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Summer 2017 Fire Fighter Quarterly vol. 100 no.3 14 27 Health, Safety and EMS Conference Trudeau Fire Station Visits 24 Disaster Relief Cover Features Departments 14 IAFF Response to 12 Opioid Epidemic Overloads n 5 From the General President Back-to-Back Hurricanes Response Capabilities IAFF disaster relief Relentless call volume takes toll n 7 From the General operations help on members Secretary-Treasurer members in Texas and Florida following 18 Behavioral Health Treatment Costs n 8 Letters Hurricanes Harvey IAFF works to ease patient stress over n 10 Noteworthy News and Irma health insurance benefits n 20 Local Scene ON THE COVER PHOTO CREDITS: n 26 Across the IAFF Top phoTo by perry Manuel, porT arThur, TX local 397 boTToM cenTer phoTo by regena carey-Seger, n 39 On the Road JackSonville, Fl local 122 boTToM righT phoTo by erin powerS n 40 Retirees n 46 Never Forget n 47 Last Alarm Download the IAFF Frontline App The IAFF app is available for Apple, Android Connect with and Blackberry devices. Download the the IAFF latest update today using this QR Code. Visit Fire Fighter Quarterly online at www.iaff.org/mag 3 QUARTERLY Harold A. Schaitberger General President Harold A. Schaitberger , editor Edward A. Kelly General Secretary-Treasurer Jeff Zack , Supervising editor Jane Blume , Director of communications, Managing editor IAFF EXECUTIVE BOARD 11th District Sandy McGhee Mark Treglio , Staff writer Kristin Craine , Staff writer Tim Burn , Staff writer 1st District 1283 S. Detroit Avenue Kristin Hazlett , graphic Designer Michelle Yuen , assistant graphic Designer James Slevin Tulsa, OK 74120 Mesha Williams , Staff writer Meghan BouHabib, editorial assistant 204 E 23rd Street (918) 855-8228 (Cell) New York, NY 10010 Cindy Pinkney , administrative assistant (212) 545-6978 (Office) 12th District Craig Renfro , advertising Director • (972) 416-9782 • [email protected] Walter J. Dix 2nd District 2650 W State Road 84 Periodical postage paid at Washington, DC and 1750 New York Avenue, N.W. Mark Woolbright Suite 104 additional mailing offices. Washington, D.C. 20006-5395 115 McMennamy Road Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33312-4882 Postmasters send changes of St. Peters, MO 63376 Published quarterly (954) 444-8111 (Cell) address to: (314) 393-9755 (Cell) Subscription price $18 per year. (954) 349-0331 (Home) IAFF (636) 397-1572 (Office) Fire Fighter Quarterly (Print) 1750 New York Avenue, N.W. 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Pantelis Memphis, TN 38128 16701 Melford Blvd. (901) 377-6549 (Home) Suite 124 INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE STAFF AUXILIARY TO THE IAFF Bowie, MD 20715 15th District Terra McKenzie (301) 674-3448 (Cell) David Burry Jim Lee Chief of Staff President 16 Indian Pond Place Mathew Golsteyn Chief of Operations (217) 424-5687 5th District CBS, NL A1X6P8 [email protected] Thomas Thornberg (709) 744-2709 (Home) Doug Steele Legal Counsel www.aiaff.com 23594 Ulysses St. NE (709) 689-7574 (Cell) Patrick J. Morrison Assistant to the General East Bethel, MN 55005 President for Occupational Health, Safety and IAFF CHAPLAIN (612) 290-8015 (Cell) 16th District Medicine Father Thomas Mulcrone James B. Johnson 6th District 3195 Dayton-Xenia Road Jeff Zack Assistant to the General President IAFF Headquarters Office Michael Hurley Suite 900-303 for Media, Communications and Information 1750 New York Ave. NW 8023 19th Avenue Beavercreek, OH 45434-6390 Systems Washington DC 20006 Burnaby, BC Canada V3N1G2 (202) 360-1318 (Cell) Scott Marks Assistant to the General President (202) 737-8484 (Office) (604) 219-4966 (Cell) for Canadian Operations (202) 737-8418 (Fax) TRUSTEES 7th District Lori Moore-Merrell Assistant to the General IAFF Canadian Office Mark S. Ouellette Ricky Walsh President for Member Services, Technical 350 Sparks St. Suite 403 556 Aeolian Drive P.O. Box 5604 Assistance and Information Resources Ottawa Ontario, Canada K1R7S8 New Smyrna Beach, FL 32168 West Richland, WA 99353 (613) 567-8988 (Office) (509) 999-3090 (Cell) (386) 314-5837 (Cell) James Ridley Assistant to the General President for Education, Training and Human (613) 567-8986 (Fax) 8th District Alex Forrest Relations 303-83 Garry Street Mark Sanders Dave Lang Assistant to the General President IAFF FINANCIAL CORPORATION 10527 Winding Way Winnipeg,MB R3C-419 Canada (204) 783-1733 (Office) for Governmental and Public Policy Carrie Tucker Harrison, OH 45030-2043 Chief Operating Officer (513) 260-2381 (Cell) (204) 791-4980 (Cell) Warren May Assistant to the (204) 255-0383 (Home) General Secretary-Treasurer for Finance and E-18 MEDIA 9th District (204) 253-0496 (Station) Membership Marty Sonnenberg Ray R. Rahne (204) 772-2531 (Fax) Elizabeth Harman Assistant to Executive Producer 3444 S. Newland Ct. Anthony Mejia the General President for Grants Lakewood, CO 80277 Administration and HazMat/WMD Training (303) 619-2462 (Cell) 2859 Albury Avenue (303) 988-0177 (Home) Long Beach, CA 90815 (562) 989-3667 (Office) EMERITI OFFICERS Gerald O. Holland 10th District (562) 212-2055 (Cell) Michael J. Crouse Frank Lima President Emeritus Ernest A. “Buddy” Mass Alfred K. Whitehead 1571 Beverly Boulevard GENERAL COUNSEL Terry A. Ritchie Los Angeles, CA 90026-5704 Thomas Woodley Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus Dominick F. Barbera Kevin Gallagher (213) 507-6317 (Cell) Woodley & McGillivary Frank A. Palumbo (213) 485-2091 ext. 1 (Office) Thomas H. Miller Bruce Carpenter James A. Fennell Vice President Emeritus William V. Taylor Russell P. Cerami Lorne West James L. Hill James T. Ferguson Elliott Hastings Trustee Emeritus Dominick C. DiPaulo William McGrane Robert E. Palmer Dennis Lloyd Charles L. Buss 4 FIRE FIGHTER QUARTERLY SUMMER 2017 Standing Strong When Our Members Need Us Most A century ago, fire fighters did not have the representation our great We provided exposure monitoring union provides today. ey worked brutal schedules with and purchased the necessary sub-standard pay and had little-to-no work protections. Hepatitis-A and Tetanus vaccinations From the need to stand together and protect one another rose local to protect members against the fire unions. And on February 28, 1918, these local unions joined to dangerous bacteria-laced standing form our great union, the International Association of Fire Fighters, water. forging a bond that let all fire fighters know it didn’t matter where you Our very own, trained, Peer Support came from — if you were an IAFF member, you were family. counselors were also flown in to help Over the course of the last century, together in the IAFF, we have our members process the life-altering pushed and prodded and fought to move this great profession destruction of this unprecedented forward. Today, we can proudly say that unity of purpose and event. solidarity in the toughest of times has strengthened the loyalty we I watched as members of Houston Harold A. Schaitberger have to one another. To this day, when a sister or brother is in a tough Local 341 not only dealt with a storm spot, we circle the wagons and do everything we can to help. of the century, but also a city is bond we share, the duty to protect one another, is what drives government that at every turn seemed us. And it was once again on display in the wake of Hurricane to go out of its way to not provide what our members needed. Many Harvey’s devastating assault in Texas and Hurricane Irma’s wrath on of our Local 341 members were never called in before the storm hit. Florida. And in the immediate aermath of Harvey’s landfall, city government Even before Harvey’s landfall, we activated a disaster response plan couldn’t even provide the basics — food and water — to its fire that is designed to support our members while they continue to fighters. We picked up where the city dropped the ball, not just in respond, continue to do their jobs under the most miserable Houston but across the disaster area, stepping up to help our conditions imaginable, and while their families are home, dealing members so they could concentrate on the job at hand. with losses of their own. What we have accomplished together in this response so far is We used our state-of-the-art GIS mapping system to determine the unprecedented. When faced with tremendous adversity, our union locations of the more than 5,000 IAFF members whose homes and responded. When things got tough, we got stronger. We rose up and families could be in danger. As with previous major storms, as soon did what it took to get the job done to assist our members in need, as conditions made it possible to get our response teams in, our union just as our organization’s founding fathers did 100 years ago. established two disaster relief centers — one in Houston and another And now, as I write this, one of the most powerful hurricanes to on the Texas-Louisiana border in Vinton, Louisiana — to provide ever make landfall — Hurricane Irma — is about to come ashore in resources on the ground to rapidly assist our members. Florida, and more than 20,000 of our members lie in her path. Immediately, we were providing members across southeastern Texas Our Disaster Relief Fund is set up and funded to provide for our with assistance.