Everyone Goes Home - Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program

By Freddy Howell,
Fire Chief, NSB Kings Bay, GA

I was blessed again this year to attend the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana and it was again one of the best educational experiences of all time. As usual, it was well attended with approximately 28,000 firefighters from all over the world in attendance. Although there were more classes than I could possibly attend I will briefly give you what I picked to be some of the latest concepts, concerns and training activities.

Pride and Ownership of the Fire Service - How can we change the culture of the fire service if the young firefighters coming into the service don't know the culture? We have to teach what the fire service is all about and where it all came from and where we are going! Fire, EMS, Haz-Mat, Rescue WMD-you describe it and we do it!
Fire Officer Development - It is necessary to constantly introspect and see if your attitude is beneficial to the fire service. Your attitude expresses your manner, disposition, feelings, or position about particular things... or life in general! You can control your attitude, but doing so requires training and on-going commitment. Your attitude affects others and it's contagious... positive or negative. Remember leadership is role based... not ranked based.
Not Everyone Goes Home - Although all firefighters lead heroic lives; sadly the majority of our line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) are not due to heroic circumstances. The chief can impact that locally. While the national focus creates programs that build resources for the chiefs to use at their home firehouses, what the chiefs do with those resources has a great impact at a local level. All attempts, successes and failures in the saving of firefighters' lives are local. This means the local fire chief is the key to the end result. Of course the company officer and the individual firefighter play a critical part in reducing LODDs, but the chief is the bottom line. This massive responsibility-no matter the size of the fire department-cannot be ignored.
Taking Public Education to Another Level - We need to put fire prevention back in the firefighters training! NFPA has removed fire prevention training from firefighter 1 and 2, why? How can we expect firefighters to be passionate about prevention when we put it on the back burner of all their training requirements? Firefighters need to know the history of all the fires that caused building codes to be changed, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.
Air Management and NFPA 1404 - Once more a featured topic that we as a fire service must work on. Our firefighters should know when to start making their way out of a building and not rely solely on the low pressure alarm. Air consumption drills should be performed and the results documented.
Courage to Be Safe (SM) - Firefighter safety was again one of the most important topics discussed in all of the classes that were taught at FDIC. The 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives were repeated and discussed a great deal. As we know 50% of LODDs are from heart attacks, some resulting from poor exercise tolerance and not complying with NFPA 1582. Around 25% of LODDs are related to motor vehicle accidents. The majority of these accidents should be and can be prevented. The remaining 25% of the LODDs are fire and other related accidents which include training; another place that LODD can and should be prevented!
Residential Sprinkler Systems - The discussion was on the need for local departments and communities to support and adopt building codes requiring residential sprinkler systems.
The Economy- How the economy is affecting the fire departments and firefighter manning was a hot topic. Fire departments are facing huge challenges as it relates to the closing of firehouses and the reduction of firefighter staffing. This is and should be a major concern to all firefighters and fire chiefs because this plays a significant role in firefighter safety. Again, the fire service is being asked to do more or the same with less. The need for automatic and mutual aid agreements with neighboring departments is a must.
Fire Service and EMS- The future of fire-based EMS will depend on data that comes from many sources, all of which will have to relate and communicate to help prove the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of the system. There has been a strong push by EMS organizations outside the fire service to get their hands on federal fire service grant funds. To find out more go to http://fireserviceems.com/.

Also you can see opening ceremonies and some of the awards via the internet by going to www.fdic.com/index.html about mid way to the page and downloading them. They are well worth watching!

Stay Safe!