Shouting Fire on a Website

June 27, 2008 6:02 PM

From the dryly professional US National Fire Protection Agency (who write the US national electrical code among other things), to the 1998-ish web stylings of The 911 Site portal page, there's a lot of fire/firefighter related content on the web.

From the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) to a fansite for US Army firefighters and rigs to a site for World fire departments. You might enjoy reading the fire truck crew blog at Vent Enter Search, which includes sections on tips and tools that are fun reading for tool nerds.

Find yourself worried about your own tendencies towards clutter? [previously on the blue and green]
You can read up a bit on "Collyer mansions" -- a term used by some firefighters to refer to really incredibly densely cluttered homes.

Lots of kids (not just boys) want to grow up to be able to pass the firefighter exam and become a brother or sister of the firefighter family. After you pass, you can think about safety-related behaviors so you can avoid making mistakes and make sure everyone goes home.

And after everyone comes home alive, put your pictures and videos on the internet for the rest of us to enjoy:
http://firefighterclosecalls.com/closecalls.php, http://www.firefighterspot.com/, and http://bestfirefightervideo.com/ are a few to get you started after you poke around on youtube.

(ob 9-11/fdny moment of silence: . )

posted by rmd1023 (8 comments total)

I hope they aren't too dryly professional, especially in the summer.
posted by DU at 6:31 PM on June 27, 2008

Under Fire: From the Rocky Mountains to the coast of California, wildfires are burning bigger, hotter, and closer to home. Why is the West ablaze?
posted by homunculus at 6:41 PM on June 27, 2008

Man, that's funny. My dad is an ex fire chief, and was a firefighter for something like 30 years, and any website he makes looks like it's stuck in the 1990's too, god bless.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 6:43 PM on June 27, 2008

citrusfreak12: yeah. there's something about a whole lot of police/fire/first-responder web sites that just cannot seem to get away from geocities/1990's web design with THE FLASHING LIGHT BAR graphic and waving flag gifs. and oh god the midi music on some of them. it's not just older folks, either. my nephew is a state trooper and he's got the same web design aesthetic.

just to be clear, I AM OKAY WITH THIS. i mean, honestly, i'd rather my firefighters be spending their time figuring out 15 more uses for a halligan instead of puzzling over CSS and drupal.
posted by rmd1023 at 7:04 PM on June 27, 2008

Google map of some the more significant of the 1200 or so fires burning in California right now.
posted by 445supermag at 7:38 PM on June 27, 2008

There is some really good fire fighting photography on this guy's site (flash, go to the menu and scroll all the way down for the fire service and firefighters portfolios).
posted by TedW at 3:07 AM on June 28, 2008

As flames approach Big Sur monastery, monks prepare to fight
posted by homunculus at 9:23 AM on June 28, 2008

i'd rather my firefighters be spending their time figuring out 15 more uses for a halligan instead of puzzling over CSS and drupal.

...or they could just hire someone to make their website
posted by cdmckay at 4:37 PM on June 28, 2008