What's the Fire Districts Liability for Elderly Firefighter in a Line of Duty Death?

 As far as I know none of the LMRFD volunteer have been given a physical exam. As a volunteer for NACFD like all their firefighters I was given a physical, two physicals in fact.

We have several volunteers who are over 60 years old. I think that's great to keep our older citizens involved in the community and using their knowledge and experience for the fire district is great. 

But what is the fire districts liability if a volunteer dies from a heart attack and it's judged to be a LODD (Line-of-Duty Death)

When a firefighter dies in the line of duty their family gets tens of thousands of dollars. That's great as these guys are heros and their family deserves help if something happens on the job.

But firefighters unlike law enforcement have a special clause that says an on-duty fatality is defined as an injury or illness sustained while on duty that proved fatal, including illness resulting from a sudden cardiac event or stroke within 24 hours of training or emergency response.

It seems only common sense to give volunteer firefighters a physical exam before they start. A 65 year old volunteer with a history of cardiac problems could show up for their first fire call or training session and have a heart attack and it would be a LODD.

Firefighters families are devastated when their loved one dies and they deserve the tens of thousands of dollars in benefits from various organizations. 

The LMRFD needs to be responsible and make sure volunteer firefighters are in reasonable physical condition before sending them on calls or attending training by giving them a physical exam. 

What liability does the fire district have if an elderly volunteer dies on a call or within 24 hours and we had no idea of an underlying condition?  

LMRFD Board Meeting Meadview December 17th

It looks like we finally have a board of directors who understand what the fire district needs and they are working on it. I need more information but it looks like things are going to change for the better. 

Thank you to the new board members.....

How To Use Local GMRS Repeaters in Dolan Springs and Las Vegas

GMRS is kind of informal compared to ham radio. You can use call signs and many do like "WRFS930 base to mobile" when I call my wife, Or I can just say " Jean got your radio on". You do need to give your call sign. The FCC rules say "(a) The GMRS station call sign must be transmitted: (1) Following a single transmission or a series of transmissions; and, (2) After 15 minutes and at least once every 15 minutes thereafter during a series of transmissions lasting more than 15 minutes"

There are a lot of GMRS repeaters in the Las Vegas area, around 15 or so last time I looked. Most are for local coverage like the one here in Dolan covering about 20-30 miles, but several like the Rat Repeater on 462.675. It sets high on Mt Potosi at 8750 feet. The link shows a map of the estimated coverage of the Rat Repeater and I can hit it with a handheld from 9th and Pierce Ferry Rd. 

This is the same frequency as my repeater but we use different tones, so don't be surprised if you hear people in Vegas talking when you're in Dolan.  

The Dolan Springs repeater covers from around milepost 32 to milepost 51 on US93. It's on 462.675+ 5 Mhz, that means you receive on 462.675 and transmits on 467.675, a 100.0 hz subaudible tone that's required to open the repeater.

The MyGMRS.com page has lots of information like this map of GMRS repeaters or the Repeater Directory where you can search for repeaters by state and shows a map of estimated coverage for the repeater. More on emergency service NETS and high tech stuff like internet linking of repeaters for regional or state coverage too.

Arizona GMRS Repeater Club Tucson AZ has lots of great info on GMRS repeaters, radios, and more... 

How to Get a GMRS License

First Responders Cows and Open Range Where an Accident Could Put the Ambulance Out of Service and the Crew Injured

 We all know how dangerous driving here in Arizona is with our free range cows, especially at night. People from other areas and think letting cows run around in nuts. 

But in Washington, Idaho, and Montana we had a different problem, herds of deer, elk, and bison on the road. In Montana we would have several hit on any weekend. In Washington I've been hit by more deer than I've hit. Scares the hell out of you, bam and you get broadsided by a deer. 

FYI more people are killed trying to avoid a deer than hitting the deer. Bison, Moose, and Cows are bigger and can do significantly  more damage.... 

What if you have a life threatening medical emergency and the LMRFD ambulance hits a cow in route? This would increase the response time from minutes to hours, seriously injure the crew and damage our ambulance. With our long response times depending on the condition of the crew after an accident, it could be some time before anyone realized something was wrong. 

Today FLIR Forward-Looking Infrared devices are common and much less expensive than older units used by law enforcement and the military.

A unit like the FLIR PathfindIR II Object Detection System cost about one ambulance call $2500. This VIDEO of the Pathfinder FLIR System shows the importance of FLIR in a rural ambulance like ours where being involved in an accident putting the ambulance out of survice and injuring firefighters is not acceptable 

Why the LMRFD Needs a Fire Chief Who Lives Here...

There are a number of reasons we need a fire chief who lives in the fire district. 

First in a major disaster where roads are damaged or closed there's a 2 out of 3 chance the chief will be in kingman with his family.

Secondly it takes too long for him to respond on emergencies. Like with the fire at 6am this morning it took the chief 45 minutes or so to get to the fire in Dolan. 

We know a structure fire can double in size every 30 seconds especially when it's a mobile home like this morning. So it's pretty much all over and done by the time the chief gets there.

Third we need a chief who will communicate with any resident who has a question or problem. He shouldn't ignore questions or comments and especially not ignore those who literally spent hours filling out the volunteer application. 

This is our fire district yet it's being ran by people who are not stakeholders here. They don't live here, don't own property here, and some don't even need to show up to work here. Their family is safe in areas with far more resources that the LMRFD. 

Software Defined Radios Make Great $20 Receivers for Fire, Sheriff, DPS, or Anything Else...

 Software Defined Radios are the latest thing in radio scanners, receivers and transceivers.  For $20 to $50 on eBay you can have a cool receiver that covers all frequencies from 24 Mhz to 1766 Mhz. That's from just below CB frequencies to microwave frequencies. 

The interface is easy to use, plug it into a USB port, download the HDSDR software and enter the frequency you want to listen to, or record the radio traffic on the built in recorder.

This is the same type of receiver the government uses to find bugs, your signals, or anyone talking on pretty much any frequency.

Here you can see a number of signals being received. If you want to listen then just click on the signal in the upper part of the screen you're interested in listening to. 

You can select several types of signals, AM, FM, USB Upper Sideband, LSB Lower Sideband, CW Morse Code, and Digital signals.

Listening to scanner frequencies is fun, and can be very useful in knowing what's going on in rural areas like ours.. 

Have Fun.... 

Jay 

Ham call sign KA7MBQ 

GMRS call sign WQRS930

LMRFD Needs to Embrace FirstNet for Communications

 The federal government built a special stand alone cellular network separate from what you or business customers use called FirstNet.

It was built for first responders and allows high power equipment with 5 times the power of your cell phone. 

BUT if we don't use FirstNet why would AT&T spend money to expand the network here? 

FirstNet: Reaching Rural and Remote Parts of America FirstNet is built for all public safety. That means every first responder in the country – career or volunteer; federal, tribal, state or local; urban, suburban or rural. And reaching rural and remote parts of America is one of our top priorities. Using all AT&T LTE bands and Band 14 spectrum, FirstNet currently covers more than 2.61 million square miles. In 2019 alone, we added more than 120,000 square miles of LTE coverage, which is roughly the size of New Mexico. To put it simply, we’ve been busy giving more first responders and the communities they serve access to the critical communications capabilities they need. But we aren’t stopping there. 

We’re actively extending the nationwide reach of FirstNet to give agencies large and small the reliable, unthrottled connectivity and modern communications tools they need. 

The LMRFD Needs to support FirstNet