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Newletters From June, 2002
WILDFIRE SPENDING EXCEEDS BUDGET: CONGRESS WILL PROBABLY PASS INCREASED FUNDING DESPITE BUSH OBJECTIONS TO EXCEEDING HIS BUDGET
Originally Posted: June 26, 2002 11:40 PM
Last Updated: June 26, 2002 11:44 PM
The US Forest Service and Department of the Interior are already $566 million overbudget in their wildfire fighting program.
Bush officials say the President will veto increases over his budget and want the added firefighting funds to come from other budget line items. But Congress will probably add the needed funds to upcoming appropriations bills or to a supplemental appropriations bill.
Last year the US Forest Service spent $1 billion on wildfires. The areas burned this year so far are double the 2001 acres.
For other NEEDA Newsletter news about wildfire fighting, use the "Search" application in the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen.
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FIRE ACT GRANT ANNOUNCEMENTS BEGIN JULY 1 '02 US FIRE ADMINISTRATION SAYS
Originally Posted: June 26, 2002 3:04 PM
Last Updated: June 26, 2002 3:04 PM
While NEEDA expected Fire Act grant announcements in June, they are now scheduled to begin being announced in July, according to a bulletin issued by FEMA. Here is what they say:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United States Fire Administration (USFA) will begin the initial awarding of Assistance to Firefighters Grants on Monday July 1. Over 19,000 requests for funding have been received seeking more than $2.2 billion, and it is anticipated approximately 5,500 will be awarded before the end of the year.
The peer review by 300 fire service personnel has been completed. The process of awarding the grants will move slowly at first as FEMA staff work through the notifications and documentation process, which are, for the first time, web-based. Once the system is familiar to all the staff involved with its various segments, the web-based system will allow a significant speed up in the process, up to approximately 500 grants every two weeks. At that pace, it will take approximately five months to complete all of the awards.
For additional info on Fire Act Grants, use the "Search" application on the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen.
MORE INFO? Federal Emergency Management Agency
U.S. Fire Administration, 16825 S. Seton Ave., Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Voice: (301) 447-1000 FAX: (301) 447-1052
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INTERIOR, AGRICULTURE AND LABOR DEPARTMENTS OK FIRST NATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP STANDARDS TO IMPROVE SAFETY IN FIGHTING WILDFIRES
Originally Posted: June 24, 2002 2:47 PM
Last Updated: June 24, 2002 2:47 PM
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Gale R. Norton and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman signed the first National Apprenticeship Standards for the National Interagency Joint Apprenticeship Program for Wildland Fire.
The announcement came amidst some of the worst wildfires to hit the US West in recent years. Homes have been burned and thousands of citizens evacuated.
The apprenticeship program addresses the training and safety issues surrounding the Washington State deaths of the four firefighters (2001) on Thirtymile Fire and workforce issues identified in the 1999 GAO report on Work Force Development and Fire Management. The signing took place June 25, 2002 at the US Department of Agriculture.
As reported in NEEDA NEWSLETTER, NEEDA Executive Director interviewed several of the firefighters who were in Washington State supervising the fire of August-September 2001 and was told, while in Spokane WA, that the fire protective cover used a few days earlier by the apprentices killed was not at fault. NEEDA subsequently reported on the official report about this incident; had the product been at fault we would have immediately notified the industry. We applaud any reasonable steps to ensure the safety of all firefighters. As the only emergency equipment dealer association, we want to know if there are products or product modifications needed to increase safety when firefighters are put on the wildfire line. Emergency equipment dealers often provide training and support to firefighting forces and all our dealers are eager to know what we can do to help improve safety for these apprentices whose families and friends all count on every effort being extended to protect their courageous loved ones.
A Job Corps student firefighter, as well as firefighters from Department of the Interior and the U.S. Forest Service attended the signing of this agreement.
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DO THE FIRE DEPARTMENTS YOU SERVE FACE POTENTIAL LANDFILL AND SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL FIRES? LANDFILLS ARE TOP SOURCE OF METHANE GAS WHICH HELPS IGNITE LANDFILL FIRES
Originally Posted: June 24, 2002 12:21 PM
Last Updated: June 24, 2002 12:38 PM
When working with a fire department in projecting their fire fighting needs for the next five or ten years, are you calculating the fact that their municipal solid waste system, which is managing huge increases in flammable material, requires increased fire fighting equipment and training?
Landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the United States; in 1999, 35 percent of methane emissions were from landfills. Methane is highly flammable and plays a large role in the ignition of landfill fires.
Reported fires are responsible for less than 10 civilian injuries, 30 firefighter injuries, and between $3 and $8 million in property loss each year. Deaths (civilian or fire service) are rare in these fires.
Landfill fires threaten the environment through toxic pollutants emitted into the air, water, and soil. Landfill fires are particularly challenging to the fire service. A large landfill fire normally requires numerous personnel and a significant period of time before it is contained. Both of these circumstances can strain a jurisdiction, particularly one dependent on volunteer staffing.
Waste treatment facilities and landfills produce gasses and other firefighting challenges which require specialize equipment and supplies, products you can obtain for your fire department to help them to be ready for a waste treatment or landfill incident.
The fact that the amount of waste in the US is soaring, and this waste is being concentrated in fewer and fewer waste sites, is enough to justify increased fire department attention to being prepared to fight a fire, explosion or emergency incident at a waste site.
A new report from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides a lot of facts about the problem of fires in landfills. The number of landfills has decreased, but the amount of trash being processed by those landfills left has increased over the past 50 years,from 88.1 million tons in 1960 to 230 million tons in 1999.
The number of landfills has significantly decreased over the last 10 years,from about 8,000 in 1988 to about 2,200 in 1999. This decrease in the number of landfills is generally due to stricter regulations imposed by the EPA regarding landfill gas emissions, safety regulations,and content regulations of a landfill. Over the same period, the size of the remaining landfills has grown steadily to accommodate the increased production of Municipal Solid Waste.
The number of landfills recorded by the EPA does not take into account all of the individual,and in many cases illegal,dumping sites that were common in the early 1980s. Many businesses,factories,and enterprises had their own dumping sites where they disposed of various types of unregulated wastes. This was a widespread practice before environmental groups began lobbying against such sites and publicizing links between diseases such as cancer and the
dumping of hazardous chemicals and toxic wastes that were contaminating water,soil,and air.
To obtain the entire report on landfill fires, click on the title (above) of this news item to obtain a summary. At the end of the summery, under the NEEDA NEWSLETTER feature "MORE INFO?" you'll find the internet info you need to download a free copy of this report.
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MAYORS WANT MORE MONEY FOR CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL TERRORISM; TWO THIRDS WORRY ABOUT BOMBS; 77% WANT MORE MONEY FOR EMERGENCY RESPONSE EQUIPMENT
Originally Posted: June 14, 2002 5:49 PM
Last Updated: June 14, 2002 5:49 PM
A new homeland security survey of US mayors, including those governing some of the nation's largest cities, finds they are most concerned about the threat of chemical and biological terrorism. According to a summary of the survey released today, mayors are most likely to report funding shortfalls for threat detection and emergency
response equipment purchases.
Key survey findings, conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and DuPont through their Cities United for Science Progress partnership, include:
-- Concerns about terrorist attacks have not abated among
mayors. More than seven out of ten mayors express "very high
concern" or "high concern" about chemical (73 percent) and
biological (71 percent) threats. Two-thirds are similarly concerned about bomb threats. Less than half expressed the same level of concern about traditional crime (48 percent), cyber threats (46 percent), and nuclear threats (30 percent).
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT BUYERS STILL FACE DROP IN SPENDING MONEY, $2 BILLION IN NEW COSTS FOR SECURITY
Originally Posted: June 14, 2002 5:24 PM
Last Updated: June 14, 2002 5:24 PM
Increasingly strapped for cash, localities are struggling to cope with growing demand for security and other services. Meanwhile, purchases of fire, emergency, and anti-terrorism products and services has increased with limited help from several federal grant programs mentioned elsewhere in NEEDA Newsletter.
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NEW GRANTS TO HELP LOCAL FIRST RESPONDERS BUY EMERGENCY EQUIPMENT: SAN BERNARINO, JERSEY CITY, NEW MEXICO & TEXAS SHARE $11 MILLION FOR DOMESTIC PREPAREDNESS PLUS $931 THOUSAND FOR RHODE ISLAND
Originally Posted: June 14, 2002 4:31 PM
Last Updated: June 14, 2002 5:00 PM
The US Department of Justice has awarded $11 million in grants to two states and two cities bolster domestic preparedness and security. These grants are issued by the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) which is part of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP).
Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced that Rhode Island will receive $931,000 to enhance its ability to respond to acts of terrorism involving biological or chemical agents or nuclear, radiological, or explosive materials.
The funds, awarded by the Department's Office of Justice
Programs (OJP), will be used to purchase specialized equipment for emergency response agencies, including law enforcement personnel, fire and emergency medical services and hazardous materials response units, who are the first responders to terrorist acts involving weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The grant is awarded under the FY 2001 State Domestic Preparedness Equipment Program,
administered by OJP's Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP).
The Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP) was established in Fiscal Year 1998 and is the Justice Department's primary program office responsible for enhancing the capacity of state and local jurisdictions to respond to, and mitigate the consequences of, incidents of domestic terrorism. Since 1998, ODP has provided nearly $250 million in equipment grants to all 50 states, the territories and the District of Columbia. In addition, ODP provides coordinated training, technical assistance, and support for federal, state, and local preparedness exercises.
The Justice Department will announce awards for additional sites over the next several months. NEEDA has previously released info on earlier Justice grants. As NEEDA pointed out, these are not Fire Act grants (which are issued by the US Fire Administration) but entirely separate grants; unlike the Fire Act grants, these Justice Department equipment grants do not require matching funds.
The funds will be used to purchase specialized equipment for
emergency response agencies, including law enforcement personnel, fire and emergency medical services and hazardous materials response units, who would be the first responders to terrorist acts.
All 50 states, the territories, and the District of Columbia will receive funds through this program.
For previous NEEDA Newsletter coverage of this grant program, use the "Search" application in the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen.
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WILDFIRE SPENDING EXCEEDS $383 MILLION: CONGRESS WILL NEED TO OK SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION . . .TERRIFIC FREE SATELLITE IMAGES OF COLORADO FIRE CAN BE SEEN ON INTERNET
Originally Posted: June 14, 2002 7:07 AM
Last Updated: June 14, 2002 7:07 AM
Federal wildfire expenditures will exceed $383 million in July, with $3 million a day being spent in Colorado alone. Federal officials predict that conditions in the West are the worst in 50 years.
Since January, wildfires have burned nearly 1.4 million acres from New Jersey to California, nearly twice the average for this time of year. Currently, 19 large fires are burning, including six in Colorado.
Meanwhile some excellent space imaging from satellites is providing terrific pictures of the Hayman Fire burning 35 miles south of Denver, Colorado. The imagery is being provided at no charge to the media and may be used in print, broadcast and web. The image provides an overview of the burned area that may be useful in for firefighters and in reporting on this story.
For other news on wildfire fighting, use the "Search" application in the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen. For example, NEEDA has reported on the new long range strategy adopted by the Bush Administration and on the effectiveness of personal prevention for individual firefighters.
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US FIRE ADMINISTRATION ISSUES INFECTION CONTROL INFO FOR FIRE AND EMS DEPARTMENTS
Originally Posted: June 12, 2002 5:07 PM
Last Updated: June 12, 2002 5:07 PM
The United States Fire Administration (Emmitsburg MD), part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has updated its infection control programs and practices publication for local-level fire and emergency medical service (EMS) departments.
The new version of Guide to Managing an Emergency Services Infection Control Program provides new information. Since the original publication in 1992, many advances have occurred in the field of infection control. The guide is designed to meet or exceed all applicable Federal laws and regulations and national standards and guidelines at the time of publication.
"Infection control, including issues such as Hepatitis C exposure, is an essential health and safety topic for the fire service today," said U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. "Every fire and emergency services department needs to have a strong infection control program as part of an overall departmental health and safety strategy."
Limited quantities of this publication may be ordered free of charge. It is available in printed as well as downloadable format via the Internet.
NEEDA Newsletter had published previous stories about Hepatitis C. Have a topic you want more information on? Try the NEEDA "Search" application in the upper right of your newsletter screen.
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LOCATOR SOFTWARE FOR FIRE AND POLICE RESPONDING TO INCIDENT
Originally Posted: June 5, 2002 10:42 PM
Last Updated: June 5, 2002 10:42 PM
TerraView 911 helps police and fire to view emergency address locations, determine quickest route, obtain site-specific information and building details such as floor plans and any hazardous materials stored on site. The data is then accessible on laptop computers in emergency vehicles.
"One can imagine the enormous benefit the TerraView 911 system is to our firefighters. The crew can learn location and quickest route immediately upon dispatch and then be able to access various layers of information. The ability for us to add information about various structures will allow us to plan a strategy or know if there are hazardous materials on site before arrival. This will greatly enhance our ability to more effectively fight fires and handle other emergencies," said Doug Callahan, Carmel Clay Fire Chief.
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BODY ARMOR BUSINESS BOOMING SINCE 9-11-01; OVERCOMES SUPPLY SHORTAGES TO MEET US ARMY AND MARINE REQUIREMENTS
Originally Posted: June 5, 2002 3:49 PM
Last Updated: June 5, 2002 3:49 PM
The demand for body armor of various types following September 11, 2001 attacks resulted in a rationing of backing material to key armor manufacturers. There has also been a shortage of protective inserts. However, demand has increased as a response to the "War on Terrorism."
Simula, Inc. (Tempe AZ) says it had record sales to the US Army and Marine Corps in May. They made and delivered 10,000 small arms protective plates.
There have been news reports in major national newspapers about US military forces wearing these plates in Afghanistan.
This is one of the various examples included in NEEDA Newslettter to show the impact of September 11, 2001 on the emergency response business.
For more stories about September 11, use the NEEDA "Search" aplication in the upper right of your screen.
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SPARTAN MOTORS SAYS MAY 2002 SET $9 MILLION RECORD FOR FIRE TRUCK CHASSIS; JOHN SZTYKIEL, NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO AS OF JUNE 2002 CITES FEDERAL FUNDING FOR FIRST RESPONDERS AND INCREASED LOCAL EMERGENCY-RESCUE EQUIPMENT SPENDING
Originally Posted: June 2, 2002 8:13 PM
Last Updated: June 2, 2002 9:41 PM
Spartan Motors, Inc. (Charlotte MI) says May 2002 was the Company's best month for sale of its custom fire truck chassis in more than three years.
Spartan also said sales of its fire truck chassis through the first five months of 2002 are up 29 percent, compared with the same period last year.
As NEEDA Newsletter reported December 9, 2001 Spartan Motors board of directors elected John E. Sztykiel to the post of chief executive officer, beginning in June 2002.
Spartan is a supporter of NEEDA.
The only thing we would like to see added to manufacturer financial reports is the crucial role dealers play in making the sales that generate the work at the plant.
For more news about Spartan, use the Search application in the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen.
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SHOULD FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS BE HURT BY DEATH TAX: GRAMM-KYL AMENDMENT WILL MAKE REPEAL OF DEATH TAX PERMANENT
Originally Posted: June 2, 2002 7:17 PM
Last Updated: June 2, 2002 10:15 PM
NEEDA predicts that the U.S. Senate will now vote in June, 2002 on H.R. 8, the Death Tax Elimination Act. NEEDA believes that small and medium sized family businesses, like many of the dealers and distributors in the emergency equipment business, will be helped by an amendment to that bill offered by Senators Phil Gramm (R-TX) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), which will make the repeal of the Death Tax permanent. Whatever your views on the "death tax," to express your views contact your Senators and tell them whether or not you support the Gramm-Kyl amendment to H.R. 8.
NEEDA would welcome knowing your own view of the death tax and how this tax or the repeal of the tax would affect you, your family business, and those to whom you may some day trasfer your successful emergency equipment business.
Click on this item and you will see a copy of HR 8. As with all legislation the language is sometimes difficult to understand. Not all of the language will be debated. But the issue of whether or not to make the law permanent will be debated. The current version of HR 8 does not contain the provision to make the law permanent.
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PITTSBURGH FIRE CHIEF IS NEW DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF US FIRE ADMINISTRATION
Originally Posted: June 2, 2002 11:43 AM
Last Updated: June 2, 2002 11:43 AM
Charlie Dickinson, former Chief of the Pittsburgh Fire Department and a 37 year fire services leader, is the new Deputy United States Fire Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to U.S. Fire Administrator R. David Paulison. The United States Fire Administration (USFA) at Emmitsburg MD is part of FEMA. NEEDA received the Dickinson announcement on June 1, 2002.
The US Fire Administration is the agency which is currently awarding Fire Act matching grants to local fire deparements. Equipment and training are among the key goals of the grant programs.
Chief Dickinson continues to volunteer his time with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. As Deputy Administrator, Chief Dickinson is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the USFA's Emmitsburg MD facility and programs.
For more info on the Fire Administration and the larger agency to which it belongs, FEMA, use the "Search" application in the upper right of your NEEDA Newsletter screen.
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