NFPA Journal - July/August 2019 - 17

Dispatches Briefs
Causes of
historic 2018
California wildfires announced

Bees and power
lines-those were the
recently announced
causes of the largest
and deadliest wildfires in California
history, which both
occurred in 2018.
In June, the California Department
of Forestry and Fire
Protection (CAL FIRE)

and becoming the
state's deadliest-ever
wildland blaze.
The January/
February 2019
issue of NFPA
Journal included a
Dispatches article on
how demographics
and topography
collided to made the
Camp Fire California's
deadliest wildfire
ever. Read more at
nfpa.org/campfire.

GETT Y IMAGES

Study: Female
firefighters
more likely to
experience PTSD

announced that
the Ranch Fire was
caused by "a spark or
hot metal fragment"
from a hammer striking a metal stake.
According to CAL
FIRE, a property
owner was hammering metal stakes into
the ground when
a swarm of large
bees frightened
him, causing him to
hammer faster. No
laws were broken,
the state fire service
said.
The Ranch Fire was
part of a larger set of
wildfires known as
the Mendocino Complex Fire that burned
over 400,000 acres
throughout four California counties late
last summer, making
it the state's largest
ever wildfire by acreage burned.
CAL FIRE also
announced that the
Camp Fire, which
tore through Butte
County in November,
was caused by sparks
from downed power
lines owned by
Pacific Gas & Electric
Company. Equipment from the utility
company had long
been suspected to be
the cause of the blaze
that started near the
town of Paradise,
killing over 80 people

A new study has
found that women
firefighters are more
likely to experience
post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) than
their male counterparts-although both
groups are at risk.
The study, published in May in the
journal Occupational
Medicine, found that,
of 75 female firefighters from a large,
urban department
in the United States,
one in five scored
positively for PTSD.
Of over 2,500 similarly employed men,
one in eight scored
positively for PTSD.
The study also found
that 30 percent of
the women studied
reported suicidal
thoughts.
"Because women
are such a small
number of the population in each fire
station, they have
been somewhat
overlooked when
they are included
in larger studies
and their unique
issues are lost," said
Consuelo Arbona, a
University of Houston
professor and one
of the authors of the
study, according
to a press release
from the university.
"This study begins
to explore work and
mental health characteristics of women
firefighters who make

up a population that
needs better understanding. ... Women
who had second
jobs tended to show
higher levels of
stress, possibly due
to having children at
home. The findings
indicate that this is
a good area for psychologists working
with the women to
explore for effective
intervention."
To read more
about the study, visit
academic.oup.com
and search "PTSD
symptoms and suicidal ideation in US
female firefighters."

could lose an entire
vehicle." If you must
keep a water bottle
in the car, she recommended storing it
away from sunlight,
"whether it's putting
it underneath the seat
or covering it with
a towel or a shirt or
something that may
be in the vehicle."
It wasn't the first
time safety officials
have warned the
public about this
danger. In 2017, firefighters in Oklahoma
contacted the media
to get the word out,
and shed more light
on the phenomenon.
Sunlight hitting a
bottle filled with
liquid can result in a
focused beam, "and
sure enough, it can
actually cause a fire,
a combustion," a
firefighter told Oklahoma's News 4.

As children, many
of us marveled at
the ability of sunlight, when directed
through a magnifying
glass, to burn a hole
through a leaf or a
piece of paper. Turns
out the same phenomenon can occur
as sunlight passes
through a clear plastic bottle full of water.
That's why, in
June, a public safety
department in Geor-

Heroes, capes,
and escapes:
FPW 2019 theme
announced

"Not Every Hero
Wears a Cape. Plan
and Practice Your
Escape!"™
That's the theme
for the 2019 Fire Pre-

families to action,"
said Lorraine Carli,
vice president of
Outreach and Advocacy at NFPA. "From
young students who
learn about the campaign at school to
parents who attend
a community event
like a fire station
open house-all of
them truly are heroes
because they're
taking steps to make
their households
much, much safer
from fire."
FPW 2019 will also
stress the importance of having
and practicing a
home escape plan,
a crucial message
for home fire safety.
Today's homes, with
their open designs
and large amounts of
highly combustible
plastics in everything
from electronics to
furniture, burn faster
than the homes of
the past and can dramatically reduce the
time occupants have
to escape. "People
tend to underestimate their risk to fire,
particularly at home,"
Carli said. "That
over-confidence
lends itself to a

gia made headlines
after issuing a statement warning people
to not leave water
bottles in their cars
on hot, sunny days.
"It potentially can
be very devastating,"
a spokeswoman for
Bainbridge Public
Safety in Georgia told
WALB News 10. "You

vention Week (FPW),
which will be held
October 6-12.
"This year's
campaign works to
celebrate people of
all ages who learn
about home fire
escape planning
and practice, bring
that information
home, and spur their

complacency toward
home escape planning and practice.
But in a fire situation,
we've seen time and
again that advance
planning can make a
potentially life-saving difference."
Learn more about
the upcoming FPW
2019 at fpw.org.

Safety orgs warn
of water bottle
fire risk

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

| 17
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NFPA Journal - July/August 2019

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