Lessons from the Fireground: Buffalo (NY) Fire Department On August 24, 2009, 45-year-old Lieutenant Charles “Chip” McCarthy and 34-year-old Firefighter Jonathan S. Croom died in an early morning fire after a partial first floor collapse at a mixed occupancy commercial/residential structure.   Basement fires in both residential and commercial occupancies are one of the most […]

Fire escapes can be readily found on numerous buildings of heritage and legacy construction, are you aware of some safety considerations?

Eleven Minutes to Mayday: Lessons from 2008 Resonate Today

Two firefighters were killed in Chesapeake, Virginia when they became trapped by a rapidly spreading fire.

Lessons from the Fireground Boston (MA) FD March 26, 2014  Box 9-1579 298 Beacon Street Fire Reports Issued NIOSH LODD Report: http://www.cityofboston.gov/fire/pdfs/nioshbeacon.pdf BFD Board of Inquiry Report: http://www.cityofboston.gov/fire/pdfs/boi-fire-march16.pdf Executive Summary from the Boston Fire Department Board of Inquiry Report on the Line-of-Duty Deaths on March 26, 2014 298 Beacon Street Boston, Massachusetts Box 9-1579 District […]

Taking it to the Streets with your host Christopher Naum and regular guest Joe Pronesti for a conversation and remembrance- “Buffalo, Bronx and Basements” Join us on Tuesday evening August 25th at 7:30pm ET on; Taking it to the Streets with your host Christopher Naum and regular guest Joe Pronesti for a conversation and remembrance- […]

Remembrance: Deutsche Bank Fire and Double FDNY LODD in lower Manhattan, NYC- August 18, 2007 Building  Anatomy; Operational Safety at Deconstruction & Demolition Sites Fire operations for structures undergoing construction, alterations, deconstruction, demolition and renovations present significant risks and danger to operating personnel. This reality was clearly validated when two FDNY firefighters died in the line-of-duty […]

Southwest Inn Hotel Fire – 2013 6855 Southwest Freeway  Houston, Texas May 31, 2013 Incident Number 1305310305 A few weeks ago on Father’s Day, while in Houston (Texas) on business I stopped by to pay my solemn respects at the site of the May 31, 2013 Southwest Inn fire that claimed the lives of Four HFD firefighters and […]

Operational Considerations for Residential Basement Fires Basement fires in both residential and commercial occupancies are one of the most challenging tactical operations that present numerous risk factors requiring the highest degree of situational awareness, training skill sets and continuous incident monitoring and assessment to gauge building structural integrity, fire behavior and fire dynamics and corresponding […]

Remembrance: Lessons from the Fireground-FDNY Black Sunday 2005-2015 Remembrance: Lt. Curtis Meyran, FF. John Bellew, FF. Richard Sclafani, Lt. Joseph BiBernardo and the Survivors The call had come at 7:59 on a Sunday morning, the day after a January blizzard had shut down the city. There was still more than a foot of unplowed snow […]