Ozzie

It’s Not Only ‘We Can,’ but ‘We Must’

by Michael O'Brian on January 22, 2009

It’s time to take action for the fire service grants

By Ozzie Mirkhah

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Illustration by Paul Combs/ArtStudioSeven.Com

Illustration by Paul Combs/ArtStudioSeven.Com

The beauty of our democracy is that regardless of who we voted for back in November, we embrace the smooth transfer of authority from the old to the new president this week. After all, the love for the well being of our nation and our utmost respect for our Constitution is higher than the routine bickering and the partisan politics. I am as independent as it gets, and always in my articles refrain from the politics, yet discuss the policies that are fire related. With that said the opening paragraphs in this article about our current economic situation are only there to provide the backdrop for the main topic of this article, the fire grants, and are not intended to be divisive or along the political party lines.

Change is upon us, and we now have a new president in our country. To reach this pinnacle, quite similar to his well respected opponent, our new president ran a successful campaign on a platform focused strongly on the slogan of “change” and complimented that with a confident “yes we can” attitude. From a [click to continue…]

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Whats it going to take?

by Michael O'Brian on January 25, 2008

By: Azarang (Ozzie) Mirkhah, P.E., EFO, CBO

On December 4, 2006, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) issued a “Member Alert” notifying their membership about the hazards associated with the light-weight construction in residential occupancies. In that Member Alert titled “Caution Urged with Composite Floors” it was stated:

“There have been several cases of firefighters falling through floors made of composite structural components and an even greater number of near-miss situations. This type of construction is being investigated as a contributing factor in a line-of-duty death. There is a proliferation of engineered floor systems in residential occupancies across the United States. Many newer residential occupancies incorporate lightweight, engineered wood or composite structural components, including trusses, wooden I-beams and lightweight flooring systems. In most cases, these [click to continue…]

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