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The Dangers are Real & the Solutions are Really Simple
Structure Fires Kill Firefighters in More Than One Way
The average house fire produces a toxic soup of chemical contaminates. Some you breath in, some migrates through your skin. Some you can see or taste, or smell, most you can't. The end result of wading around in toxic soup is sickness. Whether it takes 30 minutes or 30 years if you muck about in poison often enough you are going to get sick.
We are adding information/guidance about post incident decontamination to the MCFRS Infection Control and Hazard Exposure Reduction Manuals which were created under the authority of FCGO 20-03. The idea is to provide you with a series of procedures and methods that respect the variability of your operational environment while still providing you protection from common hazards.
The methodology is not perfect. In fact it can, and only will be, as good as you are collectively willing to make it. The truth is that if you just decide that getting clean after a fire or after walking through a diesel spill is silly there is not much we can do to help. We can make rules, we can mandate actions BUT collectively people have to decide that it is important to them, at both the individual level and at the various leadership levels to make a difference.
We are going to give you some ideas, methods, tools and policies, and then we are going to treat you like reasonable adults and ask you to deploy the right ideas, methods, tools and policies at the right times to reduce your own risk, and the risk of your teams. It all focuses on one simple premise:
Get As Clean As Possible-As Soon As Possible.
Why Should You Care?
Why Should You Care?
Sure there are great presumption laws in our state. Sure you have great insurance, but neither of those is of much consolation when you get cancer. The death from cancer tends to be slow and painful, not just for the firefighter but also for their family and friends.
The job is dangerous BUT there are things that we can do to reduce the risk. This program is about reducing risk of firefighters getting cancer (and other diseases) because of exposure to toxic chemicals at work.
We can't be perfect but we can be better. We know that firefighters are experts at more than fires. They are also experts at locating gaps in the rules especially places where the "rules" or "policies" make their work harder. To that end this program is based on providing you with a menu of options and very few rules. Where we provide rules you must follow them. Where we provide options you get to make choices.
There is one choice that remains unavailable. You may not, as a leader, purposely choose to needlessly expose your teams to hazards. That is unfair, immoral and unacceptable. Beyond that we trust your judgement.
Course Work
Course Work
In this course we are going to talk about:
Risk management
The hazards we face
Post incident decontamination principles
Post incident decontamination methods
Fire overhaul safety measures
Quiz
Quiz
We have to do a quiz. Having a quiz is how we verify that you at least read through the material. In order to do well (80% or better) on the quiz, here's what you must know:
What are the hazards we are trying to protect against (in the context of post incident decontamination and overhaul safety?
What is our thought process behind how we are approaching risk management in this context?
What are the primary methods (strategies) we use to protect against those hazards?
Who is responsible for decontamination?
What are the different types of decontamination?
What are some individual steps you can take to protect yourself?
Who makes the decision about what level of decontamination is necessary and/or appropriate?
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