I end the week with a pretty cool video that hopefully will inspire you as a PIO to try just a little bit harder and go just a little bit further.
We all learned during our Firefighter I that when water converts from liquid to vapor at 212°F, it expands 1,700 times its volume. Water can only be as hot as 212ºF, but steam reaches thousands of degrees in temperature, which can not only be potentially fatal to us but also very uncomfortable and often the cause of serious injury. That one degree difference should always be on our mind when it comes to ventilation tactics and nozzle choice.
That one extra degree to steam can make a world of difference in how we react on the fireground and the potential outcome.
There is an old adage in baseball that an umpire explaining his job once said “I calls em as I sees em.” Well it appears to me that if Justin Pizzi, a reporter at WCAU, the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, was calling balls and strikes his career as an umpire would be over before it began.
At a recent fire exhibition on Long Island a fellow PIO asked if I had a couple of minutes to talk to him about a problem he was having. A number of people in his community were complaining to members of his volunteer department about what they thought was the excessive costs involved in running and maintaining a motorized drill team to compete. So upset was the Chief of Department that he asked the PIO to send a release to the local papers extolling the virtues of motorized racing. The only problem is the PIO agrees with the community complaints.
When I speak to the media at an incident scene I have learned to push home my key points by being overly repetitive to a reporter’s questions. I learned this technique several years ago at Connections Day, a conference run every year by the Fair Media Council on Long Island, from a utility company public affairs executive I was having lunch with.
As a PIO I always look for opportunity to educate the public as the result of a specific incident that my department responds to. When we have the first chimney fire of the year in the fall I usually float out to the media a story on chimney safety. Similar lessons to be learned are sent to the media after CO incidents, MVA’s, electrical fires etc. It’s a great way to let the public know about an incident and ultimately how it can be avoided.
Awhile back I came across a dozen tips for Google searches. The information has made my life easier as a PIO. Features I never knew existed such as Exclude Words, Specific Document Types and This OR That has helped me save valuable time when I need to refer to Google for a search.
I have taken a few days to review all the public information related quotes pertaining to the plane crash and fire in Austin, Texas.
The most practical government applications for Twitter are in public safety and emergency notifications. I’m currently kicking around a blueprint for exactly how I can use Twitter more effectively to keep the community instantaneously informed of fires, road closings from MVA’s, power outages etc.
