Firefighter Sims

Whatever your career we all need to get some exercise and it is not always easy to find a good place to workout or to find a fun workout that is inexpensive. Since the kids were little my wife has always enjoyed playing Just Dance as an easy and inexpensive way to work out at home. When the kids were little she orginally played on the Nintendo Wii and the kids were able to play along. What a win-win since she got a little break and was still able to keep the kids occupied. Recently the Wii finally died and she did not really want to buy a Switch since the kids are pretty grown now. She recently got a subscription to Just Dance Now for $24.99 per year via the Google Play Store. This allows you to play the game with a large library of songs by using your phone as the controller and then casting the video to another screen via Chromecast. 

With lots of kids home for an extended period of time, parents have been looking for worksheets and online activities to do. Don't forget that fire safety is something many kids learn at school and with schools closed now is a great time to download fire safety activity sheets or watch some learning videos online. What about a fire drill? Many adults are not even sure how they would get out of the house if there was a fire blocking the stairs or their bedroom door. Ask your kids to setup the escape routes and meeting points for your house. You will be surprised at some of the great ideas the kids will have plus it will allow you to assess whether or not the kids and yourself actually have a plan you can execute in case of a fire in the house. Here are some great resources you can use for free.

CloseYourDoor.org is a site setup by the UL Fire Safety Research Institute discussing the importance of closing your bedroom door at night. Due to the abundance of synthetic materials in our houses, fires spread much more quickly then they did in the past. They recommend closing the door as a way to reduce the spread of a fire and reduce the toxic fumes. The site has some videos and a coloring activity page you can print for the kids.

NFSC, Inc.'s "Free Downloads & Online Resource Center" offers FREE special materials available online only. Many of these resources have been designed as companions to specific sets of materials and can be used to reward children for learning important fire safety lessons. They are available as downloadable PDF files free of charge and may be printed or duplicated in reasonable quantities by fire departments, teachers, or parents for educational purposes. On the site there are a couple of coloring pages as well as printable certificates. Why not give the kids a little reward after your fire drill and give them a printed certificate.

US Fire Administration has some great Sesame Street Fire Safety downloads. You may not know that more than half of child fire deaths are among children age 4 or younger – making them an important audience for fire prevention and education. The Sesame Street Fire Safety Program curriculum for preschoolers is available in both English and Spanish.

A specially-adapted 'tactile helmet', developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield, could provide fire-fighters operating in challenging conditions with vital clues about their surroundings.
The helmet is fitted with a number of ultrasound sensors that are used to detect the distances between the helmet and nearby walls or other obstacles. These signals are transmitted to vibration pads that are attached to the inside of the helmet, touching the wearer's forehead. Rescue workers, such as fire-fighters, who might be working in dark conditions or in buildings filled with smoke, will be able to use the signals to find walls and other obstacles that could help guide them through unfamiliar environments.

It is anticipated that a lightweight version of the technology could also be useful to people with visual impairments, acting as an additional 'sense' to guide users or to help them avoid hazards.
Invented by a team of researchers at the Sheffield Centre for Robotics (SCentRo), the helmet was inspired by research into tactile sensing in rodents, whose whiskers give early warning of potential hazards.

Professor Tony Prescott of the University of Sheffield and director of SCentRo, said: "When a firefighter is responding to an emergency situation he will be using his eyes and ears to make sense of his environment, trying to make out objects in a smoke filled room, for example, or straining to hear sounds from people who might need rescuing. We found that in these circumstances it was difficult to process additional information through these senses. Using the sense of touch, however, we were able to deliver additional information effectively."

The team also found that the helmet was the ideal place to locate the vibrating pads because, although the fingertips might seem a more obvious choice, stimuli delivered to the wearer's forehead enabled them to respond more rapidly to the signals, and would also leave their hands free for other tasks.
The prototype helmet was developed using a Rosenbauer helmet donated by Northfire Ltd and was produced following a two-year research project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have also assisted, providing advice during the development period as well as access to their training facility. The next step is to find a commercial partner interested in further developing the helmet.

The helmet will be on show at this year's Gadget Show Live, to be held at the NEC in Birmingham from 3-7 April 2013. For more information go to: http://www.gadgetshowlive.net/.

I headed out again this year to Las Vegas for Fire-Rescue Med. I attended last year and found it well worth the trip. I really wanted to go again this year so I made sure I put in my training request early. I recommend EMS Personnel and Narcotics Tampering: Awareness and Prevention, interesting stuff. I saw Randolph Mantooth at the conference last year and am looking forward to seeing him again. This was an old post and the original video was out of date. I have updated with a nice video of Mantooth discussing becoming a real paramedic.

In my continuous search for fire simulators, today I came across a German PC game. The game is called Feuerwehr Simulator 2010. Below is the trailer and I went to the website and used Google to translate it. Here are the details of the game:

What Fire fans have been waiting for. The fire simulator 2010 provides for the first time a realistic fire simulation from a first person perspective of the fireman. The development studio VSTEP also stands out for professional fire simulations for firefighters.

Take on the role of one or more men of a fire station. In various scenarios, you have to fight fires or rescue people. Here you have the extensive use your equipment vehicles: tubes / pipes, axes, aerial ladder, breathing apparatus etc.

The following missions are in the simulation:

•Small fire in a locked house
•Burning gas station
•Traffic accident in tunnel
•Train accident
•Save children from a burning building
•Fire on a ship in port
•Truck accident involving hazardous materials, etc.

Of course, you can view the entire scene in the 3rd-person view. The Simulator 2010 brings for the first time the daily lives of professional firefighters in a simulation on the PC.

There are some great interactive site for kids related to firefighters. Here is a list of a few of my favorites.


Scholastic Firefighter Community Club
http://teacher.scholastic.com/commclub/firefighter/
You can input up to 25 names and print Junior Firefighter badges for students.  There is also an interactive learning quiz and a teacher's guide.
Smokey Bear
http://www.smokeybear.com
Smokey Bear has his own website. Kids can play action-packed campfire games such as Put Out the Fire and Smokey's Trail Blaze. They will also learn tips for fire prevention and campfire fun.
Sparky's Homepage
http://www.nfpa.org/sparky/
Kids can tour Sparky the Firedog's website, which is packed with safety-related tips, crafts, and games all especially for kids. Kids will love to hear a real fire bell in the truck photo gallery. There are also instructions on how to make an origami Sparky puppet.Help Sparky get from classroom to playground in a mock fire drill.
U.S. Fire Administration's Kids' Page
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/kids/
Kids can become a junior fire marshal on this website designed just for kids. Children learn about safety and then take quizzes and play games to test their understanding. Have fun learning about safety by checking out Hydro's Hazard House.

Many departments have a roof prop available at their training grounds, but it is not always convenient to use.   It's nice to have something compact available at the station that can be used for practice.  The guys are always asking me to help them build something and I have found several sites that have some good pictures and diagrams which can be used to help build your own roof training prop.

Fire Engineering has some good articles with photos.  Here are some good links listed below:

Adjustable Roof Prop

Ventilation Prop

There are also quite a few posts out there regarding roof props on the fireengineering.com forums.

Some more pictures of three different props at the DCFD training facility are posted at www.vententersearch.com

For a variety of pictures of inexpensive training props, you can check out this document from the Indiana Dept of Homeland Security. It contains close up pictures and estimated costs to build.

I wanted to let everyone know about a new photo site I am working on. I was trying to think of a really great way for firefighters to share their pictures. I am not super high tech yet so I am working on a blog and pulling pictures from across the web that I really like. The new website I am working on is called firefighterphotos.com.

I thought is was a great name and also found a pretty good looking blog template. Right now I am pulling in photos from across the web that allow sharing (creative commons) and posting them. The only problem is that most of the photo sites do not have any stories that relate to the photos. I would really like to be able to get some great stories to also post. If anyone is looking to share some pictures or looking to get some backlinks for their fire blog or department page, send me a line. If you have some picture that you are the owner of just email me and I will post and hook you up with a link on my page to your site. Right now I only would like to link to fire or ems related sites.

If you have time check out the site so far (I still need a lot more pictures) and post a comment if you have any suggestions. Thanks everyone!

Fire-Rescue International will be held this year at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta from August 23-27. Exhibits will run from August 26-27. FRI is a great way to network with other departments and to find out about new products and technology.

The FRI Expo will be open on Friday from 10:30-17:00 and Saturday from 10:00 to 16:00. This is where you can see new product launches and check out the latest upgrades to current equipment. There will be a Technology Pavilion and a Health and Wellness Pavilion.

Co-located events include the National Society of Executive Fire Officer's annual Leadership Conference on Tuesday the 23rd through Thursday the 25th and the National Association of Hispanic Firefighters (NAHF) annual conference and business meeting which starts on Wednesday the 24th.

A full range of training events are also scheduled during the event. For more information about the expo, training opportunities, and registration go to the FRI 2011 site.

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