Trends in emergency services technologies that have emerged or have been continued over the past year reflect several major objectives. There is the ever-present need to improve firefighter health and safety, especially lowering the number of line-of-duty deaths. The initiatives of the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), many of them involving health and safety, are presented in "USFA: Responder Health and Safety Focus of Initiatives" on page 74. Many studies are underway to learn more about firefighting hazards so that fire tactics can be made safer (see "Firefighting Technology Research at NIST" on page 68). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), for example, awarded Underwriters Laboratories (UL) a $991,900 Fire Prevention and Safety Research Grant to enhance the understanding of the hazards for firefighters in structural fires and to use the data to improve firefighting tactics. The study, "The Firefighter Safety Research Project," will investigate the structural stability of engineered lumber and evaluate the effectiveness of the extinguishing agents used to fight fires in modern structures. The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the Chicago (IL) Fire Department, and the University of Maryland Fire Protection Department will participate in the study. The objective, according to Steven Westermann, president of the IAFC, is to develop strong recommendations for fighting fires in new residential and commercial developments. He noted that, between 1998 and 2003, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) attributed 13 firefighter fatalities and nine firefighter injuries to the collapse of buildings built with lightweight wood trusses. UL estimates that a report will be ready in early 2009.
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