The Waldbaum’s Supermarket Fire and Collapse: FDNY 1978-2019 41st Anniversary Honor, Remembrance, Learning’s The Waldbaum Super market fire, Brooklyn, New York occurred on August 2, 1978. Six firefighters died in the line of duty when the roof of a burning Brooklyn supermarket collapsed, plunging 12 firefighters into the flames. The fire began in a hallway […]

The Bowstring Truss There’s a tremendous lack of understanding in the American Fire Service as to what accurately defines and comprises a Heavy Timber Bowstring Truss and the Operational and Safety Precautions that must be recognized, implemented and trained on, in order to achieve and maintain operational excellence, company integrity and firefighter safety on the […]

The FDNY members killed in the Waldbaums fire included:     Lt. James E. Cutillo, Battalion 33 Firefighter Charles S. Bouton, Ladder Company 156 Firefighter Harold F. Hastings, Battalion 42 Firefighter James P. McManus, Ladder Company 153 Firefighter William O’ Connor, Ladder Company 156 Firefighter George S. Rice, Ladder Company 153  

The Thirty-five year anniversary of the FDNY Waldbaum’s Fire and Collapse: Do you know the lessons learned?

Chicago: Anatomy of a Building and its Collapse PDF Training Aid The recent post titled: Chicago: Anatomy of a Building and its Collapse has been receiving a considerable amount of attention as the post makes its way throughout the fire service eMedia sites, links, likes, shares and commentary circles, with over 6,000 views in the past […]

The NIOSH Fire fighter Investigation and Prevention Program, Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation Reports  recently released Report # F2009-12 for a Near-Miss event that seriously injured a firefighter  wih significant learnings;   HERE    Through the Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program, NIOSH conducts investigations of fire fighter line-of-duty deaths to formulate recommendations for preventing future deaths and injuries. The program does […]

Basement fires in both residential and commercial occupancies are one of the most challenging tactical operations that present numerous risk factors that required the highest degree of situational awareness, training skill sets and continuous incident monitoring and assessment to gauge building structural integrity, fire behavior and crew integrity and performance.  An explosion rocked a Fairdale, […]