Different kinds of fire companies provide fire protection services in every state within the US (Varone, 2012). Among these fire companies are public fire departments, which consist of municipal, county, and state fire departments, private for profit fire protection services, and private non for profit fire protection services (Varone, 2012). A fire department might be or not entitled immunity from liability given its status. This is why most public fire companies are conferred the privilege of immunity from liability; meanwhile most private fire departments do not have such privileges. For firefighters, protection from suits depends on the status of their companies and on their own status if they are public agents or not, paid staff or volunteers, and other circumstances (Varone, 2012). A volunteer fire company’s truck conducted by a volunteer fire officer was involved in an accident in a collision with a train in Virginia, in September, 1989, and the accident was a cause of a lawsuit between parties. The facts, the issues, the holding, the rationale, personal opinion on the court’s decision, and an example of emergency situation in which this decision can be cited are discussed in this paper. The Facts A volunteer fire officer named Miller a member of Catlett Volunteer Fire Company in Virginia was driving a fire truck, and he was heading to a fire scene when we was hit by a train of Amtrak at a rail road crossing (Open Jurist, 1991). Miller and another firefighter who was
There are multiple agencies that can work with fire investigators. Each of these can either help with preservation of life, collection of evidence and finding the cause of the fire as well as helping fix any damage made and try to prevent it. Each of the agencies that will be mentioned help out with these.
Inherently the fire service operates in high-risk environments to facilitate the role of preserving life safety and property conservation. How these incidents are managed and safeguarded by our administration
This tragic fire demonstrated how the fire inspections and precautions were noticeably lacking safety for these workers even though “a little more than five months before the tragedy Firemen Edward F. O’Conner made a routine inspection and said the Asch Building was ‘good’ and the building was ‘fireproof’”(28). The fire finally died down with over one hundred dead bodies piled along the streets. Sunday morning “thousands of people began to form into a slowly moving parade around the city blocks”(89). The people were walking in honor of these workers and would go around trying to identify the bodies and confiscate any items the bodies my have possessed for reminiscences. On the other hand, the departments felt immediate quilt for not stepping in to fix the Asch building before, because the departments knew of the horrible safety and health precautions the Asch building had but nobody emphasized the problems. “But who was to blame?” (113). Chief Croker was quick to blame
There are many areas in the fire service where potential lawsuits and liability can arise; some of these areas include, but are most definitely not limited to negligence, hazing, and not following the fire department’s SOPs/SOGs. As our society has changed, so has its expectations of those in emergency services—while many in the community may think of firefighters as the pinnacle of what an upstanding citizen must look like, there are countless moral and ethical pitfalls that firefighters can fall prey to and diminish the reputation of the fire service.
On June 29, 2009, the last day of the United States Supreme Court’s 2008–09 term, the Court rendered the much anticipated decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, 129 S. Ct. 2658, 174 L. Ed. 2d 490 (2009). Ricci was quickly dubbed the “white firefighter’s case” by many, however, the case involved much more than the firefighters’ asserted right to a promotion.
The struggles of the City of San Bernardino, California are well documented; one of the highest crime rates in the state and the country, extensive acres of urban blight, a median household income under forty-thousand, which has left residents living in poverty, a cash insolvency as a result of mismanagement, which has left the City in chapter nine bankruptcy for three and a half years, and a political climate distorted from lack of experience, and conflicting ideologies and agendas. Also well documented is the strained relationship of between the City and the Unions that represent its employees. Most notably the firefighter’s union, which has sued the City on numerous occasions over pension, overtime and overall work conditions. As part of the City’s plan to exit bankruptcy the firefighters will be annexed into San Bernardino county fire. This moves makes it that much more important for the City and the union to resolve its differences for the good of the firefighters.
According the agency of the Department of Homeland Security states that motor vehicles crashes are the leading cause of death for an on-line duty fireman. Other significant causes of death are: caught/trapped (10%), fall (5%), collapse (3%), and other (7%). Intentions of firefighters are to make the community safe as possible, but we the people need to think twice before we do anything else when dealing with fire. The other things that it 's a national problem for firefighters is not wearing their seat belts when driving out to an emergency. They are so focused on saving our lives when first it 's supposed to be the opposite, their safety is first, but firemen put their lives at risk.
On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the 10-story Asch Building in lower Manhattan, New York. A fire that killed 146 of the 500 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in what was considered one of the worst industrial disasters in the nation's history at that time. All died due to inadequate safety precautions and lack of fire escapes. This research paper will examine how this tragic fire changed the working labor laws as well as work safety and woman's rights.
This commission helped usher in much needed changes on the labor side, which after a few years developed into the New York State Department of Labor (aflcio.org, 2017). The fire also helped fire departments not only in New York City, but all over the Nation at that time, make changes to how they operate. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), which was founded in eighteen ninety-six, declared at its annual meeting right after the fire, to all departments nation-wide, how important fire-drills were to life safety (Teague & Farr, 2009). A few years later the NFPA formed the Committee on Safety to Life to help with fire codes, regulations and departments. Several years after its development, they adopted revised specifications to fire escapes, and worked on specific regulations to exits to buildings and the Building Exit Codes (Teague & Farr, 2009). All of their work helped bring items like fire drills, egress from buildings, sprinklers, fire escapes, and other building code changes. Fire Departments all over the Nation were also helped and their eagerness to improve and update their equipment to meet the needs of a changing, and more industrialized and upward-bound Nation took full effect. Improved safety nets, ladders and equipment to reach taller buildings, more water access points and better personal safety equipment were all a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and the efforts of the
Around thirty labor laws were enforced in reaction to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. A major law was enacted where employees should not have to risk their lives or health in the work place. Other laws included that all high risk building had to have automatic sprinkler systems installed and that all exits had to be unlocked and swing to the outside. It is pivotal that safety measures are taken serious and enforced in a workplace. Deadly fires are bound to happen when the owners of a company neglect the safety of their workers and that is what caused this
With a total passenger load of about 600 people, there was a great deal of confusion after the collision. Witnesses and neighbors ran to the smoking train, and helped remove injured and dazed passengers, even before the first emergency vehicles could arrive at the rural location.
While dangerous work like firefighting often requires decisive and quick action against one of nature’s most destructive elements, do the inherent risks of firefighting justify risky decision-making by officials? In this dangerous and often daring line of work, when is the line between protecting the public and protecting public employees crossed – and who is responsible when that line is crossed?
Within the United States there are five different types of construction. Firefighters need to know and understand each of them. Every construction type have fire resistant weaknesses, these weaknesses will result in fire spreading in the building. If firefighters understand how the fire will spread, then understand how to extinguish the fire faster and more importantly firefighters are better protected from injuries or worse. In America all buildings are associated with one of the types of construction, identified by Roman number. The building codes are, fire resistant (type I), combustible (type II), ordinary construction (type III), heavy-timber construction (type IV) and wood-frame construction (type V). It is important to remember that all buildings are not the same. Each different building construction type will burn much differently than the others do. In order to be able to size-up a building 's fire hazard, firefighters need to be able to understand a buildings contents and construction. Materials that are stored inside of the building and also materials used to construct the building will both fuel the fire. Also know that if a structure is vacant or if the contents in the building are not combustible, the main fire hazard is the building. The scale of the construction types are scaled according to the fire load of combustible material that was used for its construction. A fire resistant building is constructed with least amount of combustible materials, and a
Thousands of fires occur on a yearly basis throughout the United States. Whether it is forest fires, house fires, or any other event that involves uncontrollable flames, the outcome will always be the same; high amounts of destruction and physical damage. When fire emergencies occur, responding to the incident may not be much of a complication as apposed to determining the source from where the fire started or what triggered its behavior, which is truly the challenge. In order to do so, a fire investigator has to be present at the scene of the fire after it has been eliminated. The investigator, after reviewing any possible marks or behavior trails, will conclude if the incident was indeed an accident or intentional, thus making it an act
I truly enjoyed reading the material for this week 's discussion. I found it fascinating to read how these people of passion were so revered as leaders. Something I found difficult while reading the stories of these various leaders was the details of what they did within their respective industries that made them successful. Although I recognize the importance of the details, I found myself continually fanaticizing about how the many different approaches would directly translate to the fire service. Because of the uniqueness of the fire service as an industry, I found it easier to relate to themes and concepts rather than the details. 'Strengths Based Leadership ' by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie For example Simon Cooper stated: "people create memories, not things. If we ask guests what color the carpet was in their guest room, they probably won 't know. The real value comes from the ladies and gentlemen (employees) who bring that hotel to life. Ten percent is the platform, but the rest is people. (Rath & Conchie, 2008, p. 43) As I read this I couldn 't help but think of the fact that our customers in the emergency response world (fire service) likely remember more about how we treat them than what uniform we wear or what kind of apparatus we arrive in, so long as we bring true caring and compassion to their bedside. In addition Cooper 's people over platform approach was obvious in this Rath & Conchie description: "then when he talked of the night-and-day difference that a