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Fire Risks Series: Fire Risks for the Older Adult
"This report investigates the nature of the fire problem faced by older adults in the United States. It also describes the characteristics of the elderly that expose this subset of the population as a disproportionately high fire risk. For the purposes of this report, the terms older adult or elderly refer to any individual over the age of 65. This report is divided into three principal sections, the first of which analyzes the fire problems of older adults. This section discusses the growing elderly population, the number of fire casualties over the age of 65 each year, the characteristics of fires that injure the elderly, and the nature of elderly fire casualties. The second section discusses those aspects of the elderly population that place this group at such a high fire risk. Physical, cognitive, and behavioral changes associated with the aging process are discussed in relation to fire and burn injury incidence. In addition, demographic and socioeconomic variables commonly associated with the elderly population are evaluated as fire risks. The final section provides tips to fire service professionals for enhancing fire safety for people with disabilities. A reproduction-ready appendix presents fire safety tips. Fire service professionals may photocopy the appendix for use in public education activities."
United States Fire Administration
1999-12
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Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-Firefighter Fatality Fire
"On Friday, December 3, 1999, at 1813 hours, the Worcester, Massachusetts Fire Department dispatched Box 1438 for 266 Franklin Street, the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. A motorist had spotted smoke coming from the roof while driving on an adjacent elevated highway. The original building was constructed in 1906 and had over 44,000 square feet of floor space. An addition, built in 1912, contained another 43,000 square feet. Both were 6 stories above grade. The building was known to be abandoned for over 10 years. Due to these and other factors, the responding District Chief ordered a second alarm within 4 minutes of the initial dispatch."
United States Fire Administration
1999-12
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Fire Risks for the Blind of Visually Impaired
"Blind or visually impaired people are faced with many challenges, not the least of which is personal safety. Interaction with an environment one cannot see creates potential health and safety hazards. As a result, blind or visually impaired people are at increased risk of injury and death in the event of a fire. Depending on the severity of vision loss, they may be more likely to ignite a fire accidentally through common household activities, while they are less likely to extinguish or escape one. Further, a blind or visually impaired individual is highly vulnerable to sustaining burns by attempting to suppress a small fire. Practicing fire safety is the most effective means for a blind or visually impaired person to improve his or her chances of surviving a fire. For example, by planning and practicing an escape plan, a blind or visually impaired person can escape to safety, in the event of an actual emergency, with little time lost searching and feeling for an exit. The general fire safety tips that are targeted at the seeing population also address the needs of the blind or visually impaired. Unfortunately, blind or visually impaired people often have been overlooked by public fire education campaigns. Innovative mechanisms by which to disseminate these life-saving messages must be sought in order to raise awareness and foster fire safety practices in the blind and visually impaired community."
United States Fire Administration
1999-12
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Abandoned Cold Storage Warehouse Multi-Firefighter Fatality Fire: Worcester, Massachusetts
"The U.S. [United States] Fire Administration develops reports on selected major fires throughout the country. The fires usually involve multiple deaths or a large loss of property. But the primary criterion for deciding to do a report is whether it will result in significant 'lessons learned.' In some cases these lessons bring to light new knowledge about fire-the effect of building construction or contents, human behavior in fire, etc. In other cases, the lessons are not new but are serious enough to highlight once again, with yet another fire tragedy report. In some cases, special reports are developed to discuss events, drills, or new technologies which are of interest to the fire service. [...] This body of work provides detailed information on the nature of the fire problem for policymakers who must decide on allocations of resources between fire and other pressing problems, and within the fire service to improve codes and code enforcement, training, public fire education, building technology, and other related areas. [...] On Friday, December 3, 1999, at 1813 hours, the Worcester, Massachusetts Fire Department dispatched Box 1438 for 266 Franklin Street, the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. A motorist had spotted smoke coming from the roof while driving on an adjacent elevated highway. The original building was constructed in 1906, contained another 43,000 square feet. Both were 6 stories above grade. The building was known to be abandoned for over 10 years. Due to these and other factors, the responding District Chief ordered a second alarm within 4 minutes of the initial dispatch."
United States Fire Administration
Anderson, John R.
1999-12
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Bonfire Collapse Texas A&M University
Lessons learned from this incident include: reinforcement of the need for pre-incident planning and the necessity for developing and exercising emergency management plans; an adequate and reliable communication system is essential during a large-scale event; the incident commander should think big-scale down; an event involving multiple casualties can quickly exceed the capabilities of local medical facilities; and the necessity of a strong incident management system.
United States Fire Administration
1999-11
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Many Women Strong: A Handbook for Women Firefighters
"This handbook was created to help women who would like to become career, volunteer, or seasonal firefighters, as well as those who have just started on the job and are seeking guidance. It offers insights and suggestions from women who have been there: female firefighters, officers, and chiefs from all across the country. It attempts to present firefighting as it really is--neither glamorized nor trivialized--and to share answers to questions women commonly have about working in this still nontraditional field"
United States Fire Administration
1999-11
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Establishing a Relationship between Alcohol and Casualties of Fire [1999]
"Though the rate has significantly decreased, the United States continued into the late 90's with one of the highest fire death rates in the industrialized world. Given the advancements in fire prevention, including public education, building design, consumer product safety, and sophisticated levels of the fire protection in this country, it is puzzling to many as to why this is so. In an effort to identify the underlying problem(s), researchers have been delving deeper into the extent to which human behavior affects our fire losses. The connection between alcohol and the ignition, detection, and escape from the fire has been broadly examined by numerous medical and fire protection organization studies. A series of landmark studies undertaken by the Johns Hopkins University and the National Bureau of Standards in the 1970's were among the first to discover a definitive link between alcohol consumption and fire deaths. Many studies have now confirmed their general findings. Alcohol intoxication may increase the risk of initiating a fire by impairing one's judgment and coordination. An intoxicated individual who is smoking may also succumb to the depressant effects of alcohol, fall asleep and drop a lit cigarette on upholstery or clothing. Intoxication also acutely diminishes one's ability to detect a fire. Under the sedative effects of alcohol, an alcohol-impaired person may fail to notice the smell of smoke, or fail to hear a smoke alarm. Escape from a fire can be hampered by the loss of motor coordination and mental clarity caused by alcohol, even when warning signs are heeded."
United States Fire Administration
TriData Corporation
1999-10
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Fire Risks for the Deaf or Hard of Hearing
"Fire safety is a much overlooked problem among people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They do not receive the same media, educational, or industry attention as the hearing population. Many advancements in fire injury and death prevention over the past century have not addressed the fire safety needs of the deaf community. The most significant of those inventions is the audible smoke alarm. Smoke alarms have been credited with saving thousands of lives from fires each year. Conventional alarms, however, work less well for those who cannot hear. Additionally, traditional fire safety messages do not address the unique needs of the deaf community. Fire safety messages more than likely will not reach this population due to the lack of effective distribution channels. By raising the level of fire safety awareness for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, and for the surrounding population, we can eliminate many fire risks. Groups representing people with hearing impairments must collaborate with the fire service to educate each other and reduce the risks posed by fires to non-hearing people."
United States Fire Administration
1999-10
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Fire Risks for the Mobility Impaired
"People with mobility impairments are faced with many challenges in life. Personal safety, especially fire safety, is one challenge that many perceive as an obstacle. It does not have to be this way. By being aware of one's own special capabilities and following fire safety practices tailored to certain needs, the mobility-impaired person can lead a fire-safe life. Mainstream fire safety education and fire protection devices are designed primarily with the able-bodied person in mind. Thus a scarcity of fire safety knowledge exists within both the mobility-impaired community and the fire service. Both groups must work to educate each other to decrease fire-related losses and injuries."
United States Fire Administration
1999-10
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Many Faces, One Purpose: A Manager's Handbook on Women in Firefighting
This document is follow-up handbook to "Many Women Strong" (FA-195). It was developed to help fire service chiefs manage the changing workforce as it becomes more inclusive of larger numbers of women in all fire department ranks.
United States Fire Administration
1999-09
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Fire in the United States 1987-1996: Eleventh Edition
"Each year, the National Fire Data Center of the U.S. Fire Administration publishes a 10-year statistical overview of the fires in the United States, with focus on the latest year in which data were available at the time of preparation. This report is designed to arm the fire service and others with information that motivates corrective action, sets priorities, targets specific fire programs, serves as a model for state or local analyses of fire data, and provides a baseline for evaluating programs. This Eleventh Edition of Fire in the Unites States covers the 10-year period from 1987 to 1996, with emphasis on 1996. The primary source of data is from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS), but National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) annual survey results, mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics, and data from the state fire marshals are also used. Because of the time it takes to collect data from nearly 13,000 fire departments that participate in NFIRS, edit and obtain corrections, and analyze and display the results, the publication lags the date of data collection. Each edition of this report describes the overall national fire problem and casualties to firefighters. Biannually, the reports address either a state-by-state examination of fire or, alternatively, the problem of fire in residential and non-residential structures--the subject of this Eleventh Edition. And each year, an assessment of several specific special topics is performed; this year, these topics include multiple-fatality fires, urban area fires, and the relationship of alcohol consumption to fire deaths."
United States Fire Administration
1999-08
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Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 1998
"This report continues a series of annual studies by the USFA [United States Fire Administration] of on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States. The specific objective of this study is to identify all on-duty firefighter fatalities that occurred in the United States in 1998, and to analyze the circumstances surrounding each occurrence. The study is intended to help identify approaches that could reduce the number of firefighter deaths in future years. In addition to the 1998 overall findings, this study includes special analyses on basic safety concepts that have the potential of saving firefighter's lives and a discussion of firefighter health."
United States Fire Administration
IOCAD Emergency Services Group (Firm)
1999-08
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Four Firefighters Die in Seattle Warehouse Fire
This technical report series looks at a warehouse fire in Seattle, WA. This incident shows how critical information can be missed during a complicated incident command operation, particularly when command officers are distracted by trying to perform too many functions without support staff.
United States Fire Administration
1999-05-19
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Profile of the Urban Fire Problem in the United States
"This report characterizes the nature of the fire problem in urban areas of the United States. Urbanized areas have large populations, and they typically have higher densities of people and buildings than rural areas. Publications are available that characterize the overall U.S. fire problem and the fire problem in rural areas, but there has not been a recent profile of fire in urban areas. This report addresses that need."
United States Fire Administration
TriData Corporation
1999-05
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Special Report: Fires Involving Medical Oxygen Equipment
This report describes the general hazards associated with oxygen-enriched atmospheres, including aluminum in contact with high-pressure oxygen, a number of recent incidents, maintenance recommendations, and contributing factors are also included.
United States Fire Administration
Miller, Thomas H. (Professional safety engineer)
1999-03
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Rapid Intervention Teams at Structure Fires
"During [the last] decade, there were five structure fires where Philadelphia firefighters became lost or trapped, and at these five incidents there were seven firefighter deaths and forty-five firefighter injuries. The purpose of this evaluative and action research paper is to: (a) predict the [likelihood] of firefighters, in the future, becoming disoriented, lost or trapped while fighting a structure fire; (b)evaluate the Philadelphia Fire Department's (PFD's) existing procedures for responding to a lost or trapped firefighter; and (c) evaluate and recommend technology and/or procedures to improve the PFD's response to lost or trapped firefighters. For this research we analyzed ten years of fire [incidence[ data to predict future fire incidence. We reviewed the PFD's operational procedures on structural firefighting, reviewed reports on five structure fires where Philadelphia firefighters were lost or trapped and surveyed the existing literature on response to lost or trapped firefighters. The analysis concludes: (a) in the future we should anticipate that Philadelphia firefighter's may be lost or trapped at a structure fire; (b) the PFD does not have a written operational procedure for a responding to a lost or trapped firefighter; and(c) fire departments that train and routinely dispatch a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) to structure fires, and require the use of an integral [personnel ]activated safety system, improve their [capability] to respond to lost or trapped firefighters. This report provides an operational procedure for a RIT and recommends that the Philadelphia Fire Department adopt this operational procedure and dispatch a RIT to all structure fires."
United States Fire Administration
Garrity, Thomas J.
1999-03
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U.S. Fire Administration/Technical Report Series: Concept Sciences, Incorporated
This report discusses the response efforts on Friday, February 19, 1999, when an explosion destroyed a plant operated by Concept Sciences, Incorporated in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania.
United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency; United States Fire Administration
1999-02
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High-Rise Office Building Fire, One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (February 23, 1991)
"This report on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, One Meridian Plaza fire documents one of the most significant high-rise fires in United States' history. The fire claimed the lives of three Philadelphia firefighters and gutted eight floors of a 38-story fire-resistive building causing an estimated $100 million in direct property loss and an equal or greater loss through business interruption. Litigation resulting from the fire amounts to an estimated $4 billion in civil damage claims. Twenty months after the fire this building, one of Philadelphia's tallest, situated on Penn Square directly across from City Hall, still stood unoccupied and fire-scarred, its structural integrity in question. This fire is a large scale realization of fire risks that have been identified on many previous occasions. The most significant new information from this fire relates to the vulnerability of the systems that were installed to provide electrical power and to support fire suppression efforts. In this incident there was an early loss of normal electrical power, a failure of the emergency generator and a major problem with the standpipe system, each of which contributed to the final outcome. These experiences should cause responsible individuals and agencies to critically reexamine the adequacy of all emergency systems in major buildings."
United States Fire Administration
Routley, J. Gordon; Jennings, Charles; Chubb, Mark
1999
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United States Fire Administration 25th Anniversary
This document is a 25th Anniversary Commemorative Booklet for the United States Fire Administration. The booklet includes Fire Administration facts, the early history of the fire administration, and messages from various administrators and senior staff at the time of publishing. It also includes staff and faculty lists, legends and stories about the Fire Administration's campus, and lists of fallen firefighters.
United States Fire Administration
1999
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U.S. Fire Administration/Technical Report Series: Special Report: Improving Firefighter Communications
"Several recent incidents involving firefighter fatalities demonstrate that, despite technological advances in two-way radio communications, important information is not always adequately communicated on the fireground or emergency incident scene. Inadequate communication has a definite negative impact on the safety of emergency personnel and may contribute to injuries or deaths of firefighters, rescue workers, and civilians. Inadequate fireground communication is repeatedly cited as a contributing factor in many of the incidents reported through the United States Fire Administration Major Fires Investigation Project. This fact, coupled with the limited availability of research on such an important topic, prompted the United States Fire Administration (USFA) to study some of the potential causes of communication breakdown, and to provide recommendations that will help departments improve their operational communications. While the findings contained in this special report are primarily oriented toward the municipal fire service, this does not diminish their potential relevance to other firefighters and emergency responders. With respect to communicating in high-stress environments, numerous parallels exist across public safety and related disciplines. Some of the ideas presented here are drawn from the experiences of wildland firefighters, airline flight crews, and military personnel."
United States Fire Administration
1999-01
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Improving Firefighter Communications: Special Report
"Several recent incidents involving firefighter fatalities demonstrate that, despite technological advances in two-way radio communications, important information is not always adequately communicated on the fireground or emergency incident scene. Inadequate communication has a definite negative impact on the safety of emergency personnel and may contribute to injuries or deaths of firefighters, rescue workers, and civilians. Inadequate fireground communication is repeatedly cited as a contributing factor in many of the incidents reported through the United States Fire Administration Major Fires Investigation Project. This fact, coupled with the limited availability of research on such an important topic, prompted the United States Fire Administration (USFA) to study some of the potential causes of communication breakdown, and to provide recommendations that will help departments improve their operational communications. While the findings contained in this special report are primarily oriented toward the municipal fire service, this does not diminish their potential relevance to other firefighters and emergency responders. With respect to communicating in high-stress environments, numerous parallels exist across public safety and related disciplines. Some of the ideas presented here are drawn from the experiences of wildland firefighters, airline flight crews, and military personnel."
United States Fire Administration
1999-01
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Special Report: Scrap and Shredded Tire Fires
This report examines seven case studies of tire fires typical in the United States. The case studies reveal a common pattern of challenges in tire fire prevention and extinguishment.
United States Fire Administration
1998-12-01?
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Fire Data Analysis Handbook
"The fire service exists today in an environment constantly inundated with data, but data are often of little use in the everyday, real world in which first responders live and work. More and more, it is not fighting tires as much as it is doing EMS, hazmat, inspections, investigations, prevention, and other non-traditional but important tasks which are vital to the community. Balancing limited resources and justifying daily operations and finances in the face of tough economic times is a scenario that every department can relate to. How well a department can do this depends mainly on how well it uses information. Motivation for the handbook comes from the belief that fire departments collect an immense amount of data, but do very little with the data. This handbook has a primary objective to describe statistical techniques for analyzing data typically collected in fire departments."
United States Fire Administration
McEwen, J. Thomas
1999
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Special Report: The Aftermath of Firefighter Fatality Incidents: Preparing for the Worst
The goal of this report is to provide useful information to fire departments and firefighters that may help in dealing with the consequences of such a tragedy.
United States Fire Administration
1998-09-01?
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During or After a Disaster Factsheet: Tornado and Hurricane Fire Safety
This U.S. Fire Administration fact sheet encourages individuals to use specific safety tips to help protect themselves, their family and their home from the potential threat of fire during or after a tornado or hurricane.
United States Fire Administration
1998-08-01?
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Report on Tire Fires
"The Fire Administration Authorization Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-109) included a requirement that the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) United States Fire Administration (USFA) conduct a study on tire fires and the risks they present to firefighters during suppression activities. The results of the study, conducted in 1997-98, indicate that the hazardous characteristics of tire fires present a unique set of risks to firefighters. Exposure to toxic substances at tire fires, personal protection requirements, fire duration, and site hazards encountered at tire fires all contribute to firefighter risk."
United States Fire Administration
1998-08
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Fire in the United States 1986-1995: Tenth Edition
"This report is designed to arm the fire service and others with a statistical overview of the fire problem that can motivate corrective action. It can also be used to select priorities and help target fire programs, serve as a model for state or local analyses of fire data, and provide a baseline for evaluating programs. This Tenth Edition of Fire in the United States covers the l0-year period from 1986 to 1995, with emphasis on 1995-the most recent year for which complete data are available at the time of preparation. The primary source of data in his report is the National Fire Incident Reporting System (N FIRS), but National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) annual survey results and data from the various state agencies responsible for state fire information are also used. Because of the time it takes to collect data from the more than 13,000 fire departments that participate in NFIRS, edit and obtain correction s, and analyze and display the results, the date of publication lags the date of collection. This edition of Fire in the United States includes a state-by-state analysis and presentation of state-based residential fire statistics. This information is more exhaustive than similar information presented in the past-each state has provided additional information on innovative and successful programs that have positively affected the state's individual fire problem. And, where available, the associated Web site address for the state fire agency has been provided. Previous editions of Fire in the United States have included two chapters t hat detail the residential and nonresidential structure fire problem. Due to the size of the state chapter; these two chapters have been omitted from t his edit ion. The Eleventh Edit ion of Fire in the United States will again address these two key areas of the U.S. fire problem."
United States Fire Administration
1998-08
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Profile of the Rural Fire Problem in the United States
"While there are many similarities between fires in rural and non-rural areas, there are also many differences. Some of the differences, such as the higher incidence of heating fires in rural areas, point to issues that need to be considered when designing public education programs to reduce the number of fires and the deaths, injuries, and property loss associated with rural fires. For the purposes of this report, 'rural' is defined as all counties that have populations of fewer than 20,000 persons and that are generally not adjacent to metropolitan areas. […] This report is based on two different data sets: data on fire incidents from the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) and mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Six years of mortality data (1983- 1988) and three years of NFIRS data (1993-1995) serve as the basis for the findings in this report. […] There are some fundamental differences in the nature of the rural fire problem compared to non-rural differences. Among these differences are the causes of rural fires and the characteristics of residential structure fires, including how they start, where they originate, and how often smoke alarms are present and in operational condition."
United States Fire Administration
1998-08
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Firefighter Fatalities in the United States in 1997
"This report continues a series of annual studies by the United States Fire Administration of on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States. The specific objective of this study is to identify all on-duty firefighter fatalities that occurred in the United States in 1997, and to analyze the circumstances surrounding each occurrence. The study is intended to help identify approaches that could reduce the number of firefighter deaths in future years. In addition to the 1997 overall findings, this study includes special analyses on collisions involving vehicles operated by firefighters and fatalities that occurred when firefighters working at the scene of an emergency were struck and killed by civilian vehicles."
United States Fire Administration
TriData Corporation; IOCAD Emergency Services Group (Firm)
1998-08
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U.S. Fire Administration/Technical Report Series: Interstate Bank Building Fire
"This is Report 022 of the Major Fires Investigation Project conducted by TriData Corporation under contract EMW-8-4321 to the United States Fire Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency. [...] On Wednesday, May 4, and continuing into May 5, 1988, the Los Angeles City Fire Department responded to and extinguished the most challenging and difficult highrise fire in the city's history. The fire destroyed four floors and damaged a fifth floor of the modern 62 story First Interstate Bank building in downtown Los Angeles. [...] This was one of the most destructive highrise fires in recent United States history. The fire presented the greatest potential for the 'Towering Inferno' scenario of any U. S. fire experience and was controlled only through the massive and dedicated manual fire suppression efforts of a large metropolitan fire department. It demonstrated the absolute need for automatic sprinklers to provide protection for tall buildings."
United States. Office of Homeland Security; United States Fire Administration
1998-05
