Deaf Firefighter's Blog

An open letter to Apple’s iPhone Accessibility Folks
Deaf Firefighter's Blog A few weeks ago, my blackberry decided life was no longer worth living and decided to bite the dust. Since I was running the TDI conference, I needed to have a pager to manage the volunteers and staff. So I ran across the street from the hotel to the AT&T store and after some haggling, [...]
Sat, Aug 15 2009

Interesting: DCFD identifies Gallaudet as needing “special...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Been a while, but let's get back in the swing of things. Reading Dave Statter's blog over at www.statter911.com, I almost overlooked this posting. Last week, a mansion in northwest DC burned down because firefighters weren't able to get a reliable water supply from the local hydrants. This has been a recurring battle [...]
Sat, Aug 15 2009

Deaf Man becomes Fire Chief in PA
Deaf Firefighter's Blog A week or so ago, I was contacted by Jennifer Reeger, a reporter with the Tribune-Review out of Westmoreland County, PA (south and east of  Pittsburgh) with a bit of news that absolutely floored me.  A deaf man was elected Fire Chief of his department.  Not house manager, not go-fer-in-charge, or any other position that I've [...]
Tue, Feb 03 2009

Emergency Preparedness & Response Videos (captioned)
Deaf Firefighter's Blog As a responder, training is often a necessary evil.   We don't necessarily like to do it but it's required by both law and departments.   As a training professional, I know how difficult it is to fit training in with all the other demands on time so that's why I really like having the opportunity to [...]
Tue, Feb 03 2009

A unique situation involving Deaf FFs coming out of Prince...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Been a while since I wrote last.  Happy new year to all of you guys.  I've enjoyed reading many of your comments and emails over the past several months.  In Prince William County , there's been an interesting situation concering the Gainesville District Volunteer Fire Department.  The County's Board of Supervisors essentially dissolved the fire depa...
Sun, Jan 18 2009

Fire Safety PSA from the UK
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Thanks to Bill Creswell for captioning this. UK Fire Safety Video  I'll admit it was the first time I've seen the suggestion to use a wet cloth rather than a lid but then I realized that not everyone HAS a lid for their various pots and pans.   I'm a big lover of Alton Brown's Good Eats program. [...]
Mon, Oct 20 2008

“We have met the enemy and he is us”
Deaf Firefighter's Blog The title comes from Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo and it references our tendency to be our own worst enemy. Courtesy of this blog, I received the following communique from another deaf firefighter.  Identifying details have been removed to protect the innocent & guilty alike: “I'm from a volunteer station.  Since they found out for sure that [.....
Tue, Apr 22 2008

You’d think a Deaf Firefighter would write about “Fire”…
Deaf Firefighter's Blog ... and admittedly, I haven't. That doesn't mean we haven't been busy lately. Here's a brief recap along with what I did at those fires. 12/16/07: Single Family Dwelling Kitchen Fire: Arriving on the Ladder truck, I started to open up all exterior doors as requested by the officer of Ladder [...]
Wed, Mar 12 2008

Whither The Deaf Megacommunity
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I usually have to travel a fair bit for my work as Program Director for CEPIN. Usually, most of those travels deal with administrative things or find me attending/speaking at conferences. Wednesday was no different. I was scheduled to attend a Summit on Emergency Preparedness and Special Needs Populations and then a gala reception [...]
Sun, Mar 09 2008

Deaf Parents, Hearing Children : Share your funny stories
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I know many of us deaf parents have funny stories relating to their hearing kids. Heck, all you gotta do is watch the Olson Brothers to see the other side of that equation. So in the comments section below (or your own blog posting), why don't you share your funny stories where deaf parents and [...]
Fri, Feb 15 2008

Some brief updates:
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Thanks, Karen for a great article: [link] Also: In my previous entry, I talked about “Whammo” moments. That article was published last Thursday by the City Paper. You can read it here: [link]
Tue, Feb 05 2008

Don’t you hate it when…
Deaf Firefighter's Blog As much as my job requires me to have a fairly decent grasp of English and putting words together to coherently express a thought I may be having, I still have those moments of “Aww, I shoulda said...” You know those moments?  Moments when you're just doing something completely different and WHAMMO!  The PERFECT response hits [...]
Wed, Jan 23 2008

Stuck in a Moment We Can’t Get Out Of?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I've made no secret of the fact that I love music and my iPod. One of the interesting trends I've noticed for myself recently, is how I usually hate a song at first but after hearing it a few times on the iPod's shuffle feature, I really start to like it. One of these songs [...]
Tue, Jan 15 2008

Tag, Who’s It?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog My good friend, Sandman, tagged me the other day as being a “Thinking Blogger”. I'm sure my wife would disagree with that notion that I am capable of “thinking” but I certainly do appreciate the honor. Apparently, part of the rules require me to tag 5 other people as “thinking bloggers”. I'm a [...]
Thu, Jan 10 2008

Innovation (and Punishment) in VRS
Deaf Firefighter's Blog There's been a lot of excitement surrounding the recent unveiling of Viable's VPAD wireless VRS device. Right now, there's a lot of questions that people have that need to be answered. The best questions I've seen so far are from Amy Cohen Efron who does a great job recognizing Viable for their [...]
Sun, Jan 06 2008

A plea for rationality.
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I want to make a confession first of all: I don't read deafread anymore. No, wait, let me revise that. I still look at deafread occasionally but it's become some kind of bandwagon lately, what with the “deficit thinking” stuff. I think people are coming up with brand new labels to address old [...]
Fri, Dec 28 2007

Let's get this out in the open - Deaf people as firefighters
Deaf Firefighter's Blog In some of the media articles that have covered deaf firefighters, I've always been pretty annoyed at how the reporters completely sidestep the issue of firefighter safety and survival especially as it relates to having a deaf person on the crew. Yes, it's a tough question to ask but aren't they supposed to ask tough questions? Furthermore, aren&rs...
Fri, Oct 12 2007

Flashover Video - With subtitles
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Since October and Fire Safety Month is almost upon us, I think this is as good a time as any to post this video of how quickly a small fire can become deadly. This video starts off with french (?) but it switches over to english subtitles. A great way to see how quickly a small fire becomes a big one in a hurry. LINK TO VIDEO Flashovers occur when all of the [...]
Tue, Sep 18 2007

Father's Day... through deaf eyes
Deaf Firefighter's Blog First off, I know most people use Father's Day to take a moment and thank their own father for a job well done. I'm no different. My father has always given me the love and support that helped me grow into who I am today and for that, no words can adequately express my gratitude. But today, I want to talk about being a deaf father of two fine hearing [...]
Mon, Jun 18 2007

EVOC Class
Deaf Firefighter's Blog (EVOC = Emergency Vehicle Operators Course) On Saturday, my department had their EVOC class. While training is a fact of life for those of us in emergency services, this was particularly exciting because it offered me the opportunity to learn about defensive driving AND drive a fire truck for the first time. In fact, I'm the first deaf person I know of that [...]
Thu, Jun 14 2007

Whatcha gonna do? Cops and deaf people
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Ridor apparently has a love-hate relationship with authority figures: He loves to hate them. In a recent posting, he pointed out media coverage of another incident where a deaf person was "shot" with beanbags by police officers who thought the vehicle was related to an earlier incident where shots "may" have been fired. In the same posting, [...]
Tue, Apr 24 2007

Ooh.. a reason to put "iPod" into a Deaf Blog
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Over at DeafDC.com, Chris Heuer put a recent blog posting about how changing to a CI would forever alter how he hears music. I would like to add to that: I've found that I have to go through an adjustment period when I got new hearing aids. Nothing sounds right for a while until you get used to them. But that's not the point of this blog entry. I want [...]
Thu, Apr 12 2007

Two Alarm Fire and My Thoughts on L&O:CI
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Last week, I went on a rare daytime fire with my department. I say it's rare because a) I'm usually too busy at work to be able to go and b) the paid guys in our department who work the daytime shifts (volunteers take over from 5:30pm to 7:30am) are usually gone by the time I get to the station. The fire was centered primarily on the second floor. While [...]
Wed, Apr 04 2007

A Deaf “History's Mysteries”: Deaf Firefighters...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog From a good friend of mine: Came across a blurb about a team of deaf firefighters in The School Helper (GSD). Apparently, they had a team organized at the school and won a “handsome silver service said to be worth $25.” A deaf student named Mack Woodside apparently was praised for his efforts. It was [...]
Mon, Mar 05 2007

Perceptions, or How to Change Them:
Deaf Firefighter's Blog This morning, while waiting for my coffee to brew, I was watching CNN and they had a segment on about Amanda, a woman with autism and a movie she posted on YouTube. In short, the video tries to make the viewer understand how she views her environment and her frustrations when it comes to dealing with [...]
Thu, Feb 22 2007

Apology, Graciousness, and a Coda
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Want to touch on a few things here. 1) I wanted to admire Jill Bradbury and apologize to Ridor. (yes, I used those two phrases in the same sentence.) In an earlier post, I criticized Ridor for what I perceived to be a personal attack on Ms. Bradbury. Ms. Bradbury added a comment saying [...]
Wed, Feb 14 2007

Yet further proof...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog The incessant mentions of vlog/blogging conference by bloggers/vloggers on DeafRead.com are getting boring and decidedly misleading at its best ? none of them reflect the true pulse of what is happening across the nation. For example, I got in touch with a friend in DC whether if he is going to vlog/blogging conference? He said, [...]
Wed, Feb 07 2007

Ladder 49 music video - captioned
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I saw some bloggers using bubbleply.com to create captions for their videos. So I decided to play around with it a bit and captioned the music video “Shine Your Light” from Ladder 49, sung by Robbie Robertson. Ladder 49 has been held up as a more realistic version of what FF's do day-in-and-day-out as well as [...]
Mon, Feb 05 2007

The DeafRead Awards Banquet
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I was invited to attend courtesy of my good friend, the Sandman. The guy won, incidentally for Best Single Entry. It was really great to associate faces with so many names.  Amy Cohen Efron, WildStarrySkies, Joey Baer, and Rebecca Wilova of Bellamoden.  It was great to reconnect with Ella Mae Lentz (my roommate at the Laurent [...]
Sun, Feb 04 2007

An Example in Civility
Deaf Firefighter's Blog In a past life, I worked as an application developer in Lotus Notes.   Like any good worker bee, I tried my best to stay current in what was going on with the program by reading the online materials and blogs. Ed Brill, a major big executive at IBM in relation to the Lotus Notes products, [...]
Sat, Feb 03 2007

Chutzpah, redefined.
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Yesterday, the deaf blog-o-sphere went completely apeshit over Dr. I. King Jordan's editorial as published in the WashPost. Link: First, let me take a philosophical view here: Dr. Jordan does us a favor by printing this. He gives us insight into his mind, for better or worse, during the last days and aftermath of the [...]
Tue, Jan 23 2007

Deception or Fair Play?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Like many people, I've taken quite a shine to Ken Samson's blog, BiblioMarket for well-written postings and a fairly well balanced approach to writing (doesn't fall into “broken record” mode on one topic for extended periods) . But I have to admit the posting of commentary from Brian Riley that discusses Gallaudet BOT member William Graham's [...]
Sat, Jan 13 2007

Got an old car? Want to observe fire departments in action?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog In 2005, my 1997 Saturn SL2 kicked the bucket. Really, I could've had it fixed but decided instead to donate it to the fire department so they could practice vehicle extrication. I figured I'd get more money back from the tax deduction that it would've cost me to actually fix the damn thing. I [...]
Fri, Jan 12 2007

What's this world coming to?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog It seems the scammers just love to pick on us deaf folks. As a former info security drone, I know how important it is to protect sensitive information and unfortunately, how easy it is to get this info from people. From the Consumerist today: “When he asked to speak to Beth, the fraudster said, “I [...]
Thu, Jan 11 2007

Crisis Management Team (CMT) at Gallaudet : A constructive...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog (Note: I originally posted this at my old blog-site but posted it during the hubbub after Dr. Fernandes was removed by the BOT so it was missed.  I'm re-posting it here) This has been an issue that's long been on my mind. With the administrative changes that are coming up, I am posting [...]
Thu, Dec 07 2006

Cover your Betts, please...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog
Sat, Nov 04 2006

Its Happened....
Deaf Firefighter's Blog I had dinner cooking (penne alla vodka .. mamma mia!) when my pager buzzed with the news.The Board voted to terminate Dr. Fernandes as President-Designate. From my reaction, you would've thought I was on campus jumping around too but my kids looked at me like I'd been sniffing magic markers all day. Yes, I jumped up and down and said to my wife, "Its happened".Don't [...]
Mon, Oct 30 2006

Signs that the Protest Message is Finally Understo...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog (MSM = Mainstream Media)A very good friend of mine (hearing, runs with my fire department) sent me the message below on my pager this morning. He's president and owner of a medium-sized business and has had positions as general counsel for large corporations in the past so he knows a thing or two about leadership.SUBJ: Galaludet Protests Holy Cow! What a mess. Am in [...]
Sun, Oct 22 2006

Philly Tent City - 10/18/06
Deaf Firefighter's Blog (Neil in blue on left, Sarah in pink on right (All pics taken by Patty available at: [link] and I took a trip with our sons, Ethan and Ben, to see Tent City. In retrospect, I've learned some very important lessons: 1) GPS units may be great but when they suck, they really suck. It took me about an hour [...]
Thu, Oct 19 2006

As further evidence that FSSA needs to re-tool its...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog ... In my earlier blog post this morning, I said the administration continues to win the PR war with the larger community. I got this article in my email from DeafTimes that seems the Administration continues to run PR-circles around the FSSA. DC Examiner : Enough is enough at GallaudetBefore we go bashing the media for reporting before completely understanding the [...]
Mon, Oct 16 2006

Post-10/13 Protests & Arrests
Deaf Firefighter's Blog On Friday night, I came home after celebrating a friend's birthday to the news that the arrests had started on campus. Waking up on saturday to the news that 135 students had been arrested was quite sobering. Dave Evans over at Sandman's Sandbox has put up two excellent posts analyzing what's happened the past few days in the larger framework of the entire FSSA [...]
Mon, Oct 16 2006

UPDATE: Captioned Video of KYW-CBS3 Coverage of De...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Many thanks to Walt Hunter, the reporter in this piece for following through on this! He worked with the station's webteam to post the captioned version online. Hopefully they'll be able to do the same for ALL videos posted online! Here's the link: [link] Firefighters Blog
Fri, Oct 13 2006

What went wrong at Gallaudet - A Tactical Analysis...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog In this entry, I'm going to discuss where the Gallaudet protesters made critical mistakes in their current tactics and provide some guesses as to what will happen next. Let me first preface this with a few disclaimers: 1) I'm not an expert by any stretch of imagination as it pertains to military/police maneuvers. While I have observed law enforcement training classes [...]
Fri, Oct 13 2006

Coverage of Deaf Firefighter - Philly Area
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Matt O'Brien, a young man who recently graduated from the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf recently joined his local Fire Department. There's been a good amount of coverage locally: - Delco Times - 10/2/06 - Link- WCAU / NBC10 - 10/3/06 - LinkThe local news stations also covered his swearing-in ceremony today as well. I have encouraged them to post captioned versions [...]
Tue, Oct 10 2006

Unrelated to Fire Service...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Digital hearing aids really rock! I'm sitting at my kitchen table, the kids are having their midday nap and I've got my brand new Sony CD Walkman (thanks for the gift certificates to B&N, mom and dad!)playing some Louis Amstrong. A few months ago, I made the plunge and bought a new hearing aid. Not just any hearing aid but a Siemens Triano SP digital hearing aid. [...]
Mon, Oct 09 2006

Whither the Buff and Blue?
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Check out the links on Joey Baer's page: http://www.joeybaer.com/buffandblue/When I was an editor there, we often chose our stories with the intent of effecting change, whether it be a deeper analysis of (then) DOSS's disarming, Kappa Gamma's hazing practices, and other forms of general idiocy on campus. But we always tried our best to make sure we were presenting [...]
Mon, Oct 09 2006

Gallaudet Protest Thoughts...
Deaf Firefighter's Blog Since the deaf blog-o-sphere has been abuzz about the events of the last few days at Gallaudet (CNN, WashPost)) , I figured it was time for me to put my own two cents in. I'm a former Buff and Blue Editor in Chief and served as SBG President very briefly in the '90's. By far, the best letter written on the issue comes from Roger Kraft and is posted on the GUFSSA.ORG [...]
Sun, Oct 08 2006