The Firefighter Netcast Show Live July 1, 2010 9pm Safe Firefighter of the Month Program With Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Ed Mann

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The Firefighter Netcast Show Live July 1, 2010 9pm With Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Ed Mann and Hale’s Bruce Lear. We will be discussing the Safe Firefighter of the Month Program. The program is a joint venture between the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation and Hale.

The direct link to our Blog Talk Radio show is here

About Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Ed Mann
Edward A. Mann was reappointed as the State Fire Commissioner by Governor Edward G. Rendell in November 2003. Commissioner Mann was appointed as the fourth State Fire Commissioner of the Commonwealth by Governor Tom Ridge in July 2000.
Ed has extensive background in emergency services having started with the Logan and Undine Fire Companies in Bellefonte, Centre County.

Ed has served in the United States Air Force as a Fire Protection Specialist.  After his retirement from the service he worked for Senators J. Doyle Corman and Jake Corman as an Executive Assistant in the 34th Senatorial District.

Hale Steps Up to Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner’s Challenge to Help Reduce Firefighter Fatalities

In 2009, 93 on-duty firefighter fatalities were reported to U.S. Fire Administration. Hoping to reduce that number, Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Edward Mann posed a safety challenge in September 2009 to fire industry manufacturers nationwide. Hale has answered Commissioner Mann’s call with the development of SafeBuy™, a complete suppression agent delivery system designed from the ground up to support firefighter safety. Hale launched SafeBuy at FDIC 2010.

“Hale has always stressed operational performance excellence in our products, which makes them fundamentally safe and reliable,” said Bruce Lear, Hale’s vice president of sales and marketing. “When we heard that Commissioner Mann saw an additional opportunity for manufacturers across the board to make safety a top priority, we realized that offering new premium safety features completely standard on a pump module would help firefighters avoid as many human errors as possible, providing the best protection for their lives.”

Commissioner Mann said that his call to manufacturers stemmed from a larger nationwide program from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation aimed at increasing safety awareness among firefighters. The campaign, known as “Courage to Be Safe,” introduced 16 safety initiatives for firefighters to follow in 2005. Since then, Commissioner Mann has overseen almost 150 “Courage to be Safe” sessions in Pennsylvania, with more than 9,800 attendees. Similar activities surrounding the program are taking place in other states.

Since initiating “Courage to Be Safe” education sessions in his home state, Commissioner Mann reports that the number of line of duty deaths in Pennsylvania has decreased from 18 to less than 10 per year. He hopes that by producing safer equipment, manufacturers can help to further reduce that number across the country.

“The way to reduce firefighter injury or death is by continuous improvement of training and equipment design,” said Commissioner Mann. “It’s important for all fire industry manufacturers to step up to this challenge and develop safer fire suppression systems.”

For more information about the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation’s “Courage to Be Safe” initiative, visit www.everyonegoeshome.com.

New Safe Firefighter of the Month Program Recognizes Outstanding Performance
Campaign sponsored by Hale and National Fallen Firefighter Foundation launches at FDIC 2010

Firefighters serve a sacred duty to protect life and property in their communities, but they also must serve a higher duty to themselves and their family to stay safe and healthy. Hale takes firefighter safety seriously, and that’s why it has partnered with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) to sponsor the Safe Firefighter of the Month Recognition Program.

The Safe Firefighter of the Month program is designed to help firefighters focus on the 16 Life Safety Initiatives outlined in the NFFF’s “Courage to Be Safe” campaign. Fire companies that would like to participate in the program can obtain a kit from Hale that contains everything they need to honor those individuals who go above and beyond to make health and safety a priority.

Each month, fire departments are encouraged to nominate a Safe Firefighter of the Month and present him or her with a certificate provided in the program kit. Monthly winners can be submitted to Hale as nominations for National Safe Firefighter of the Month at www.safe-firefighter.com. Each month, a top candidate will be chosen from the submissions made by firehouses across the U.S., and the winners and nominees will have their photos and profiles displayed on the Web site.

In June 2011, Hale and the NFFF will select a “Safe Firefighter of the Year” from among the monthly winners. Hale will award a health and safety prize package to the firehouse of the winning firefighter.

For more information about the Safe Firefighter of the Month program, visit
www.safe-firefighter.com.