Tuesday, February 26, 2013

NEW: Butterfly Smoke Seal



We recently had the opportunity to meet Al Shaw at the 26th Annual Pittsburgh Fire, Rescue & EMS Expo in Monroeville, PA.  Al is the founder of Butterfly Safety Products, LLC.  He has invented a simplistic and affordable fire safety device.


The Butterfly Smoke Seal is a smoke mitigation safety product.  It was invented and designed by a company that produces fire barriers for building world-wide.  The concept behind it was to bring the same fire protection used in commercial buildings to a residential setting.

So, what is it?  What does it do?  The Butterfly Smoke Seal is a squishable tube of a fire retardant foam covered with a fire retardant material, 3 strips of fire retardant tape, a whistle, and a glow stick.  This simple tool device seals the gaps between the door and the door frame, keeping smoke from entering the room that you are in.  It installs in less than sixty seconds and can buy you several minutes where the room you are in does not fill with smoke.  And any firefighter will tell you how important that is, as when it comes to structural fires the smoke inhalation causes more deaths than the fire itself.

All Butterfly Smoke Seals are manufactured in the USA.  They are currently available for sale through a vendor on EBay, but the company is hoping to have them available through large retail stores by the end of the year.  Units start at about $50.00, and are sold based standard door sizes.

To learn more about the product and to see it in use, check out the following video:




Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Facecrook

Facecrook is a relatively new app available for iOS devices through the apple store.  The app was designed by a 25-year veteran of the police force.  It was his solution to the major void in communication between officers, throughout the department, and within the various local districts.

Facecrook is similar to Facebook.  Users create their own profile, and they are able to designate who they opt to share their information with and what information they share with those people.  From there, you are able to make additional profiles of persons of interest.  Profiles for persons of interest could be possible suspects, wanted persons, missing children, or people at risk of being lost or endangered.  These profiles contain physical descriptions, demographic information, contact information, and photographs.  Therefore, when the information about a person needs to be distributed it is ready to be distributed to other officers and the community quite quickly.

What makes Facecrook different from the standard systems like the National Crime Information Center (NCIC)?  NCIC is a national database with millions of entries, and Facecrook is not meant to be a replacement.  It is more of a supplemental program that has a focus of entries based in your local geographic area. And unlike NCIC, any of the users on Facecrook can make updates to the photographs of descriptions of a person of interest's profile.  This allows more people the ability to update real-time information at a time when it can be of the utmost importance.



What are your thoughts on Facecrook?

Thursday, February 14, 2013

26th Annual Pittsburgh Fire Rescue & EMS Expo

Bob Johnson's Computer Stuff is getting everything prepped and ready for the 26th Annual Pittsburgh Fire Rescue & EMS Expo!  This years even is going to be held at the Monroeville Convention Center in Monroeville, PA (just outside of Pittsburgh).  The expo is open Saturday, February 23rd through Sunday, February 24th.  The Pittsburgh Fire Rescue & EMS Expo is one of the nation’s largest and best attended trade shows for firefighters, paramedics, EMTs and other emergency services personnel.  The expo brings over 200 of the nation’s finest companies together to showcase thousands of products and services.


It seems that most expos and conventions for emergency services personnel tend to be geared primarily towards those in law enforcement.  The Pittsburgh Fire Rescue & EMS Expo, however, is geared primarily towards fire and EMS personnel.  With that said, there are still ample opportunities for those in law enforcement to learn about new services and products as well.

This expo gives departments the opportunity to:
  • Visit hundreds of exhibits with thousands of products and services
  • Meet representatives from some of the nation's finest companies, particularly those that focus primarily on emergency services personnel
  • See the latest technological advances for fire, EMS, haz-mat, rescue, and more
  • Save money with show only discounts and specials
If you are in the Pittsburgh area, the staff at Bob Johnson's Computer Stuff hopes to see you there!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

FULCRUM TACTICAL: Tactical Training

Fulcrum Tactical was founded in 2009.  They were formed with the objective of giving high quality tactical training to law enforcement agencies at an affordable price.  The affordable pricing allows them to provide this training to many departments that otherwise might not have been able to afford it.  The amazing training services of Fulcrum Tactical are utilized by large departments (such as Chicago SWAT) and small departments with less than fifteen officers.

The training given by Fulcrum Tactical all takes place at their training facility in Mt. Carroll, Illinois.  This facility is encompassed on a 129-acre property and includes a 600-yard rifle range, four 50-yard pistol ranges, a live-fire shoot house, a force-on-force scenario house, a four-story rappel tower and a zip-line.  It has everything your department needs to learn the skills required to be a Tier 1 Tactical Response Team!

There are multiple training options available at Fulcrum Tactical.  The Basics Course is a weekend training seminar.  The departments are then able to focus on:

  • Personal/Home Defense - This includes live-fire range exercises, home defense, personal defense, and multiple force-on-force defense tactics.
  • Team Building Platforms - This training utilizes the woodland challenge, hostile takeover challenges, and combined arms exercises to assist in the development of continuity and cohesiveness among the members of your training group.
  • Leadership Skills - Training in this area is focused on gaining confidence, team-building principles, effective communication, critical thinking and other skills that are necessary to be a quality leader.
  • The Fulcrum Warrior - This final training is a culmination of other Fulcrum training seminars and utilizes combined weapons and physical skills.


 Fulcrum Tactical is reopening their training facility in March, where they will have multiple Advanced SWAT courses available.  To receive more information regarding training or to schedule a training, contact Fulcrum Training.