ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH EDITION |
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20 years ago, during the September 11th attack, the world stood still. Since then, the words “gone but never forgotten” are said often. The words “never forget” sit in the hearts of every firefighter, every day. We salute our fellow sisters and brothers that run into emergencies, putting the lives of others above their own.
The job of saving lives, property, and infrastructure continues. We know that you are on duty nonstop protecting the communities in the great State of California. Stay safe, stay strong and take care of yourself so you can get home to your families.
Stay The Course,
Tim Edwards
President L2881
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Open Enrollment Begins September 20 and ends October 15!
Do you need to make a change to your health plan or add dependents? Reach out to your Unit Personnel Specialist.
Check out your option below
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20th Anniversary 9/11 T-shirt
Did you get your yet?
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In 2020 alone, the CAL FIRE Benevolent Foundation gave over $246,000 in direct assistance to firefighters and their families. It helped 21 Firefighters after losing their homes to wildfires & provided over $32,000 to organizations supporting others in need.
Due to the pandemic, we have lost over a year of fundraising opportunities. As the pandemic may have stopped people from traveling and other normalcy, the need to support someone with cancer, another illness, a line of duty death, or with a home that was destroyed in a wildfire has not.
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Bay To Brooklyn 2021 Update
"Bicyclists make way into Medina with huge escort"
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Medina, Ohio — The bicyclists "only" traveled 101 miles on Tuesday.
They pedaled into Medina a little before 7 p.m., as residents lined the square and other streets to cheer them on and give them encouragement. They left San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on Aug. 1 and will travel to New York City and the Brooklyn Bridge in time for the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The team of 10 Bay2Brooklyn cyclists, along with three support chase drivers, was made up of active and retired firefighters and military veterans. They are riding to remember and honor the 343 firefighters who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks, as well as the other first responders, military and health care workers who continue to serve on the front lines today.
They stopped in Medina to sleep overnight in Fire Station No. 1, 300 W. Reagan Parkway, as part of their 3,800-mile journey across America. They chose Medina because of the city’s 9/11 Memorial.
"That was incredible," Medina's Devinn Taylor said on the square. "It gave me goosebumps."
The bicyclists were about three hours behind schedule when they made it to the square.
"It was worth the wait," wife Patty Taylor said. "It's an amazing thing they are doing. It brought it all back. All the feelings (from 9/11)."
In all, the riders will be pedaling for a month and a half.
"That's a hell of a commitment," Patty Taylor said.
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September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month – a time to raise awareness and #BreakTheStigma to speak out about behavioral health. Resources and support for firefighters and their families are available at healingourown.org
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'I have not seen circumstances like this': First responders rescue flood, tornado victims |
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By David Porter and Mark Scolforo - Associated Press
NEW YORK — The remnants of Hurricane Ida blew through the mid-Atlantic states Wednesday with at least two tornadoes, heavy winds and drenching rains that collapsed the roof of a U.S. Postal Service building, left cars and roads underwater and sent garbage floating through the streets of New York.
Social media posts showed homes reduced to rubble in a southern New Jersey county just outside Philadelphia, not far from where the National Weather Service confirmed a tornado Wednesday evening.
Authorities did not have any immediate information on injuries.
Other video showed water rushing through Newark Liberty International Airport as the storm moved into New York on Wednesday night.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, tweeted at 10:30 p.m. that all flights were suspended and all parking lots were closed due to severe flooding. All train service to the airport also was suspended.
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Addicted to Awake: Sleep Deprivation in the Fire Service |
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By Jacqueline and Sean Toomey
Firefighter health should not be “collateral damage” from a career on the job. The inadvertent destruction from being addicted to awake is one of the greatest threats that firefighters face today.
Recently, a chief told me he didn’t know if his members thought the topic of sleep was information worth learning. All I had to ask was, “Did you know sleep deprivation is medically linked to the leading killers of firefighters including heart attack, cancer, and suicide?” Let’s remember the time firefighters weren’t interested in wearing self-contained breathing apparatus, turning in gear to be washed for cancer prevention, or quitting the era of smoking in the firehouse. This speaks volumes to our resistance toward firefighter health and wellness. It is our chiefs’ responsibility to pave the way for valuable information and trainings to reach the department, which will have a lasting impact on their members’ lives.
Sleeping for Your Life
The hard truth is that almost 40 percent of firefighters suffer from a sleep disorder. According to a screening of 6,933 firefighters, 80 percent of those who tested positive had no prior awareness or previous diagnosis of their condition. This one study, conducted by Laura K. Barger, Ph.D., instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, alone may have saved 2,219 firefighter lives! Whether firefighters have interest in learning about sleep doesn’t change the dire matter: sleep deficiency is a health-wrecking problem that needs to be addressed. Once we acknowledge the problem, we can implement solutions to mitigate sleep deprivation and lower the risks for heart attack, cancer, and more.
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Response and Recovery – Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic Breathing is an exercise technique used to train your diaphragm and ribcage to ensure proper breathing mechanics that can translate to optimal functioning for daily activities and performance-related activities. Our lungs are not a muscle, and therefore cannot fulfill their vital function of bringing air in and out of the body efficiently, without the contraction of the muscles that surround them. The good news is we can train the muscles around the lungs to maximize the expansion and relaxation of the lungs, while improving our overall wellbeing, in as little as 5 minutes a day!
Health benefits of intentional breathing include:
• Increased blood flow and oxygen to the body’s tissues
• Reduction in stress and anxiety
• Lowered heart rate and blood pressure
• Improved cognitive functioning and alertness
• Improved posture and performance
• Disrupts the fight/flight response and activates the parasympathetic system
Part of what makes us great first responders is the ability to compartmentalize – focus on the operational and be on alert for factors related to incidents and emergencies. Intentional Breathing can be used as both a tactical tool and a wellness tool. As a tactical tool, we can implement tactical breathing or box breathing to concentrate on an incident, focus the mind and tune-up. We can also use intentional breathing to reset our nervous system to relax and turn-down after a call, before talking to family on the phone, or when we return home from work. Our nervous system needs cues like intentional breathing in order to move through the life of a first responder in a healthy way. We can use intentional breathing to trigger a focused or open response and use it as a valuable everyday tool.
When you implement intentional breathing practices as everyday tools, you are also practicing a “Mind-Body Activity.”
Research has shown that implementation of Mind-Body techniques can help protect portions of our DNA from exposure and the development of disease when practiced for 11 minutes or more per day.
Please reach out to CAL FIRE Wellness or Check out any of the following resources to learn more about intentional breathing.
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Do you have photos or videos from this fire season? |
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Share them with us and you may be featured on our social media or in our annual video.
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Open Enrollment is
September 20 - October 15
Both active AND retired L2881 members can choose a PORAC Health Plan!
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For more than 67 years, Fill the Boot has been a strong firefighter tradition – giving families with muscular dystrophy in hometowns across America hope for the future and support for today. Plan your Chapter Fill the Boot event today!
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Have you recently moved? Make sure your physical/mailing address is updated with us so you always receive the Fire Front magazine and other important docs.
Update your address here:
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CAL FIRE ESS 24hr Helpline: (916) 445-4337
EAP 24hr Helpline: (866) 327-4762
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CAL FIRE Employee Support Services has multiple webinars on the way in the next few months. These webinars will cover a wide range of topics for you and your families. Information for how to register is attached to each individual flyer. We hope you can join us!
Follow @calfirewellness on Instagram for more!
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IF YOU ARE AN CAL FIRE LOCAL 2881
ACTIVE MEMBER
YOU ARE ELIGIBLE FOR BENEFITS
PROVIDED FROM OUR AFFILIATION WITH PORAC
IN ORDER TO VIEW AND ENROLL IN THESE BENEFITS
(INCLUDING HEALTHCARE AND AFLAC PROGRAMS)
WE NEED YOUR DATE OF BIRTH.
PLEASE GO TO THE FOLLOWING LINK TO UPLOAD YOUR INFORMATION:
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Did you just recently retire?
Make sure to sign up to be a CAL FIRE Local 2881 Retired Member and stay in the know!
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New analysis shows spikes of metal contaminants, including lead, in 2018 Camp Fire wildfire smoke |
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SACRAMENTO – A new California Air Resources Board (CARB) analysis of air quality data collected during the deadly Camp Fire sheds new light on exactly what was in the thick smoke that blanketed much of Northern California for two weeks in November 2018. The document, published today, shows smoke produced from the Camp Fire exposed Californians to dangerous levels of particulate matter and contained concerning levels of toxic metal contaminants, including lead, which spiked for about 24 hours.
“This report makes it clear that wildfire smoke poses a real health threat not only to people living and working near these fires, but to anyone affected by the smoke as it travels across California and beyond,” said CARB Executive Officer Richard Corey. “After an extremely dry winter, California is facing the potential for another severe wildfire season in 2021. So it’s more important than ever that we all take action to protect ourselves – and our loved ones – from smoke.
At least 85 people died in 2018 as the deadliest wildfire in California history burned more than 150,000 acres in Butte County, destroying most of the town of Paradise and nearly 19,000 buildings.
CARB staff compared air quality data from the Camp Fire with three other large wildfires in 2018 that burned mostly vegetation. The primary goal of this analysis was to better understand the air quality differences that might occur between vegetation-based wildfires and those that burn more structures.
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When structures burn, they can produce a range of harmful and toxic substances. CARB’s analysis shows this was indeed the case during the Camp Fire, which burned for 2 ½ weeks. During that period, elevated levels of lead and zinc were detected, as well as calcium, iron and manganese. Smoke containing these metals traveled more than 150 miles, and was detected in the air as far away as San Jose and Modesto.
The highest concentrations of lead were detected in Chico on Nov. 10, 2018. According to CARB’s analysis, lead concentrations in Chico reached levels 50 times above the average for that air monitoring site. While these extreme levels only lasted for about a day, they are still concerning, since lead is considered a toxic air contaminant and any increased exposure can be harmful. Lead exposure has been linked to high blood pressure, reproductive effects and cancer in adults. Infants and young children are especially sensitive to even low levels of lead that are known to cause behavioral changes and learning deficits.
Read the full article and use the link below to use the PER system to document exposures when assigned to fire or near them.
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With Personal Exposure Reporting from California Professional Firefighters, firefighters can document exposures to toxins that can produce job-related illness.
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Is your physical/mailing address updated with us?
Did you get the Spring 2021 Fire Front magazine mailed to your home recently? If not, then we don't have your current address.
It's important for us to have it in case you are impacted or may be impacted by a wildfire or other emergency. Use the link below, call or email us to update it today!
(916) 609-8711 / dkelsch@L2881.org
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Has your marital status changed? Update your L2881 beneficiary information with us today and keep your loved ones secure. Fill out this form and send it to Danielle @ dkelsch@L2881.org
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Share your photos & videos with us.
What does your CAL FIRE look like? Help show the #AllRisk CAL FIRE. Send us a DM on social media or reach out to DeeDee, your Communications Officer at (916) 202-0553
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UPCOMING EVENTS
IAFF FALLEN FIRE FIGHTERS MEMORIAL
SEPTEMBER 16-19
(POSTPONED)
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
SEPTEMBER 21-23
CA FIREFIGHTERS MEMORIAL
SEPTEMBER 25
(POSTPONED SPRING 2022)
OCTOBER 2-3
EXECUTIVE BOARD MEETING
DECEMBER 7-9
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CAL FIRE BENEVOLENT
FOUNDATION
Provides funds for immediate life sustaining assistance to firefighters and their families who have suffered debilitating injury or loss of life.
Follow us on Instagram!
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CAL FIRE MUSEUM
Look in the winter edition of the Fire Front magazine for an update from the museum.
Don't forget to sign up for their newsletter too!
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For more updates, events, and news visit our website:
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