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Green Maltese – Monday Morning Shoutout

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This weeks Monday Morning Shoutout goes to the Green Maltese blog. The blog is run by John Shafer and he states  ”My goal is that Green Maltese becomes the place where fire service leaders can gain and share knowledge about the Green Movement and anything  about Green (Sustainable) Building Construction.”

A little about John:
John Shafer is a 16 year veteran of the fire service, and is currently a Lieutenant and the Training Officer for the Greencastle Fire Department. An Indiana regionally recognized instructor on building construction, fireground search and command management, he has traveled throughout the State of Indiana delivering specialized training programs on building construction, fireground search and firefighter safety.

One very interesting part of his blog is that he has created a unique and easy to use submission form for readers to submit information and photos of their “Green” firehouse. If your station is “Green”, LEED Certified, or any of that other good stuff you should submit it here. He will post articles about your station and feature them on his blog!

I plan on submitting mine soon! I have the pictures taken, I am just waiting on word about any certifications or awards my station might have received in the past.

Check out the Green Maltese

Posted by on May 9, 2011 • Filed under: EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, News, Technology & Communications • Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Building Construction Questioned in Deadly Flat Fire

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The building was designed so that fire did not spread quickly between floors. Picture from BBC News

The building was designed so that fire did not spread quickly between floors. Picture from BBC News

Officials are questioning the design of a 12 story flat in England. The building sustained a fire recently that killed 6 people. In all, 30 people were rescued and 120 others were evacuated. It is unclear on how many units there are in the building, but it is clear that they all share 1 staircase.

The first thing that comes to mind is Billy Goldfeder’s favorit saying “WTF”. However, I am sure that there are many buildings across the globe that have similar building design. That does NOT make it ok though. The people who died had little chance for survival.

I guess we can hope that lessons are learned and that EXPERIENCE will provide stricter building codes to keep this tragedy from happening again.

The report and photo (right) are from a BBC News Article: Safety questions after flat fire.

There is video available at the link above during the fire.

More than 100 firefighters tackled the incident, some of who suffered from heat exhaustion, he added.

Resident Carol Cooper, 38, who lives on the seventh floor, described “seeing people and children waving for help”.

She added that the tenants had called for the block to be demolished two or three years ago – but had been told it was a listed building, and had to be preserved.

Southwark council’s executive member for housing, Kim Humphries, said the tower block had undergone a £3m refurbishment programme two years ago.

This is understood to have included fitting new windows and electrical cabling.

Posted by on July 4, 2009 • Filed under: News • Tagged: , , ,