Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper explores recent public resistance to the Forest Service’s proffered “safety” legacies of tragedy fires. A rhetorical organizational communication analysis shows how a root military metaphor for firefighting has historically constrained the agency’s public sensemaking about tragedy fires. Because safety is constructed as rule following, tragedies are framed as failure in discipline, solutions involve tightening the iron cage of control, and fallen firefighters are eulogized with promises for future organizational perfection. But repeated accidents only raise questions about past promises, and most recently seem to call into question the organization’s rhetorical competence. The paper analyzes the discursive elements that help to sustain the organization’s root military metaphor, and identifies alternate metaphors for wildland firefighting safety that might help the Forest Service to redeem its discursive competence. Implications for rhetorical tools like root metaphor analysis, lists and stories, and the enthymeme, are discussed.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: Objectives: This study compared physiological responses of firefighters (FFs) performing simulated fireground tasks with those of FFs performing continuous exercise to volitional fatigue. Previous studies by our group established the validity of both experimental models of uncompensable heat stress in FFs, but did not directly compare them. Methods: 13 FFs (12 male, 1 female) wearing standard firefighting personal protective ensemble (PPE) and SCBA in a heated environment (40°C) completed both protocols. In the first phase, subjects completed tasks simulating fire suppression including treadmill walking while carrying hose, ladder climbing, simulated search and rescue, and a pike pole breach and pull exercise. The second phase consisted of walking on a treadmill while wearing a weighted vest at 4 mph rate and 2% grade. In both phases, subjects exercised to volitional fatigue. Physiological markers measured or calculated included hemoglobin, hematocrit, glucose, lactate, urine and plasma osmolality, plasma volume, body weight, body mass index, core temperature, heat storage, and VO2max. Duration of exercise was recorded and FFs gave serial ratings of perceived exertion. Results: Duration of exercise ranged from 4 to 22 minutes, was not significantly different between the two phases, and positively correlated with heat storage and lactate levels. Simulated fire tasks caused greater increases in lactate (mean 8.8 mMol/L), plasma osmolality levels (mean 296 mOsm/Kg), plasma volume loss (mean 12%), core temperature (>39°C), and higher heat storage levels (mean 339 kJ) than did weighted treadmill testing. Subjects in phase two did not have significant changes in these variables, despite working to volitional fatigue. Those with a lower BMI tended to have a higher VO2max, but BMI had no correlation with duration of exercise. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that firefighters in a hot environment and PPE are significantly more physiologically stressed by simulated fireground tasks than by continuous aerobic exercise despite similar durations of exercise and ratings of perceived exertion. This physiological stress and its lack of correlation with volitional fatigue may contribute to line-of-duty illness and injury to FFs, and may have implications for management of fireground illness and injuries.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper I explore the development of the US Forest Service's preoccupation with fire suppression and suggest that recent initiatives indicate an (irrational) return to the agency's roots

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: This paper sketches the history and experiences of Black firefighters in the FDNY from 1940 to the present. It documents the conditions faced by the first generation of firefighters in the FDNY as well as the struggles they waged in conjuntion with Benjamin Davis, Adan Clayton Powell Jr., and the NAACP to thwart attempts to segregate the department and circumscribe Black mobility within the ranks. The formation and activities of the Vulcan Society, a group formed in 1940 to combat discrimination and isolation is also detailed, as is the role the organization played in organizing Black firefighters throughout the region. I conclude by examining how the city and FDNY have side-stepped affirmative action programs despite currently having the least racially representive urban fire department in the nation as well as the impact that 9/11 has had on attempts to confront the FDNY's longstanding legacy of discrimination.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: P.L. 93-498 was landmark legislation for the fire service. An examination of the act, its history, and projection into subsequent legislation seeks to find a paradigm for successful firefighting legislation that has as yet been absent.