Fire Department
eviewing and changing standard fire fighting procedures for high rise buildings incidents

The main aim of this research paper is to not only review the current standards for fighting fire in high rise buildings but to also recommend various ways to improve those standards. Furthermore, the paper also reviews how these standards may affect the current fire fighting methods. The needs of the local Chief Fire Officers, the current fire department hierarchy as well as the international contemporary practices have been kept in mind while suggesting the recommendations for change and improvement. According to the opinion of the people working in the fire departments the reason why the high storey buildings are at a higher risk of a fire starting there is because since, these buildings are larger in size therefore a lot more people work there who can become more careless (ussell, 2004). Also, there is a lot of…...

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References

AOC (Aukland Operations Center). (1996). High rise building procedure FG/III/5. Auckland, NZ: Auckland Area, NZFS.

Bennett, J.A. (2000). High rise firefighting from top to bottom, part 3. American Fire Journal, May, pp.16-17.

Bennett, J.A. (2000). High rise firefighting from top to bottom, part 4. American Fire Journal, October, pp.12-15.

Carter, H.R. (1992). High rise firefighting: A look at the problems. The VOICE, October, pp. 8-9.

The entire Other Benefits expenditure category budget will be reduced to $94,000 from $102,404 in 2009 (City of Piedmont, 2010).
The City of Piedmont's Fire Department strategy in order to cope with the budget reduction seems to be somewhat successful. In order for the operations budget not to suffer from this budget reduction, the department reduces adjacent expenditures, like uniform allowances, or office supplies.

Other fire departments in the country struggle with a much more difficult situation. The St. Louis Fire Department is threatened by a significant budget cut. The $50 million budget is estimated to be reduced by $3.6 million.

The amount is immense for the department's manager, who is considering several actions that he could take in order for the fire fighters and the people they serve to suffer as less as possible from this budget cut. Therefore, the city firefighters agree to having their salaries reduced, or 30 firefighters…...

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Reference list:

1. Prochazka, M. (2010). Stop James Island Fire Department Budget Cuts. Retrieved August 30, 2010 from  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-james-island-fire-department-budget-cuts/ .

2. Fire Department Budget (2010). City of Piedmont. Retrieved August 30, 2010 from  http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/finance/budget/09-10/fire.pdf .

3. St. Louis Fire Department Faces Possible Budget Cut (2010). FireFighting News. Retrieved August 30, 2010 from http://www.firefightingnews.com/article.cfm?articleID=80491.

There is a strong spirit of volunteerism in El Dorado: people often volunteer to improve the parks and to facilitate the transmission of local services, including those of the Fire Department (El Dorado Hills Fire Department, 2010, Official Website).
However, while public and local governmental support for funding the Fire Department is strong, recently there has been some legal controversy regarding appointments and policies within the district. For example, legal fees for the Garden Valley Fire Protection District (GVFPD) within the county of El Dorado were found to have "increased dramatically from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2009" (El Dorado County Grand Jury, 2009-2010, p.1). "The legal fees were a result of personnel and disciplinary actions by the GVFPD" and there were payroll discrepancies reported during that period (El Dorado County Grand Jury, 2009-2010, p.3). The department was criticized for importing too many outside personnel to fight fires that…...

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References

About El Dorado County. (2010). Fire Safe Council. Retrieved September 6, 2010 at  http://www.edcfiresafe.org/ 

About El Dorado Hills. (2010). El Dorado Hills Community Service District.

Retrieved September 6, 2010 at  http://www.edhcsd.org/our_local_government.html 

Cooper, Michael. (2010, August 26). Struggling cities shut firehouses. The New York Times.

The Department strives to keep abreast of recent developments in fire safety to ensure that all existing laws support the most fuel-efficient home and yard construction possible. The Fire Department also strives to meet the new social challenges presented by the current economic environment. According to the June 15, 2010 minutes of the Board of Directors meeting, the Department decided to engage in a "weed abatement" campaign to weed and reduce fire hazards on abandoned properties facing foreclosure.
The El Dorado Hills Fire Department continually reaches out to the community and works with local agencies and residents to reduce fires through awareness-raising endeavors. Fire Safety week seeks to educate the community about proper use and testing of smoke alarms. Fuel treatment and tree planting guidelines are widely publicized. The Department also hosts events such as an annual "Wine, Cheese, and Brew Festival" to raise money, offers CP classes, free car…...

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References

About El Dorado County. (2010). Fire Safe Council. Retrieved August 28, 2010 at  http://www.edcfiresafe.org/ 

El Dorado Hills Fire Department. (2010). Official Web Page. Retrieved August 28, 2010 at  

Having served the community since its inception in 1963, the Fire Department is fully equipped in terms of equipment and manpower to handle both its daily duties to the community and disaster events. Over the years, it has grown with the community in and is currently fully able to handle all of the community's demands for both emergency and additional services.

Currently, the El Dorado Hills Fire Department includes 15 Administrative Staff members, 51 paid Firefighters and Paramedics, and 34 Volunteers working with paid personnel. There are four stations across the District, strategically placed to serve the community effectively.

In 1963, the El Dorado Hills Fire Department was founded as part of the County Water District. At the time, the District included only one fire station to serve its 10,500 acres, ninety homes, and facilities such as a school and market. Over more than forty years since, the District grew to 30,000…...

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Reference

El Dorado Hills Fire Department (2010). Retrieved from  http://www.edhfire.com

However, even with this disclaimer, the plan does miss out on several important elements that should have been present, while detailing too much on some of the others. First of all, the strategic plan appears to be a long list of proposes strategic or tactical objectives, with a brief evaluation of their development stage, but nothing else. A proper business plan should have limited the number of objectives that the department proposes for itself and should have discussed how these objectives can be reached.

For example, the department has set for itself a goal of pursuing federal and state grants, but there was no strategy developed as to how this is going to be undertaken. At the same time, the human resource policy, just like the financial policy, seems very vague. The department has a number of objectives, but it is difficult to analyze to which degree there are the necessary…...

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Bibliography

1. Honolulu Fire Department -- Master Strategic Plan. February 2008. On the Internet at   Last retrieved on August 19, 2010http://www.honolulu.gov/hfd/20082012masterstrategicplan.pdf .

Honolulu Fire Department -- Master Strategic Plan. February 2008. On the Internet at

Fire Department Functions
The fire department is one of many emergency response divisions that are critical to protecting communities. The fire department is called to respond to or to serve as support for emergencies like wildland and structure fires, floods, earthquakes, hazardous material spills, and medical aids. (Cal Fire, N.d.). However, there roles in the community go far beyond just emergency response and they also play a proactive role in preventative measures. Prevention can include anything from education and outreach to enforcing building codes and fire safety plans. This paper will briefly introduce different ways that the fire department integrates within a community.

The fire department must work with local government and local officials regularly to coordinate efforts on many fronts. Fire departments are generally reliant upon the local governments as a source of funding and this relationship can often determine the resources that are granted to local departments. However, this relationship…...

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Works Cited

Cal Fire. (N.d.). Cooperative Efforts. Retrieved from Cal Fire: http://www.fire.ca.gov/fire_protection/fire_protection_coop_efforts.php

FEMA. (2012, February). Your Role in Fire-Adapted Communities. Retrieved from FEMA:  http://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fire_adapted_communities.pdf

These have all been possible as a result of the rapid intervention procedures in place and the specialized training each firefighter has undergone.
Indeed, rapid intervention team operations have become the norm and have proven invaluable in almost all situations the fire service handles. ut RIT operations have only been institutionalized in the fire service during the last few decades. As McGrail writes in his book Firefighter Operations in High-Rise and Standpipe-Equipped uildings McGrail (2007, p. 59):

During the decade of the '90s, and into the beginning of the 21st century, the whole concept of rapid intervention was developed and has evolved into what it is today. From a time when even the term RIT was foreign to most fire departments, to today when RIT is not only common term to most, it is now the topic of countless articles...most fire departments operate with some form of RIT in a standby…...

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Bibliography:

Kirby, M. & Lakamp, T. (2010, August 1). "Challenges of the modern fireground." Firefighter Nation. Retrieved July 18, 2011 from http://dev2000.firefighternation.com/article/firefighting-operations/challenges-modern-fireground

Lasky, R. (2006). Pride and ownership: A firefighter's love of the job. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Corporation.

McGrail, D.M. (2007). Firefighter operations in high-rise and standpipe-equipped buildings. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Corporation.

Moynihan, D.P. (2007, June 11). "From forest fires to Hurricane Katrina: Case studies of incident command systems." IBM Center for The Business of Government -- Networks and Partnerships Series. Retrieved July 18, 2011 from  http://www.rrt9.org/external/content/document/2763/716399/1/ICS%20from%20forest%20fires%20to%20Katrina%20-%20Moynihan.pdf

Criminal and Civil Laws
Fire fighting departments operate under some civil and criminal laws. In the operations of the fire departments, there are regulations that are supposed to be taken into consideration for purposes of making the operations of the department work well. In this case, the juniors and seniors in the fire operations department have to work withing some conditions so that their service delivery becomes successful. Possibly, conflicts might arise in the process of trying to get the work done. When conflicts arise, their resolution can only be made up when there is a complement adherence to the laws and regulations (Schroll, 2011).

Criminal and civil aspects

In the process of conducting a fire-fighting mission, the personnel may encounter various tempting circumstances as they undertake their duties. The first criminal aspect regards the cause of the fire or the circumstances surrounding its occurrence. Ideally, it is important to bring all the…...

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References

Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminal justice: A brief introduction (9th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall.

Schroll, R. (2011). Industrial Fire Protection Handbook (2nd Ed.). Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press.

Acceptable Use Policy for the Fire Department
Designing, Developing, Implementing Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) Computers integral part fabric daily life fire service. Once a luxury, computer a necessity a multitude functions: computer aided dispatch, fire incident reporting, creating work schedules, outlining

Purpose of the Acceptable Use Policy

The fire department owns and operates the computing systems that are provided for use by the employees, fire men and women. The computing systems support the workers in managing and operating technology related services. These systems are to be used for the purposes of emergency response, communications, reporting, and public services only. This Acceptable Use Policy has been formulated to ensure that the computing systems, network, and facilities are used appropriately, efficiently, ethically, effectively, and in a lawful manner by all employees and community members. The AUP establishes prohibitions and rules that will define the acceptable use of the computing systems and the network usk, 2001.

Any…...

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References

Ciampa, M.D. (2011). Security+ Guide to Network Security Fundamentals [With Access Code]. Boston, MA: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.

Flowers, B.F., & Rakes, G.C. (2000). Analyses of Acceptable Use Policies Regarding the Internet in Selected K-12 Schools. [Article]. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32(3), 351.

Miller, J. (2004). Intellectual Freedom and the Internet: Developing Acceptable Use Policies. [Article]. School Libraries in Canada, 23(3), 24-33.

Rusk, M. (2001). Acceptable Use Policies: Four Examples from Community College Libraries. [Article]. Community & Junior College Libraries, 10(2), 83.

Recruiting Minorities into Fire Department
A Diversity Plan for the Nashville Fire Department

The major goal of this plan is to increase the application of minority groups in the Nashville Fire Department. There are three specific objectives towards this goal, namely:

To identify problems and barriers to the recruitment of minorities into the fire department,

To develop strategies to address these problems

To develop programs and other benefits to retain minority employees within the fire department.

Despite efforts to diversify its workforce, the Nashville Fire Department still encounters problems with recruiting and retaining sexual and racial minority applicants. This proposal a request for funding to study the issues faced by minority firefighter applicants with the Nashville Fire Department. This proposal also includes a request to fund programs that aim to address these issues and thereby increase racial and gender diversity within the Nashville Fire Department.

Introduction

The recruitment and retention of minority applicants in Nashville's fire service…...

Increasingly, these EMS services are becoming the bread and butter funding sources increasingly for fire departments (FEMA, 2010, p. 1-1).
These fees and the decisions that are made by city, local and county officials literally translate into life and death for the citizens of the affected areas. In addition, the question of who should pay is raised, raising basic questions of governance and equity. Should only the users of such services pay the burden of the services that they are provided with? Should the EMS and protection services be treated as we would insurance in which the fees that are charged are a function of the risks presented? Should these services be considered as being provided to those who are in need with the costs spread evenly across the whole society? Are "user charges" for such life-saving services immoral (ibid, p. 1-1)?

In addition to fees, many local agencies have been…...

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Works Cited:

Cueller, Dann & Bloomquist, Sarah. (2010, July 27). Philadelphia fire department faces budget cuts. Retrieved from http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7576619.

Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2010). Funding alternatives for fire and emergency services. Retrieved from www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa-141.pdf

Laitner, Bill. (2010, September 16). Bloomfield mansion burns out of control. Retrieved from  http://www.freep.com/article/20100916/NEWS03/100916071 .

San diego fire-rescue department 9-1-1 emergency medical services. Retrieved from  http://www.sandiego.gov/fireandems/911/emshist.shtml .

The prevention also includes the department's collaboration with the community.
This is because the community must support the prevention activity of the El Dorado Hills Fire Department. This is the reason for which the department has initiated a series of training sessions and other activities intended to increase the degree of awareness among the population regarding the issues addressed by the department.

The department's initiative in this direction also allows and encourages the public to view a series of videos posted on the department's website about fire prevention. This is a low cost prevention measure that can help both the department and the community in case.

However, it seems that the community's opinion regarding the most important issues in fire and life safety is somewhat different from that of the department. The community would rather let the entire responsibility regarding fire and life safety to the El Dorado Hills Department. In their…...

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Reference list:

1. Core Values (2010). El Dorado Hills Fire Department. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from  

Of these the police had the least stressors while the ambulance service respondents had severe work-related pressures and problems of psychological well-being. The research showed that the work-family conflict, neuroticism and job satisfaction were similar for all these services. This is an issue that must be addressed if the fire department has to function properly.
While training the personnel to be leaders, there must be a way of removing the stress factor. This is important because the stress can cause problems in inter-personnel behavior. There is a problem of work stress and definition of roles within the system. The study by Bennett et al. (2005) says that personnel of both sexes are subject to high levels of stress and will develop trauma and depression. Some of the reasons cited are that there is no supportive environment to the staff and secondly there is no social support for the relief of…...

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References

Barrett, Mary; Davidson, Marilyn J. (2006) "Gender and Communication at Work:"

Ashgate.

Bennett, G, et al. (2005) "Associations between organizational and incident factors and emotional distress in emergency ambulance personnel" British Journal of Clinical Psychology, vol. 44, no. 2, pp. 215-226.

Brough, Paula. (2005) "A Comparative Investigation of the Predictors of Work-Related

A town with 3,000 residents simply cannot afford the expense of hiring full-time career firefighters" ("Heat on Volunteer Firefighters," 2007, p. A15). In case of an out of control fire, smaller towns and communities traditionally rely on volunteer firefighters.
Volunteer Fire Departments' Tasks in case of out of control fire, both paid and volunteer fire departments perform basically identical tasks (Snook, et al., 2006). Services volunteer fire departments provide include, but are not limited to the following:

Fire suppression

Emergency medical services

First responder - non-transport

Basic life support - with transport capability

Advance life support - with transport capability

Hazardous materials response

Operations level

Technician level

Specialized rescue

Auto extrication

Confined space rescue

Trench rescue

Water rescue

High angle rescue

5. Public information and education a. Fire prevention programs for adults and children b. Public presentations for a variety of community organizations

6. Inspection services

7. Fund raising activities a. Annual events (dinner, firefighter's ball) b. Special events (raffles, garage sales) c. Weekly activities (bingo) d.…...

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References www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001895957

Brown, E. (1999). The scope of volunteer activity and public service. Law and Contemporary Problems, 62(4), 17. Retrieved December 31, 2008, from Questia database:   www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001358932http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001895957 

Clay, F. (1998, July). Managers and the volunteer fire service: Sharing common ground. Public Management, 80, 16+. Retrieved December 31, 2008, from Questia database:  http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001358932 

The Columbia World of Quotations. (1996). New York: Columbia University Press. www.bartleby.com/66/

Fire departments. (2008). U.S. Fire Administration. Retrieved January 1, 2009, from www.usfa.dhs.gov/statistics/departments/index.shtm

The Rise of Urban Political Machines: A Symphony of Urbanization, Industrialization, and Corruption

The Gilded Age, stretching from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the dawn of the 20th century, witnessed a remarkable transformation of America's urban landscape. Cities became teeming cauldrons of human activity, fueled by a ceaseless stream of immigrants seeking better lives. This rapid urbanization, coupled with the transformative power of industrialization, created fertile ground for the emergence of a peculiar political phenomenon: urban political machines.

Mass Immigration: A Tide of Human Capital and Political Opportunity

The surge of immigrants during the Gilded Age was staggering. Between....