I am honored to have been a part of the LODD Funerals for Chief Posey Dillon and Firefighter Danny Altice. The firefighters from Roanoke City who took part did an excellent job with the Honor Guard and many other things we were able to help out with including staffing stations in Franklin County.
Some of you were not able to attend because you were working, others had other obligations.
Thank you to all who helped out in some way. Your professionalism and respect for the families, friends, and fellow brothers were top notch.
Thanks also to Drew Abel who photographed the events with me.
Click on the image below for complete coverage of the events including around 200 photos from the day.
Photo by Drew Abel
Never Forget
The reason why I am writing this right now is because of this incident below where a Scranton Firefighter was killed by electrocution during a house fire when his ladder truck came into contact with a power line. The image is from www.WNEP.com.
How can this happen? I am not trying to monday morning quarterback, and no I was not there. But we got to do better. Captain Jim Robeson, a 26 year veteran, was killed in this incident. God Bless his family and his brothers on the job. We need to learn from this incident.
This is but one of many incidents where firefighters die…and shouldn’t. FirefighterCloseCalls.com has the breakdown of firefighter deaths here. I will post some of the statistics below.
Type of Duty:
24 Responding 20.8%
11 Training 9.56%
37 On-Scene Fire 32.1%
8 On-Scene Non-Fire 6.95%
13 After 11.3%
20 Other On-Duty 17.3%
2 Returning 1.73%
Type of Incident:
5 Wildland 4.34%
48 Structure Fire 41.7%
7 MVA 6.08%
3 Hazmat 2.60%
6 EMS 5.21%
1 Tech Rescue 0.86%
1 Outside Fire 0.86%
1 False Alarm 0.86%
41 Not Incident Related 35.6%
1 Other 0.86%
1 Unknown 0.86%
Cause of Fatal Injury:
19 Caught/Trapped 16.5%
1 Contact with 0.86%
4 Fall 3.47%
55 Stress/Overexertion 47.8%
4 Collapse 3.47%
3 Struck by 2.60%
26 Vehicle Collision 22.6%
2 Lost 1.73%
1 Other 0.86%
Nature of Fatal Injury:
16 Asphyxiation 13.9%
3 Crushed 2.60%
7 Burns 6.08%
2 CVA 1.73%
33 Trauma 28.6%
1 Electrocution 0.86%
52 Heart Attack 45.2%
1 Other 0.86%
WE HAVE GOT TO DO BETTER!
Basically, a firefighter dies every three days in the United States. There have been 2 reported by EveryoneGoesHome.com and today is the 6th of January. I guess you could say we started this year on track for last year. Although the numbers of 2006 were a lot better.
They give these statistics:
