I will provide the pertinent links at the end of this blog. But first…the blog.
On February 9, 2007, a terrible tragedy occurred in Baltimore, MD.
Fire Cadet Racheal Wilson died during a live burn training exercise at an abandoned row house. Her death lit up the fire service discussion boards across this country over a multiplex of issues. The incident brought swift and sweeping changes within the Baltimore City Fire Department; most notably the removal of the Director of Training and the resi…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 18, 2009 at 4:20pm —
11 Comments
Having been involved in the fire service for almost 30 years, I have read and discussed firefighter deaths, as well as listen to many fire service intellectuals espouse their opinions on our fatality rate compared to other occupations, risk vs. gain, community expectations, etc.
What I have found is that there are TWO, distinctly separate camps, where it comes to what is “acceptable” and what is not. That is; there are those who believe that an average of 100 deaths a year isn’t bad, when you c…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 15, 2009 at 10:31pm —
7 Comments
The envelope measured four inches wide by six inches long. It has held up rather well. It almost has a waxy feel to it. I am sure that it was white at one time, but is now a dark beige color.
In the top, left corner scribbled in pencil is: “after 5 days return to Pvt. W. H. Goodrich, Fort Leavenworth Kans.”
At the top, middle of the envelope is a postmark that says: “Fort Leavenworth Kans., 9 am, Aug 31, 1942.
In the top, right corner of the envelope are the postage cancellation lines and the…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 11, 2009 at 10:38pm —
10 Comments
Anyone Got a Light?
The house at 431 Maple Street died a very quick death. From the time Engine 53 arrived, it only took 12 minutes for the structure to start its collapse into the basement.
Jake had seen fast-moving fires, but those were in warehouses and were fueled by wood, paper, mattresses, propane gas and air; lots of air! But he had never seen a residential fire burn so quickly.
Man, that friggin’ fire had some energy thought Jake.
“Fire spread was supersonic, eh…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 9, 2009 at 8:22pm —
2 Comments
Posted: 11/08/09
When my nephew isn’t deployed, he is based at Fort Hood, TX. He and his family live in Killeen.
I guess you could say that he is career Army. He is currently on his 3rd tour in Iraq. Thank God.
I was sending messages back and forth with family on Thursday, November 5th and all were grateful that he was “safe”. That is to say; he wasn’t at Fort Hood. It was strange to say it then, but on November 5th, it was safer for Jeff to be in Iraq rather than at his home base.
Wh…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 9, 2009 at 8:35am —
19 Comments
Author's Note: Shannon; I finally got it done!
Lou had just concluded a meeting with his fire board, where the hot topic was declining membership in their 110 year-old fire department. He was at his wit’s ends trying to keep enough firefighters manning day calls without resorting to automatic mutual aid.
Talks with the fire commission had turned from possibly consolidating with a neighboring department to disbanding all together. Lou wanted to take one more shot at finding a proven recr…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on November 1, 2009 at 7:05pm —
7 Comments
Previously, I had said that I was troubled with the cheating that goes on in the fire service.
I have included some links to stories that pertain to our fire/EMS community.
http://www.chipleypaper.com/articles/wausau-3889-reimburse-fire.html
http://www.journal-news.net/page/content.detail/id/525906.html…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 29, 2009 at 6:12am —
4 Comments
The Lighter Side of Fire
It’s Halloween night in Grandview.
The most hallowed of holidays for the unholiest of spirits, ghosts, goblins and purveyors of mayhem.
As if
Evil needs a reason to strike!
Halloween is a night of contrasts. On the one hand, you have the two-year-old dressed up in the little Dalmatian costume, replete with floppy ears, puppy nose and mittens made to resemble paws. Pictures are taken at every house.
He’s soooooo cute! Can we keep him? He’s soooooo ad…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 27, 2009 at 7:06pm —
3 Comments
When did we become a society where cheating has become so acceptable and almost fashionable?
Everywhere we turn; we are hearing or reading about another incident of cheating. Pages and pages of examples of yet someone else caught or accused of cheating.
Another headline; another cheater exposed.
Students caught cheating on their SATs. (They are “pressured” by parents to get into the best colleges)
Teachers caught cheating on their standardized testing of students. (…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 26, 2009 at 4:23am —
8 Comments
I have been following the saga involving Firefighter James Krapf of the Chester, PA Fire Department in what has been alternately described as an attack on his patriotism, the symbol of our country-the American Flag and “rules are rules” that must be followed.
Here is a re-cap of how we have gotten to the top of a slippery slope:
1) An African-American firefighter had a cartoon on his locker that others felt was in poor taste. He then wrote a comment on the cartoon.
2) Fire Commissioner James Jo…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 18, 2009 at 9:14pm —
23 Comments
Well, it’s finally here for many of us.
I have been a part of conversations and shared a vision that has reached fruition as a new blogging platform.
www.chiefreasonart.com has undergone a major renovation and been married to a new platform.
http://fireemsblogs.com released yesterday and I am privileged and honored to be in such exquisite blogging célèbre.
As many of you know, I got my s…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 16, 2009 at 11:54am —
4 Comments
I’ve got to tell you; this revelation coming out of West Virginia (http://
www.dailymail.com/News/200910130853) has definitely caught my attention.
I have been watching firefighter arsonist cases for several years and never have I seen such a glaring, isolated trend.
When THIRTY firefighters have been arrested and charged with arson just in the last year in of all places, West Virginia; you have to wonder if the cops in th…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 15, 2009 at 8:18pm —
8 Comments
A Football Time-Out
‘Jake; why are you looking up at the ceiling’, asked the nurse?
‘I don’t know’, replied Jake.
‘Then, stop it’, said the nurse.
‘I can’t’! said Jake.
The nurse came into Jake’s hospital room and she asked him again, ‘Jake; why do you keep looking up in that corner of the ceiling’?
‘I don’t know. I can’t stop looking up there’, said Jake from his hospital bed.
The nurse grasped Jake’s head with both of her hands and gently moved his head down. As soon as…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 12, 2009 at 9:14pm —
1 Comment
There was a song back in the 70s that was sung by The Brotherhood of Man entitled “United We Stand”.
The chorus went something like “For united we stand, divided we fall; and if our backs should ever be against the wall, we’ll be together; together you and I”.
Over the years, the song has been a rallying cry for several groups and done by several artists, but what is my point here?
I read a couple of recent articles that I have linked to and it got the little guy in my head to wondering why t…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 11, 2009 at 1:35pm —
6 Comments
Important development: Yesterday-September 17th-the U.S. House joined the U.S. Senate in voting to defund ACORN. This will eliminate ALL federal funding to the organization. The question that remains is: will FEMA pull the Fire Prevention and Safety grant that was awarded to ACORN?
Blogger's note: I was going to provide the link to FoxNews today (October 7, 2009), but they already have the story up over there. I am hoping Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck will mention it on the broadcasts.
…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 8, 2009 at 10:27am —
10 Comments
Blogging rules of etiquette have been around since the word
blog was first coined.
It is safe to say that much that is written and discussed in the blogosphere is driven by the relative anonymity of the blogger and those wishing to point out their perspectives.
Because I have a deep respect for the power of “words”, I try to fashion a blog by adhering to these basic, blogging principles:
1) I will resist making personal attacks. In my early days of blogging, I was a real schmoe…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 6, 2009 at 1:37pm —
10 Comments
At 0830 hours this morning, we had an emergency at my house.
I had just exited the shower and was drying off when I heard Mrs. Reason say, “Art; get in here!”
“Here” was in the bedroom.
Instinctively, my shoulders slouched inward and my chin fell to my chest, because, well; I am usually beckoned because I’ve done something wrong. Besides; as a seasoned veteran, you “just know”!
“What is it?” I said in mock surprise.
“There is a
toad climbing up the wall in here”, she said with utter…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on September 30, 2009 at 11:28am —
14 Comments
Though there has been little outrage expressed here or anywhere else for that matter, here is the family's reaction to the plea deal and sentence: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/story/935134.html
On February 13, 2004 while administering aid to a victim of domestic violence, Lt. Brenda Cowan of the Lexington, KY Fire Department was shot and killed. She had held the rank of lieutenant for just 3 days.…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on September 30, 2009 at 11:23am —
17 Comments
First Published 9/25/03 on The International Association of Crusty Old Jakes (IACOJ) website (www.iacoj.com)
Author's Note: September 25, 2009 marks the 8th anniversary of the tragic death of Firefighter Bradley Golden. Please take a short moment of silence to remember him.
His death came at the hands of a training session gone terribly wrong.
This "article" is very long. This story could not be told with a few sentences or paragraphs. I spe…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on September 30, 2009 at 11:22am —
19 Comments
I have found it increasingly confusing when looking for the hard/fast LODD number. I don’t have this macabre fascination with firefighter deaths, but I look at the reports to find trends that indicate that we are moving in the right direction in reducing the number of LODDs.
If you look at
Firefighter Fatalities in the United States-2008 that was released in July of this year by the NFPA, there were 103 LODDs in 2008. Their definition of on-duty deaths is as follows:
Each year, NF…
Continue
Added by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on September 28, 2009 at 2:08pm —
4 Comments
