Bøger af U S Fire Administration

This 14th edition covers the 10-year period 1995 to 2004 with a primary focus on 2004. For the first time, only native National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) 5.0 data are used for NFIRS-based analyses. The report addresses the overall national fire problem. Detailed analyses of the residential and non-residential fire problem, firefighter casualties, and other subsets of the national fire problem are not included. These topic-specific analyses will be addressed as separate, stand-alone publications.

This analysis sought to identify trends in mortality and examine relationships among data elements. To this end, data were collected on firefighter fatalities between 1990 and 2000. (For further information, see the "Methodology" section or the Appendix.) Using this analysis, better targeted prevention strategies can be developed in keeping with the USFA's goal to reduce firefighter deaths 25 percent by 2005. In contrast to the annual USFA firefighter fatality reports, this analysis allowed for comparisons over time to determine any changes in firefighter mortality, with a depth of scrutiny not present in earlier analyses.

This Fifteenth Edition covers the 5-year period of 2003 to 2007 with a primary focus on 2007. Only native National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) 5.0 data are used for NFIRS-based analyses. In 2007, the native NFIRS 5.0 data account for 98 percent of the fire incident data.

This report was developed through a cooperative agreement between the USFA and the International Fire service Training Association (IFSTA) at Oklahoma State University (OSU).

This manual discusses an early intervention and referral program in the context of the seven components ISA feels are critical to the success of any juvenile firesetter program. These components include 1) Program Management, 2) Screening and Evaluation, 3) Intervention Services, 4) Publicity and Outreach, 5) Referral Mechanisms, 6) Monitoring Systems and 7) Relationships with the Juvenile Justice System.

The firefighter Autopsy Protocol has been extensively revised since its original 1994 edition in this new protocol, a number of additional areas of information have been provided to take into account emerging issues and new technologies as applied to the conduct of autopsies

This report contains a general discussion of the current and projected fire protection environment In the United States. The report includes information on Changes in fire experience, problems, issues and conditions since America Burning; current fire losses, major problem areas, programs and general conditions which directly, or indirectly, affect the protection of life and property from fire; and projected future conditions and situations at the local, state and national levels which might impact on fire protection.

This document is to help the fire service manager cope with the firefighting workforce as it changes from an all-male environment to one that includes women. The handbook offers guidance and suggestions from people who have experience and expertise in the areas that affect women's integration into fire suppression ranks. It takes a wide perspective, and, as is appropriate with personnel issues in general, offers choices and options more often than single "right" answers. The Changing Face of the Fire Service helps the fire service manager cope with the firefighting workforce as it changes from an all-male environment to one that includes women. The handbook offers guidance and suggestions from people who have experience and expertise in the areas that affect women's integration into fire suppression ranks. It takes a wide perspective, and, as is appropriate with personnel issues in general, offers choice s and options more often than single "right" answers. It attempts to answer the most frequently asked questions about women in firefighting. It focuses specifically on the issues of recruitment, entry-level physical testing, firefighter training, maternity and reproductive safety, hair-length standards, fire station facilities, sexual harassment, cultural diversity training, ongoing support, and protective gear and uniforms.

The NJF/ACP began with a nationwide assessment of juvenile firesetter programming, conducted by the Institute for Social Analysis (ISA). Based on that assessment, ISA produced a comprehensive set of materials to heighten awareness of juvenile firesetter issues and to guide implementation of model programs.

The USFA was pleased to work with the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) through a cooperative agreement to develop this revised edition of Emergency Incident Rehabilitation.

The 12th edition of Fire in the United States covers the 10-year period from 1989 to 1998, with emphasis on 1998. As usual in this series, this edition describes the overall national fire problem; examines aspects of the problem in residential and non-residential structures, vehicles, and outside fires; and addresses casualties sustained by firefighters in the line of duty. Additionally, this report presents the number of fires and deaths in each state for 1998 and, where available, the 10-year trends. Special analyses address the problem of fire as it related to the very young and to older adults. These individuals are at higher-than-average risk from fire, a problem receiving high attention by the USFA.

This Guide is designed as a resource to help emergency response organizations tailor the requirements identified in regulations and standards to their own unique situations. The structure of the Guide facilitates its use for different purposes including the following sections...Overview of Infection Control, Components of an Infection Control Program, Vehicles, Equipment, and Supply Considerations, Facilities Considerations, Assessing Effectiveness, and Special Situations. The Guide also contains a bibliography of useful reference documents and several appendices, a glossary of common terms, laws, standards, and guidelines and sources of additional information for special needs in infection control.

Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service.

Fire and Arson Investigators' Field Index Directory

This handbook provides a baseline overview of key roles and responsibilities to assist current and prospective medical directors in performing their important missions.

Tankers account for the largest number of firefighter crash deaths of all types of fire department vehicles. This report examines the various causal factors that have been identified as problematic for tankers and their drivers.

The range of services provided by America's fire service continues to expand. In many areas, the local fire department is responsible for mitigating hazardous materials incidents, performing technical rescues, and providing emergency medical services. The threat of terrorist incidents further increases the fire department's responsibility, as firefighters must be taught to recognize the signs of a chemical or biological attack and the proper response. This expansion of the fire service's responsibilities means that less time and energy are available to focus on basic fire suppression skills and scenarios. Also, some of the newer missions present their own, inherent training dangers. In addition, the personal protective gear being worn by firefighters today is excellent; some say that it is even too protective. Firefighters now can advance deeper into structures and get closer to the seat of a fire than in years past because the turnout gear protects well against heat, but this can create problems. A longer exposure to fire will rapidly deplete a firefighter's energy and air supply; and the firefighter will have a greater distance to travel to an exit in an emergency situation. Furthermore, as firefighters progress farther into a structure, more time elapses, which means the fire is more devel¬oped, hotter, and often closer to flashover. Due to the increased use of synthetic and polycarbonate construction materials, fires are burning hotter and faster than in the past, resulting in a higher potential for building collapse and flashover. Collapse becomes more likely because of the increased damage from the fire. Safe, effective, and realistic firefighter training is essential in preparing the fire service to achieve its mission of preserving life and property. The dilemma posed by conducting realistic fire training is that fires, even in a training setting, are inherently dangerous. Yet, the fire service needs realistic scenarios to fully experience the environment of a fire and how to combat it. Even without the presence of live fire, training on the physically challenging and labor-intensive tasks of hose handling, tool work, and ladder operations pose a high potential for injuries. From 1987-2001 there has been a 31 percent decrease in the incidence of structure fires throughout the United States. As a result of the decline in fires, firefighters on the whole have less fireground experience than their predecessors had a generation ago. As many of the more experienced firefighters and officers retire, they are replaced by young officers with comparably less fire experience. As today's firefighters' collective, direct experience in fighting fires continues to diminish, there is great concern in the fire service that the inability to recognize flashover and building collapse-and to react quickly enough to avoid being caught by these two potentially fatal conditions-will continue to result in injuries and fatalities to firefighters. Complicating this situation is that live fire training with Class A combustible materials (especially in acquired structures) is being replaced by temperature-controlled, fuel-fed fires in non-combustible structures. Departments are relying less on live fire training for myriad reasons, including among others, environmental, safety, and cost. This report examines recent injurious and fatal incidents involving training to determine lessons that can be used to prevent future injuries and deaths. The emphasis in this report is on fire-related training, particularly live-fire evolutions. It is, however, important to note that training-related injuries can and do occur during a variety of types of training. Also included is a discussion of training standards and common hazards as well as a brief analysis of the available data on the number and cause of training-related injuries and deaths.

This report presents results based on data from US local fire departments participating in a needs assessment survey. Public Law 106-398, Fire Investment and Response Enhancement (FIRE) Act, Title XVII - Assistance to Firefighters, recognized that America's fire departments provide service and protection with impact far beyond the borders of the communities that support them. In order to provide this service and protection with the effectiveness, speed, and safety that their home communities and the nation as a whole demand, many fire departments will need to increase their resources, in any of several categories. PL 106-398 created a fund to support worthy proposals to address these needs. But PL 106-398 also recognized that our current understanding of the magnitude and nature of fire department needs is not well defined. Furthermore, the rationale for Federal government assistance to meet these needs is also in need of greater definition, given the normal presumption that routine fire protection is a local function, set to meet locally defined goals and supported by local resources.

Fires started by lighted tobacco products, principally cigarettes, constitute the leading cause of residential fire deaths. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) has partnered with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) "to research what types of behaviors cause smoking fire fatalities and develop sound recommendations for behavioral mitigation strategies to reduce smoking fire fatalities in the United States...." The scope of the study included all lighted tobacco products, but cigarettes account for nearly all consumption and fires. Lighting implements such as matches and lighters were not included. Most fires involving these objects occur during incendiarism or fireplay. An extensive literature review on behaviors related to smoking, or to fires or fatalities due to smoking-material fires was conducted to provide the broadest possible fact base for recommendations. In addition, data were collected from: - analysis of the 1980 to 2001 U.S. smoking-material fire problem, using The National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) national estimates; - analysis of several hundred 1997 to 1998 fatal smoking-material fires, not necessarily representative but documented in greater detail in NFPA's major fires database called the Fire Incident Data Organization (FIDO); - analysis of other risk factors correlated with smoking, based on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor database for 2002.

This report compiles the best practices and common problems of fire protection and criminal justice agencies in identifying, investigating, prosecuting, and preventing arson. Commonly, the crime of arson is motivated by spite and revenge. Perpetrators strike with fire at buildings where people live, work, or socialize-causing injury, property loss, and death. Civilians and firefighters alike die in arson fires every year. Thirty years ago, arson captured media attention because so-called arson-for-profit rings were burning down decaying urban neighborhoods that had ceased to be profitable, and then rebuilding them at a substantial profit. Other high-profile cases involved arsonists who were connected to gangs and drug lords, and who set fires to intimidate their rivals or as retribution for deals gone bad. Some of the most publicized cases occurred in the cities of New York, Boston, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Baltimore, and others. There even were situations where neighborhood vigilantes, who were frustrated with crime and run-down buildings, took it upon themselves to torch structures to rid the neighborhood of vagrants, prostitutes, and drug dealers. Insurance companies were perceived as the main victims from intentional fires. As a crime com¬mitted against property, the economics of arson played center stage to the less well-defined statistics on injuries and deaths. Since arson fires do, on average, cause proportionately higher losses than fires from other causes, insurance companies committed many resources toward investigation and control. From establishing tip reward programs, training accelerant detection canines (ADC's), supporting arson reporting immunity legislation, and establishing the property insurance loss register (PILR), the insurance industry was a strong partner at that time. There is a dichotomy between arson as a property crime and arson as a crime against people, and that lies at the heart of today's challenges with cases of arson. As a crime, arson's long-standing definition as the willful and malicious burning of property does not do justice to the fact that today arson is usually a personal crime that is directed intentionally against specific victims. It is time for arson to be dealt with as a violent crime against persons, not just a crime against property. Today, spite and revenge dominate as the motives in intentional property fires, especially where there are casualties. Revenge-minded arsonists torch nightclubs, occupied residences, hotels, and other settings where their intended victims, and often other innocent people, are injured and killed. First responders get injured or die battling these blazes and trying to save others. Even though a portion of incendiary fires are motivated by other reasons (e.g., excitement, economic relief, peer pressure, a cry for help, and so forth) most set fires happen because someone wanted to inflict harm on another person using fire as the weapon of choice. Fire investigation units from The U.S. Fire Administration's (USFA's) project indicated that spite and revenge were the most common motives behind incendiary fires. Among project sites from the past 5 years, spite and revenge ranked as the highest leading motives, when investigation units were queried about prevailing motives.

The 2005 Fire Service Needs Assessment Survey was conducted as a stratified random sample survey. The NFPA used its own list of local fire departments as the mailing list and sampling frame of all fire departments in the US that report on fire incidents attended. In all, 15,545 fire departments - just over half the total in NFPA Fire Service Inventory (FSI) database, including all departments protecting communities of at least 50,000 population - were mailed survey forms, and 4,709 responded, for a 30% response rate. Because of time constraints, this second survey limited its second mailing to larger departments and states with unusually low response rates, whereas the first survey in 2001 had included a second mailing to all first-mailing non-respondents. This response rate is similar to the response rate in the 2001 survey's first mailing and is sufficient for reliable results at the national and state levels, overall and by community size. The second mailing to small states with low response rates had minimal impact on national estimates. The content of the survey was developed by NFPA in the 2001 survey, in collaboration with an ad hoc technical advisory group consisting of representatives of the full spectrum of national organizations and related disciplines associated with the management of fire and related hazards and risks in the U.S. The survey form was used without modification in order to maximize comparability of results and development of valid timelines.

The purpose of this U.S. Fire Administration special report is to document the problem of older chil¬dren who set fires resulting in serious or potentially serious consequences. The report also examines the factors that commonly are associated with intentional firesetting by teenagers and discusses a number of community programs that intervene to control arson. Historically, the term "juvenile firesetting" has been viewed as a "curious" kids' problem. Fires set by youngsters playing with matches and lighters tend to be categorized as "accidental" or "children playing." However, juvenile firesetting also includes the deliberate destruction of property by juveniles through fire, which sometimes results in casualties. This is an increasingly serious problem in most U.S. cities. Information from a 10-year U.S. Fire Administration project of direct technical assistance to over 60 jurisdictions verifies the high rate of juvenile-set fires. This report focuses on adolescent firesetters between 14 and 18 years of age. Several case studies are presented to demonstrate the impact of these arson fires and to outline the family circumstances of the youth who were involved. The report also covers how the criminal justice system has been handling teen arson and reviews and compares several treatment and intervention programs.

The USFA convened the symposium on "Health and Safety Issues of the Female Emergency Responder," in Rosslyn, Virginia, in October 1994. Twenty-seven participants representing a wide range of interest and involvement in fire and emergency response services were brought together to share their expertise and experiences in specific health and safety issues. The participants were charged with the task of narrowing the focus of health and safety concerns and developing strategies to address the issues of women in emergency response services today. They provided a "snap shot" of the situation for women in the response services and identified the critical issues to address in the immediate future. The report that follows is a result of their deliberations and experience.

The intent of this working paper is to identify socioeconomic factors that influence the complex and varied relationships between buildings, humans, and the occurrence of residential fires.

This report delineates the fire risk factors and presents the statistics regarding the fire problem among the elderly in the United States.