around Indy for the rest of the week with a
target on my back.
Task Force Tips tour on Monday was good. Lots of
neat stuff and hands on session.
Casual day today, just did some
touring and picture taking, registered for FDIC today so I will be ready for
Wednesday morning bright and early.
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On tour with Task Force Tips |
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 –
update
Its
Brad Boddez from the Fire Within. I'm just writing a quick blog for the site
about our tour at Task Force Tips in Valparaiso, Ind.
The
tour started with TFT dividing us into three groups. Two groups went for a tour
in the plant while the other had a practical hands-on session with some of
their products. Everyone rotated through the three groups. The tour was very
interesting and well planned. Our tour guides were very knowledgeable with all
the stages of their production. This is a very professional organization and
the tour was a very enjoyable one.
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Just like riding a bicycle . . . |
Editor's note: Canada's
The Fire Within and 30 firefighters are at FDIC in Indianapolis experiencing the HOT sessions, workshops and trade show. They're doing other stuff
too, some of which you will read about in our The Fire Within / FDIC /
Fire Fighting in Canada blog. Check in daily for updates from Indy and wish you were there!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
The factory tour at Task Force Tips was amazing and very informative. After that, the group got on the bus for the three-hour drive to Indy. To pass the time, Chad recited all the lines to Top Gun which was really cool (no, not really). Thankfully, the bus was stocked with "refreshments" to dull the pain of listening to Chad.
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April 19, 2010
Editor's note: Canada's The Fire Within and 30 firefighters are at FDIC in Indianapolis this week, touring manufacturing plants, experiencing the HOT sessions and workshops and enjoying the massive trade show. They're doing other stuff too, some of which you will read about in our The Fire Within / FDIC / Fire Fighting in Canada blog. Check in daily for updates from Indy.
The group includes: Heath Johannson and Cory Clark from Nova Chemicals Emergency Services; Mike Torscher, Bow Island Fire Department; Trevor Allan, High River Fire Department; Mike Melanson and Jeff Beddome from the Irricana Fire Department; Bob Hogarth and Daryl Friesen, Lacombe Fire Department; Brad Boddez, Morinville Fire Department; Henry Thornson, St. Paul Fire Department; Doug Reid, Jeff Karkut and Terry Desserre from the Strathmore Fire Department; Trent Wagner and Betty Thompson-Reeves from the Swan Hills Fire Department; Lindsey Gall and David Mohl from the Hanna Fire Department; Wayne Swinimer, Jamie Juteau and Scott Burgess from the Windsor Fire Department; Mac Debeaudrap, Cochrane Fire Department; Tom Eichhorn and Randy Schroeder from the Mayerthorpe Fire Department; Chad Sartison and Doug Eagleton, Priddis Fire Depatrment; Dave King, Vegreville Fire Department; Kevan Jess with Alberta Municipal Affairs; Terry Garrington, Lavington Fire Department, Ken Sheridan with the Norfolk County Fire & EMS and Duane (the honourary Canadian) from Manheim, Pa.
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“I hate coach.” The Fire
Within’s Chad Sartison enjoys
the comfort of economy class
en route to Chicago. |
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No bull. Some proud Canadian
firefighters enjoy the local
landmarks in Valparaiso, Ind. |
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The Fire Within has arrived in Valparaiso at the Task Force Tips factory! After the unending excitement of flying coach and then a bus ride from Chicago to Valparaiso, the group arrived intact at the hotel Sunday evening. There were only a few minor incidents on the way - SOMEONE (Brad) left his carry on behind on the first leg of the flight; we found out that you CANNOT, in fact, touch a flight attendant; and Trevor (High River FD) now knows that the world is NOT flat and airplanes DO exist.
WFR and Task Force Tips provided dinner and drinks and the rest of the group provided the entertainment, as usual. Our first American attendee, Duane (Manheim, PA) was knighted as an honourary Canadian. The ceremony was complete with a Canada hat with ear flaps and good old Canadian beer (one of these items was more welcome that the other).
Today the group attends the TFT factory tour and is then on the way to INDY! Much more to come . . .
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Monday, April 19, 2010
With FDIC opening today in
Indianapolis we’re looking forward to hearing from our bloggers
with The Fire Within group of 30 Canadian firefighters attending the big show.
The group includes firefighters and fire officers from B.C., Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia who will let us in on their, um, adventures – most
of which are certain to be educational – and share their opinions and
experiences. Stay tuned.
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I almost choked on my tea
Saturday morning when I flipped the page in the Globe and Mail and saw this headline on Christie Blatchford’s
column: Who opposes sprinklers in nursing
homes? Oddly, it’s the firefighters. (Note that the headline is different in the online version.)
The headline threw me for
a loop given the Canada-wide push for sprinklers and, in particular, the
efforts of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs and others to have older retirements
homes retrofitted with sprinklers after a fatal fire in Orillia, Ont., last year.
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Thursday, April 16, 2010
You know those online forums, the
ones on which firefighters (and hockey parents!) like to post anonymous
comments about news stories or issues, or people? Well, as reporters and writers already
know but some forum participants clearly don't, it’s really important to think
before you type.
The Nova Scotia Supreme Court said
yesterday that internet anonymity shouldn't be a shield
for legal actions and ordered a Halifax-based newspaper and Google Inc. to
provide the identities of people who posted comments about Halifax
Fire Chief Bill Mosher and Deputy Chief Stephen Thurber. The two are
considering a defamation suit against people who posted the comments.
The comments were in a
discussion forum hosted by The Coast and were related to stories about racism
in the fire department.
Mosher and Thurber are considering a lawsuit against the author of emails sent through a Gmail
account. You can read the whole story here.
So, as in kids hockey, the following rules apply: wait 24 hours before saying anything about an issue no matter how strongly you feel; don't say anything in an e-mail you wouldn't say face to face; and, the real moral of the story - stay away from online forums.
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April 14, 2010
Those who cannot learn from the past are condemned
to repeat it.” - George Santayana
Sometimes, usually not because of good news, I have
the need to go back and recycle from my previous articles. In 2006 I wrote this
review of two silo incidents in Ohio:
Firefighters from two
neighbouring rural fire departments responded to a fire in an oxygen-limiting
grain silo. As water was being applied into openings at the top of the silo by
firefighters on aerial platforms, the silo exploded. The two firefighters on
the platforms were killed. Is it reasonable to expect rural firefighters to
know and understand the correct methods of fighting such a fire? Hell, yes, it
is. It is incumbent on every fire department to identify the unique hazards in
their response areas and to have a very good idea of what to do in the event of
a response to those hazards. Volunteer or not, if there is a silo in your
response area you had better know what to do if it catches on fire. Is this
information hard to find? Hell, no, it ain’t. A NIOSH report on a similar
incident in 1985 lays out exactly what the dangers are and what procedures to
follow at silo fires. That incident resulted in the deaths of three
firefighters. Any degree of community risk assessment and incident
action planning would have prevented the 2003 re-occurrence.
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