The North Dakota Firefighters Association (NDFA) recently received a grant from North Dakota Workforce Safety & Insurance (NDWSI). NDWSI awarded NDFA a grant for $79,000. This grant will be used to present the Courage to Be Safe® Class to every fire department in the State of North Dakota.
Firefighters must have the courage to face a multitude of risks in order to save lives and protect their communities. But a different type of courage is required to stay safe in potentially dangerous situations, avoiding needless risks and tragic consequences. That different type of courage is the subject of The Courage to Be Safe® – So Everyone Goes Home® program. This provocative and moving presentation is designed to change the culture of accepting the loss of our firefighters as a normal occurrence.
Courage to Be Safe® was conceived and developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program Team in response to a request by Pennsylvania Fire Commissioner Ed Mann to develop a program aimed at Line-of-Duty Death Prevention.
At the heart of Courage to Be Safe® are the gripping, untold stories of LODD survivors, revealing how family members must live with the consequences of a firefighter death. The program graphically underscores the need for firefighters and officers to change fundamental attitudes and behaviors in order to prevent line of duty deaths, and promotes the courage to do the right thing so that Everyone Goes Home® at the end of the day.
Annually the nation’s fire service looses over 100 firefighters and over 80,000 firefighters are injured on the job.
Recognizing the need to do more to prevent line-of-duty deaths and injuries, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has launched a national initiative to bring prevention to the forefront.
In March 2004, the Firefighter Life Safety Summit was held in Tampa, Florida to address the need for change within the fire and emergency services. Through this summit, the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives were produced to ensure that Everyone Goes Home®.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation will play a major role in helping the U.S. Fire Administration meet its stated goal to reduce firefighter fatalities by 25% within 5 years, and by 50% within 10 years. The Foundation sees fire service adoption of the summit’s initiatives as a vital step in meeting this goal.
The NDFA is dedicated to seeing the program become a success and has recently held a train-the-trainer course in Bismarck, North Dakota. There are over 35 instructors throughout the state qualified to present this provocative and moving presentation.
The North Dakota Fire Chiefs Association and the Professional Fire Fighters of North Dakota also support the program.
North Dakota has two lead advocates for the Everyone Goes Home® program, Captain Rick Graba of the Bismarck Fire Department and Captain Brooks Martin also of the Bismarck Fire Department.
Departments that would like to schedule the four hour class can contact the NDFA office at 701-222-2799 to schedule a class or email [email protected].
For more information on the Everyone Goes Home® Program visit www.everyonegoeshome.com.
» Also: North Dakota Fire Service Endorses the Everyone Goes Home® Program
