Wikepedia defines New Year's Resolution as...a commitment that an individual makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Years Day and remain until fulfilled. Our collective wish for the New Year is that after every shift and after every call...Everyone Goes Home. This will be accomplished by stopping unsafe behaviors which will result in the elimination of preventable firefighter line-of-duty injuries and deaths.

OSU has completed a study funded by National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program through a DHS Fire Prevention and Safety Grant. The goal of the research, which has evolved over the past two years, was to find ways to reduce firefighter line of duty deaths and injuries. Toward this goal, the Phase I project established a list of "best practices" (called "good practices" in the United Kingdom) designed to minimize the line of duty death and injury (LODD/I).

Preliminary reports indicate 115 personnel died on duty in 2007 compared to 106 the previous year.

This past Christmas I took on the wonderful and fulfilling job of preparing a four course dinner for family and guests. I have some experience in cooking but this undertaking took a great deal of planning. As many of you know, timing is extremely important when preparing such a meal. Everything has to come out at the right time and warm. As I was working on the project days before and pre-cooking some things ahead of time, I thought that this was just like most fire department projects, I had to develop an action plan and stick to it. This plan included a goal, a budget, an inventory of equipment, a list of supplies and an implementation schedule. I could not just get up on Christmas day and look around the house and decide on the spot then what I was going to do for the family Christmas dinner.

If the strategy and tactics you depend on with your lives are as safe as you think they are, why then do so many traumatic fatalities continue at incidents where the same tactics were used? A data analysis of 444 structural firefighter fatalities, occurring over a sixteen year time span and provided by the US Fire Data Center, uncovered one major underlying explanation for the trend. It was revealed that the safety offered by an Offensive Strategy, also known as a quick and aggressive interior attack, applied mostly to certain types of structures but not all of them.

It was December 3, 1999 when an abandoned cavernous warehouse was set afire by two homeless people who "lived" in the hulking structure. This was the Worcester Cold and Storage Warehouse that was located in the City of Worcester, Massachusetts. The scene of this fire was to become one of fiery collapse, death, heartache, heroism, and camaraderie under the most extreme firefighting conditions.

The Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA) and the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System (NFFNMRS) have partnered in a program designed to provide practical applications of the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. The Second Firefighters Life Safety Summit, held in March of 2007, called for the practical application ("deliverables") of the Life Safety initiatives. This program, conducted by the FDSOA, in cooperation with the NFFNMRS and the International Association of Fire Chiefs, meets that goal. Specifically addressed are Initiatives 5 and 9.

A report released by the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that working night shifts, as well as working as a firefighter or as a painter, could cause cancer.

Firefighting is one of the nation's most dangerous occupations. In an effort to help keep firefighters healthy and safe, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, Rahway, is presenting a firefighters' health and wellness program on Feb. 9 at the RWJ Rahway Fitness & Wellness Center in Scotch Plains.

Every Henry County Fire Department station has a board prominently displayed in their station; we currently have 13 stations.

Scott Lyon was recently appointed as one of Iowa's State Advocates. The Firefighter Life Safety Program is pleased to welcome Scott aboard!

Shortly after my daughter and I sat down for lunch on Nov. 3, I smelled smoke. No one else noticed, but I was sure I could smell something burning or melting. I quickly ran down the stairs to our laundry room. I was unable to see any smoke or fire, but decided to check the refrigerator and washer and dryer just in case. It was then I noticed a faint wisp of smoke coming from the top of our dryer (it was stacked on the washing machine). I thought something inside was the cause, but when I opened the dryer door, all was normal. Then I noticed a small flame under the dryer on top of the washing machine. I yelled for my husband who came down and I showed him what I saw. While he got our fire extinguisher, I called 911.

The City of Fairfax Fire Department's Chief Tom Owens has mandated that all eighty members of the Department complete the National Fire Academy's Self-Study Course for Community Safety Educators (Q118). This mandate comes after the Washington-Metropolitan Council of Government's Fire Prevention Subcommittee recommended that all recruits throughout the region complete the course as part of their initial training. Fire Chief Tom Owens firmly believes in providing our community with the best services available with the highest trained personnel. The training must be completed by March 1, 2008.