2023 August President’s Message

SPLATS vs Shaded Fuel Breaks
Chief Dave Winnacker (Moraga-Orinda Fire), who is the CalChiefs Representative to the Western Fire Chiefs and the CalChiefs representative on the CalFire Wildfire Advisory Workgroup, recently submitted an article discussing the effectiveness of shaded fuel breaks and offers an alternative (SPLATS) that he argues is more effective.

Here is a link to that submission:  https://www.dailydispatch.com/Columns/GuestColumn/2023/August/We.Can.Do.It.Better.aspx

CalChiefs Organizational Task Force – Update
REIMAGINING A 125-YEAR-OLD ORGANIZATION
The CFCA Board of Directors has been holding strategic planning sessions over the last several months in order to assess the current organizational structure of our 125-year-old association. We have been reporting regularly on the work that the Task Force is focused on. The Task Force met on August 7, 2023, and continues to work through the myriad of issues as part of this initiative.

CalOSHA Wildfire Respiratory
UPDATE ON THE CAL/OSHA-LA COUNTY FIRE WORKING GROUP ON WILDLAND/WUI RESPIRATORY PROTECTION—August 10, 2023

August 30 Operational Field Assessment (OFA), LA County FD

• The OFA to evaluate prototype wildland and WUI respirators will take place at the LA County FD training center in Del Valle on Aug 30.
  
• Twenty firefighter evaluators will participate from LA County Fire and Cal/FIRE. Observers will attend from California Professional Firefighters and the California Fire Chiefs Association, regional US Forest Service and Dept of the Interior HQ, UC San Francisco, UCLA, and the NIOSH National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory. 
  
• Firefighter evaluators will assess five respirators in a series of evolutions that simulate typical wildland and WUI operations. Three powered air purifying respirators (PAPRs) designed by TDA Research (U.S. Dept of Homeland Security), MSA and 3M/Scott will be evaluated, along with two, non-powered air-purifying respirators (APRs) designed by Sundstrom and Ventus.
  
• PAPRs are most applicable to WUI operations. These respirators are equipped with a fan that drives contaminated air across several filters, delivering clean air into a full or half facepiece. The fan reduces the firefighter’s respiratory workload. Some PAPRs are designed to increase the airflow in response to the firefighter’s respiratory effort. The objective of a PAPR is to prevent inhalation of toxic smoke particles, gases, and vapors. 
  
• APRs are most applicable to wildland operations. These respirators are lighter and smaller than PAPRs and do not operate with a fan; they rely on the firefighter to draw air across a filter, which can increase the firefighter’s respiratory workload. The objective of an APR is to prevent inhalation of toxic smoke particles. 
  
• Firefighter evaluators will complete a comprehensive survey following each evolution. Cal/OSHA and LACoFD are discussing how best to share the survey results with the California fire service. 
  
• As conditions allow, Cal/FIRE anticipates running a second Operational Field Assessment in northern California in Sept with a subset of these five devices. 

The Effect of Drinking Iced Water on Firefighter Core Body Temperature

• See attached poster. Dr. Matt Rahn of the Wildfire Conservancy shared the results of their research showing that the core body temperature of firefighters who drank iced water (32° F) was significantly reduced compared to firefighters who drank ambient-temperature water (75° F). Drinking ambient-temperature water caused core body temperatures to gradually increase throughout the day. 
  
• Iced water consumption also helped reduce heart and respiratory rates compared to ambient-temperature water. 
  
• If you would like printed copies of this poster, please contact Dr. Rahn at MattRahn@WildfireConservancy.org. 

For more information about the August 30 Operational Field Assessment or other aspects of the Cal/OSHA-LA County Fire Dept Wildland and WUI Respiratory Protection Workgroup, please contact Dr. Mike Wilson at Cal/OSHA at mwilson@dir.ca.gov or LACoFD chief Al Yanagisawa at Albert.Yanagisawa@fire.lacounty.gov. 

Legislative Update
The Legislature has been in recess and resumes their session in August.

July Executive Board Meeting
At our August Board Meeting, the Executive Board took the following Actions:

1. Approved the Meeting Minutes from the July 2023 Board Meeting.
   
2. Previewed and approved the Preliminary year-end budget reports.
   
3. Previewed and approved the proposed updates to the Bylaws.

Podcasts
As many of you may have noticed, we have not published a podcast for a while. We apologize for this, but we have been focused on legislative issues due to the legislative timeline and the needed attention. We will again be releasing new episodes soon. Thank you for your interest in our podcasts.

Please do not hesitate to let us know of any topics of interest you may have, or if you would like to be a part of our podcasts, please let me know.
We are your Association, and your participation and feedback are critical to our effectiveness and value. 

Chris Tubbs, President