WNYF - With New York Firefighters is the official training publication of the FDNY. I recently became a subscriber to the quarterly magazine. I am thoroughly impressed. The quality, relevance, and applicability of the articles is first-rate. The magazine is zero advertising, no frills, all training content. It is the only fire service periodical that I read cover-to-cover.
The magazine features real, fire calls. Each call is clearly described, and all actions taken on-scene are explained. The incident articles end with a comprehensive list of lessons learned, and additional resources to consult.
The magazine features a profile of a specific section of the FDNY. These provide administrative and operational insight that can be applied to your operation.
Recurring columns are Safety First, Learn from History, and Fire Prevention Matters. These address, respectively, functions of the incident safety officer, a historical New York City fire, and a hot topic in Fire Prevention.
At only $25 a year (4 quarterly issues), this is the most efficient cost to benefit expenditure that an individual or department can spend.
5 Takeaways from WNYF 3rd/2015:
- The FDNY and the US Army have a training agreement which allows members of both organizations to receive cross training in fire fighting (from FDNY) and leadership (US Army). What training partnerships can we develop? How can these partnerships be mutually beneficial?
- 'Taxpayer' definition (from the FDNY Probationary Firefighters Manual) - The term "Taxpayer" is not defined or recognized in the building code. The term originally referred to the practice of real estate investors who, while holding land for speculation, resorted to minimal investment in construction to produce income to offset the cost of taxes. These structures were usually of cheap and flimsy construction with little or no fire retarding features. Supermarkets and one story shopping centers of more recent construction do not fit the above description but contain many of the inherent hazards associated with taxpayers. A taxpayer building is commonly taken to mean a business structure one or two stories in height. Their areas vary from 20' x 50' to areas of whole city blocks, the most common size being approximately 100' x 100'. They can be built on one or more lots with adjoining structures of greater heights on three sides. These buildings are usually single structures commonly sheltering from one to as many as 15 different businesses with weak non-fire resistive partitions and no fire stops in the cocklofts.
- www.disasterengineer.org - resource for urban search and rescue and shoring operations
- KO Fire Curtain - tool developed by FDNY firefighters that allows personnel to control the effects of wind on and within a structure. www.kofirecurtain.com
- Recommended resources for storage battery technology - Pv Magazine, Leveling Solar and Energy Storage: A Nontechnical Guide
(book)
Get this resource. You can subscribe at, www.FDNYFoundation.org.
