- Author
-
Favro, P.
- Title
- Implications to Fire Services.
- Coporate
- California State Marshal, Sacramento, CA
- Sponsor
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Report
-
NBS GCR 82-383,
March 1982,
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Contract
- NB80NADA1058
- Book or Conf
- AIA Research Foundation. Life Safety and the Handicapped, 1980 Conference. Final Report. October 26-30, 1980,
Washington, DC,
Kennett, E. W., Editors,
46-48 p.,
1982
- Keywords
-
fire departments
- Abstract
- My topic the implications of life safety for the handicapped for the fire service. First of all, I think that we should define what the fire service is and perhaps more precisely what it does. Fire service basically does two things: one, it responds to emergencies and puts out fires, and, two, in the broadest sense of the word, it prevents fires (although I have some argument with the term "prevent"). In essence, protects-in-place through codes and standards, and in some degree through public education, to prevent actual ignition. So we're really talking about two functions . Unfortunately, I think that most people assume that the fire service is responding to emergencies. They make the assumption that mistakes have already been made, that things have gotten out of hand, and so we're going to bring the fire service in. My own personal feeling is that if that is the situation, and if disabled people are involved in that emergency, they will be treated no differently from anyone else involved in that emergency. Anyone involved in that emergency or affected by it is disabled to some degree, though it may only be temporary. So we need not develop a strategy different from what we already have, with some minor exceptions for removing the disabled from emergencies. So there is no serious implication to the fire service. It will continue to do what it does today in the area of responding to emergencies, with a few exceptions. And I'm not sure that the exceptions are that important, but they're something we'll touch on later.