New Addition to the Challenge Team: Enter Ben May

Ben May

Ben May is a recently retired director of global business and alliances for the Walt Disney Company. He worked with Disney to create interactive social marketing experiences dedicated to the betterment of society as well international alliances. Among these interactive attractions, May conceived and developed with Disney executives and Imagineers, in an alliance with Liberty Mutual Insurance, the largest public fire education experience in the world at Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort: "Where's the Fire?" He has been a firefighter for Hillandale Fire and Rescue in Montgomery County, Maryland, and fire commissioner for Woodinville Fire and Rescue in Washington State. May has been a marketing consultant to Fire Service Publications of Oklahoma State University's School of Fire Protection Technology, the United States Fire Administration, and metro fire departments across the country in the creation of strategic marketing communications plans. He is a member of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers, the Institution of Fire Engineers, the American Meteorological Society, the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, Vision 20/20 for Fire Prevention and Education, and the Society of Fire Protection Engineers. May has a bachelor's degree in public affairs and a master's degree in international communication.

MAYO CLINIC - DRINKING WATER, very interesting!

Water and Aspirin...
A cardiologist determined that heart attacks can be triggered by dehydration. How many folks do you know who say they don't want to drink anything before going to bed because they'll have to get up during the night?

Heart Attack and Water - Drinking one glass of water before going to bed avoids stroke or heart attack. Interesting. I asked my Doctor why people need to urinate so much at night time.

Answer from my Cardiac Doctor: Gravity holds water in the lower part of your body when you are upright (legs swell). When you lie down and the lower body (legs and etc.) seeks level with the kidneys, it is then that the kidneys remove the water because it is easier. I knew you need your minimum water to help flush the toxins out of your body, but this was news to me.

The correct time to drink water...
Drinking water at a certain time maximizes its effectiveness on the body:
2 glasses of water after waking up - helps activate internal organs
1 glass of water 30 minutes before a meal - helps digestion
1 glass of water before taking a bath - helps lower blood pressure
1 glass of water before going to bed - avoids stroke or heart attack
I can also add to this... My Physician told me that water at bedtime will also help prevent night time leg cramps. Your leg muscles are seeking hydration when they cramp and wake you up with a Charlie Horse.

Mayo Clinic on Aspirin - Dr. Virend Somers is a Cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic who is the lead author of the report in the July 29, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Most heart attacks occur in the day, generally between 6 A.M. and noon. Having one during the night, when the heart should be most at rest, means that something unusual happened. Somers and his colleagues have been working for a decade to show that sleep apnea is to blame. If you take an aspirin or a baby aspirin once a day, take it at night.

The Reason: Aspirin has a 24-hour "half-life"; therefore, if most heart attacks happen in the wee hours of the morning, the Aspirin would be strongest in your system. Aspirin lasts a really long time in your medicine chest – years! (When it gets old, it smells like vinegar).

Something that we can do to help ourselves - nice to know. Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve instantly on the tongue. They work much faster than the tablets. Why keep Aspirin by your bedside?

It's about Heart Attacks - There are other symptoms of a heart attack, besides the pain on the left arm. One must also be aware of an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating; however, these symptoms may also occur less frequently.

Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack.
The majority of people (about 60%) who had a heart attack during their sleep did not wake up. However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep. If that happens, immediately dissolve two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water.

Afterward: - Call 911. - Phone a neighbor or a family member who lives very close by. Say "Heart Attack!" - Say that you have taken 2 Aspirins. -
Take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival and...

LookOnVRTU Won the First Prize at NIST VR HUD Challenge

The winning team in the Virtual Reality Competition for Firefighter Safety

We are proud to announce that VRT-U in collaboration with LookOn Media has won first place at the National Institute for Standards and Technology’s (NIST) 2018 Virtual Reality (VR) Heads-Up-Display (HUD) Navigation Challenge for First Responders. After narrowing down all competitors through four stages only six teams were invited to present at the Public Safety Broadband Stakeholders (PSCR) Annual Meeting in San Diego and to compete for a share of the total purse of $125,000. The PSCR team awarded a joint first prize to LookOnVRTU and ENGR Dynamics with both teams scoring 89 points for a winning tie.

Our winning HUD solution guides firefighters to find the victim as quickly as possible and to evacuate the victim through the fastest and safest path possible. This solution dynamically adjusts the best route based on obstacles, fire hazards and other changes in the environment while safely guiding the rescue team through smoke, haze, and complete darkness.

In designing the HUD Navigation UI, LookOnVRTU consulted with Dr. Paul Davis, the President of First Responder Institute, to select and prioritize the most important features. Upon seeing the demo video, his response was “This is ground-breaking!”.

First responders are exposed to great risks and put their own lives in danger to rescue others. Reducing that risk is the number one goal of all first responder teams. Having been able to provide a solution that improves the safety of those firefighters fills us with great pride. We look forward to continuing working with the first responder community to implement solutions that save lives.




For more information on Virtual Reality for firefighters click here

Ukraine Inks Firefighter Combat Challenge Deal With On•Target

Dr. Paul Davis, the creator of the 3M/Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge spent 7 days with personnel from the Department of Emergency Services this past week, crafting an agreement to bring the Challenge to Ukraine. 

His visit, covering thousands of kilometers, involved tours of Fire Department museums, training academies, sports facilities and fire stations, including two stations in Chernobyl, as well as meeting with Trade Representatives at the US Embassy in the capital city of Kiev. 

The target date for the Challenge is September 15 of this year, at the Kontraktova Square, strategically located at city center. Invitations have been extended to Dr. Davis, dignitaries of the US Embassy and the President of Ukraine, the honorable Petro Poroshenko.

Mr. Kamil Górecki, the CEO of KZP, the Polish-based fire helmet manufacturer was in attendance for discussions to include the participation of the Good Deeds International Foundation, a European non-profit he represents. The Foundation is providing, at no-cost, assets that are essential for an official Challenge event. 

Colonel Eduard Drach, Commanding Officer of the Special Forces Unit, acting on behalf of the Chief of Department Myolka Chechotkin, functioned as an emissary for the Chief and executed the Memorandum of Understanding at a signing ceremony pictured below at the Department’s Headquarters in Kiev. 

The Official Verbiage for Competition Categories of the Firefighter Combat Challenge®

Individual Defined – a competitor running the entire course, on air, in full turnout gear; automatically considered for the specific respective age or sex category that is in effect at the event, as well as the open category.

Team Defined – a team is made up of 3 to 5 members, each of whom runs the course individually (that is, on air, in full turnout gear) and receives an individual time. The team time is composed of the three fastest individual times from team members added together. If there are less than three members with times due to disqualifications, no-shows etc. there is no time and the team will not receive consideration for placement.

Relay Defined – a group of 3 to 5 members, each of whom completes part of the course before handing a baton over to another member who continues. The members are in full turnout gear, except that face pieces are not worn, and they are not running on air. At regional events, they are normally seeded with their first race, and then enter an elimination bracket based on their seeding time.

Tandem Defined – a pair of competitors each of whom completes roughly half the course, with the handoff coming before or after the Keiser Forcible Entry Evolution. The members are in full turnout gear, except that face pieces are not worn, and they are not running on air. A tandem team may qualify for multiple categories but must specify beforehand which category they wish to compete in. (To compete in more than one category, it necessitates running more than one race, each designated as the specific category for consideration).