IAFF 3265

July 04, 2009

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PROBIE GETS HIS FIRST FIRE!

Probationary Firefighter Patrick Fuller had his first job as a career Firefighter for the City of Keene on Sunday. At 1230 Nov. 10th Ladder 2, Engine 1, Tanker 1, Cars 2 & 3 responeded to 27 Shult St. in Keene for a reported explosion. A1 which had just rolled out the door for a motorcycle accident prior to the fire dispatch reported smoke showing from Winchester St.

Ladder 2 was 1st due to Shult St., combined crews with Engine 1 and stretched an attack line into the mobile home with Firefighter Lance Cleveland and Firefighter Tim Read guiding Probie Fuller. Along with coordinated ventilation efforts by Ladder 2 MPO they made a quick knockdown. Backup crews did salvage & overhaul and search & rescue simultaniously. Nice work Patrick, now back to the ambulance its Craigs turn!

LOCAL 3265 WELCOMES NEW FIREMEN

The Professional Firefighters of Keene would like to welcome new Firefighters Patrick Fuller and Craig Mattson to the Keene Fire Department. On Oct. 1 they both began as Full-time Fighters as part of A-shift and B-shift respectively. Both come from a family of Firefighters and we expect them to do well. One more Probie will be joining D-shift in the coming weeks in an effort to raise our staffing to 10 per shift. Congratulation and good luck boys.

HEART ATTACK & STROKE - Do you have time to wait?

EVERY SECOND COUNTS! TIME IS MUSCLE!

About 250,000 people die each year from sudden cardiac arrest. That’s about 700 per day. (American Heart Assoc.)

Cardiac arrest usually results from some underlying form of heart disease. Most cardiac arrests are due to abnormal heart rhythms called arrhythmias. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the most common arrhythmia that causes cardiac arrest. When sudden cardiac arrest occurs, the heart’s pumping action stops abruptly, the victim loses consciousness, has no pulse and stops breathing normally. Death follows within minutes without defibrillation.

Defibrillation is the only known therapy for VF. This technique of giving an electrical shock can restore the heart’s normal rhythm if it is done within minutes of the arrest. For every minute that passes without defibrillation, a victim’s chance of survival decreases by 7-10 percent. After as little as 10 minutes, very few resuscitation attempts are successful.

Case in point- In Nov. 2004 Keene Fire successfully recusitated a 45 year old man in cardiac arrest, and a 63 year old man, because we were able to reach them quickly! And several others since then.

The Keene Fire Department has 10 Defibrilators on it's Apparatus!

AHA- "Time equals heart muscle" The longer the wait for treatment of Heart Attack the more heart muscle dies.

ASA- "Time equals brain" The longer you wait in treatment of a stroke the more brain dies.

STROKE= A heart attack for your brain

An ischemic stroke is ANY damage to the brain caused by lack of blood flow in brain blood vessels or in major arteries leading to the brain. This usually results in temporary or permanent loss of one or more normal functions of the body. A hemorrhagic stroke is due to bleeding into the brain causing damage.

Time is critical when someone suffers a stroke. Today, only about 5 percent of stroke patients arrive at the hospital in time to be treated with a clot-busting drug that can help reduce permanent brain damage and long-term disability.

Stroke is America’s No. 3 killer and a leading cause of serious, long-term disability. Yet only 1 percent of Americans worry about this health condition, according to an American Stroke Association survey conducted earlier this year. The American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, estimates that in the United States someone has a stroke every 53 seconds, and someone dies of one every 3.1 minutes. Stroke accounted for about one of every 14.3 deaths in the United States in 1999.

CONTACT YOUR CITY COUNCILOR!!!!!!!!!!http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/council/index.htm

PFFK HOSTS 4TH ANNUAL AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY BENEFIT BBQ

On May 10th The Profesional Firefighters of Keene hosted the 4th annual walk-4-life fundraising BBQ held at the ELKS lodge in Keene. The PFFK Walk-4-life team does a tremendous job raising money for the American Cancer Society every year. This years BBQ served over 170 people and raised over $1,700.00 to benefit our Walk-4-life team. The PFFK team also does a BBQ at the walk. A big thanks to K-Rock 101.9 FM and the Elks club for helping to make this event successful once again. Keene Firefighters raised a total of $2640.00 this year in our walk for life campiagn.

SWIFTWATER RESCUE SAVES TEEN

On April 18th Keene Firefighters responded to a 911 call reporting a subject was trapped in the Ashuelot river water fall on West St. This location is the site of a low head dam that creates very dangerous hydraulics that are almost impossible to escape. The Keene Fire Department has pulled 3 victims from the falls in just the past few years. D-shift responded with Rescue 1, Ambulance 2, the on call chief and any off-duty personnel were requested to the scene for manpower. Within 9 minutes of arrival the rescue boat was deployed, crews put on dry suits and were able to row upstream about 100 yds. and pull the victim from the falls just seconds after he became too exhausted to hold onto his raft. He was pulled to shore treated for extreme hypothermia and exhaustion and has since made a full recovery. Rescue crews had to overcome exremely swift current, nearly 100 bystanders and 1 woman that jumped in the ice cold water thinking she could help the victim and needed rescue herself. Check out our public safety column on the left for more info.

The Keene Fire department is trained and certified in swiftwater rescue along with many other specialties.

PLEASE Click the link below for an animation of how a low head dam works!

http://www.boat-ed.com/images/animations/lowhead_dam.html

KEENE FIRE CHANGES DISPATCH FREQUENCY

Early 2008 in an effort to streamline callback operations The Keene Fire Department changed dispatch frequencies. Leaving 154.430 mhz (KCF 415) after many many years, and going to our own frequency 159.450 mhz (WQCV 921). The Keene Fire Department uses this frequency for Station alert as well as call back of off duty and call firefighters.

If you listen to this frequency you will notice there are DTMF tones that sound like a telephone keypad, this is what alerts the different fire stations and alerts on duty staff. If call back is needed this is followed by a Keene tone (19) and a code 1,2,100 or 200 is put on. Many people are curious as to what those numbers mean. We have 4 shifts a-b-c-d and we rotate 11 hour days and 13 hour nights. 2 days on 1 day off 2 nights on 3 days off. An 8 day cycle.

Code 1 = The shift that works the opposite of the duty shift (during the day the oncoming night shift covers & reverse for nights)

Code 2 = The shift that is on there first 2 days of there 3 days off.

Code 100 = The shift that is on there last day of 3 days off, or there day off between days and nights.

PFFK FIREMAN'S BALL

This years annual ball was held at the Best Western hotel in Keene again, on October 15th.

As usual a great time was had by all, thank you to all who attended for joining the Keene Fire Department in our festivities. We look forward to seeing you next year again.

If you would like to view or purchase photos from the ball just click below.

http://keithmckane.smugmug.com