Are You Prepared to PREVENT a Line of Duty Death?

Power is the ability to command or apply force.

Authority is the right to command and expend resources.

A leader is one who can generate effective individual and group action to accomplish agency goals.

The fire service is a dynamic profession that is richly steeped in tradition, noble in deeds and calling. We know the fire service to be constant – yet ever changing in today’s society. We have built this profession upon man and machinery in opposition with an uncontrolled force known as fire. The last fifteen years has shown a shift from traditional fire service missions to encompass a wide scope of service deliveries that is ever expanding. We are challenged daily on the way we do business.
These changes have affected not only the fire service as a whole but also each level
within. The importance of competencies for fire officers in skills, knowledge and training is of the essence in today’s fire service. Fire officer cultural and attitudinal changes are the crucial links that will ultimately determine the future of our business.
Each year the American fire service experiences an average of over 100 line of duty deaths each year. Further we know that the amount of working fires are down approximately 66% of what they were in the mid 1970’s. So what is the score card saying? Why do we continue to know the causes of line of duty deaths and do nothing to change? Summed up it is nothing more than attitudes. We need to change our attitudes. There is no where in the corporate world that you could come in and give an annual report that stated we had a good year, we only lost 100 employees that you would not be escorted out the door before you could get your personal items in a box. Ron Siarnicki of the national Fallen Fire Fighters Foundation (NFFF) made this statement in one of there program. Guess what…HE IS CORRECT! Why do we as leaders in this business continue to allow these issues to occur? Why do we continue to deem it an honor to die in the line of duty? Why are we so resistant to change? We call it tradition! Well as a fire chief and a fire service member I have to say, “GET OVER OLD and BAD TRADITIONS, START A SAFE NEW ONE!” Ok, if I stepped on some toes here, GOOD, they probably needed it. We cannot afford to continue allowing the same mistakes over and over again to occur. At some point we have to start saying it is not acceptable to have injuries and Line of Duty Deaths (LODD). We must change this culture and the time is now and it starts with YOU!
I recently was shuttled to the airport following the New York Chief’s Conference in Lake George, New York. I was able to spend that time talking with a Bulgarian student who was asking many questions about the culture of the fire service. I asked me how many people get hurt or are killed doing this job as he had seen T-Shirts this week about this. I was ashamed to say we kill usually more than 100 firefighters a year. He then asked why. Boy did this hit home! We know why and how firefighters die in the line of duty but what are we doing to prevent them? In 2005 we had eighty seven (87) line of duty deaths. My question is just how many of these could have been prevented? One area that we know we can control the environment and have good chances of not having a line of duty death is training. But in 2005 we had 10 line of duty deaths in training. This equates to 10% of the total line of duty deaths for that year. Secondly responding to and returning from alarms accounted for 26 line of duty deaths or 59%. Deaths in crashes continue to account for a significant portion of the annual fatalities. How many of these could have been prevented? How many were not wearing their seat belts? How many was speed a contributing factor? To answer the last two questions is far too many. This can be corrected with an attitude adjustment.
Let’s look at how we can reduce these numbers. We need to first address our culture and make attitude changes. These changes need to be at all levels. We can begin this change today without problems by changing the thought process as new firefighters enter the academies across the United States. We can further push with the existing firefighters. We have to hit the dinosaurs hard because they take the new recruits freshly in the field and create dinosaur eggs that then develop into dinosaurs themselves. Thus the culture revolves in a vicious cycle. Ok there is the start but what do we do to impact the fire service?
We need to develop and require Comprehensive Health and Wellness Programs. These programs need to include physical conditioning, medical evaluations, and mental conditioning. With more and more firefighters perishing due to heart attacks and strokes (44 in 2005) we need to make sure that we are in the physical condition to do this job. I further think that the statistics are some what skewed. When we see LODDs of fire service personnel 65 years old or older who die after responses who did not engage in suppression activities it is being question as to where or not these individuals would have had a heart attack even if they were not on scene within that 24 hours. How many departments are providing and requiring comprehensive medical evaluations (NFPA 1582) for all of their members? If you are not, you need to look for a way to make this happen. So many times I hear of how certain medical evaluations have found members of the fire service with health issues they never knew existed. These physicals need to be annually. I recently was running a portion of our physical conditioning program which was a job performance physical agility test. I found one of our more experience personnel to be hypertensive (elevated blood pressure). I refused to let him test and sent him for medical evaluation. Guess what…he is alive today and has begun taking on life style changes and has medication to assist in controlling this issue. He had no symptoms of this condition and was at the potential levels for major problems. Simply as your grandmother would say, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Further we need to evaluate and support physical conditioning (NFPA 1583). These need to set personal goals as each individual is different, department goals and standards as to show everyone who performs must be able to perform at a set level. Lastly, we must have qualitative and quantitative testing of physical conditioning. Not as punishment but as a teaching tool. How many of your members can tell you exactly how long an SCBA will last when they are working at full capacity. As command officers this is important information as we work on scenes and strive to complete accountability of our personnel. More importantly it will keep our personnel safer.
We know this is one of the most stressful jobs anywhere you could travel. So just how well do we condition our folks mentally. Have you ever heard “suck it up it’s your job?” Sitting and talking with some professionals from an FDNY Engine Company they talked about and exhibited significant signs of Critical Incident Stress. This, I am sure, is compounded several times over from the events that affect the lives of these firefighters, but hey lets face facts here. These brothers are hurting and hurting bad. But have we addressed any of this, how about there families? I bet they are hurting too! So what do we do to help this problem? We must provide good Critical Incident Stress (CIS) education and coping techniques not only to the firefighters but also for their families. I know that I have done multiple programs on the east coast about this same issue, addressing firefighters and families together both the firehouse family and our true families all at the table together. This program is titled “Hearts and Sirens” and it explores CIS as it affects both the emergency services working and the family we leave at home when duty calls. My wife tells here heart felt stories of the situations she has had to live through and what helped. Basically we provide education, coping techniques and skills to deal with CIS for families. Let’s face it tough guys, even the hard core folks, struggle with all we face in this job at some point. As they face repetitive issues it becomes cumulative and eventually the levels will build up to the eruption point. This can be prevented and enhance our quality of life with just a little education and swallowing of pride on our part. Face it we are not super human, as much as we wish we were.
Training is the paramount. We must continue to enhance our training in every aspect. This includes going back to the basics. We often see in NIOSH reports where basic and routine components of our job are not performed or are contributing factors to LODD and injuries. So why can’t we do the basics? We have the mentality of hey I been there done that, I don’t need to do that anymore, I have got that down. Ok are you sure? If so show me! If you got it should not be hard or lengthy. Next we need to focus on realism. What are we truly going to face. I deal with the mentality of that wouldn’t happen to us or that's the big city stuff it’s not going to happen here. Well, last time I checked fire did not discriminate. It does matter who you are or where you are from. Reality check… who would have thought that an aircraft with terrorists on board would crash in rural Pennsylvania. That should prove this point with enough said. We must train hard, train realistically and train often. By doing this we stoke our tool boxes with the right tools for the job.
As we train we as leaders and trainers must make every effort to pull out the stops. We must not accept or condone any type of training environment or attitude that compromises the safety of any firefighter. We must cease pushing the envelope with cowboy tactics that only prove that you can show boat. If this is you I have a message…Your Dangerous and you need to change. We do not need to hurt or kill firefighters to have good quality training. In fact good quality training starts with no injuries and especially no deaths. In research of training line of duty deaths almost every incident could have been prevented.
In closing we must have to courage to say NO and the courage to be safe. It often is not a popular personality folks want to see, but again is it worth dieing for…Most times not! Come on folks, let’s face it, we are not doing everything correct here. We need to change and we need to change NOW!!! Do your self, your firefighters and their families a favor. Help prevent a line of duty death, change the attitudes and culture in your departments and have the courage to be safe! The families at home depend on you to be a leader and an officer. If you are not willing to do as much as possible to help with the change of the culture, do the fire service a favor, RETIRE or QUIT or RESIGN BEING AN OFFICER because you are part of the problem not part of the solution. Help us support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the fire service quest of “EVERYONE GOES HOME”.

Building Community Support

Imagine being the Department Head of an Emergency Services Department in which the community your department serves, supports the department one hundred percent. Many of you are saying that this would be a dream come true. Some may be saying that this would never occur. Some may be asking how. A few are saying that they have a unique problem in their community. Well, which is it? The choice is yours. You can receive as much support as you foster. It is easy to sit and make excuses why you don’t have the community’s support, but what have you done to get the support you want? Now you are wondering if I have lost my mind. No, it goes back to the old saying your reap what you sew.
First, know that if you try, you can succeed. Second, once your program is really working well, you will be asked by other departments how you did it and to help them. Soon you will be a leader among the departments in your area.

Getting Started
Community relations is a big job, too big for a single person to handle. It will require the efforts of every member of your team to make this a successful venture. Of course it starts with you as the leader. As the leader you must sell this concept to the group of people who deal with the community on a daily basis, the emergency responders. During their work delivering emergency services they must execute the plan. I know you are asking what plan. The plan is what you want to accomplish in gaining community support. One of the more common theories that I heard recently at a conference made perfect sense. As an emergency services department you must make yourself so desirable that it would be political suicide for the governing agency not to give you what you want because the community would be upset. For this concept to work each individual of the department must buy into this concept of community support.

The plan
In the first months you must develop a specific plan of how you want to gain the support of the community. This will include what you want to give them as an agency. More is not always better. Decide what services you want to provide. Start with the essentials and get good at them before trying to tackle the world. During this time period keep track of what it is that you are doing and how you are doing it. This concept follows the business principle of the six-sigma concept, getting quantifiable results on your investment. To break that down to emergency services terms, the services we are delivering are being delivered with excellence and we are getting returns on that. The returns will be in the form of a thank you, letter, donations and other forms of support. It is important that your community knows what you are doing. This can be accomplished by merely utilizing the media in the forms of press releases.
The media for some is perceived as a nightmare to work with. But, they can be utilized in your favor. By keeping them informed or even offering them more opportunities, begins to foster a relationship that may not otherwise have been developed. The more the community sees you I a positive light the more they believe it. By utilizing the media and developing a working relationship you create a win-win environment that each entity is dependant upon.
To further develop the plan, it is important that public contacts made are positive ones. This will require the efforts of the entire department. Offer time to the media to come out and do some filming along with sending press releases from responses or other activities. The media can truly be your friend; it just takes the efforts to develop that friendship.

Expanding the Basic Plan
Once you have gotten the basics down you started with, begin to select and choose additional services that are important to your community. Each community has areas that they feel are important. The best way to find this out is to ask. One of the best ways to create interaction with the community is through surveys. These can be distributed with minimal costs by mailing them post incident. This will give you the perspective of what the community you serve perceived of your services. Secondly place throughout the community surveys that target questions to get the community to tell you what other services they would like. Now not every request is one that can be taken on, but you must plan for the ones that are within the organizations mission.

Making Presentations
Following the surveys, plan for an open house. Every citizen is curious as to what it is that you have. Not to mention the young citizens like the emergency vehicles. This is a time you can get direct feedback and also embark on those new endeavors you what to do. Try them out during the open house. Example of these would be education programs, child safety seat installations, and recruitment. This is your opportunity to sell your organization and its programs. This concept is known as Talking to the Community.
Almost everyone in your community is a potential audience for a presentation. Members of town council, church groups, senior citizen clubs, civic organizations, service groups and just plain citizens are examples. The size of the audience doesn’t matter. Capitalize on any size of audience to deliver your message or service. Some of the best advertising principles evolve around good service and the customers’ word of mouth about the service.
Once you have decided on the types of presentations you want to give, you can let the community know that you are available by utilizing word of mouth, an article in the new paper, television coverage, or direct contact. In talking to the community it is important that you know your audience. You should always keep in mind just who are you speaking to and is the topic relevant to the cause.
Obtaining Resources
During this process it is important to be addressing the important pieces of the puzzle. How much does it cost, where do we get funding and how will it impact the department both manpower wise and publicly. It is important to now involve the governing agencies, i.e. Elected officials of town or city government. Each program comes with a cost whither it is monetary or labor. This is the point you must start to look at funding. It requires resources to accomplish any task. This is when you must be resourceful. Hopefully, by this point, you have gained the support of the community and resources will come much easier.
Conclusion
The gaining of community support can to endless possibilities for services you deliver and the support you receive. As we have stated before with media relations you want a win-win situation. The support of the community you serve along with your dedication to provide quality services precipitates a true win-win relationship.
More information may be obtained on this concept by reviewing the Building Blocks, “Building Community Support for Emergency Services Organizations” or contacting Fire Training Solutions.

We the Fire Service

We the Fire Service…

We the Fire Service have a debt of gratitude. One generation shall praise your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. I know that as a fire service member I have a large debt of gratitude for many people who have paved the way for me and others like me to have the opportunities we currently have. There have been many fine brothers and sisters who have given their hearts and souls to the fire service, working tirelessly to make it better, stronger and safer. For all of you whom have paid this price and contributed “We the Fire Service” of today say, “Thank You!”
I just want to say that these great folks mentioned above were the best of the best when it comes to mentoring. So what is going on today? To cut to the chase “We the Fire Service” have lost the art of mentoring. It only takes one generation to lose all that we know and have learned from our great heritage. Do we really want to do that? I say NO! So what are we going to do about it? Those officers and fire service leaders just hanging out, waiting on retirement or a pay check need to get off your duffs and start being officers or resign your positions. As we quickly approach a time when much of the fire service leadership will be retiring, we are destined to face the loss of great leadership. This could prove to be a tragedy for our profession or we can make it a positive bench mark. A lot is going to depend upon several generations working closely together, the baby boomers and the generation Y and X coming together and realizing that the future belongs to those who prepare. For years I would see the slogan, “The Future Belongs to Those Who Prepare For It”, posted on the training class room wall of the Henderson North Carolina, Fire Department. Chief Danny Wilkerson several times over used to say these same words to many of the young firefighters and officers that walked into that setting. As an instructor and a part-time member of that department it always struck me as an encouragement to continue to push to make a difference. Often times I personally struggled with just what that slogan really was saying. Well, it is time that we prepare for our future and start paying off that debt of gratitude and start giving back to the next generation or they won’t have anything to praise us about.
We the Fire Service have a heritage of being just that, the fire service. So, where am I going with this? We have got to focus on our heritage in a two facet approach. The first facet is we have got to remember where we came from and what is important about the history of the fire service. We cannot forget the major events like Kingman, Arizona, Hackensack, New Jersey, New York City Fathers Day fire and the events of September 11, 2001. Nor should we forget our recruit academy or our first fire. But we also must focus on a more serious issue: the fact that the fire service has a heritage of not learning or wanting to learn from the fire service mistakes. We know what the causes of line of duty deaths are. There is a lot of effort being placed on programs that address this by folks like Ron Siarnicki from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) to ensure everyone goes home. But when I look at the same repeated mistakes that our fire service makes over and over again and firefighters refuse to read and study why these occurred it appalls me to no end. We have the answers in front of us and when leaders don’t want to address the problems or firefighters fight against these necessary safety changes we have serious issues in our family heritage. As I write this piece just today Baltimore Fire Department adopted the Hot, Warm, Cold response policy. I am proud that they are learning from a tremendously sad event. But hey folks, there are others across the nation in this great business that we call the fire service that think that this type of response or progressive way of thinking is crazy and that we are some how doing something wrong. This is not an isolated issue; it is embedded in the culture from coast to coast. As officers and fire service leaders we must learn from our mistakes and pass them along to the next generation so we don’t keep repeating history.
We the Fire Service have a burden of responsibility…a responsibility to leave the service better than we inherited it. This means we have to learn from our own and other’s mistakes. We must set a course of direction that has safety as the focus. This will mean that many cultures, values, opinions and beliefs will have to be changed or better yet educated. Leaders must be diligent in their efforts working tirelessly to accomplish the vision exhausting all means for a successful journey. Never lose faith or lower the vision. Falling short of the vision is better than setting one low and making it. If leaders will follow the vision with heart-felt desire you will win! To sum it all up you must keep the vision and keep from getting distracted.
To keep the vision you must understand that it will require personal sacrifices and risks to be taken. In making sacrifices and taking risks we often feel like we are out on a limb. Well guess what, you are! But if we don’t take chances you most likely will not keep focused on what is important, the vision you have set as a leader. These distractions that come up often pull even the best leaders off of the vision. When we keep our vision, we often receive harsh criticism. But remember, DO NOT compromise for what seems easier nor be discouraged by the criticism. STAY ON THE WALL!
So what is my responsibility you ask?
· We the Fire Service have to stay informed. This means that you have to be well traveled. Part of the problem we have in the fire service is that of the old culture. That is folks don’t want to learn what happened elsewhere, they think that it doesn’t apply to them. Well the same problems and issues are across the nation both in rural small volunteer fire departments to large metropolitan departments. Most fire service members have no clue what is going on in the federal, state or local government that will affect them. We are slow as a profession to accept anything from the outside world. The most under used resource in the fire service is the National Fire Academy (NFA). If folks haven’t noticed, most Fire Chief job advertisements require the candidate be a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer (EFO) program from the NFA. I recently had a chief officer tell me that he had spoken to a few people and they said the NFA was over rated. Well, I guess those folks are like a lot of others…NOT INFORMED!
· We the Fire Service must get involved. We must unite the entire fire service for the common goals. To do this we need fire service leaders to step up and take an active role in fire service organizations. One of the best ways to make change to the culture is through training. A great organization to get involved with if you like training is the International Society of Fire Service Instructors (ISFSI). By the way, if you are an officer let me remind you are an instructor, whether certified or not, you still have an obligation to teach! Taking this to another focus, just how many of you are really involved in your department? Leading and making efforts to make change or are you sitting around on your hands looking to see who else is going to do it saying… “That’s not my job!” Well guess what, if you are doing this, it is your job as a fire service member and especially as an officer.
· We the Fire Service have to humble ourselves and serve others. Our job is to serve our customers both internal and external any way possible. President Kennedy in his campaign said “Ask not what the country can do for you but ask what you can do for your country”. I think it is time we as fire service leaders and members followed this. I am saying to you, “Ask not what your department or the fire service can do for you, but what you can do for your department and the fire service.”
This really drives me to focus on the topic "What Do These Bugles Really Mean". We as leaders today will face the end of our careers. Many of my mentors are at that point currently. However, the leadership lessons they can still share are countless. Thank God that these folks took an interest in us, the leaders of the current fire service, when we were youthful firefighters and officers. The future of the fire service is in your hands. Will you be satisfied with mediocrity and status quo saying, “well this is just the way it is here” or will you take the proactive approach and realize that today’s fire service has changed, change is inevitable and if we don’t change we die on the vine a slow death before we even know it.
We The Fire Service…you are a part of this great profession. What are you going to do to make a difference?