What is the purpose of the study?
- To develop tools that will help local fire departments better assess the risks in their local communities and plan to respond to them more effectively and efficiently. The study specifically addresses staffing and deployment as it relates to firefighter safety.
How is the study funded?
- The study is funded with a major grant of nearly $1 million for the first year and a second $1 million for the second year from the research section of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (the Fire Act).
What organizations are involved?
- The three-year project is being conducted jointly by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI), the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
Who are the principle investigators on the study?
- There are 3 Principle investigators for the study.
- Kathy Notarianni, PhD., P.E.
Kathy A. Notarianni is the Head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Notarianni works with the university's fire protection engineering faculty to plan for the future of graduate studies and research in fire protection engineering, which incorporates elements of civil, structural, electrical and chemical engineering to make structures, vehicles, clothing and people safer from fire. She strives to build strong networks with agencies, laboratories, universities and companies having common interest in fire protection engineering education and research.
She has been awarded over $5M in research grants from multiple governmental sponsors such as NASA, NIH, and the U.S. Navy. She is a fellow in the Society of Fire Protection Engineers.
Prior to joining WPI, Notarianni managed a group of scientists and engineers in a technical program of integrated performance assessment and risk at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD. The program serves to produce tools to quantify fire events for fire hazard and risk assessment; fire fighting operations and training; fire investigations and performance evaluations of fire protection systems in buildings; and transportation networks and vehicles in response to fire.
Notarianni is well published, having authored or co-authored more than 30 publications, including chapters in two books, the "Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering," and "Improving Regulations." She has been recognized by the SFPE and U.S. Department of Commerce with awards for leadership and performance.
Notarianni holds a B.S. in chemical engineering and a M.S. in fire protection engineering, both from WPI. She later earned a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, where she did her doctoral dissertation on "The Role of Uncertainty in Improving Regulation: A Case Study in Fire Protection."
- Lori Moore-Merrell, DrPh, MPH, EMT-P
Lori Moore-Merrell is an Assistant to the General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) in charge of Technical Assistance for Labor Issues and Collective Bargaining, Fire and EMS Operations, and IAFF Field Services. Lori’s expertise is in emergency response system design, staffing and deployment of mobile resources, system performance measurement and evaluation. She has managed emergency response system evaluation teams, including GIS assessment, for more than 300 fire departments in the United States and Canada. Likewise, she led the effort to develop the IAFF/IAFC fire-based EMS system performance measures and is now staffing the committee working to develop fire and rescue operational indicators and performance measures.
Moore-Merrell served as Principle Investigator on two USFA cooperative agreements to assess firefighter line-of-duty death and injury and to develop fire service risk management models and has managed multiple years of cooperative agreements with the USFA regarding fire-based EMS. She has served on 15 Federal Task Forces on Fire and EMS related subjects.
Moore-Merrell is well published having written and published more than a dozen articles, book chapters and/or books on subjects related Fire and EMS Response Systems.
During her tenure with the IAFF, Moore-Merrell has held many positions and received numerous awards for her work including Commissioner for the Commission for Fire Service Accreditation (CFAI), Gubernatorial Appointee to the Commonwealth of Virginia Emergency Medical Services Advisory Board, Member of the International Fire Service Training Association (IFSTA) Executive Board of Directors and receiving the James O. Page EMS Achievement award from the IAFC.
Moore-Merrell holds a B.S. in Health and Safety Education from the University of Memphis and an MPH in Epidemiology from The George Washington University School of Public Health. She also earned a DrPH in Health Policy from The George Washington University School of Public Health where she did her doctoral dissertation on “Quality Performance Measures for Fire-Based EMS Systems”.
- Jason D. Averill
Education
-- 1996: B.S. Civil Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
-- 1998: M.S. Fire Protection Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Recent Research Experience:
-- “Evaluation of Bench-scale Toxicity Apparatus”; $300k, 2005 – Present.
-- “Occupant Behavior and Egress”; $370k, 2002 - Present
-- “World Trade Center Investigation - Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications”; $1,950K; 2002 - 2004.
-- “Home Smoke Alarm Tests”; $1,000K; 2001- 2002.
-- “Room-Scale Smoke Component Yields for Validation of Bench-scale Smoke Toxicity Apparatus”; $600K; 2001 – 2002.
Awards:
-- 2005: U.S. Department of Commerce, Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Federal Service. “For conducting the federal building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster”
-- 2004: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bronze Medal Award for Superior Federal Service. “For research into the characterization of the performance of home smoke alarms”
Are there other experts involved?
- Yes. The study has enlisted experts, known as technical advisors, in various fields related to the study. Technical advisors on the study include fire ground tacticians, EMS specialists, modeling experts, risk and hazard experts, Geographic Information System (GIS) experts, economists, mathematicians, fire engineers, and performance metric experts.
What are the expected results?
- The first two phases of the study are to establish a technical basis for risk evaluation and deployment of resources by local fire departments and to create tools fire departments can use to better assess the risks and hazards in their communities. This will allow them to plan adequate resource deployment to respond to and mitigate emergency events. The final phase of the study will assist departments to measure their effectiveness in responding to and handling events.
What role can local departments play in the research?
- Fire Departments may participate by contributing response data. The study will require data from actual responses to test and validate the risk model that has been developed. Departments may sign up by clicking here and entering the information requested.
What are the benefits for local fire department?
- At the completion of the study, results as well as products developed during the study will be released for use by local fire departments. Departments participating in the study will receive the initial software products released at no cost. These products/tools will help local fire departments better assess the risks in their local communities and plan to respond to them more effectively and efficiently.
How many departments are needed for the study?
- We are looking for 120+ stations. This means that we need at least 40 departments to commit 3 stations or so each.
How can my department sign up to participate?
If my department signs up to enter data, how much time will it take?
- We anticipate data entry to take approximately 10 minutes per response. This means that one company officer will go to the study website following each response and enter data for that call, regardless of how many companies responded. We are asking for 100 calls from each station enlisted in the study. (Each station…not each department) We will need 2-3 stations from each department committing to the study.
Will my department enter data on all calls made during the study time frame?
- No. Your commitment would be for 2-3 stations not all stations in your department. Once you identify which stations will participate, each station would then contribute data for at least 100 calls. Once the data from these calls are entered as instructed, then you are done.
Will the data my department enters be secure?
- Yes. All study data entered from participating departments will be combined into a single database. The data will not be shared outside the study. Actual data used in the study analysis will be selected at random from the compiled database.
How will the data be used?
- Data entered into the study database via the web-based survey will be compiled and examined. The examination will involve a series of statistical analyses to identify which aspects of resource deployment really make a difference during response to and mitigation of adverse events like fire and medical emergencies.
After my department provides data for the study, what are the next steps?
- As part of the study, fire scientists are developing and testing mathematic models representing risks, fire movement, and various interventions for mitigating a fire or EMS event. Your data will be used to test this model. In Phase II, researchers will collect hazard and response measurements through simulation that will form the technical basis for the model. Phase III will be devoted to validating and beta-testing new Risk assessment software for accuracy and ease-of-use. Once complete, the new software called VISION will be re-released through CFAI. All purchasers of the original version of VISION will receive updated versions as they become available. Watch the industry media and journals for study results. All results from the study will be prepared for publication and distribution.
When will the results of the study be released?
- Preliminary results from the web-based survey will be released in late spring 2008 as will the results of field simulations associated with Phase II of the study. Final results and products from the study are anticipated for release in late 2008 and spring 2009.
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