A Cole with No Explosives? This past weekend, the USS Fitzgerald, a Burke class, Aegis equipped vessel, was struck in a t-bone type accident by a large cargo carrier off Japan during night operations; seven sailors were killed. Ship collisions are hardly rare but a t-bone is, especially involving a naval vessel on patrol. Most […]

Proposed $370M Cut Donald Trump’s signature campaign promise, a multi-billion dollar wall on the southern border, will apparently be paid for, at least in part, by steep cuts to FEMA. Politico reports the cuts will come from the, “agency’s program for countering violent extremism and preparations for a wide-scale terrorist attack.” The New York Times […]

In July of 2009, a mid-afternoon fire in a residential high-rise in London killed six people, among them three children. The fire occurred in Camberwell and the Guardian now reports that officials there are agreeing to plead guilty to breaking fire regulations. Over the years since the tragic event there have been a number of reports […]

The “Ghost Ship” The death toll in this weekend’s fire at an Oakland, CA, warehouse being used as an entertainment venue is at 33 and may rise higher still. Ten of the 20 deadliest fires in US history have occurred in similar venues. In the aftermath it’s commonplace to dwell on the poorly maintained building […]

IAFF vs CUPE The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is none too happy with the Ontario Professional Firefighters Association’s move to begin providing fire-based EMS first response. According to the CBC, Jeff Van Pelt, chair of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents more than 6,000 paramedics in Ontario, said, “The move […]

A Stairs Tower I was able to spend a few quick minutes yesterday inside the new National Museum of African American History and Culture here in Washington, D.C. One of my objectives was to make sure that I appreciated that it was a 2016 purpose-designed major museum building, a fairly rare occurrence in itself. How […]

Second Amendment Martyrs Two Iowa police officers, Anthony Beminio and Justin Martin, were ambushed, shot and killed yesterday. Their apparent killer,  Scott Michael Greene, used an AR-15 type rifle. Reasonable people rally around the twin concepts of moving to keep weapons out of the hands of those who should not have them and the fact […]

Uncertainty and Expectations Every working incident, fire, rescue or EMS, contains an amount of stress that can be said to be both normal and expected. Stress is the human reaction to events and allows us to be properly vigilant and therefore more effective. While a routine building fire might induce a normal amount of stress, […]

So Much for Mission Critical Statter 9/11 highlighted a California newspaper editorial this weekend outing the apparent ridiculousness of firefighters having a regular duty shift of 48 hours followed by 96 hours off. The writer, Diana Diamond, seems no friend of firefighters, but that hardly matters when she’s right. 48/96 is the unassailable triumph of […]

Each year millions of Americans ride motorcoaches as an inexpensive alternative to air or rail travel. Dozens of discount lines now run between major cities across the country. Tens of thousands of groups book travel where motorcoaches are used, including student field trips. Motorcoaches are safe but not entirely so. This past week a motorcoach […]