Firewhirl: Polls and Poll Results Archives

Emergency Lights in Private Vehicles

Interesting results! In our small, volunteer department some of the firefighters use emergency lights in the POVs and some don't. I've spent time with and without emergency lights in my personal vehicle. In my experience, if you drive safely, the emergency lights help clear the traffic so that the trip to the fire hall is quicker. Not a lot quicker, but a little.

On the flip side, I've seen guys respond to the fire hall driving too fast and putting the public at risk. The emergency lights just make this situation worse.

Post your thoughts on this issue by leaving a comment.

Serious About Seat Belts

It looks like the folks that responded to the poll are serious about having their firefighters wear seat belts. From my perspective, that is the right attitude. Just this last week, a firefighter was killed when his apparatus overturned and he was ejected from the vehicle. He was not wearing his seat belt.

Junior Firefighter LODD Benefits

The majority of the respondents think that junior firefighters should receive line of duty death benefits, but there are some that don't agree. This issue may not be as clear cut as I first thought.

Thanks to all of you that participate in the polls.

Home Fire Sprinkler Systems

Most of our poll respondents don't think that new homes should be required to have sprinkler systems installed. I don't either, but I'm torn on this issue. I'm pretty sure that having a sprinkler system in homes would greatly reduce damage, injuries, and deaths from fires. However, would that justify a law requiring sprinkler systems? I don't know - it's something to ponder.

Most Don't Wear Wildland PPE

Most of the poll respondents either wear structural PPE or no PPE on wildland fires. Hmmm. Are there any particular reasons for this? Please leave a comment if you have an opinion on this.

Poll Shows Officers Are Trained

Last week's poll shows that for the most part, the respondent's officers are properly trained. The results turned out better than I thought they would.

Fire Safe Cigarette Poll

It was a close one this week. I'm a little surprised that so many respondents don't think fire safe cigarettes will cut down on fire fatalities.

Thanks to everyone that votes in the polls. Don't forget to vote in the new poll on the sidebar at the right.

What Should Be Done With FEMA?

Well, the vote is pretty evenly split between scrapping FEMA and making FEMA a cabinet level agency again. However, it is pretty clear that according to our voters, FEMA should not be part of the Department of Homeland Security.

Moving FEMA to the DHS has had a serious effect on the USFA and the AFG program. I'm with the voters on this one. Almost anything would be better than leaving FEMA in the DHS.

Impact of AFG Program

It looks like the AFG program has had a sizable impact on the respondents to our weekly poll. I know it has certainly helped out the fire departments in my area.

Don't forget to vote in this week's poll about what should happen to FEMA.

Lack of Personal Escape Kits

Even though this is a very small sample, it shows that there is a lack of personal escape kits in use. A few years ago, I attended a firefighter survival class. The class showed numerous techniques for surviving problem situations in structure fires including the use of a personal escape kit. Since that class, I wanted my own (since our department can't afford to provide them). Eventually, I saved up enough pocket change to buy one.

OK, get ready for the shameless plug for my business...

You can check out personal escape kits at the Northern Plains Fire online store.

Alcohol at the Fire Hall?

Here are the results of our weekly poll regarding alcohol at the firehall:

Rescue Poll Results

Here are the results from the rescue poll last week:

Just over half of the respondents have been involved in some sort of rescue. An interesting result from the poll is that more firefighters have been involved in animal rescues than rescuing people.

Feel free to share your rescue stories in the comments section.

We Need More Disentanglement Training

Last week's poll results show that we need to do a little more disentanglement training.

Check out this post and the associated links for a drill on disentanglement.

Poll Results: Face Mask Seal with a Beard

Here are the results from last week's poll:

I agree with the results of our poll. It would be very difficult to get a good seal with a beard. I'm not willing to risk my life or the lives of my fellow firefighters over a little facial hair.

Poll Results: Combination Nozzle/Straight Stream

Looks like combination nozzles win out in last week's poll:

If you have reasons why you like one or the other, post your comments here.

Poll of the Week

Don't forget to vote in the Poll of the Week located on the sidebar on the right.

We post the results every Tuesday and then put up a new poll.

Poll Results: March 14, 2006

This is a good thing, but I was actually expecting the results to be a little more even considering all of the griping I hear about communications. Maybe this shows that although things have improved, there is still a lot of room to make things better.

Poll Results - March 7, 2006

It's a good sign that nobody is winging it -

Thanks to everyone that takes part in the polls. If you have an idea for a poll, send me an e-mail or comment.

For the new poll this week, feel free to let me know the reasons behind your poll answer.

Poll Results - February 28, 2006

The results to this poll really surprised me. I thought for sure that there would be more departments with lots of older members. Hmmm.

Don't forget to vote in this week's poll.

Poll Results - February 21, 2006

Poll Results: 02/14/2006

Not many votes last week. Oh, well - sometimes we hit a big one, other times we don't.

Thanks to those of you that participate in the polls.

Poll Results - February 8, 2006

Well, it's unanimous. Our poll shows that people don't think removing lights and sirens from tenders/tankers would reduce injuries or save lives. It would be interesting to see someone conduct a formal study on this issue.

I'm not sure how to reduce injuries and deaths involving tenders/tankers. Perhaps a certification should be required to drive these vehicles.

Poll Results - January 31, 2006

No surprises on last week's poll:

Don't forget to vote in this week's poll (over on the sidebar).

Poll Results - January 24, 2006

Here are the poll results for last week. It looks like Firewhirl readers are a pretty safe crew.

Poll Results - January 17, 2006

It looks like most folks that responded think that "Move Over" laws are needed. In states with lots of traffic issues, this could be difficult to implement, let alone enforce.

Reference Article for this Week's Poll

For this week's poll, reference this post about the lack of a "Move Over" law in California.

UPDATE: I'm not trying to influence the poll results, I just wanted to give a reference to those folks that might not be familiar with a "Move Over" law.

Poll Results - January 10, 2005

Lots of different opinions in last week's poll:

It looks like most of us think that firefighters don't wear proper PPE because they don't think it is needed. I wonder what firefighters that get hurt because of the lack of PPE would say to that?

Poll Results - January 3, 2005

Poll Results - December 27,2005

We had another good turnout on the weekly poll. Here are the results:

In my opinion, this needs to be decided in each local jurisdiction. Some towns and cities may have big traffic safety issues while others do not have the same problems.

Poll Results - December 20, 2005

Hey, we set a new record for votes in a poll - 13 votes! Woo Hoo!

Here are the results:

The results were pretty close on this one. It is a tricky issue, balancing the need to record the details of an incident with the privacy concerns of the folks captured on the video.

My guess is that eventually, video cameras will be installed on most fire apparatus, especially in urban areas.

Poll Results - December 13, 2005

Here are the results of last week's poll. Only one department currently participates in firefighting competitions. If I had to guess, most departments across the country probably do not participate in these events.

Poll Results - December 6, 2005

Poll Results - December 1, 2005

Poll Results - November 22, 2005

Nothing too surprising here. I think it would be beneficial to have all members equipped with radios. However, it would be expensive to do that. Hopefully, the cost of electronics continues to come down making it possible for fire departments to equip all of their firefighters with radios.

Poll Results - November 15, 2005

This was the result I expected. Most departments that I've come in contact with are short-handed.

Poll Results - November 8, 2005

Hey - we set a new record for poll participants and the results were neck and neck.

From our results, it looks like most are not in favor of national requirements for becoming a firefighter.

There are positives and negatives to having national requirements. On one hand, our firefighters would be better trained and better able to accomplish their tasks. On the other hand, it would be very difficult to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.

PS. Don't forget to vote in the new poll.

Poll Results - November 1, 2005

New Poll for Volunteer FFs

I apologize to those career firefighters out there, but this week's poll focuses on volunteers. This question has come up in discussions around our fire department and I wanted to see what others from around the country thought.

Please vote - the poll can be found on the right at the top of the sidebar.

Thanks.

Poll Results - October 25, 2005

Poll Results - October 18, 2005

Poll Results - October 11, 2005

Here are the results from last week's poll:

Poll Results - October 4, 2005

Here are the results of last week's poll:

None of the voters are in a department that has a fitness program or policy. Granted, there are only three votes, but I bet there are relatively few departments across the nation that do have fitness programs or policies. No wonder that the leading cause of firefighter fatalities is heart attacks.

Poll Results - September 27, 2005

We aren't getting many votes in the weekly polls. I'm not sure if it is just because we don't have a ton of readers yet, or if the questions are lame. If you have suggestions for poll questions, please e-mail them to me. Thanks.

Poll Results - September 20, 2005

Here are the results of last week's poll. We set a record with the number of responses to the poll question. It still isn't a big number, but it's growing!

Don't forget to vote in the new poll at the top of the sidebar on the right.

Poll Results - September 13, 2005

Don't Forget to Vote in the Poll

Just a quick reminder that we host a weekly poll over on the right side of the page. The poll results will be posted and a new poll started on Tuesdays.

Poll Results - September 6, 2005

Poll Results - August 30, 2005

Poll Results - August 23, 2005

Here are the results of last week's poll:

Slowly, but surely we have more people voting in the weekly poll.

Poll Results - August 16, 2005

Here are the results of August 2 - 16 poll. The results are in a new format.

Still not many folks responded, but it is twice as many as last week!

New Poll - Training Hours

Don't forget to place your vote in the poll for this week. It deals with how many training hours you have accumulated this year.

You'll find the poll at the top of the sidebar on right side of the main Firewhirl page.

Poll Results - August 9, 2005

Here are the results of our first poll. Unfortunately, the audience of Firewhirl isn't very large, so we only had one response (mine). Oh, well, in time the audience will grow. On to the results:

Question:
How many brush trucks do you have in your department?

Results:
Zero - 0
One - 0
Two - 0
Three or more - 1