Common Sense Dictionary for First Responders

This volume is a glossary of about 4,200 specialized terms useful for those who respond to emergency situations such as fires and hazardous materials incidents, and for environmentalists and safety engineers as well. Terms relate to electricity, general science, hazardous materials, chemistry, the environment, firefighting, EMS, the material safety data sheet, plastics, protective clothing, radioactivity, shipping regulations, and transportation. The second section consists of a list of abbreviations and acronyms related to these topics. Fire is the author of other books on plastics and hazardous materials and a former teacher with extensive experience in the plastics industry. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Frank L. Fire is an accomplished author with more than forty years' experience in the plastics industry and more than thirty years' experience teaching the chemistry of hazardous materials to firefighters and other emergency responders. He retired from his position as Executive Vice President, Marketing and International, at Americhem, Inc. and is currently a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for Fire Engineering magazine. He is a past member of the Society of the Plastics Industry (where he served on the Coordinating Committee on Fire Safety) and an active member in the Society of Plastics Engineers, the National Fire Protection Association, and a number of other professional organizations. He is the author of The Common Sense Approach to Hazardous Materials and its Study Guide, Chemical Data Notebook: A User's Manual, and Combustibility of Plastics, as well as co-author of SARA Title III: Intent and Implementation of Hazardous Materials Regulations. He has also published more than 120 articles on individual hazardous materials and other fire service topics.