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At least 433 records · Page 24Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

The firing of hippocampal place cells predicts the future position of freely moving rats.

Direct observation and automatic, video-based methods reveal that a large fraction of hippocampal pyramidal neurons recorded from freely moving rats behave as "place cells"; the firing of each place cell occurs almost exclusively when the rat is in a restricted part of its current environment. In earlier work, 2-dimensional firing distributions for place cells over the apparatus area were made under the assumption that the correct location for each spike was the animal's position at the instant that the spike was fired. Spatial firing distributions generated in this way often have a very simple structure, in which the single region of intense activity has a just one maximum, and where the rate decreases monotonically in all directions away from the maximum. We will refer to patterns of this sort as "ideal." We describe how the spatial firing pattern is altered by assigning spikes to positions earlier or later than the instant at which they were fired. Spatial firing distributions were generated for a range of constant displacements of the spike time-series against the position time series. Three quantitative measures were used to estimate the extent to which the spatial firing pattern at different "spike/position shifts" approximated the ideal pattern. The 3 measures are in agreement that spikes must precede the animal's position by about 120 msec for the spatial firing pattern to be closest to the ideal. These results suggest that hippocampal unit activity predicts the animal's future location on a short time scale.

Animals↗
PubMed1987

Spatial firing patterns of hippocampal complex-spike cells in a fixed environment.

A TV/computer technique was used to simultaneously track a rat's position in a simple apparatus and record the firing of single hippocampal complex-spike neurons. The primary finding is that many of these neurons behave as "place cells," as first described by O'Keefe and Dostrovsky (1971) and O'Keefe (1976). Each place cell fires rapidly only when the rat is in a delimited portion of the apparatus (the cell's "firing field"). In agreement with O'Keefe (1976) and many other authors, we have seen that the firing of place cells is highly correlated with the animal's position and is remarkably independent of other aspects of the animal's behavioral state. Several properties of firing fields were characterized. Firing fields are stable over long time intervals (days) if the environment is constant. They come in several shapes when the animal is in a cylindrical apparatus; moreover, the set of field shapes is different when the animal is in a rectangular apparatus. It also seems that a single cell may have more than one field in a given apparatus. By collecting a sample of 40 place cells in a fixed environment, it has been possible to describe certain features of the place cell population, including the spatial distribution of fields within the apparatus, the average size of fields, and the "intensity" of fields (as measured by maximum firing rate). We also tested the hypothesis that the firing rate of each place cell signals the animal's distance from a point (the field center) so that a weighted average of the firing of the individual cells encodes the animal's position within the apparatus. The animal's position, calculated according to this "distance hypothesis," is systematically different from the animal's true position; this implies that the hypothesis in its simplest form is wrong.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1994

[Firing patterns of the pontine omnipause neurons during sleep in the cat].

The omnipause neurons (OPNs), located in the nuculeus raphe pontis, cease firing during all rapid eye movements and otherwise fire at a steady rate in the awake state. Firing patterns of the OPNs were studied during the awake state, non-REM sleep, and REM sleep in chronically prepared adult cats, to examine whether the OPNs' firing participates in the genesis of eye movements during each state. During non-REM sleep, the OPNs continued their firing, and their firing patterns had little correlation with slow drifting eye movements appearing in this state. During REM sleep, the OPNs maintained a tonic firing and ceased their firing during rapid eye movements in all directions. These results suggest that cessation of OPN firing plays an important role in the generation of rapid eye movements during REM sleep as well as during the awake state in the cat.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1993

Action potential patterns of intrafusal gamma and parasympathetic motoneurons, secondary muscle spindle afferents and an oscillatory firing alpha 2-motoneuron, and the phase relations among them in humans.

1. Single-fibre action potentials (APs) were recorded from a S4 root of a brain-dead human and a patient with a spinal cord lesion, with 2 pairs of wire electrodes, and distribution histograms of conduction velocity frequencies were constructed. By plotting the intrafusal velocity main gamma peak on a logarithmic scale, the peak splitted into one dynamic ad two static gamma-peaks and an additional peak of parasympathetic fibres. 2. Apart from the doublet firing, a single gamma 1 (dynamic) and a single gamma 21-motoneuron (static) fired with shortest interspike intervals of 80 msec, similarly as a simultaneously firing secondary spindle afferent fibre; with 13 msec the doublet interspike interval of the gamma 1-motoneuron was very similar to that of the spindle afferent fibre. The intrafusal motoneurons fired with patterns very similar to those of secondary spindle afferents, and they did not fire in the oscillatory mode for high activations as alpha 2 and alpha 3-motoneurons do. 3. The stability of the oscillatory firing of a sphincteric alpha 2-motoneuron increased with the increasing phases of approx. 50 msec between the APs of the gamma-motoneurons and the impulse train of the motoneuron following bladder catheter pulling. Moreover, in a certain phase range the number of phases between the APs of a gamma 1-motoneuron and a secondary spindle afferent fibre increased upon stimulation and, as shown earlier, also the number of phase correlations between the APs of some secondary spindle afferents and the impulse train of the oscillatory firing alpha 2-motoneuron increased. Phase relations between the APs of two spindle afferents also increased upon the bladder catheter pulling. During the oscillatory firing of the alpha 2-motoneuron a phase loop seemed to exist from the APs of the alpha 2-motoneuron to the APs of certain gamma-motoneurons, to the APs of certain secondary spindle afferent fibres and back to the APs of the alpha 2-motoneuron, in similarity to the phase recoupling of electronic oscillators. 4. Single gamma-motoneurons changed their activity levels rhythmically, similarly as the secondary spindle afferents, often with a frequency of 0.3 Hz. Parasympathetic intrafusal motoneurons fired at a constant activity level for about 10 sec, and activated up to 6 single encoding sites of a parent secondary spindle afferent fibre. Shortly after the recruitment of a new encoding site, the interspike intervals of the parent fibre were similar again.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1993

The highly irregular firing of cortical cells is inconsistent with temporal integration of random EPSPs.

How random is the discharge pattern of cortical neurons? We examined recordings from primary visual cortex (V1; Knierim and Van Essen, 1992) and extrastriate cortex (MT; Newsome et al., 1989a) of awake, behaving macaque monkey and compared them to analytical predictions. For nonbursting cells firing at sustained rates up to 300 Hz, we evaluated two indices of firing variability: the ratio of the variance to the mean for the number of action potentials evoked by a constant stimulus, and the rate-normalized coefficient of variation (Cv) of the interspike interval distribution. Firing in virtually all V1 and MT neurons was nearly consistent with a completely random process (e.g., Cv approximately 1). We tried to model this high variability by small, independent, and random EPSPs converging onto a leaky integrate-and-fire neuron (Knight, 1972). Both this and related models predicted very low firing variability (Cv << 1) for realistic EPSP depolarizations and membrane time constants. We also simulated a biophysically very detailed compartmental model of an anatomically reconstructed and physiologically characterized layer V cat pyramidal cell (Douglas et al., 1991) with passive dendrites and active soma. If independent, excitatory synaptic input fired the model cell at the high rates observed in monkey, the Cv and the variability in the number of spikes were both very low, in agreement with the integrate-and-fire models but in strong disagreement with the majority of our monkey data. The simulated cell only produced highly variable firing when Hodgkin-Huxley-like currents (INa and very strong IDR) were placed on distal dendrites. Now the simulated neuron acted more as a millisecond-resolution detector of dendritic spike coincidences than as a temporal integrator. We argue that neurons that act as temporal integrators over many synaptic inputs must fire very regularly. Only in the presence of either fast and strong dendritic nonlinearities or strong synchronization among individual synaptic events will the degree of predicted variability approach that of real cortical neurons.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1987

Mortality of a municipal-worker cohort: IV. Fire fighters.

Morbidity and mortality studies of fire fighters have produced varied and inconsistent findings regarding the potential chronic effects of fire fighting including respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. The mortality experience of 1,867 white male fire fighters who were employed for the City of Buffalo a minimum of five years with at least one year as a fire fighter was studied. Vital status was determined for 99% of the cohort, resulting in 470 observed deaths. The fire fighter cohort was characteristic of a healthy worker population. All-cause mortality was close to the expected standardized mortality ratio (SMR) = 95, and significantly lower than expected mortality was seen for all external causes (SMR = 67)--in particular, for suicide (SMR = 21) and respiratory diseases (SMR = 48). Significantly elevated SMRs were found for benign neoplasms (SMR = 417), cancer of the colon (SMR = 183), and cancer of the bladder (SMR = 286). Cause-specific mortality is presented by number of years employed, calendar year of death, year of hire, and latency. Cancer mortality was significantly higher in the long-term fire fighters, and risk of mortality from all malignant neoplasms tended to increase with increasing latency. Patterns in risk of mortality among fire fighters for cancers of the bladder, colon, and brain are intriguing. Additional follow-up of this cohort and initiation of cancer morbidity studies would be helpful in further clarifying the potential long-term effects of fire fighting on cancer risk.

Fires↗
PubMed2002

Factors influencing fire behaviour in shrublands of different stand ages and the implications for using prescribed burning to reduce wildfire risk.

Fire behaviour under experimental conditions is described in nine Mediterranean gorse shrublands ranging from 3-12 years of age with different fuel loads. Significant differences in the fire-line intensity, fuel load and rate of fire spread have been found to be related to the stage of development of the communities. Fire spread is correlated with fuel moisture using multiple regression techniques. Differences in fuel moisture between mature and young communities under moderate weather conditions have been found. The lower moisture content identified in the mature shrubland is due both to the decreasing moisture content of senescent shrubland in some species, mainly in live fractions of Ulex parviflorus Pour. fuel, and to a substantial increase in dead fuel fractions with low percentages of moisture content. The result is that the older the shrubland is, the greater will be the decrease in the total moisture content of the vegetation. In these moderate weather conditions, the fire intensity of the mature community was as high as the maximum intensity recommended for prescribed fires. This fact seems to indicate that, even under moderate conditions, prescribed burning as an alternative management tool in the mature shrubland must always take into account fuel control; on the other hand, this technique could be applied more easily when the shrubland is at an intermediate growth stage (4-5 years of age). Therefore, more frequent low-intensity prescribed fires are indicated to abate the risk of catastrophic fire.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed1995

Maximal physical work performance with European standard based fire-protective clothing system and equipment in relation to individual characteristics.

Every fire fighter needs to wear fire-protective clothing and a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) several times a year while carrying out various fire-fighting and rescue operations in hazardous work environments. The aim of the present study was to quantify the effects of a multilayer turnout suit designed to fulfil European standard EN 469 used over standardized (Nordic) clothing and with SCBA (total mass 25.9 kg) on maximal physical work performance, and to evaluate the relationship between individual characteristics and power output with the fire-protective clothing system and SCBA. The subjects were 12 healthy firemen aged 26-46 years. The range of their body mass, body fat and maximal oxygen consumption was 69-101 kg, 10-20% and 2.70-5.86 l.min-1, respectively. The maximal tests without (control) and with the fire-protective clothing system and SCBA were carried out on a treadmill in a thermoneutral environment. When compared to the control test, the decrease in the maximal power output in terms of maximal working time and walking speed averaged 25% (P < 0.001) varying from 18% to 34% with the fire-protective clothing system and SCBA. At maximum, no significant differences were found in pulmonary ventilation, absolute oxygen consumption, the respiratory exchange ratio, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, the rate-pressure product, mechanical efficiency, and the rating of perceived exertion between the tests with and without the fire-protective clothing system and SCBA. The reduction of the power output was related to the extra mass of the fire protective clothing and SCBA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed2006

The interactive effects of fire and diversity on short-term responses of ecosystem processes in experimental mediterranean grasslands.

We conducted a field experiment using constructed communities to test whether species richness contributed to the maintenance of ecosystem processes under fire disturbance. We studied the effects of diversity components (i.e., species richness and species composition) upon productivity, structural traits of vegetation, decomposition rates, and soil nutrients between burnt and unburnt experimental Mediterranean grassland communities. Our results demonstrated that fire and species richness had interactive effects on aboveground biomass production and canopy structure components. Fire increased biomass production of the highest-richness communities. The effects of fire on aboveground biomass production at different levels of species richness were derived from changes in both vertical and horizontal canopy structure of the communities. The most species-rich communities appeared to be more resistant to fire in relation to species-poor ones, due to both compositional and richness effects. Interactive effects of fire and species richness were not important for belowground processes. Decomposition rates increased with species richness, related in part to increased levels of canopy structure traits. Fire increased soil nutrients and long-term decomposition rate. Our results provide evidence that composition within richness levels had often larger effects on the stability of aboveground ecosystem processes in the face of fire disturbance than species richness per se.

Biodiversity↗
PubMed2006

An event-based approach for examining the effects of wildland fire decisions on communities.

Public concern over the consequences of forest fire to wildland interface communities has led to increased resources devoted to fire suppression, fuel treatment, and management of fire events. The social consequences of the decisions involved in these and other fire-related actions are largely unknown, except in an anecdotal sense, but do occur at a variety of temporal and social organizational scales. These consequences are not limited to the fire event itself. Preparation for the possibility of a fire, actions that suppression agencies take during a fire, and postfire decisions all have consequences, if unknown currently. This article presents an "event-based" approach that can be useful for constructing and systematic discussion about the consequences of wildland fire to human communities. For each of the three major periods within this approach, agencies, communities, and individuals make decisions and take actions that have consequences. The article presents an integrated, temporally based process for examining these consequences, which is similar to others developed in the natural hazards and disaster management literature.

Communication↗
PubMed2003

Glomalin content of forest soils in relation to fire frequency and landscape position.

Low-intensity, dormant season fires were frequent and widespread in oak-hickory ( Quercus-Carya) forests of eastern North America until widespread fire suppression began in the mid-1900s. To assess how reintroduction of fire into such ecosystems might affect the activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and, thereby, predict the long-term responses of plants and soils to fire, we analyzed the content of the immunoreactive fractions of the AM-fungus-specific glycoprotein glomalin in soils taken in 1994 and 2000 from three forested watersheds in southern Ohio, USA. One watershed remained unburned, one was burned annually from 1996-1999 and one was burned twice, in 1996 and 1999. In addition, to account for the strong landscape-scale gradients of microclimate and soil that typify these watersheds, we stratified each watershed-scale treatment area into three microclimatic zones (=landscape positions) using a GIS-based integrated moisture index (IMI). In the unburned control, the concentrations of immunoreactive, easily-extractable glomalin (IREEG) and immunoreactive total glomalin (IRTG) did not change significantly over the 6-year interval between sampling times, either overall or within any of the three IMI classes. IRTG content was greatest in the mesic landscape positions and lowest in the relatively xeric landscape positions, but IREEG did not vary among landscape positions. Neither IREEG nor IRTG contents were affected by fire, nor were there significant interactions between fire and landscape position in glomalin content. Both correlation and regression analyses demonstrated significant linkages between soil glomalin content, the density/diversity of herbaceous plants, and soil N availability. Despite significant effects of fires on soil N availability and root growth, we resolved no effect of fire on AM fungal activity at this spatial scale.

Carya↗
PubMed1988

Comparative analysis of the clastogenicity and cytotoxicity of airborne particulate matter generated during the fire at Schweizerhalle on November 1, 1986.

Methanol extracts from 4 pairs of airconditioner filters (one fire-exposed and one control) from various locations (A, B, C and D) at various distances from the site of the fire were examined for their capacity to induce structural chromosomal aberrations and/or cytotoxicity in Chinese hamster V79 cells. Extracts from 2 additional sets of 3 filters which were exposed to urban air for 3 consecutive periods of 10 or 11 days some 4 months after the fire were also tested. Chromosomal aberrations were induced by all filter extracts from location B, as well as by an unused (non-exposed) filter, in a dose-dependent manner. Without the addition of metabolizing enzymes, aberrations were induced only at concentrations which caused more than 95% cell killing. This was not taken as an indication for clastogenic activity of the filter extracts, but was assumed to represent the chromosomal expression of metabolic changes in dying cells. Upon the addition of S9, chromosomal aberrations were induced at biologically relevant survival rates. Under metabolizing conditions, the ranking of the potential of the filter extracts from location B to induce chromosomal aberrations and to cause cell killing was identical. The remaining extracts (locations A, C and D) were therefore tested for cytotoxicity only. The toxicity data indicated that, of 3 pairs of filters, the fire-exposed one was not different from the control. Of the fourth pair (location B), the fire-exposed filter was 2.0-2.5 times more cytotoxic and clastogenic than the control. However, extracts of urban air-exposed filters from this location (exposed in March and April 1987) showed a large variation in toxicity and clastogenicity as well. One was clearly more active than the control (but less than the fire-exposed filter), while the other 2 were either somewhat more or less clastogenic than the control filter. In addition, 4 out of 5 filters from this location were more polluted (as indicated by cytotoxicity) than all the filters from the other locations, irrespective of whether they were fire-exposed or not. It is concluded that the results of this V79 cytotoxicity/clastogenicity test did not confirm the hypothesis that the fire at Schweizerhalle produced clastogenic material at quantities detectable under the conditions employed.

Air Pollutants↗
PubMed1992

The development of a new small-scale smoke toxicity test method and its comparison with real-scale fire tests.

A comprehensive methodology has been developed for obtaining and using smoke toxicity data for fire hazard analysis. This bench-scale method can simulate diverse fire conditions and identify extremely toxic smoke under both pre- and post-flashover conditions. However, incidence data show that most of the fire deaths in the U.S. occur outside the room of fire origin from smoke and toxic gases that are generated from a fire under post-flashover conditions. Therefore, the most relevant real-scale combustion conditions to simulate in the bench-scale apparatus would be the post-flashover conditions which are achieved by using radiant heat, a high heat flux, and correcting the bench-scale carbon monoxide (CO) results to agree with CO yields observed in real-scale post-flashover fires. The number of test animals (Fischer 344 male rats) is minimized by using the N-Gas Model to estimate the LC50 value from the chemical analysis of the smoke. The current N-Gas Model predicts the toxicity of complex fire gas mixtures based on a large data base of experimental results of individual and mixed gases that include CO, CO2, reduced O2, HCN, HCl, HBr, and NOx. The prediction is checked with a small number of animal tests and an approximate LC50 value is determined. The bench-scale results have been validated with full-scale room wall burns of a limited number of materials of widely differing characteristics chosen to challenge the system. The toxic potency values are assessed to determine if the smoke from a material or product is unusually or extremely toxic and can then be used in computations of fire hazard.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Daphnia emergence: a sensitive indicator of fire-retardant stress in temporary wetlands.

Fire-retardant formulations are increasingly used by fire managers to control wildland fires. Their extensive use requires an assessment of their impacts in those ecosystems that could be affected by them. Recent studies indicate the potential for environmental impacts when accidentally delivered to surface waters. Yet the response of temporary wetlands, such as vernal pools, typical in Mediterranean areas, is unknown. This study reports on the emergence response of a wetland population of Daphnia curvirostris Eylmann (Cladocera, Crustacea) from sediments that were treated with a commercial fire retardant (Fire-Trol 934). Three application levels were used: 1, 3 and 5 L m(-2). The low and medium levels are in the range of manufacturer's recommendations of use in the field based on the fuel characteristics. The high level simulates local elevated concentrations that may result from inhomogeneous retardant delivery. Results indicate that emergence success decreases with increasing application rate, leading to a complete failure with application levels of 5 L m(-2). This suggests that benthic-pelagic interactions in temporary wetlands-often the primary way by which recolonization of isolated wetlands occurs-can be significantly impacted by fire retardants once they fill with fall/winter rains, thereby serving as a sensitive indicator of fire-retardant contamination. Results highlight a research need for establishing of criteria for effective, but environmentally safe use of fire retardants in the environment.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

A focus group study of factors that promote and constrain the use of satellite-derived fire products by resource managers in southern Africa.

Semi-structured focus group interviews were employed to examine factors that affect the likelihood that resource managers in southern Africa will use information on vegetation fires provided by two satellite-derived products: an active fire product and a burned area product. The two products are updated regularly and aim to deliver the state-of-the-art in the global monitoring of fires from satellite remote-sensing. Both products are derived from data transmitted by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors carried onboard NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites. The active fire product can be accessed for free via the internet and on media by users working anywhere in the world; the burned area product will be accessible in a similar manner in 2006. The MODIS fire products provide systematic, near-global coverage and are freely available; as such, they give resource managers new opportunities to obtain or supplement information they need to manage vegetation fires effectively. However, the availability of these products does not mean that resource managers will use them, and many other factors are involved. To understand factors that affect whether southern African resource managers will use the two products, two focus groups were held with members of the Southern African Fire Network (SAFNet) in Malawi, Africa, August 2004. Analysis of the group discussions reveals a number of factors that influence whether they will use the products. The qualitative, in depth nature of the group discussions revealed 12 main factors that influence product use; not least the low international internet bandwidths for African countries outside of South Africa. Analysis of the group discussions also suggests how the uptake of MODIS fire products by resource managers in southern Africa might be enhanced by affecting specific changes to how MODIS products are packaged and delivered.

Africa, Southern↗
PubMed2004

Consequence modeling using the fire dynamics simulator.

The use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and in particular Large Eddy Simulation (LES) codes to model fires provides an efficient tool for the prediction of large-scale effects that include plume characteristics, combustion product dispersion, and heat effects to adjacent objects. This paper illustrates the strengths of the Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS), an LES code developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), through several small and large-scale validation runs and process safety applications. The paper presents two fire experiments--a small room fire and a large (15 m diameter) pool fire. The model results are compared to experimental data and demonstrate good agreement between the models and data. The validation work is then extended to demonstrate applicability to process safety concerns by detailing a model of a tank farm fire and a model of the ignition of a gaseous fuel in a confined space. In this simulation, a room was filled with propane, given time to disperse, and was then ignited. The model yields accurate results of the dispersion of the gas throughout the space. This information can be used to determine flammability and explosive limits in a space and can be used in subsequent models to determine the pressure and temperature waves that would result from an explosion. The model dispersion results were compared to an experiment performed by Factory Mutual. Using the above examples, this paper will demonstrate that FDS is ideally suited to build realistic models of process geometries in which large scale explosion and fire failure risks can be evaluated with several distinct advantages over more traditional CFD codes. Namely transient solutions to fire and explosion growth can be produced with less sophisticated hardware (lower cost) than needed for traditional CFD codes (PC type computer verses UNIX workstation) and can be solved for longer time histories (on the order of hundreds of seconds of computed time) with minimal computer resources and length of model run. Additionally results that are produced can be analyzed, viewed, and tabulated during and following a model run within a PC environment. There are some tradeoffs, however, as rapid computations in PC's may require a sacrifice in the grid resolution or in the sub-grid modeling, depending on the size of the geometry modeled.

Computer Simulation↗
PubMed2006

Increase in carbon emissions from forest fires after intensive reforestation and forest management programs.

This paper shows an example of substantial increase in carbon emissions from forest fires after reforestation on a national scale. It is the first estimation of historical carbon emissions from forest fires in Korea during the last 40 years. Investigation was focused on the recent increase in large forest fires and its closely related factors. A simple modeling approach to estimate carbon emission was applied. The direct carbon emission from forest fires in 2000, ranging from 115 to 300 Gg C, corresponds to 1-3% of the annual carbon uptake by forests. The influence of forest fires on the carbon cycle in Korea is not so significant, but Korean forests have a large potential for generating severe local fires due to increasing forest carbon density and a high forest area ratio (forest area/total land area) of 65%. The carbon emission per area burned (Mg C ha(-1)) clearly reflects the trend toward increases in the number of severe fires. Statistical analyses and the trends of annual temperature and precipitation show that the recent large increase in carbon emissions may be the negative consequences of intensive forest regrowth that is the product of successful reforestation and forest management programs rather than the effect of climate change. These results imply a need for further studies in other countries, where large-scale plantation has been conducted, to evaluate the role of plantation and forest fires on the global carbon cycle.

Carbon↗
PubMed2004

Code red in the OR----implementing an OR fire drill.

KNOWLEDGE OF FIRE PREVENTION and fire safety is essential for every OR staff member. In the event of a surgical fire, the quick and knowledgeable response of surgical team members will affect their own safety and that of their patients. A NEW FIRE SAFETY PLAN was developed at Peninsula Regional Medical Center, Salisbury Md. To update staff members' knowledge of the facility's fire plan and special instructions for the OR, a comprehensive educational program on fire safety was presented, and an OR fire drill was conducted. THIS ARTICLE describes the facility's quest to improve knowledge of fire safety by providing multiple educational opportunities.

Disaster Planning↗