Firefighter hydration
This refers to “Firefighter Hydration During Rehab,” by Derek Williams (Fire Engineering, December 2006). I run the rehab unit for the Dale City (VA) Volunteer Fire Department. This article was very informative and relevant to our needs. I brought it to the attention of our safety officer, who had already read it. He agreed that this was information that needed to be passed on to our members.
Margaret Delaverson
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Membership Chairperson
Dale City (VA) Volunteer
Fire Department
The back page
What a stroke of genius for Fire Engineering to put Chief Alan Brunacini and his musings on the back page! There’s no one else as worthy. All his writings have been (pen) strokes of genius. You should call it “Phantom Thoughts.” This is not a knock for “The Rules of Engagement.”
Pat Smith
Battalion Chief (Ret.)
Salinas (CA) Fire Department
I cannot think of any more worthy and qualified successor to Tom Brennan than Alan Brunacini. Over the years, he has also had the influence of Spanish officer training, as had Tom Brennan and Frank Brannigan. A curious coincidence: The names of three of America’s most influential fire safety experts begin with the letter “B.” Or, is it?
Over these past several months, a new dynamic has slowly but constantly become evident in Fire Engineering. Keep up the good work.
George H. Potter
Fire Protection Specialist
Madrid, Spain
Safer codes: It’s everybody’s job
I would like to acknowledge Jack Murphy for his outstanding article on code development (“Code Development: Whose Battlefield Is This?” Fire Engineering, January 2007), which clearly describes how to navigate through the often perplexing code development process. As a person who has been more on the operations than the prevention side of things, I found his article especially instructive. Over the years as the fireground has gotten progressively more dangerous and the buildings we fight to save have become more collapse prone, many of us naively thought the National Fire Protection Association would step up and take action to protect firefighters. I thought surely common sense would prevail and someone writing the codes would say, “Hold it; you can’t build structures that collapse five minutes after the fire department arrives!” It hasn’t happened. Why? Because no one else is going to do it for us.
If we in the fire service want to save our own, we have to get involved, not only by assigning RITs or practicing better escape procedures, as important as these procedures are. We also have to get involved in the code development process so that our voices are heard along with those of the engineering and construction industries. We can no longer afford to be “lightweights” when it comes to new construction techniques and code development.
Many in the fire service have not known where to begin. Murphy’s article spells out how to get involved. It’s up to all of us to participate, from the national organizations (the International Association of Fire Fighters, International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Volunteer Fire Council) to the local departments to chief officers, inspectors, and firefighters alike.
We have to play a more active role. That means submitting proposals, attending the hearings, and sitting on the committees. Otherwise, we will be left with incomprehensibly complex building codes written by lawyers and lobbyists for the construction industry that replace redundant fire protection systems with poor designs.
Doug Leihbacher
Assistant Chief
Yonkers (NY)
Fire Department
