# Two Career Lieutenants Killed and Two Career Fire Fighters Injured Following a Flashover at an Assembly Hall Fire—Texas/Additional Information

​Additional Information IAFC Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Survival
The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) is committed to reducing fire fighter fatalities and injuries. As part of that effort, the nearly 1,000 – member Safety, Health and Survival Section of the IAFC has developed DRAFT "Rules of Engagement for Structural Firefighting" to provide guidance to individual fire fighters and incident commanders, regarding risk and safety issues when operating on the fireground. The intent is to provide a set of model procedures for structural fire fighting to be made available by the IAFC to fire departments as a guide for developing their own standard operating procedure. http://www.iafcsafety.org/downloads/Rules_of_Engagement
IAFF Fire Ground Survival Program
The purpose of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Fire Ground Survival Program is to ensure that training for Mayday prevention and Mayday operations are consistent between all fire fighters, company officers, and chief officers. Fire fighters must be trained to perform potentially lifesaving actions if they become lost, disoriented, injured, low on air, or trapped. Funded by the IAFF and assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE Act) grant program, this comprehensive fire ground survival training program applies the lessons learned from fire fighter fatality investigations conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and has been developed by a committee of subject matter ​experts from the IAFF, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), and NIOSH. http://www.iaff.org/HS/FGS/FGSIndex.htm
NFPA Safety Alert on SCBA Facepiece Lenses
On July 2, 2012, NFPA issued a safety alert on SCBA facepiece lenses when investigations and additional research found SCBA facepiece lenses may undergo thermal degradation when exposed to intense heat. Investigations conducted by the NIOSH FFFIPP from 2002 – 2011 found evidence of thermal degradation of facepiece lenses that may have been a contributing factor in three fatalities. NIOSH also reported on the investigation of three SCBAs from a state training academy where the SCBA facepiece lens showed evidence of thermal degradation after being used in live fire training. Additionally, in four other NIOSH line-of-duty death investigations, the evidence, while not conclusive was suggestive of possible SCBA degradation or failure. Additional information on the alert including a full notice can be found at www.nfpa.org/scba.
In addition, in 2010 the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), NIOSH, the Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF) and the NFPA jointly hosted a research planning workshop on evaluating and addressing the concerns regarding the thermal impact of SCBA facepiece lenses. Subsequently, the United States Fire Administration (USFA) funded and participated with NIST in research that validated the adverse consequences to firefighters when lens degradation occurs in extreme thermal conditions and developed and provided new testing and performance methodologies to the NFPA Technical Committee on Respiratory Protection Equipment. Based on the information learned from the NIOSH investigations and NIST research, this Technical Committee is in the process of incorporating new test methods and performance criteria for facepiece lenses into the proposed 2013 edition of NFPA 1981. Information on the continuing development of this new edition is available at http://www.nfpa.org/1981next.
Underwriters Laboratories Firefighter Safety Research Institute
http://ulfirefightersafety.com/
NIST Building and Fire Research Laboratory’s Fire Research Division
http://fire.nist.gov/
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