Charlie Dickinson, Acting United States Fire Administrator, announced a new information section on the USFA Website to assist all firefighters and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) first responders to prepare for a national flu pandemic.

"The USFA has become keenly aware of the challenges and concerns of all first response personnel who may potentially be facing a national pandemic in the near future," said Dickinson. "The USFA is committed to provide fire/EMS service leaders, firefighters and EMTs and their families with the most up-to-date pandemic flu information, so check this page frequently."

The challenges of a pandemic versus an epidemic are expected to have a significant impact on all first responders, communities and families. An Epidemic is a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and extensively among many individuals in an area. A Pandemic is an epidemic over an especially wide geographic area and comes from the Latin word "pandemies" meaning "of all the people". And that is precisely why pandemics are so deadly and disruptive to society.

"The USFA is honored and fortunate to be working with the Medical Director's office of DHS and our growing HHS and CDC partners, as well as OSHA, to ensure firefighters and department leadership have access to the most current information from the nation's experts to prepare for this national threat."

For more information, we encourage you to visit:
www.pandemicflu.gov or www.usfa.fema.gov/subjects/ems/