First as I do in every blog post, let me apologize for the length of time since the last post...which in this case was multiple months ago. I'll be quite honest, blogging isn't really all that interesting anymore. I started "The Logbook" to provide more timely updates to my life that I was not able to do by updating my website. Unfortunately with the blog, I never really gained any dialog with anyone and it was never very interactive. Additionally I always had to put aside a lot of time to make a post that I really liked and that gave a good update to what I was doing.
I'm going to continue maintaining the blog with posts every month, but I suggest that you add me as a friend on Facebook if you are looking for even more up to date information. It's more interactive and I keep it more up to date. If I wouldn't know you and you are just a reader of the blog, just mention who you are and that you were a subscriber to my blog when you add me.
http://www.facebook.com/justinkates
And no, I don't use Twitter except to track when a disaster happens within Delaware which actually came quite in handy a week or so ago when we experienced a small earthquake in New Castle County. I found out about it an hour before the rest of DEMA did just using the tracking features on Twitter.
So what has happened since the last post? Some pretty big news was the fact that I finished my Junior year of college, which is fairly hard to believe. I remember just yesterday when it was my junior year of high school. This was also the first semester I graduated on Dean's List which I was pretty surprised with. This semester was really filled with a lot of disaster based sciences (Meteorology, Natural Hazards, Earthquakes & Volcanoes, etc) and was much different than previous semesters. I'm on track to take 12 credits next fall, and 12 credits in spring to graduate. I'm extremely excited to get out of college, yet also not thrilled with the fact that the job market has hit rock bottom. I have a few things in mind to hold me over if things don't work out.
Speaking of jobs, I have changed positions since the last post. I now work for Delaware State Police in a place called the Delaware Information Analysis Center. I can't really speak about what they do because it is a sensitive operation, but you can get the idea that it is a fusion center where intelligence information flows in and back out to various agencies after it has been vetted and confirmed. Since I have come from the response side of emergency services, it is interesting to see this perspective of trying to "find" the disaster before it happens and get the information out to the right people. Once again, similar to DEMA I'm a consultant working on special projects. Currently I'm working on a public alerting system which will allow for information received by the DIAC to be broadcast to various levels of users based on their security level.
I've been involved in a variety of activities over the past few months including working with the Incident Management Team for the Dover International Speedway NASCAR races, participating in various fire school training during pretty much every weekend this year, and of course the constant flow of meetings I need to go to. As the motto says, "Securing the Homeland, One Meeting at a Time".
Today I made a response with the Lewes Fire Department to a working structure fire near Midway. I was officer on Engine 82-2. I try as much as possible not to be in the officer seat but with a volunteer service at a rural station, sometimes it's difficult to get more people with experience on the truck. As with every incident it got me thinking about the various things that make the fire service in Delaware interesting.
First would be the fact that Rehoboth's fire department beat us on scene from their Station 2...which is geographically closer to where the fire was from any of Lewes's stations. District lines sure are interesting. Kudos to Station 86 for making a quick response.
Another thing was staffing. I know on Engine 82-2 we had two cadet members in the back. Cadet members are volunteers that are under the age of 16 and are unable to attend Delaware State Fire School due to their age. Rescue 82 had three cadet members in the back. I believe there were cadet members from Station 1 on scene as well. Even with the lack of training these guys have, they make a significant difference on the fire scene helping out. They are by far some of the most active members in the fire department, and it's great to see a continuation of a younger generation in the volunteer fire service as volunteerism is down across the nation. Lewes is doing an excellent job on bringing junior members in and keeping them active.
One of the issues I had during this fire was literally trying to find the place. I had a familiarization as to the development that the fire was located in but none of the streets. Our fire department mapbook didn't have a page for this development, nor was the street name listed in the glossary. Thankfully we keep an ADC mapbook for Sussex County in the engine which allowed me to get a location of the street, but without street numbers. When we got to the street we had the choice to make a left or right. Of course with the luck of both the Driver and Officer we made the wrong turn ultimately requiring us to make another loop around the block. We didn't lose more than a minute of time but it definitely opened my eyes up for the need of up to date maps in the mapbook and how spoiled we are at Christiana with computer aided dispatch and computer mapping in all the trucks. As always I need to keep up with the new developments and make sure I'm familiar with the district.
I do believe after that incident I'm going to go through the map book and see if there are any developments that we haven't added yet. I believe I can use my GPS to make a waypoint map drawing out the streets to make new map pages. Then I just need to either look for hydrants or get the info from the water company to add them to the page. It shouldn't take too long but it will definitely allow for a more up to date mapbook. Just another thing for me to do.
I'm waiting on Google to transition the Google Page Creator system over to Google Sites. They have said it's going to happen for the past year now. When it happens I have some updates to do to the website and more additions. Keep an eye out for pictures and other things in the future.
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