1. Produced by John J. McNeil,
Rhodes Consultants, Inc.
Fast Reading for a Fast Paced Fire Service
December 2, 2010
Fire-
Purpose of Fire-Zine
To provide members of
the fire service with quips
of valuable information
Knowledge is Survival from a plethora of
resources available.
Command He has been the safety Failure to do a proper as-
Meth Labs Free supervisor overseeing the sessment of conditions
dismantling of over 400 potentially places every-
Offer labs. Like all Firefighters one on the scene in
Support Foundation pro- harm’s way and can
This free one hour video grams, this program is quickly turn tragic.
program and 100-slide free to all public safety The completed size up
PowerPoint presentation professionals. This train- needs to be communi-
familiarizes public ing program can be cated to the arriving
safety personnel about: downloaded by copy and incident commander and
how to recognize a lab if paste of the following fire companies in order
you are approaching one link: http:// that they too are aware of
Commanding a meth lab or are in one, how to www.fireengineering.com what are the dangers and
incident requires that the recognize a dangerous /index/training/ conditions of the incident.
incident commander and meth user, the chemi- ffsupport.html
first responders recog- cals used in clandestine A brief six point initial
nize the signs of the meth manufacture, and Operations report upon arrival should
presence of a meth lab, what to do if you en- A Proper “360” include:
how to respond in a safe counter a user or lab. Size Up on Fire
manner and the fire The presenter of this Location and Conditions 1. Confirmation of the
department’s role in program has over 15 Incident Address
these types of incidents. years of clan meth lab What you don’t know 2. Description of the
Additionally, first re- experience, including can harm or kill you and/ Incident
sponders need to recog- years of undercover in- or others on the emer- 3. Incident Conditions
nize a meth user and vestigations in the meth gency scene. The purpose 4. Request Assistance
know what behaviors to subculture. He ran a of a complete 360 size up, (if needed)
expect on an emergency state-wide clan lab by the first arriving 5. Initial Action Plan
medical call. The Fire- program for five years company, is to know what (Mode and phase of
fighters Support Founda- and in his SWAT capac- are you up against and operation)
tion has released a train- ity has made over 150 determine what re- 6. Establishment of
ing program Meth Labs, dynamic, high-risk sources will be required Command
Meth Lab Response, and entries into them. to overwhelm the incident
Meth Users. into conclusion.

2. Volume 1 Issue 4 Page 2
Fire-Zine Knowledge is Survival
Updates should be provided as Specifically, the NIST report calls all-hazards incident. The training
additional information or for national model building and fire will be delivered via instructor-led
changes in conditions occur. codes that require sprinklers for all training sessions in each FEMA
new commercial retail furniture region, supported by the secure,
Below is a link to a NIOSH Fire-
stores regardless of size and for web-based TReC Resource Center.
fighter Fatality Investigation
existing retail furniture stores with Participants will use an effective
report from 2010. The report
any single display area of 2,000 multi-disciplinary, regionally-based
clearly illustrates the tragic out-
square feet. collaboration tool, based on the
come that resulted from a fail-
Once the final report is published, IAFC’s Terrorism Response: A
ure to perform a proper size up
NIST will work with the appropri- Checklist and Guide for Fire
at a residential structure fire.
(Copy & Paste)
ate committees of the Interna- Chiefs, to define their organiza-
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/fire/ tional Code Council (ICC) on using tion’s baseline of preparedness
reports/face201010.html the study’s recommendations to and identify recognizable gaps.
improve provisions in model build- Using this information, instructor-
ing and fire codes. NIST also will led training in each FEMA region
work with major organizations will focus on improving local and
Planning
representing state and local gov- regional collaboration.
Sofa Super Store
ernments—including building and Participants will leave the training
Report (NIST) fire officials—and firefighters to session with the tools and an un-
encourage them to consider its derstanding of how to implement
recommendations. To read the successful collaborative practices
draft study report and supplemen- with essential partners in their
tal materials, go to local and regional response areas.
Http://www.nist.gov/el/ Training is currently in the devel-
fire_research/ opment stage and is expected to
charleston_102810.cfm begin in early Spring 2011.
The IAFC has partnered with
several organizations to develop
Logistics and deliver the TReC training:
TReC (IAFC) • Major City Chiefs of Police
Training for Association
Regional Collaboration • Texas A&M University, Texas
The National Institute of Engineering Extension Service
Past national emergencies have (TEEX)
Standards and Technology
(NIST) released a draft of their
shown that collaboration is an • IAFC Terrorism and Homeland
essential part of providing effi- Security Committee
report on the Charleston fire at
cient, effective delivery of public
the Sofa Super Store. On the • Debonair Inc., Homeland
safety at all response levels.
basis of its findings, the NIST Security Associates Inc., and the
With this in mind, the IAFC was
technical study team made 11 Frazier Group, Inc.
awarded a 3 year, competitive
recommendations for enhancing For further info: copy and paste
training grant by DHS/FEMA’s
building, occupant and fire- http://
National Training and Education
fighter safety nationwide. The iafc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1
Division to develop and deliver
team urged states and local &subarticlenbr=1226
regional collaboration training in
communities to adopt model
all 10 FEMA regions. TReC is a
building and fire safety codes. If
multi-disciplinary, stakeholder-
today’s model codes had been
driven approach to provide training
in place and rigorously followed
and resources that will enhance I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it
in Charleston in 2007, the study
local, regional and national col- is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as
authors said the conditions that
laboration and capabilities for pre-
led to the rapid fire spread in though they were great and noble. The world is
venting, responding to and
the Sofa Super Store fire proba- moved along not only by the mighty shoves of its
recovering from a catastrophic
bly would have been prevented.
heroes but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes
of each honest worker.——————Helen Keller