What Would We Do to Stop Them? Forbes Magazine recently reported that in 2017 more firefighters committed suicide than were killed in the line of duty, suggesting that the rate is more than ten times that of the general population. The 2016 death of Fairfax County, Virginia, firefighter Nicole Mittendorff reverberates to this day after […]

Fox Guards Hen House In the current issue of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) magazine, Fire Fighter, General President Harold Schaitberger remarks, ” I say it a lot — nothing is more important than the health and safety of our members.” He may say it a lot but he can hardly mean it. […]

What Pat Tillman’s Death Teaches Us Pat Tillman was an NFL player who turned down a 3.6 million dollar contract to join the Army, along with his brother Kevin, after the 9/11 attacks. Their father said,  “We were at war and the idea that my kids would allow someone else to fight their battles for them… […]

Safety in the Digital Age Fire/Rescue groups, including the International Association of Fire Fighters, helped to create the investigative arm at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) which examines “line-of-duty deaths.” (LODD) The NIOSH/LODD program has been extremely important in the effort to determine the elements related to these casualties. Any LODD […]

Situational Awareness Two women were run over by a tour bus and killed on December 19th, as they crossed Pennsylvania Ave., NW, in Washington, D.C. Eleven years ago, in 2007, two women were also killed at the exact same place, also by a bus making the same left turn from northbound 7th onto westbound Pennsylvania. […]

Images of the deadly Schoharie, New York, crash in which twenty people were killed, show a passenger compartment intact and the vehicle upright. Seventeen of those killed were riding in that part of the vehicle. If they were not wearing seat restraints, the cause of death would likely be attributed to deceleration injuries. News reports […]

The New York Roadway Disaster Twenty people were killed this past weekend when a “stretch limo” type vehicle crossed a T-intersection, striking cars and trees. My work has me riding in all manner of commercial vehicles and I have learned they are not equal where safety is concerned. It’s crucial to be informed, to pay […]

The Not So Excellent “Center For Excellence” Anyone who has paid even the tiniest amount of attention to Harold Schaitberger’s IAFF will have long since concluded that everything is for sale. He sold out our commitment to safety advocacy by taking advertising money from equipment manufacturers thus creating an automatic conflict of interest. He agrees […]

Old Dog, Old Trick I was online the other night and was served an advertisement for the “IAFF Center of Excellence.” A click on the ad provided “404 error messages” or a block by Google which usually happens when there is a security issue with the site. Either way, not so excellent. I eventually learned […]

Busy Day in Fairfax The news and Facebook, of course, were awash with stories of yesterday’s unusual spate of multiple-alarm fires in the western part of the County, including a couple of rows of town homes, a large apartment building and a bank. Those back porches ablaze are reminiscent of Boston. I left the active […]