In 2004, the first National Firefighter Life Safety Summit was held in Tampa, Florida. What resulted from that summit were the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives and the Everyone Goes Home® program. When many of us first became aware of the Everyone Goes Home® Program we thought to ourselves, “Bonus!” A lot of us already had a passion concerning firefighter safety and wellbeing.
The community of Lidgerwood has a 26 member, all volunteer fire department. The success of this incident and lessons learned and reinforced are a direct result of this fire department’s commitment to the 16 Life Safety Initiatives and the Everyone Go Home® program.
Everyone’s motivation is different, which is what makes this program great. Spreading your personal motivation really touches the audience. Knowing the message, knowing the mission, and partnering them up with motivation and inspiration, gives you the recipe for courage.
As a career captain and volunteer fire chief, I believe that the Everyone Goes Home® and Courage to Be Safe® programs have changed me personally by bringing the 16 Life Safety Initiatives to the forefront of my thoughts when showing up to work, teaching a probationary firefighter, or encouraging a veteran to think about their actions.
I read your letter in the newsletter and commend you for the 2×4 between the eyes approach to drawing attention to this issue. I suffered from a cardiac related incident this year that I am recovering from. In the long run I believe that the event was a blessing in disguise in that it moved me from the suppression side to the inspection/investigation side.
What’s 40 years old, 350 lbs, 5 feet 9 inches tall and completes a Firefighter rookie / recruit challenge in less than 8 minutes? Well sorry, there’s no punch line, truth is it was me three years ago before I made some radical changes in my life.
People in nearby Mill Pond Park heard and saw the crash, called 911 and helped the two injured firefighters, who had been wearing seatbelts.
All four firefighters inside the engine, however, escaped safety because every one of them was wearing a seat belt. The fatality was that of a civilian involved in the pileup.
