The Only Game in Town

Our plans to be a part of the World Firefighter’s Games started nearly a year ago. After carefully considering the logistics and costs associated with pulling off this event, we negotiated a contract that we beleved would best protect us and our competitors.

Our traditional Traffic Light System (Red, Yellow and Green) has for the most part served us well. Red is the discussion phase, Yellow - a downpayment has been made and Green when progress payments have been made suggesting that the host is a good credit risk and we should make travel plans and book tickets.

The LA event never made it to Green. But, we understand that many athletes have purchased non-refundable tickets. We’d like to see no one getting harmed from this unfortunate experience. For this reason, we’re diligently working on a solution that would bring the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge to the LA area.

Our efforts are complicated by the fact that no one’s answering the telephone. By that, we mean that the parties who were engaged in bringing the games to LA have not been returning phone calls.

If anyone has a bright idea on venues or sponsorship, please give us a call or drop us an email. Hopefully, we can provide the Best and Only Game in Town. 

Seen at FDIC

FatIvan® is the perfect solution for propping doors open. Put your name on it! 

One of the cool things about FDIC is walking the floor and looking at new stuff. This one takes up very little space to explain and the application is immediately apparent to any firefighter.

What’s very neat is the magnets that hold this in place. A major improvement from the bent nail in
a piece of white pine.

Want one? send an email to Nick@FatIvan.com

Tell Nick you saw it on the Firefighter Combat Challenge blog spot. They would make a great prize, no?

New Baton Material

For the past several years we’ve been using PVC pipe with caps and a radiator hose clamp for the baton. After a visit to Trusty Cook’s factory, (described in an earlier Blog) a better solution emerged: Polyurethane. This is the same material that is used to make the dead-blow shot mallets. Unlike PVC, it will not break when dropped. Plus, the color runs through the entire thickness so they require no maintenance. They are virtually indestructible.

The prototypes were used at the FDIC event and several suggestions were made for improvement and incorporated into the current design. With a square design, the radiator hose clamp is removed. This is good because the stainless steel tail was sharp and could cut the ungloved hand or turnout coats. The square design will not roll. The overall length is the same ≈12” (30cm). The weight is 9 ounces.

When we see an opportunity to improve the Firefighter Combat Challenge, we do so, especially when there are no negatives and only improvements in safety. It would be foolish to wait until next year when the clear benefits to everyone could be made immediately.

We are ordering up a supply and will sell these for $20 in the store as soon as they are made available.

Don’t Leave Home Without It

Advocates for increasing bicycle use in metropolitan areas resist the notion that helmets are an essential part of the riding ensemble. Meaning, that if we tell people that they must have a helmet (which is a law here in Montgomery County, MD) then that infers that cycling is dangerous.

The helmet was broken in four places- exactly what it’s supposed to do

I have intimate and personal knowledge of the effects of collisions with both concrete and asphalt. This weekend marked the third helmet that was totaled from a crash. One was a top of the line Bell Star, full coverage motorcycle helmet. The point of impact was the back of the helmet, thereby marking the end of my illustrious career as a cross-country motorcycle rider.

Bicycles have considerably less velocity. But, a crash can still kill. Late Saturday afternoon, I was only about 1.5 miles from home when the front tire fell into an unseen groove. In less than a second at ≈20 mph, I was on the ground. The photos tell the rest of the story. Fractured ribs and clavicle will take about 6 to 8 weeks to mend.

I hate to think what might have been the outcome without the Specialized helmet. I don’t know what your protocol is for blunt force trauma, but ice packs are probably the most effect immediate treatment.

Another view of one of the major cracks of the Specialized helmet

My son commented that I now look like a cage fighter- or perhaps I went a few rounds with Mike Tyson

The displaced clavicle is pretty evident; hurts the most, but heals the fastest

Visit to Trusty-Cook

I thought it would be interesting to visit the factory where our steel shot, dead blow hammers were fabricated. And since they’re conveniently located here in Indianapolis, I reached out to Joel Trusty for a visit to his plant. The photos below provide you with a perspective on the process.

The “Skeleton” of the hammer consists of the handle and the head; the handle is welded to the head. Note the steel shot in the bin. This is what makes the dead blow hammer so effect- much more so than your typical hammer.

After a freeze plug is affixed on one end of the container, the steel is added. The steel material is recovered from blasting, such as in nautical applications. Then, the other freeze plug is added and the contents are “capped.”

Joel Trusty is holding the framework for the hammer model that we use for the Firefighter Combat Challenge before it’s put into the injection mould. The hammer works best at room temperature- not in freezing conditions. Also, as in our setting, rotating the hammers adds a lot of life, because heat causes the hammers to change shape. 

This is one of the moulds for the short hammer, a perfect solution for stubborn gate valves or steamer connections on an engine. A much better solution than a bowling pin- if you can believe that. 

Now, the skeleton, first seen above is placed in the mould. The pins hold the frame in perfect alignment.

The frame of the hammer is held precisely in place with the positioning pins before the lid is affixed.

The mould is now ready for injection of urethane. The hammers can be made in a variety of colors. 

This is the vat of liquid red urethane. The injection process can produce bubbles. These simply cosmetic and have nothing to do with function. 

The pump injects the plastic into the mould, hence the term ”injection moulding.”

After curing with infra-red light, the hammers are ready to be trimmed and labeled. 

Hammers of all sizes and weights are fabricated daily and shipped to dealers and distributors around the world. One overlooked application is the 14 pound sledge, the perfect tool for forcible entry. One sack and you’re in! We’re picking up the line for use on engine and truck companies. The hammer will be on display at our store and on our website. 

Alaska Shield 14

Fifty years ago, on March 27, the second most devastating recorded earthquake took place in Alaska. In four and a half minutes of shaking, the landscape changed forever. A Tsunami of 40 feet would follow and the shock waves were felt as far South as San Francisco. 

As a college freshman, I remember well looking with dismay at the photos in Life Magazine. The enormity of this catastrophe is difficult to wrap your head around. The relatively small numbers of deaths is largely attributable to the fact that Alaska was so lightly populated. The magnitude of the shaker (9.2) and the fact that this fault line is still very much active attests to the fact that another earthquake is only a matter of when. The Anchorage Museum’s display with film and photos was impressive as were the live testimonials of survivors. 

Subsequently, a massive disaster preparedness drill entitled Alaska Shield 14 kicked off this week in Anchorage and other cities, and will continue through till next Friday. I was an invited member of the Harvard Medical School’s Disaster Medicine Fellowship team with a role of observing and providing comments whereby an evaluation of the hard spots and lessons learned might find their way into future protocols.

Captain Tom Oxnam, Anchorage Fire and Paul Davis at Alaska Shield 14

The enormity of the drill is difficult to absorb since parallel activities are presently taking place across this vast state. Documenting the drills of the last two days are photos below with some captions. Some of the public safety and military organizations include the California FEMA Urban Search & Rescue (USAR) Teams, the Alaska National Guard, the Alaska Militia, the Air National Guard (Hawaii and Oregon), the Oregon National Guard, the Anchorage Urban Search and Rescue Team, scores of civilian role players (who responded to ads in Craigslist), the AFD’s HazMat team as well as members of FEMA. 

The Washington National Guard, originally scheduled to participate in the drill were dispatched to the mudslide. As in life, contingency plans had to be made and the Oregon Guard was dispatched.  

I was honored to have Tom Oxnam, senior captain of the AFD as my liaison with the department and gain access to the simulation site. The AFD has what is typically referred to as “The Rubble Pile” of broken pieces and parts of junk, much as one might expect to see in an urban collapse. Their training academy encompasses well over 10 acres of property adjacent to the Municipal Airport.

Alaska National Guard members participating in Alaska Shield 14

All of the equipment needed to create a field hospital is palletized and moved to the Alaska State Fair grounds from the joint Army-Air Force base.

The Command and Control Operations Center at the AFD Fire Academy

The Exhibit Pavilion at the Alaska Fair Grounds was used as medical management center. Assets provided by the Guard. The photo shot above shows some of the transport assets of the Alaska Army National Guard, staged at Palmer, about 30 miles north of Anchorage. Note the exquisite scenery in the background. 

Samaritan's Purse,  a NGO provided a working MASH unit

In the surgical suite of the MASH unit is Dr. Lance Plyler (R) is Samaritan's Purse's Emergency Medical Response Advisor. Also pictured is one of the Harvard Fellows, Dr.

Back at the AFD Training Academy, our "Role Players" and their inanimate associates (aka Rescue Randy®) are staged to triage and transport. The boxes are not coffins, but are the shipping containers for the mannequins.  

Looking like the cast of the Walking Dead, this assemblage of Role Players responded to ads on Craigslist. 

The most important part of disaster response starts with communications; without which, nothing will happen. This is one of FEMA's assets, a satellite down-link. 

The Oregon National Guard had an amazing array of equipment, brought in via C-135, C-17 and C-5 aircraft

Members of the Air Guard, in full MOPP (Mission-Oriented Protective Posture- i.e., hazmat protection) suits remove a "victim" from "The Pile" 

Hard to believe the role that computers play in all emergency and public safety operations. The large bay of the AFD's Academy was ideally suited for the command post. 

Internet Overload

If you’re like me, you find the volume of information on the Internet to be overwhelming. I probably get about 100 emails per day that get through the spam filter. And, they in turn, generate a lot of interesting links that I’d like to pursue. But, alas, there’s work to be done. Like keeping fresh content on this BlogSpot.

So, shorter is probably better than longer. Which is my point. I try to generate about 36 posting of what’s happening at Challenge Central each year. So, in a nutshell, this is the direction that I see things going...

We did Las Vegas for WCXXII. TV on CBS Sports. Challenge Invitational at the Cotton Bowl and an opening for the Daytona 500. And more to come. Like the FDIC next month. My point is that we’re moving on up. And to respond to these kinds of invitations takes us outside of the historic spring/summer/fall paradigm. I mean, would we turn down an invitation to do an event at the Super Bowl because it’s in February? I think not. I’m just sayin’.

This is one of the best places to checkout what’s happening and on the horizon. We want to be in front of more people. As the ad hoc, international traveling ambassadors of the collective North American Fire Service, we believe that we fulfill a vital role for our stakeholders. So, when we have exciting things to tell you about, we will start sending you short HTML blasts to your email address of record. That will save you the trouble of having to keep checking in. Stay tuned.