2. Fire Graphics: Animations , Stills
3. Photographs: HazMat, Fire Investigation, Training
Short Stories
The Tenement - (File size: 239K) A short story about a disastrous Brooklyn tenement fire in 1967. A tale representative of the horrors shared by civilian and uniformed alike during New York City's own "Vietnam Era," when its people, buildings and communities were being destroyed with no apparent end in sight.
"It seared, blackened, then vaporized his ears, nose, eyelids, lips and the flesh of his hands. ....
"...At first, there would have appeared to be but a glow in the midst of the smoke, like that of a dim light in a night's fog. The glow grew larger then. And with an explosive roar, the apartment and stairway landing burst into flames. The glass blew from the apartment's windows. Temperatures reaching 1,600 degrees Fahrenheit consumed everything. ....
"...their roles and pain in the tragedy ended." - tenement.pdf
Essays And Instructional Materials
Analysis of USAMRIID Bio-Hazardous Materials
Operations, Reston Virginia 1989 - (File size: 29K)
An essay based upon Richard Preston's "The Hot Zone," a reporting
of the U.S. Army's handling of the suspected outbreak of Ebola Zaire in
Reston, Virginia. An instructor might consider having a hazmat class read
the book, write a report, then distribute the essay and proceed with a
class discussion.
While Preston's effort dealt with what the CDC and the Army did, this analysis
looks at just how well - and not so well - they performed. For example,
"...It indicated how ill prepared to handle matters of such consequence both the Center for Disease Control and the United States Army had been. The CDC lacked, at the very least, proper equipment. The Army operated with mostly an untrained force of volunteer enlisted types, in a "can do" manner consistent with an outdated wartime doctrine of personnel expendability." - hotzone.pdf