Answer one of the following questions: 

1. What are the responsibilities of fire protection professionals relative to the needs of occupants with disabilities?

2. What are the responsibilities of fire protection professionals relative to the requirements of the fire service?

#1

In everyday life we see the requirements of the fire protection professionals. Usually we don’t realize what we are looking at but the new codes from the NFPA and APA have changed. Have you ever looked at the Exit signs in a mall, or a safe area at the top of a stair well in the hospital and wondered why there are there?

The reason for the different changes is the responsibility of the protection professionals that are building the new construction in our areas. They have been told that these signage and safe area’s have saved lives during fires. They a partially correct, the other factor is where the people are in the building when an incident occurs. There are many new requirements that have come out in the last few years for safety. They do not just classify for people with disabilities.

As for these professional when it comes to the fire service, the changes have not really been visible to the public. In the fire service the changes to our Gear and Air packs are just two that have come to mind. New tempter levels have allowed us to get to that victim that is in the back room of the house. Or the updates to our mask for our air packs. There are new ones that have thermal imaging built in. These are cool because we can see the tempters levels out in front of us.

Fire protection professionals are on their game. They are staying In front of the changes that come to them. They take everything very seriously and want to work with people.

#2

I have finally got my kids to nap this afternoon and hopefully I can get ahead for this week’s assignments. I hope everybody is having a good week and I cannot wait until next week because it’s CHRISTMAS! Furthermore, I decided to answer what are the responsibilities of fire protection professionals relative to the needs of occupants with disabilities. With that being said I think every fire district has a person or people that have a disability. With this disability it is the fire departments responsibility to know what kind of disability it may be just in case there is an emergency at that resident. It is also important to figure out if they have properly working smoke alarms and an egress to get out in moment’s notice.  Also, I think each fire professional has a duty which is to ensure everybody is safe and if called upon that firefighter is ready. This can be from installing smoke detectors in a disable person’s home to fighting many fires throughout their career. Each person a fire professional comes in contact with always has an impact and changes that person’s life.  Lastly, ensuring that people with disabilities has the same protection and access like a normal person should be the goal of the fire department when dealing with fire safety. Keeping everybody safe and update to date with fire protection safety is a much in today’s world.  I hope everybody has good week and I look forward to reading people forums this week.