Council on Firefighter Training, 06-07/2014

              GREETINGS OKLAHOMA
FIREFIGHTERS!
Summer is here, and
most of our great state re-mains
in drought and high
fire danger conditions. Re-cent
fires across our state
have tested our resources
to the limit. The unsung
heroes are members of
our Oklahoma Wildland
Task Force System! These
county based units have re-sponded
to help each other
consistently over the past
3 years. If you would like to start a County Wildland
Task Force or Strike Team, please contact us. We will
be happy to help!!!
WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE TASK FORCE/STRIKE
TEAM SYSTEM
Plans are under development, along with our
Emergency Managers and other Public Safety Part-ners,
to further develop the system to respond to
“All Hazards” events systematically across our state.
Example being a Structural Task Force that might
consist of a Task Force Leader, 3 Pumping Engines, a
Ladder, and a Rescue unit. The Structural Task Force
could respond to a community to assist the local Inci-dent
Commander with a large structure fire or natural
disaster. Our Law Enforcement partners are working
on a similar system as well. Another program under
consideration is an Incident Support Strike team. A lo-cal
incident Commander could use this resource of ex-perienced
fire officers to assist in areas such as stag-ing,
operations, divisions/groups, water supply, safety,
and in other roles. The team will work for the local
Incident Commander, and serve at his/her pleasure.
The incredible cooperation and our willingness to help
each other in our Oklahoma Fire Service is second to
none. When we need each other, we are there!
HOW CAN CANCER BE DETECTED EARLY?
Cancer is an epidemic in our fire service! The last
page of the COFT layout this month is a poster you
can detach and hang in the fire station. We will also
have them available at the OSFA Conference and with
us at every event we attend across our state. I want
to further share the following information furnished by
the National Institutes of health and National cancer
Institute of America.
In many cases, the sooner cancer is diagnosed
and treated, the better a person’s chance for a full
recovery. If you develop cancer, you can improve the
chance that it will be detected early if you have regular
medical checkups and do certain self-exams. Often a
doctor can find early cancer during a physical exam or
with routine tests, even if a person has no symptoms.
Some important medical exams, tests, and self-exams
are discussed on the next pages. The doctor may sug-gest
other exams for people who are at increased risk
for cancer.
Ask your doctor about your cancer risk, problems
to watch for, and a schedule of regular checkups. The
doctor’s advice will be based on your age, medical
history, family history, and other risk factors. The doc-tor
also can help you learn about self-exams. (More
information and free booklets about self-exams are
Council on Firefighter Training
www.COFT-Oklahoma.org • 405-601-8862 • fax 405-601-7996 • email contact@coft-oklahoma.org
Oklahoma Wildland Task Force System
Jon Hansen, COFT
Executive Director
available from the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer
Information Service).
Many local health departments have information
about cancer screening or early detection programs.
The Cancer Information Service also can tell you about
such programs.
Exams for Both Men & Women
Skin - The doctor should examine your skin during
regular checkups for signs of skin cancer. You should
also check regularly for new growths, sores that do not
heal, changes in the size, shape, or color of any moles,
or any other changes on the skin. Warning signs like
these should be reported to the doctor right away.
Colon and Rectum - Beginning at age 50, you
should have a yearly fecal occult blood test. This test
is a check for hidden (occult) blood in the stool. It may
be tested in the doctor’s office or sent to a lab. This
test is done because cancer of the colon and rectum
can cause bleeding. However, noncancerous condi-tions
can also cause bleeding, so having blood in the
stool does not necessarily mean a person has cancer.
If blood is found, the doctor orders more tests to help
make a diagnosis.
A digital rectal exam should be done during regu-lar
checkups.
After age 50, you should have either a flexible sig-moidoscopy
every five years, or a colonoscopy every
10 years. In this exam, the doctor uses a thin, flexible
tube with a light to look inside the rectum and colon for
abnormal areas.
Mouth - Your doctor and dentist should examine
your mouth at regular visits. Also, by looking in a mir-ror,
you can check inside your mouth for changes in
the color of the lips, gums, tongue, or inner cheeks,
and for scabs, cracks, sores, white patches, swelling,
or bleeding. It is often possible to see or feel changes
in the mouth that might be cancer or a condition that
might lead to cancer. Any symptoms in your mouth
should be checked by a doctor or dentist. Oral exams
are especially important for people who use alcohol or
tobacco products and for anyone over age 50.
Exams for Men
Prostate - Men over age 40 should have a yearly
digital rectal exam to check the prostate gland for
hard or lumpy areas. The doctor feels the prostate
through the wall of the rectum.
Testicles - Testicular cancer occurs most often
between ages 15 and 34. Most of these cancers are
found by men themselves, often by doing a testicular
self-exam. If you find a lump or notice another change,
such as heaviness, swelling, unusual tenderness, or
pain, you should see your doctor. Also, the doctor
should examine the testicles as part of regular medi-cal
checkups.
Exams for Women
Breast - When breast cancer is found early, a
woman has more treatment choices and a good
chance of complete recovery. It is, therefore, impor-tant
that breast cancer be detected as early as possi-ble.
The National Cancer Institute encourages women
to take an active part in early detection. They should
talk to their doctor about this disease, the symptoms
to watch for, and an appropriate schedule of check-ups.
Women should ask their doctor about:
• Mammograms (x-rays of the breast);
• Breast exams by a doctor or nurse; and
• Breast self-examination (BSE)
A mammogram can often show tumors or chang-es
in the breast before they can be felt or cause symp-toms.
However, we know mammograms cannot find
every abnormal area in the breast. This is especially
true in the breasts of young women. Another impor-tant
step in early detection is for women to have their
breasts examined regularly by a doctor or a nurse.
Between visits to the doctor, women should exam-ine
their breasts every month. By doing BSE, women
learn what looks and feels normal for their breasts,
and they are more likely to find a change. Any changes
should be reported to the doctor. Most breast lumps
are not cancer, but only a doctor can make a diag-nosis.
Cervix - Regular pelvic exams and Pap tests are
important to detect early cancer of the cervix. Women
should start having a Pap test every year after they
turn 18 or become sexually active. If the results are
normal for 3 or more years in a row, a woman may
have this test less often, based on her doctor’s ad-vice.
LADIES AUXILIARY’S – OUR SUPPORT NETWORK
As I travel across the state and attend County
Meetings, Fire Training, and Special Events the Local
Ladies Auxiliary are there providing support in so many
ways. They help with fund raising, charity and commu-nity
programs, and some provide rehab and food ser-vice
on emergency events. The auxiliaries in Chandler
and Meeker recently provided support to their depart-ment
with major fundraisers I had the opportunity to
attend. My hats off to these wonderful ladies who are
an incredible part of our Oklahoma Fire Service Team
… Awesome job ladies and thanks for all you do!!!!
FIRE/EMS SAFETY & HEALTH WEEK
The week of June 15th to the 21st is national
Fire/EMS Safety and health week. Fire departments
are encouraged to suspend all non-emergency activity
during Safety and Health Week, allowing all shifts and
personnel to focus on safety and health training and
education. An entire week is provided to ensure each
shift and duty crew can spend at least one day focus-ing
on these critical issues.
Safety and Health Week is a collaborative pro-gram
embraced by more than 20 national and inter-national
fire and emergency-service organizations,
and sponsored by the International Association of Fire
Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council. The
event is coordinated by the IAFC Safety, Health and
Survival Section (SHS) and the NVFC’s Heart-Healthy
Firefighter Program. Full event details: www.safetyand-healthweek.
org
“I WISH YOU COULD” – A NOTE TO ALL WE SERVE
I wish you could see the sadness of a business
man as his livelihood goes up in flames or that family
returning home, only to find their house and belong-ings
damaged or destroyed.
I wish you could know what it is like to search a
burning bedroom for trapped children, flames rolling
above your head, your palms and knees burning as
you crawl, the floor sagging under your weight as the
kitchen beneath you burns.
I wish you could comprehend a wife’s horror at 3
AM as I check her husband of forty years for a pulse
and find none. I start CPR anyway hoping against hope
to bring him back, knowing intuitively it is too late. But
wanting his wife and family to know everything possible
was done.
I wish you could know the unique smell of burning
insulation, the taste of soot filled mucus, the feeling of
intense heat through your turnout gear, the sound of
cracking flames and the eeriness of being able to see
absolutely nothing in dense smoke.
I wish you could read my mind as I respond to a
building fire, is this a false alarm or a working “breath-ing”
fire? How is the building constructed? What haz-ards
await me? Is anyone trapped?
I wish you could be there when the medical exam-iner
pronounces dead the beautiful little five year old
girl who did not make it out of the fire. She will never
be able to say “I love you Mommy” again.
I wish you could know the frustration I feel in the
cab of the engine, the driver with his foot pressed
down hard on the gas pedal, my arm tugging again &
again on the air horn as you fail to yield right of way at
the intersection, however when you need us, your first
comment on our arrival will be “it took you forever to
get here!”
I wish you could read my thoughts as I help extri-cate
a teenage girl from the mangled remains of her
automobile. What if this was my sister, my girlfriend or
a friend? What was her parent’s reaction, when they
opened the door to find a police officer standing there
with HAT IN HAND?
I wish you could know how it feels to come home
and greet my family, not having the heart to tell them
that I nearly lost my life today. I wish you could feel
my hurt as people verbally and sometimes physically
abuse us or belittle us for what we do or as they ex-press
their attitudes of “It will never happen to me.”
I wish you could realize the physical, emotional &
mental drain of missed meals, lost sleep & forgone so-cial
activities in addition to all of the tragedies my eyes
have viewed. I wish you could know the brotherhood
and self satisfaction of helping save a life or preserving
someone’s property or being there in times of crisis,
or creating order from total CHAOS.
I wish you could understand what it feels like to
have a little boy tug on your arm and ask “is my mom-my
okay?” Not even being able to look in his eyes with-out
tears falling from your own & not knowing what to
say. Or to hold back a long time friend who watches
his buddy have CPR performed as they take him away
in the ambulance, knowing that he was not wearing
his seatbelt. (A sensation I have become too familiar
with).
Until you have lived this kind of life, you will never
truly understand or appreciate who I am, what I am,
what we are, or what our job means to us.
I WISH YOU COULD. Author: Unknown
Parting Thoughts
It is going to be a hot, dry summer. Please call for
additional assistance early into the event. Establish RE-HAB
and rest crews often. Hydrate throughout each
day before, during, and after the event. Let’s continue
to watch out for each other! Together, our continued
Oklahoma Fire Service goal is ZERO LODD’s … Remem-ber,
there is no reason to repeat bad history …
Hope to see you soon!
JON
405-620-6262
jonh@coft-oklahoma.org