ALCO: Amazing Firefighter Helmet Cam of Dramatic Child Rescue

Thursday, February 9, 2012

ALCO: Amazing Firefighter Helmet Cam of Dramatic Child Rescue

Three children rescued during a East Bay apartment fire and one had to be dropped from a second floor stairway landing to a firefighter below.
The rescues were all on video, including one recorded by a firefighter's helmet camera.

KGO reported that the morning apartment fire gave the public a chance to see what firefighters do at the scene of a fire. Another video shot by a neighbor captured the mother lowering her child to a firefighter and then rushing past the flames to the street below.

In the video, you can see a firefighter work his way through a thick curtain of smoke. It's Pappas -- a man with more than two decades of service under his belt and the only one on the team with a new tool being tested by the Alameda County Fire Department, a helmet cam.

Alameda County firefighter Tom Pappas was wearing a helmet mounted video camera being tested by the department.

In Pappas' video you can see the scene as firefighters arrived and as they entered the apartment. Video captures the actions inside as a firefighter finds another child with the help of a thermal imaging device and removes the child from the fire building.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but early reports suggest that it may have been caused by a mattress being placed too close to a space heater.

California Fire News 2011

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How fires get their names

Every year in California thousands of wildfires start throughout the state. In most cases, the dispatch center sending the initial resources to a wildland fire will designate a name for the fire, but the first on scene engine or fire official can also name the incident. Fires are usually named for the area in which they start – a geographical location, local landmark, street, lake, mountain, peak, etc. Quickly naming the fire provides responding fire resources with an additional locater, and allows fire officials to track and prioritize incidents by name. For example during the Southern California Fire Siege of 2003, the largest wildland fire in California history, the Cedar Fire in San Diego County, was named after the Cedar Creek Falls area where it started. The destructive Old Fire, which burned during the same time period in San Bernardino County, was named after the road along which it started - Old Waterman Canyon Road.

CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States. CDF - CAL FIRE Firefighters answer the call more than 300,000 times a year. CAL FIRE Firefighters make up the fire department for 30 of our 58 counties in California and more than 100 local communities. We serve as the incident command during many of California’s most serious disasters. CAL FIRE Firefighters respond to many various types and forms of calls ranging from structural fires, to auto accidents, to earthquakes, to floods, to the spilling of hazardous materials, to every conceivable disaster; CAL FIRE answer's the calls. CAL FIRE is the largest fire department in California and the second largest fire department in the United States . CAL FIRE firefighters protect 33 million acres of State Responsibility Area (SRA). We have over 4,000 members within CAL FIRE and CAL FIRE is associated with the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) and the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF).

CFN - CALIFORNIA FIRE NEWS - CAL FIRE NEWS

Thursday, February 9, 2012