Documents fire 11 results

"Recreating the information flow in decision processes after serious accidents enables researchers and policy makers to identify both the threshold points at which action begins to fail and gaps in information processes that could be corrected to reduce risk in future incidents. The Yarnell Hill Fire of 30 June 2013 occurred in a rapidly changing, high-risk environment of the Arizona highlands in which the interaction among the physical terrain, wind and vegetation conditions, technical support structures, and organizational decision processes led to the collapse of the firefighting strategy and the loss of nineteen members of the Granite Mountain Interagency Hotshot Crew. Based on documentation from operational management manuals, accident reports, and agency records, simulation methods are used to retrace the information flow in this complex decision process and reveal fresh insights into the limitations of standard firefighting practices in rapidly escalating, dangerous, wildfire conditions."

"The author examines how climate change is impacting wildland firefighters. Climate change has made wildland fires more frequent and more intense. The increase in frequency and intensity of fires has pushed the number of fatalities and injuries higher in recent decades. The most common hazards on fires follow the trend of fire in general in that these hazards become more frequent and intense. Burnovers, heat exhaustion, tree hazards, and many other common fire hazards are more likely. The fire suppression agencies are making every effort to improve health and safety on fires by improving communication, weather forecasting, mapping, fire shelters, decision making and more. Despite these efforts, wildfires are becoming ever more hazardous because of climate change and the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires."

"La question des incendies offre un excellent laboratoire pour penser l'invention de l'usine au XIXe siècle et les conditions d'acclimatation de l'industrie, en dépit des risques et menaces croissantes qui accompagnent son développement. Comment l'expérience de l'incendie a-t-elle façonné les espaces productifs et les rapports sociaux de travail au début de l'industrialisation ? Cette enquête, menée à partir des rapports des autorités locales de cinq des principaux départements textiles entre 1800 et 1870, invite à interroger l'ampleur de ce risque, ses coûts mais aussi ses effets. Les incendies apparaissent comme l'une des sources majeures de la rationalisation capitaliste du XIXe siècle. Durant cette période de transformations décisives, également traversée de crises industrielles et de nombreuses secousses sociales et politiques, l'usine surgit dans les paysages et les discours. Les spécificités régionales de l'industrialisation modèlent la forme et l'ampleur du risque. Celui-ci façonne en retour les chemins pluriels de l'industrialisation, il accompagne l'invention de l'usine, dans sa dimension tout autant matérielle que sociale. Face à l'accroissement des capitaux mobilisés, au gigantisme des installations, il devient en effet nécessaire de normaliser le travail des hommes et des machines pour affronter un risque omniprésent."

"Lors de feux de logements ou de locaux professionnels, les pompiers sont exposés au cyanure d'hydrogène et au benzonitrile résultant de la dégradation thermique des polymères des matières plastiques ou de substances naturelles, surtout si les actions de déblaiement sont effectuées sans appareil de protection respiratoire.Depuis mai 2001, le laboratoire mobile du Bataillon des marins-pompiers de Marseille a effectué des dosages atmosphériquesde ces composés cyanhydriques et de monoxyde de carbone sur 82 feux urbains lors des phases de noyage et de déblaiement. Les valeurs médianes sont toutes inférieures aux valeurs limites d'expositions professionnelles.Toutefois dans certaines circonstances (feu de commerce de vêtements par exemple), ces concentrations peuvent dépasser ces valeurs limites.L'intoxication cyanhydrique aiguë est une urgence nécessitant la disponibilité d'hydroxocobalamine dans le véhiculed'intervention.Une surveillance médicale adaptée des pompiers susceptibles d'être exposés aux composés cyanhydriques doit être mise en place en recherchant à l'interrogatoire des signes d'intoxication à bas bruit. L'examen clinique doit porter une attention particulière aux fonctions respiratoire, cardiovasculaire, neurologique, rénale, hépatique et thyroïdienne et à l'état cutané."

"On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out in the Triangle Shirtwaist factory in New York's Greenwich Village. Within minutes it had spread to consume the building's upper three stories. Firemen who arrived at the scene were unable to rescue those trapped inside: their ladders simply weren't tall enough. People on the street watched in horror as desperate workers jumped to their death. The final toll was 146 people -- 123 of them women. It was the worst disaster in New York City history. This harrowing yet compulsively readable book is both a chronicle of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and a vibrant portrait of an entire age. It follows the waves of Jewish and Italian immigration that inundated New York in the early years of the century, filling its slums and supplying its garment factories with cheap, mostly female labor. It portrays the Dickensian work conditions that led to a massive waist-worker's strike in which an unlikely coalition of socialists, socialites, and suffragettes took on bosses, police, and magistrates. Von Drehle shows how popular revulsion at the Triangle catastrophe led to an unprecedented alliance between idealistic labor reformers and the supremely pragmatic politicians of the Tammany machine."
(from the publisher's website)

"BACKGROUND: World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers were exposed to a complex mix of pollutants and carcinogens.
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate cancer incidence in responders during the first 7 years after 11 September 2001.
METHODS: Cancers among 20,984 consented participants in the WTC Health Program were identified through linkage to state tumor registries in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were calculated to compare cancers diagnosed in responders to predicted numbers for the general population. Multivariate regression models were used to estimate associations with degree of exposure.
RESULTS: A total of 575 cancers were diagnosed in 552 individuals. Increases above registry-based expectations were noted for all cancer sites combined (SIR = 1.15; 95% CI: 1.06, 1.25), thyroid cancer (SIR = 2.39; 95% CI: 1.70, 3.27), prostate cancer (SIR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.44), combined hematopoietic and lymphoid cancers (SIR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.71), and soft tissue cancers (SIR = 2.26; 95% CI: 1.13, 4.05). When restricted to 302 cancers diagnosed ≥ 6 months after enrollment, the SIR for all cancers decreased to 1.06 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.18), but thyroid and prostate cancer diagnoses remained greater than expected. All cancers combined were increased in very highly exposed responders and among those exposed to significant amounts of dust, compared with responders who reported lower levels of exposure.
CONCLUSION: Estimates should be interpreted with caution given the short follow-up and long latency period for most cancers, the intensive medical surveillance of this cohort, and the small numbers of cancers at specific sites. However, our findings highlight the need for continued follow-up and surveillance of WTC responders."