Shifts, work outs, grading

The shifts that the fire fighters take at the Kahului Fire Station go
24 hours on
24 hours off
24 hours on
24 hours off
24 hours on
4 days off.

Hana and Lanai are different, they work for 3 days then have 6 days off.

As for working out, the guys may have a few stations set up and rotate, like one group is flipping tires, while another is running, and another are pulling hoses out of the engines.

• Running sprints
• Boxing
• Pull ups
• Sit ups
• Flipping tires

I'm not authorized to release the actual work out routines that the recruits go through during training because they are copyrighted, but they have Physical Training for an hour in the morning before class, unless they are needed in class for EMR training. On Wednesdays they would swim for an hour and on other days they may work on upper body and then on the next day they may work on lower body. 

Grading for the recruits' tests. 

They take the written or skills test, and if they fail that they get one retake and if they fail the retake then they are up for release. It's pretty much pass/fail. 

Although on written tests 70% is passing and 69% is failing.

Preventions Bureau

Today on Wednesday November 28, 2012 I went to the Preventions Bureau to talk to Inspector Kapono Stupplebeen about fire safety.

There are four sections to fire safety

• Investigation
• Inspection
• Plans Review
• Public Education

Investigation:

• Cause: What started the fire?
• Origin: Where did it start?

What they find at the scene after a fire has occurred may help police in their case.

When they go to investigate the scene they do an exterior walk around and an interior walk around, hundreds of pictures are taken, they look at patterns, electrical lines, failures of electricity, smoke trail, soot patterns, knobs on the stove.. etc. It is a very time consuming process.

Inspection:

Stairs standards 9in high x 11in wide minimum.

This is to ensure safety when people are evacuating a building.

There is an annual inspection to schools and restaurants.

Fire code = fire law

It is the minimum standard to which they will enforce fire safety.

• State level
• County level

November of 2011 The state of Hawaii Adopted the 1997 Uniform Fire Code Volume 1. That was when the county and the state both adopted this code.

It is easier to read/navigate/reference.

Now there is a new code that needs to be adopted by the county of Maui.
Hawaii State Fire Cope based on the NFPA 1 Uniform Code 2006.

It is like an updated version of the codes, to where maybe some in the 1997 version were wrong and now they are right, or they were right and now they are considered wrong.

You can find some fire code amendments @

mauicounty.gov ► How do I? ► Find Maui County Code ► Chapter 1.01

Contractors need a permit before they begin building, and this is where they would look to.

Plans Review:

3 copies of blueprints plans of a building need to be submitted with an application for a permit.

The employees who work at the Bureau who look over these are in charge of catching mistakes and sending them back to the architects to fix.

It costs a lot of money to rewrite these plans and resubmit them if there is a mistake. 

They should meet the requirements for fire codes and standards before they begin building and get inspected.

These plans are usually for new construction or renovations. 

Once these have been approved, they are stamped, giving the inspector a note on what to focus on. For example today Kapono and I looked at a plan for a verizon wireless tower and the stamp said 

NFPA 17 

Gas system.

There are standards on how to follow codes for:

• electricians 
• plumbers
• ventilation control
• installations
• contractors

These standards give help give options to people trying to follow the codes.

The standards that they look at the most often are

NFPA 13-sprinklers

NFPA 24- water based fire protection, piping, hydrants underground

NFPA 25- inspection, testing, maintenance. Pipes must be clean, clear, and flowing.

NFPA 70- electrical

NFPA 72- alarms systems

NFPA 96 -ventilation in commercial cooking

There are automatic systems that release gas which displaces oxygen. 

It takes heat, fuel, and oxygen to make a fire, if one side of the triangle is eliminated there is no fire.

Public Education:

This sections is about making the public aware of hazards and teaching them how to solve or prevent fires.

Education is the change in behavior, so the hope is that someone will listen and make a difference.

You can tell someone something but they haven't learned unless they accept it and change behavior.

Maui County Public Education ProgramThe Maui County Department of Fire and Public Safety offers a variety of public education programs geared to people of all ages. By educating the community regarding different aspects of fire safety, we hope to provide a better understanding on how and when fires occur and help to reduce the chances of a fire actually occurring in their home.
Station TourStation tours are available for groups of all ages. The tour familiarizes groups with the Maui Fire Department's service with a walk through of the station as well as the equipment and skills of its firefighters.
Average time: 45min-1hr
Truck DemonstrationPersonnel and fire trucks to visit schools, day cares, and other organizations. Includes a short fire safety program.
Average time: 45min-1hr
Fire Safety HouseThe Safety House is a 40ft mobile unit designed to educate all ages in home safety mainly within the kitchen, living room, and bedroom areas. It features smoke detectors as well as smoke detectors for the hearing impaired, stove, microwave, escape ladders, heated door and smoke machine. A live fire sprinkler unit is also demonstrated.
Note: Class sizes less than 50 people (besides schools) need to meet at the Fire Prevention Bureau on Alua street for tour. Need 30 days min. before scheduled time to review lesson plans on Safety House. Limited Availability. Average time for groups of 20: 45min-1hr
Fire Extinguisher TrainingClass room training (video/handouts) and/or hands on demonstration (live fire) on how to effectively use a portable fire extinguisher to put out a fire.
Average time for class and hands-on: 30-45min
Note: Use refillable water extinguishers will affect time required depending on class size
Workplace Fire SafetyInforms employers and employees of large and small businesses about fire safety in the workplace. (Video/handouts) Average time: 20-30min
General Home Fire Safety  (Community Groups)
Informs families about general home fire safety. Smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, fire hazards, escape plans, etc. (video/handouts) Average time: 30min
Note: These presentations are offered to groups, not individual families. Contact your Homeowners or Condo association, local civic organization or Church to arrange a demonstration.
Fire Safety for Senior CitizensDesigned to teach older adults living at home on how to protect themselves from fire hazards. (Video/handouts)
Average time: 30min
Smoke Alarm Maui Program (SAM)The goal of the program is to provide smoke alarms to families or individuals that do not have the protection of smoke alarms in their home. Preference goes to Families with children or seniors, seniors and at risk groups. The smoke alarms are installed free of charge to the recipient along with education on fire safety, home safety survey and leave behind material.
Note: The smoke alarms for this program were funded by a grant from FEMA.
Fire Fighter Safety Guide (FFSG)This Program is state wide and used by all four counties, Maui, Honolulu, Kauai and Hawaii to educate elementary grade children  (Grades K-6) about fire safety. The guide is distributed to 32 public and private elementary schools reaching approximately 13000 children throughout Maui County. Prizes are awarded such as T-shirts and a chance to represent their schools at a recognition luncheon for participation in the program sponsored by A&B Foundation.
All classes must be pre-arranged at  leased two weeks in advance except the Safety House which is thirty days and based on availability. 
Looking forward to:Home Safety Literacy ProgramThis program is new as of May 2009. It has multiple objectives but the main goal is to provide safety education to adults literacy students. This program is headed by the Home Safety Council and in partnership with ProLiteracy Worldwide and Oklahoma Sate University's Fire Protection Publications (FPP). As of this point in time we have yet to initiate the program but have made contact with one "High Risk" group contact and will be looking for more to gauge possible acceptance of program by targeted groups.

Hawaii makes their own safety guides for elementary schools.

Inspectors, like Kapono witness school fire drills to see that they have a plans and can execute it.

He may give comments on if the evacuation is effective or give suggestions, but it is the school's job to create a plan.

It is important to have an evacuation plan for accountability and responsibility. And if you call him he will go to the workplace and train the employees to use an extinguisher correctly. Workplace fire training, response/reaction to a fire is important in the case that one occurs.

Training Center

On Wednesday November 21 2012 I went to the training center to watch the Rescue company do fire drills.

I got to be the dispatcher.

And after they assessed how they think the situation went and what they could work on in a real fire. It's all about team work, thinking and problem solving, and communicating here.

Sources

On Tuesday I will go into the library at the Maui College to look for some books on fire safety.

Elizabeth Clark

Ms. Fordyce

Senior Project

November 16, 2012

Fire Safety and What it takes to become a fire fighter

Fire Protection Publications. Fireground Support Operations. First Edition. United States of America: Oklahoma State University, 2002. Print.

This text book is also used by the recruits who are training to be fire fighters. It is 13 chapters long and covers subjects focusing on sizing up the situation on scene of a fire, finding access to the structures such as gates, fences, security measures, doors, windows and walls. Different ventilation tatics, controlling utilities and building systems such as heating, air conditioning, lighting, conveyance systems and how to go about a scenario where control is lost.

This was a very helpful source because this is also used in the class room as a direct reference for recruits to use when training to become fire fighters. They rely on this information to be accurate so they can learn the proper procedures when out in the field. The International Fire Service Training Association is dedicated to the education of fire safety and procedures.

The Fireground Support Operations text book was a helpful resource for my research because it explained the process of reaching the scene of a fire and what variables there are to look for and how to deal with them.

Visual Learning Aid

Today on Friday November 16th 2012 I went to the fire station and some fire fighters were setting up to film some videos to help give the trainees a reference to look to when they are preparing to take skill tests on EMR. I participated as the patient/victim in three videos.

The first scenario: I was in a car accident and my spine was in need of being stabilized and immobilized. The instructor began by putting a neck brace around my neck, then he put this green board behind my back to prop my spine up and he then secured me to the board by strapping me in.

The second scenario: I had a broken leg (right tibia near the knee) and was laying on the floor. The assistant manually stabilized my right leg as the instructor prepared the splint, applied the splint and secured it.

The third scenario: I had a dislocated right shoulder and the instructor was putting a sling around my arm to immobilizing my elbow and shoulder.

My mom just asked me how I acquired this dislocated shoulder, I told her I was the pitcher for the Angels.

They will be using this video as a reference to the skill tests for Emergency response in the class room.
I will have these videos by next week when they have been edited.

Inspection

Today on Wednesday November 14th 2012 Captain Amos and I went to the bottom floor of a building in Wailuku that is going to be a new diner opening on Monday.

We met with Captain Paul Ha'ake who was doing the inspection of fire codes for the building.
It is 600 sq ft and it can hold 40 people at one time.

Because it can hold 40 people the requirement to have two doors that swing outward is not in place. The two exits are just a plus.

Electrical:
Exit lighting signs must be working for people to see them.

Power board needs to be directly plugged into the wall so it does not cause over heating.

Outlets must be covered.
No obstructions in front of exits or electrical panels.
Electrical panels have a cover and labels match switches.
Storage must be below the sprinklers and sprinklers must be uncovered of tape.

When fire fighters arrive at a scene they shut off the gas and electricity so they can put out the fire.
When the fire alarm is pulled a wet chemical is released from sprinklers above the stove to suffocate the grease fire.

Inspectors check to see if the gas tank or the electrical switch is secure or if anyone can tamper with it.
The color of the bulb on a sprinkler depends on the temperature reading.
There is red, blue, green, purple and black.
The bulb is a cover for the sprinkler, so once it reaches the temperature capacity it breaks and starts to release water.

When fire fighters do a pre-plan they go to a building and walk through and plan out how they would go about putting out the fire.
First they would look for two fire hydrants on the street that they can hook up to.

To force their way through a door they would pop off the lock on the outside then turn the lock so it unlocks.

They plan how many men on the hose line, usually there would be three. One holding the line, one at the nozzle and the Captain in front.

In the building there is a side door from the outside that connects to the kitchen. Amos said that since he knows there's that large door there, he would probably go around to that door and spray the fire in the kitchen from there and work his way in. 

Fire fighters not only have to look at where the fire is coming from, but the surroundings to where it could spread to. This particular diner is underneath the Aloha house, so there is an office above and residents behind. The buildings in which the residents live in, the structure integrity is compromised because it is old. They have to think about evacuating these people if need be. The stairs have codes too, for example it can have a minimum slope of x and certain width so people can make their way out of the building. 

The above picture is of a FDC- Fire Department Connection. A sprinkler valve where the fire fighters plug their hoses into to charge the sprinklers with more water. 

The FDC should be 40 ft off the building and the hydrant should be 100 ft from that.

The Control valve system is there in case someone breaks the sprinkler or something else happens. The fire fighters come to the scene and turn off the valve and replace the sprinkler. 

When buildings are very close together there must be a fire wall. A fire wall is a wall of concrete that prevents a fire from spreading from one building to another. Fire walls are also supposed to extend past the roof line. 

Captain Amos and I also went to the County Building where they hire people for the county.

We met with Geri Onaga who gave me some papers.

One was a formal Maui County Training Announcement for firefighters which explains the duties, the requirements and that there will be a written test and then an agility test.

She also told me about how people apply to become fire fighters. She gave me the form that all Maui County employees fill out which can be found at www.mauicounty.gov/departments/personnel

They also use a website where you can create a candidate profile saying that you are looking for a certain job. https://hi-mauicounty.civicplus.com/jobs.aspx

You sign up for a class online, get a email with a date/time/location and it reminds you two weeks before, one week before and the day before the class.

On Friday I'm going to the Fire Preventions Bureau office to learn more about fire safety.