FCC adopts spectrum “Consensus Plan”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a plan some say would resolve interference problems for public safety radio systems operating in the 800 MHz band. Under the plan, Nextel would give up its rights to certain of its licenses in the 800 MHz band and all of its licenses in the 700 MHz band. In exchange, the FCC would allow Nextel to operate on two five-MHz blocks in the 1910-1915 MHz and 1990-1995 MHz spectrum, provided that Nextel fulfills the obligations specified in the Commission’s decision. Nextel is to pay the costs of relocating 800 MHz incumbents.
The FCC has determined that the overall value of the 1.9 GHz spectrum rights is $4.8 billion, less the cost of relocating incumbent users. Nextel would also be credited with the value of the spectrum rights it would relinquish and the actual costs it would incur to relocate all incumbents in the 800 MHz band. To the extent that these combined credits total less than the determined value of the 1.9 GHz spectrum rights, Nextel would make an anti-windfall payment equal to the difference to the U.S. Department of Treasury at the conclusion of the relocation process.
At press time, it was not known if Nextel would accept the plan.
The International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA), and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) supported the Consensus Plan.
As reported in News in Brief (August 2004), the First Response Coalition, in its white paper “Safety Over Spectrum: A Plan for First Responder Communications,” had asked the FCC to reject the Nextel plan, which, it said, “placed first responders at risk and diverted attention and possible resources from the issue of communications interoperability.” The Coalition describes itself as “a group of 9-11 firefighters, the Gray Panthers, the Black Chamber of Commerce, and other groups concerned about first responder communications capabilities.”
Firefighters’ grants reauthorization attached to Defense Authorization Act
The Assistance to Firefighters Reauthorization Act of 2004 (S. 2411) was attached as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 2400) by Senator Christopher Dodd (CT). In July, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation held a hearing on S. 2411, which would authorize appropriations for the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFGP) through 2010 and effect a few administrative changes to the program, according to the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI). Representatives of various fire service organizations and government agencies were among those who testified on behalf of S. 2411.
Senator John McCain (AZ), chairman of the Committee, who noted the AFGP has been “an effective way to help local fire departments meet their basic needs for responding to all hazards,” said, at press time, that the Committee intended to hold a mark-up (a process involving debating, amending, and rewriting proposals in the legislation) on the legislation before Congress adjourned for the August recess.
According to the CFSI, Congress was, at press time, working to resolve differences between the Senate and House versions of the National Defense Authorization Act in a conference committee. It was anticipated that the differences between the two versions would also be resolved at that time and that the amendment would be passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act.
9-11 commission issues final report
The commission investigating the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon has made a number of recommendations in its lengthy report. All were endorsed by the full complement of 10 bipartisan panel members.
Among its findings and recommendations are the following:
- The nation’s intelligence community should be significantly restructured.
- No credible evidence was found indicating that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States. Iraq and al Qaeda did not have a close working relationship.
- Congress did not adequately oversee the country’s counterterrorism efforts. Reforms are needed, including the creation of a national counterterrorism center.
- A Cabinet-level office and director should be appointed to oversee the CIA, the FBI, and other intelligence agencies.
- Detailed evidence suggests that there were many specific opportunities to break up the hijacker cell.
- Shortcomings were apparent in the response of emergency personnel and U.S. air defenses.
The report is available through bookstores, the Internet, and the Government Printing Office. www.washingtonpost.com, Dan Eggen and Steve Coll, July 18, 2004.
Chicago high-rise fire yields numerous lessons learned
A panel appointed by Cook County, Illinois, has issued a report on its investigation of the October 17, 2003, Cook County Administration Building fire, which claimed the lives of six people. The lengthy report cites the fire department and the building’s management and building security companies as contributors to the outcome. The panel pointed to the building’s lack of fire sprinklers and stairwell doors that unlock in a fire. Also, the report said the Chicago Fire Department should have obtained the building’s prefire plan, taken over the building’s public address system, and used the stairwell without a smoke tower ventilation system to fight the fire instead of the stairwell with the ventilation systems, which should have been reserved for occupants’ attempting to evacuate, in accordance with fire department procedures. According to a Chicago Sun-Times report (“Final report slams fire department,” www.sun-times.com, July 1, 2004), fighting the fire from the southeast stairwell resulted in firefighters’ propping open the 12th floor door to the stairwell, which prevented the ventilation system from pulling smoke from the stairs, where the victims were.
Among recommendations made by the panel are the following:
- Firefighters should have focused on search and rescue in addition to fire suppression.
- The fire department should use a mobile computer system that would provide to fire commanders arriving at the scene an electronic drawing of a building’s prefire plan.
- Institute physical fitness standards for firefighters (including veterans).
- Review the promotion process, which now allows the fire commissioner to appoint a number of high-ranking deputies. Written tests should be required for all positions except those “immediately below” the fire commissioner. Written exams are required for levels between firefighter and battalion chief. Some 80 positions, including deputy district chief, district chief, assistant deputy fire commissioner, deputy fire commissioner, and fire commissioner, are exempt.
- Fire officials should review how incident commanders are relieved of command by more senior officers.
Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter has created a six-member team to assist with analysis of the report.
Media reports at press time said a sprinkler system reportedly was expected to be installed in the building by the end of the summer. The city has adopted legislation to retrofit all commercial high-rises in the city, regardless of year of construction, but residential high-rises were excluded on the basis that all building owners/manager might not be able to afford the retrofit.
Calling the panel members “Monday morning quarterbacks,” Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley said he would meet with Fire Commissioner Trotter to discuss the report.
www.nbc5.com accessed 7/15/05; “Loop blaze report urges fire department revamp,” www.chicagotribune.com July 7, 2004; Daley says commission members are ‘Monday morning quarterbacks,’ ” Chicago AP, www.wqad.com, July 16, 2004.
Seattle (WA) firefighter injured in training awarded $1.8 million
Kevin Locke, 43, a dispatcher with the Seattle (WA).Fire Department, was awarded $1.8 million by a jury for injuries sustained four years ago when he was injured in recruit training at the Washington State Fire Academy in North Bend. Locke lost consciousness and fell from a 55-foot ladder; he broke his back and leg and shattered a foot.
The lawsuit contended that the three days of rigorous training in hot weather resulted in dehydration and fatigue that caused him to lose consciousness and fall as he was climbing down the ladder. The Seattle Fire Department was fined more than $25,000 by the state Department of Labor and Industries on the basis that the department did not consider the “higher demands placed on the recruits by the hot weather.” http://seattletimes.nesource.com, July 16, 2004.
Flaws cited in firefighter recruit’s death
The Miami-Dade Office of Safety, Risk Management Division, has released its report pertaining to the death of a Miami-Dade firefighter recruit who died August 8, 2003, when he became separated from four other firefighters and several instructors during a training exercise at Port Everglades. The recruits were participating in a simulated burning ship exercise.
Among the report’s findings were the following:
- The live-fire training scenario was too complicated for recruits participating in their first live burn.
- Plans were incomplete, and there were no safety plan, designated safety officer, rapid intervention team, or ambulance/advanced life support unit.
- Two fires were burning inside the building at one time; recruits reportedly were told to walk by one without attempting to mitigate it.
- Students were not familiar with the environment and had not been given the opportunity to walk through the area before the exercise began.
The report recommended that National Fire Protection Association standards be followed in the future, as is required by Florida statutes. “Report cites major firefighter training flaws in recruit’s death,” Shannon Oboye, Tania Valdemoro, Jaime Hernandez, www.sun-sentinel.com, July 7, 2004.
DHS approves use of funds for courses
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness (SLGCP), in cooperation with the Department’s United States Fire Administration (USFA), will offer additional preparedness training courses for emergency responders at the National Fire Academy. The courses are “Introduction to Unified Command for Multi-Agency and Catastrophic Incidents,” “All Hazards Incident Management,” and “Command and General Staff Functions in the Incident Command System.”
States and urban areas may use allocated Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) and Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funding to conduct or attend these courses. This funding can also be used to reimburse overtime and backfill costs associated with attending these and other SLGCP-approved courses. n
Homeland Security Funding Task Force issues report
The Homeland Security Funding Task Force has recommended streamlining and accelerating the dispersal of federal funds to state and local governments. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge established the task force, a bipartisan group of state, county, city, and tribal representatives, to evaluate the process by which homeland security grants are distributed from the federal government to states and localities.
The task force, after three-plus months of study, found that the process was not as “expeditious as desired” but “has shown significant improvement and coordination in the past two years.” Among recommendations contained in the report are the following: (1) Establish national standards for grant management. (2) Compile and disseminate best practices. (3) Amend the federal grant regulations to allow grantees more flexibility in expending administrative funds. (4) Exempt DHS-ODP homeland security grants from the Cash Management Act of 1990 for FY 2005.
Task force members said they would be willing to work with Congress to implement recommendations that need congressional action. The complete report is at www.dhs.gov/.
Researcher observes fire-resistant behavior of concrete floor slabs
Dutch researcher Joris Fellinger, an advisor at the TNO Building and Construction Research, Centre for Fire Research, developed a model that assesses and predicts the fire-resistant behavior of hollow-core slabs. He discovered that the slabs could rapidly bear less weight if they expanded because of the heat. After 14 to 16 minutes, vertical cracks developed in the slab even if thermal expansion were partially prevented. The slabs’ load-bearing capacity decreased rapidly during the first hour; the decrease was slight thereafter. He also found thick floors to be more sensitive to thermal expansion than thin floors. The safety is generally not jeopardized in practice, as restraining the thermal expansion is a very important beneficial effect, Fellinger explains. “However, do not rely on such a beneficial effect if the surrounding construction has not explicitly been designed to restrain the slab,” he cautions.
Fellinger recommends that the maximum load tolerance of every slab sold be determined beforehand. The maximum load tolerance of the slabs plays an important role in determining when the slabs would collapse, Fellinger noted. However, he says, the slabs’ load tolerance scarcely affects the formation of cracks and the slabs. Hollow-core slabs are made from concrete with strands of pretensioned steel and are commonly used for floors in residential and office buildings. During a fire, floors made from these slabs must maintain their load-bearing and separating functions for a given time so that the building can be safely evacuated. Technology foundation STW funded the research. www.bigmedicine.ca, April 17, 2004.
Line-of-Duty Deaths
June 30. Lt. Kenneth W. Lipyance, 46, Churchill Volunteer Fire Company, Pittsburgh, Pa: stroke and heart disease.
July 9. Chief G. Don Fox, 60, Bluegrove (TX) Volunteer Fire Department: apparent heart attack.
July 12. Firefighter Harold Dean Chappell, 56, Arlington Fire and Rescue, Inc., Jonesville, N.C.: apparent heart attack.
July 13. Captain Daniel E. Elkins, 47, Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department: vehicle accident while returning from Pine Incident brushfire.
Source: National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Database, United States Fire Administration.
WEB PAGES FOR FIRST RESPONDERS
FEMA wildland fire preparedness
The Federal Emergency Management Agency/U.S. Fire Administration’s “2004 Wildland Update” Web link at www/usfa.fema.gov provides firefighters and community leaders access to up-to-date information on wildland fires. It offers a collection of links to critical wildland Web sites, weather predictions, current aviation strategy, community programs, and a daily “Six Minute Safety Briefing.”
Homeland Security NIMS guidance
The Web page www.fema.gov/nims is dedicated to the National Incident Management System (NIMS). It lists NIMS requirements, tools and resources, and general information. The site is to serve as a resource for emergency managers and first responders. Some of the topics addressed are the assessment process, compliance criteria, NIMS-related training, and implementation timelines. The page can also be accessed by a direct link from the FEMA Web site at www.fema.gov/. Questions related to NIMS may be e-mailed to [email protected]/.
FEMA’s “Responding to Incidents of National Consequence” report available
The above report, developed by the National Fire Programs Division of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) U.S. Fire Administration, includes recommendations for fire and emergency services based on the events of 9-11 and other major multijurisdictional incidents. It includes a prioritized checklist of recommended actions. Students who enroll in certain National Fire Academy courses will receive the report; it can also be downloaded at www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-282-pdf/.
NEWS GLIMPSES
Judge orders postponement of Philadelphia Fire Department changes and cuts. The Philadelphia (PA) Common Pleas Court had ordered the city, at press time, to postpone for 60 days its plans to shut down four ladder companies and four engine companies, relocate other companies, and add eight medic units. Firefighters Union Local 22 argued that the cuts would put people’s lives in danger. As reported in August’s News in Brief, the fire department’s budget had been cut by almost $7 million. Under the plan, no personnel were to be laid off. www.timesleader.com, July 14, 2004.
N.J. paramedic dies of bacterial meningitis. A 24-year-old paramedic from Monmouth County, New Jersey, who also was a captain in a volunteer fire department in Freehold, died of bacterial meningitis in May. Fifteen cases of meningitis had been reported in New Jersey up to that time.
DHS to send alerts through NOAA. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) critical all-hazards alerts and warnings can now be disseminated directly through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) all-hazards network. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will continue to manage the Emergency Alert System (EAS) that includes the NOAA all-hazards network. The same message distributed through NOAA will be given locally or nationally over EAS at the local level as a crawl on the bottom of television screens and will also be broadcast over local radio stations.
NHTSA again warns of rollover hazards of 15-passenger vans. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reissued a warning it issued in 2001 and 2002: that 15-passenger vans pose an increased rollover risk under certain conditions. NHTSA research shows that rollover is five times more likely when 15-passenger vans carry the full capacity of occupants than when carrying only the driver. The NHTSA analysis also showed that the risk of rollover increased significantly at speeds over 50 miles per hour and on curved roads. Additioa information is at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/studies/15PassVans/15PassCustomerAdvisory.htm/.
Medicare increases payments for ambulance services. At the end of June, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule with comment period that will increase Medicare payments to ambulance services by $840 million between July 2004 and December 31, 2009. The rule implements the ambulance provisions in Section 414 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (“Medicare Modernization Act” or “MMA”. Te increase will apply to hospital-based providers and freestanding suppliers of ground ambulance services to Medicare beneficiaries. According to CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, Ph.D., “This new rule improves payments for all ground ambulance services, and it’s especially important for ensuring the continued viability of ambulance services in rural areas as they make the transition to the national fee schedule.” Additional information is at www.cms.hhs.gov/suppliers/ambulance. Questions may also be directed to Medicare at (800) MEDICARE or www. medicare.gov/.
Reno Fire Science Academy receives DOE grant for training responders. The University of Nevada, Reno Fire Science Academy was awarded a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant to train more than 700 municipal and rural firefighters annually in industrial firefighting techniques to be used in incidents associated with terrorist threats. The $2.5 million grant will provide full scholarships that cover tuition, travel, lodging, and meals for U.S. firefighters attending the four-day live-fire training course at the Fire Science Academy in Carlin, Nevada. Beginning in September, the course “Responding to Terrorist Incidents in Your Community: Flammable-Liquid Fire Fighting Techniques for Municipal and Rural Firefighters” will be offered year round. U.S. firefighters 18 years and older with NFPA 1001, Firefighter Level 1 or equivalent and two years of practical experience may apply. Additioal information is available at www.fireacademy.unr.edu, by e-mail at [email protected], or by calling (775) 754-6003 or (800) 233-8928.
