Richard R. Anderson, Director
Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program

Wikepedia defines New Year's Resolution as...a commitment that an individual makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Years Day and remain until fulfilled. Our collective wish for the New Year is that after every shift and after every call...Everyone Goes Home. This will be accomplished by stopping unsafe behaviors which will result in the elimination of preventable firefighter line-of-duty injuries and deaths.

We believe that a department that understands the intention of the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives and commits to actualization of them will improve the likelihood of this being a reality.

Here are some resolutions for you to personally consider:

• Eat Right
• Stay Fit
• Don't Smoke
• Wear all my PPE
• Keep my PPE clean

• Physical and mental health is optimized
• Stress injuries don't occur
• Fatigue is minimized
• Performance is optimized
• Eliminate exposure to carcinogens

• Drive safe
• Buckle up
• Inspect and maintain equipment
• Revise response protocols
• Require driver competency

• Preventable vehicle accidents don't occur
• Equipment failures that can be detected by inspections don't occur
• Firefighters are protected in event of an accident
• Unnecessary emergency responses are eliminated
• Accidents are a result of faulty equipment don't occur
• Accidents as a result of driver inexperience or lack of training don't occur

• Know my job
• Know how fire behaves
• Know the built environment
• If I see something I will say something (report it to my company officer or superior)

• Train, mentor, and manage my people
• Effectively evaluate risk
• Make good decisions
• Safely conduct realistic training
• Make every day a training day

• Create an environment where an everyone goes home culture can prevail

• Firefighters receive the necessary hands-on experience to develop their on-the-job skills and develop a practical understanding of fire behavior first hand.
• Firefighters perform more effectively on the fire ground
• Firefighters aren't injured or killed during training exercises
• Firefighters aren't injured or killed in structure fires