One of the key assumptions in Endsley’s three-level Situation Awareness (SA) model is the critical role of mental models in the development and maintenance of SA. We explored a prescriptive way of modeling this essential mental process of the fire incident commanders’ fire ground assessment. The modeling was drawn from the Fast and Frugal Heuristics (FFHs) program, given the strong parallels be...

PURPOSE Wildland fires present many injury hazards to firefighters. We estimate injury rates and identify fire-related factors associated with injury. METHODS Data from the National Interagency Fire Center from 2003 to 2007 provided the number of injuries in which the firefighter could not return to his or her job assignment, person-days worked, and fire characteristics (year, region, season,...

Urban fire occurs within the built environment, usually involving casualties and economic losses, and affects individuals and socioeconomic activities in the surrounding neighborhoods. A good understanding of the spatiotemporal dynamics of fire incidents can offer insights into potential determinants of various fire events, therefore enabling better fire risk estimation which can assist with fu...

Background. On October 17, 2007, a severe weather event collapsed two large tents and several smaller tents causing 23 injuries requiring evacuation to emergency departments in Tulsa, OK. Methods. This paper is a retrospective analysis of the regional health system's response to this event. Data from the Tulsa Fire Department, The Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), receiving hospitals...

An undeniable and urgent need for environmental protection and preservation has been raised in the last few years. Undoubtedly, great environmental damage has occurred lately which has resulted in the deterioration of the human quality of life. Hardly does a year go by, without the occurrence of extreme environmental damages, especially in forests due to wild fire expansion. Forests have been w...

Communication and inter-organizational coordination in crisis management are of uttermost important for all processes and can lead to fast and effective averting or ending of a crisis situation. In this paper, a real world incident of a fire in the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol train tunnel was formalised, based on a public inquiry report, and subsequently, the emergency response to the incident w...

A traumatic incident involving Allied Occupation Forces in Japan in 1947 came to light in the course of pension applications by three Australian ex-servicemen. They had been present when a 'fire fight' took place between Australian and Indian soldiers based near Kure, apparently resulting in the death of two Sikhs. The emotional consequences had been suppressed, as had details of this incident,...

Vehicles or freight cars on fire below a bridge or inside a tunnel are exceptional events and imply difficult intervention conditions for firefighters. A buried technical network like high voltage electricity line, gas or steam pipeline around such a fire causes additional specifics risks. Vulnerability areas for firefighters are defined as zones where both factors exist: a difficult incident a...

This study was motivated by the need to develop a micro-geographic information system (GIS) to represent and analyze 3D spatial data for fire-fighting simulations. The proposed method involved exploration of a 3D geometric network model (GNM)-based, building information model (BIM)-supported framework for fire-fighting simulation. The operations of ladder trucks were simulated in a virtual 3D e...

This report describes the initial hospital and burn center management of a mass casualty incident resulting from an aircraft crash and fire. One hundred thirty soldiers were injured, including 10 immediate fatalities. Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, managed the casualties and began receiving patients 15 minutes after the crash. As a result of repetitive training that i...