NC Rollover Accident Video

NC Rollover Accident Video
Check out this really effective video that recounts the rollover of a Raleigh Fire Department tractor drawn aerial on July 10, 2009. Every firefighter should watch this. It includes astonishing footage of the accident and commentary by those who were in the accident. It is a miracle these firefighters survived. It really brings home what can happen in just one instant, how important training is, and the critical need to focus on vehicle safety. Please – wear your seatbelts, slow down, check intersections, and stay safe! Click To Watch

Fire funds yield electronic sign

Fire Chief Tom Francesconi, left, and Police Chief Tim Garner, right, with the Cheshire Fire Department’s new electronic sign purchased with a $665,000 SAFER grant. (Ryan Hutton/North Adams Transcript)

By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 04/23/2011 12:25:44 AM EDT



CHESHIRE -- After four years, the $665,962 federal firefighting grant Cheshire received in 2007 has finally run its course, but has left one final, lasting marker of its existence -- a sign.

Two weeks ago, the Cheshire Fire Department installed a new electronic sign outside of the fire station courtesy of the Staffing for Adequate Fire Safety & Emergency Response (SAFER) grant that the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded the town.

"I think this is going to be a real, lasting asset to our community," said Jim Pasquini, the grant’s administrator. "Knowledge is power and now the fire department has the technology to keep the community informed."

The grant ended on April 1 and the sign was the last thing purchased before it expired. Over the last four years, the grant -- which was originally intended for recruitment marketing -- has been changed by FEMA and DHS to allow the department to purchase new turnout gear for the 30 firefighters it recruited as well as for education and training purposes.

Barry Emery, the department’s technical assistant, said that in addition to recruitment notices, the sign has plenty of ancillary benefits, too.

"We used to have garden club sale notices up there for a week straight and nothing else," he said. "Now, we can set it to cycle through several different messages every few seconds if we need to. We can


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set times of day when specific messages go up and it will do it and then put back up the normal messages automatically."
Emery said the department can also set certain displays to occur every year. For example, a series of messages can be set to automatically go up for every Fire Prevention Week or at the start of burning permit season.

"When we set up a series of signs on the board, you’ll see that nine times out of 10, one of them has to do with volunteering and recruitment," Emery said. "That’s a big part of this -- it’s a marketing device."

The old sign outside of the department used interchangeable letters that took time to put up. The new sign enables the department to change the message via email so officials don’t even have to be at the station to update it.

Fire Chief Tom Francesconi said the department is no longer stuck with only a single message to the public at one time. He said the new sign can cycle through messages every few seconds and can include things like Amber alerts, missing person alerts and can even display website information such as the national weather service’s radar of North County along with storm warnings.

"It used to be that we’d have to stand out there in the cold and change the letters," Police Chief Tim Garner said. "Now, if we have road closings or school closings or any type of emergency, it’s right there on the main street through town."

"Tim is just glad he doesn’t have to be the guy to stand out there in the snow and rain to change the letters and chase them down the street when they would blow away," Francesconi added.

Because it is made up of dozens and dozens of energy-efficient LEDs, the sign only draws about as much power as a regular incandescent light bulb.

"It also has a light sensor on it so when the sun goes down, it will dim and save power because it won’t need to be as bright," Emery said. "It’s already set so that, at night, it’s just the time and temperature on a black background."

Francesconi said that even now that the SAFER grant has ended, the sign will be an excellent way to continue educating and recruiting.

"One of the big benefits I see to this is that we can keep the public educated about exactly what the fire department does," he said. "We can put up there how many calls we have each month or when we’re having a seminar or anything like that -- just keeping people informed on what the fire department or EMS are all about."

Help Volunteer Firefighters Affected by Recent Storms

Published Date: 04.18.2011

Devastating storms and deadly tornadoes hit the South and Mid Atlantic states last weekend, with more than 200 tornado reports from Mississippi to Virginia. North Carolina took an especially hard hit resulting in 22 deaths. When disasters like this strike, we must remember that the volunteer first responders the community relies on to respond are also victims. The National Volunteer Fire Council’s (NVFC) Volunteer Firefighter Support Fund is designed to help first responders impacted by such tragedies.

Volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel affected by state- or federally-declared disaster can apply for a stipend of $250 to help meet basic needs in the aftermath of the disaster. To receive a stipend, the first responder must be an active volunteer firefighter, rescue worker, or EMS provider, be from an NVFC member state as an individual or department member of the state association, live (or have housing) in a state- or federally-declared disaster area, and have incurred an uninsurable loss in excess of $5,000. Learn more and apply for disaster relief at www.nvfc.org/supportfund.

The Volunteer Firefighter Support Fund relies on the donations of individuals and organizations to assist volunteer first responders in need. Click here to make your contribution to the fund. The NVFC donates all administrative costs associated with managing the fund, so all donations go directly to helping volunteer first responders in need.

Established in response to the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the Volunteer Firefighter Support Fund has to date distributed almost half a million dollars to volunteer first responders in need. Click here to learn more.

Get Battery Donations through the Power Those Who Those Protect Us Program

Get Battery Donations through the Power Those Who Those Protect Us Program


Published Date: 04.18.2011

Did you know that your volunteer or mostly volunteer (at least 50%) fire department is eligible to participate in the Power Those Who Protect Us program? Power Those Who Protect Us is a battery donation program designed to help support the more than 23,000 volunteer fire departments in the U.S. Beginning in February 2011, anytime that specially-marked Duracell CopperTop battery packs are purchased, a battery donation will be made to volunteer fire departments across the country to help power life-saving equipment and communication devices. Duracell has committed a minimum donation of 20 million batteries through the program.

Consumers can further the battery donation to their local department by going online to www.duracell.com/protect and entering the code located within the packaging of their specially-marked Duracell battery purchase. Then they can use their zip code to select their local department to specify that the donation from their purchase will go to that department. It is important to verify that your department is participating in the program to make sure consumers can increase the number of batteries you will receive.

Prior to the program’s launch in February, a preliminary list of qualifying departments was obtained and each of those departments received a canister from Duracell in the mail with instructions for participation as well as marketing materials for promoting to their communities how they can specify donations to the department. If your department qualifies for the program but you have not received information in the mail from Duracell, or if you have found that your department is not available at www.duracell.com/protect, you can simply send an email to duracellfire@gmail.com with your department’s contact information and let them know that you would like to participate.

Duracell Power Those Who Protect Us Commercial

Adams dispatchers give their take on closure debate

Adams dispatchers Tony Piscioneri, left, and John Panseczhi... (Ryan Hutton/North Adams Transcript)

By Ryan Hutton
Posted: 04/20/2011 12:42:00 AM EDT



Wednesday April 20, 2011
North Adams Transcript
ADAMS -- The Selectmen and Finance Committee have come down on opposite sides of whether to close the local emergency dispatch center and contract with the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Department for the service, but what do the Adams dispatchers have to say on the matter?
With the Selectmen voting for the change to go before Town Meeting and the Finance Committee deciding not to recommend it, dispatchers Anthony Piscioneri and John Panseczhi took some time Tuesday to give their thoughts before Town Meeting votes on the move this summer.
"We’re a small town. We deal with the same people almost everyday," Panseczhi said. "We know family medical histories. We know if an older person has been taken to the hospital four times for a heart attack. That’s information to pass on to the ambulance service, and we can do it without quizzing a panicked family member when they call."
Panseczhi said it is important for emergency personnel to stay concentrated on a major incident when it is occurring. Because Adams is a small town, he said, dispatchers usually have only minor calls coming in during a major accident, fire or arrest.
"We don’t have three major incidences going on all at once -- one in South County, one in North County and one in Pittsfield," he said. "We don’t have to tell a fire chief to hold on at the scene of a fire while we take another call. Š That’s not
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saying anything against the Sheriff’s dispatchers. I’ve got a lot of respect for them and the job they do, but they’re already dispatching for 23 communities."
Piscioneri said that all three full-time dispatchers -- Piscioneri, Panseczhi and Tom Romaniak -- are members of the Alert Hose Company and work closely with the police department since the dispatchers are based in the station.
He said they can save an incident commander time by calling the electric company or gas company in the event of a fire or car accident in-between radio calls -- allowing the person in charge on the scene to concentrate on making sure a fire is put out safely or a person is removed from a wreck carefully.
"Do the Sheriff’s dispatchers know that a few houses down from the DPW garage is a little, barely paved road called Evens Street?" Panseczhi said. "It goes to a single house where the Norcross family lives. That’s the stuff we know."
"We have Summit Street, Summit Lane, Summit Avenue in town," Piscioneri added. "We know the difference between all of them."
Piscioneri said having that personal knowledge of the town and its people also comes in handy when discerning how urgently emergency services need to respond to a call. For example, he said, they may get a call from someone threatening to harm themselves, but they know the person has a few issues and has made threats like this before.
"That doesn’t mean you dismiss them, but maybe you talk to them for a couple minutes, and that’s all they needed," Piscioneri said. "If you know them and their history and they just wanted someone to talk to and say ‘I’m OK now’ and hang up, that saved an officer’s time on the streets.
"It all goes back to the question of ‘can you put a price tag on knowing your town and your people?’ "
The town has estimated that closing the local dispatch center could save close to $200,000 per year with a price tag of roughly $20,000 for contracting with the Berkshire County Sheriff’s dispatch. No details have been worked out on whether that number will increase over the years or if the Alert House Company and Adams Ambulance Service will have to pay additional dispatching fees since they are separate entities with "handshake agreements" with the police for dispatch services.
Last Thursday, the Finance Committee wanted more details on an arrangement with the Sheriff before recommending it to town meeting.
Piscioneri and Panseczhi said that they agree with the Finance Committee.
"When they proposed eliminating the dispatchers two years ago and it didn’t go, the town should have formed a committee to sit down and discuss this then," Panseczhi said. "They should have gotten the police chief, the fire chief and the head of the ambulance service, the DPW and forest warden to sit down, meet regularly and work it out."
To reach Ryan Hutton,
email rhutton@thetranscript.com.