There was an article in The Washington Post of significance to those of you who need to and want to influence people. The article talks about a young California woman who suffered unwanted attention after her photo was included in a sports blog. There were significant statistics in the article that we should pay attention to and are relevant to connecting us with people. The Washington Post described how, “she had more than 1,000 new messages on her My Space page. A three-minute video of [I am redacting the subject’s name because I don’t want to perpetuate her problem] standing against a wall and analyzing her performance at another meet had been posted on YouTube and viewed 150,000 times.”

This is critical stuff to the fire service. We could have people reading our recruiting message all over the world. What is of interest to the fire service is our constant need to facilitate positive attention to market ourselves, recruit the best and brightest new members, change people’s risky behavior, and compete for scarce resources. Even if we choose not to enter this venue, we need to know that other successful organizations will. This will be our benchmark. Trust me (no wait, you don’t know me that well yet, do you?). Even though the environment is changing, the mechanics of connecting has not changed much. What has changed is the speed by which it operates. The Washington Post article reinforced the power I had begun to notice about networking electronically. This power can be negative as described above or unbelievably positive.

While there is some luck (Denis Waitley considers luck an acronym meaning “laboring under correct knowledge”) to getting influential information to target recipients, there is a growing body of information about how information, fads, fame and notoriety can spread like a virus. In the best-selling book The Tipping Point, author and researcher Malcom Gladwell describes how concepts and ideas can go from obscurity to all the rage. It’s mostly due to factors that are as common in spreading an idea as a sneeze and contaminated hands are to spreading disease. One critical component of this process is a key person called a connector who generally makes a great effort to know many people from diverse backgrounds, careers and interests. Connectors are either sought out to spread the word about something, or they have a natural process for this as they communicate within a network of peers and friends. They also generally carry established legitimacy, which makes any message more readily received and forwarded.

Consider the number of legislative bills passed in the last two years related to flammability standards for cigarettes. One critical element is people who can connect the issue to people who vote, both on the assembly floor and for the legislators. Those people contacted by the connector, if convinced of the legitimacy of the issue to be supported, then will flood the legislators with e-mail and faxes to state their support. Those people who send the faxes and e-mails often will be connectors themselves and will send the message to their sphere of influence. Before you know it, the support increases exponentially in relation to the effectiveness of each connector’s sphere of influence. Elected officials monitor their mail like a cardiac monitor in the cardiac-care unit. The electronic communication process makes it easier because it takes little more than pressing “send.”

If a connector becomes aware of important information that can help someone else or just wants to recommend a consistently good restaurant, he or she generally tells someone about it, usually within a familiar and well-established network. Two important fire service connectors are Chief Ronny J. Coleman and Chief Billy Goldfeder. These two connected people have built long-term relationships and contacts as they went about doing their jobs, delivering speeches, teaching, writing in national journals and, in general, connecting.

Chief Coleman has a very powerful and long-term profile of connectedness. His is one of more traditional routes that took many years to establish and — key to connectors — continues to grow. He will cross paths with his connections time and time again. My first exposure to him came when I used his book as a college text in my “Strategy and Tactics” class at Montgomery Community College. In 1984 I attended the ISFSI Company Officer Development I course in Framingham, Mass., where Ron presented several subjects and was the first fire service person I had heard to talk about the benefits of reading both Fortune and Ms. magazines to broaden your sphere of knowledge and awareness. I have also had monthly doses of topical interest from Coleman’s “Chief’s Clipboard” column.

While I have had many other direct and indirect contacts with Chief Coleman (and remain possibly an unidentified connection to him), these connections with me and thousands of other people are important to his sphere of influence. Just last week I had the opportunity to talk to him directly at the International Code Council Hearings in Rochester, N.Y. Ronny testified on behalf of the fire service and the fire protection industry in favor of an effort to include a requirement for residential sprinklers in the International Building Code for residential structures.

In 23 years I have had an unusual number of contacts with Chief Colemen. Many of you probably have as well and also will have had similar experiences with other connectors, such as Dennis Compton, Meri-K Appy, R. Wayne Powell and Billy Goldfeder. If you visually mapped out all these people and their interactions with you, there would be a very interesting web of interconnections and influence between them all.

Billy Goldfeder has built a base of connectiveness not unlike Coleman’s. The difference is Billy’s targeted use of electronic media to deliver information. He has used an Web site and e-newsletters to build a widely seen, effectively delivered, and highly relevant and repeated message about firefighter safety and survival. Possibly with all the other attention being paid to firefighter safety and survival, such as “Everyone Goes Home” and the National Firefighter Near-Miss Reporting System, the context for the ongoing message was ideal for an information epidemic, and word spread in an extraordinarily short period of time.

My first contact with Billy was around 1989 when he was director of a fire and rescue service in my region. Billy had done some work and research into increasing assignment, recruitment and retention of volunteers. At the time my department was researching ways to better facilitate and assign human resources, and we were looking at how we could schedule volunteers to fill staffing gaps. I talked to Billy at that time, but I hadn’t heard much about him until 2005 when I heard about his extraordinary presentations on firefighter safety and survival. That same year Billy was awarded a “President’s Award” from then-IAFC President Robert DiPoli for his safety work.

Around the same time, Billy was getting his now incredible FirefighterCloseCalls.Com established online. Billy’s experience is the positive counterpart to the negative story mentioned earlier. He is a prime example of how connecting helps to spread ideas and influence. I recently asked Billy about how many people he has on his lists. The list of formal subscribers to his electronic newsletter “The Secret List” is one known layer of a huge network. Beyond the formal layer of subscribers is a downstream information system where the list is handed off to an extraordinary informal network that is hard to conceive. Here are recent statistics related to Chief Goldfeder’s site and e-new letter: “The Secret List goes direct to 80,000+ via our server … and gets forwarded to many, many more. The Web site gets 250,000+/- (average) unique hits monthly and 4 million hits monthly.” How about that for circulation?

None of us need to perform to the same remarkable degree as some of the people discussed here, but I hope you will see how strategic connectiveness begins to produce positive influence. Getting your message to stick is a subject I’ll look at in the future.

In March, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study that examined the duty specific risk of death from coronary heart disease among on-duty firefighters in the United States. The study looked at data from 1994 to 2004, as well as estimates of time spent at fires and other emergencies from 17 metropolitan fire departments. A similar study released in May by the Center for Disease Control concluded that firefighting duties were associated with a risk of death from coronary heart disease that was 10 to 100 times greater than the risk from the non-emergency duties of the general public.

The study published in the NEJM looked at the significant impact that firefighting has on the physiological stress to a firefighter‘s cardiovascular system, including elevated core body temperatures and other vital signs.

Over the past 10 years, the fire service has made significant progress on the need for firefighter health and safety. These steps include wellness and fitness Programs, a rehab sector at major incidents, and the evolving design of PPE and SCBA.

With the obvious significance of these studies on the relationship of firefighting with coronary heart disease, what do you think will be the impact on firefighting and firefighters in the next five years? Do you feel there is also a relationship between this higher incidence of CHD among even the fittest firefighters and reduced staffing levels that could cause even more physical stress especially on the first arriving crews?

Chicago Fire Department’s retired chief of special operations, John Eversole, died Sunday evening at the age of 62. Nationally and internationally referred to as the “Chief of Hazmat,” Eversole was a visionary who fought endlessly for better, safer conditions for firefighters. Everyone looked up to John, and not just because he was taller than most.

Eversole’s health had deteriorated, and he decided to go into a hospice program. On Sunday, John called a few close friends to come and visit.

When Chicago Hazmat Coordinator Chief Dan O’Donnell arrived, he expected the worst, but in fact John was sitting up and even asked for a drink. Water? Pop? No, John wanted a Southern Comfort and Coke. “We talked, and after the second drink, John said he’d had a good life and we said goodbye,” said O’Donnell. Later that evening, the ventilator was shut off and John passed away a few hours later. John did it his way.

Eversole selected his own pallbearers: O’Donnell, Deputy Commissioner Gene Ryan and Deputy District Chief Paul Martin, all from the Chicago Fire Department; longtime friend and colleague Rick Emery, retired from Vernon Hills Fire Department; Asst. Chief Mike Bovyn, Bolingbrook Fire Department; and Cook County Sheriff Mike Brady. He chose retired Chief Clyde Marriotti as the honorary chief pallbearer.

Eversole’s longtime friend Greg Noll, a senior partner in Hildebrand Noll Assoc. consulting firm for emergency planning and hazmat/WMD manager for the Pennsylvania Task Force-1 urban search and rescue unit, will give the eulogy. Asst. Chief Tim Butters, Fairfax (Va.) Fire & Rescue, also will do a reading at today’s funeral.

At his wake yesterday, John’s wife, Sue, comforted friends with a warm smile and spoke of the many good times and warm memories.

Chief Mary Beth Michos of Prince William County (Va.) Fire & Rescue, one of the founders of the Hazmat Conference in Montgomery County, Md., talked about Eversole’s early support for hazmat. She also recalled that whenever Eversole would teach, she would gently tease his references to firemen by saying, “You’d make me a happy woman if you would just once say ‘firefighter,’” she laughed. “And he would!”

Chicago Fire Department Commissioner Ray Orozco Jr., said, “John was my first lieutenant. I was a kid on Truck 36 in the old house. John took the time to instill in me how important education and training is in the fire service. Those are two things that stuck with me.”

Orozco called John a visionary and ahead of his time: “Back in the early days all the emphasis was on fighting structure fires. What we have today came from John — mitigating fires.”

Displayed inside John’s casket was a tiny card he had kept on his desk: “Nobody knows what I do until I don’t do it.” Sorry, John, but according to Orozco, the fire service knows what you did.

“When the bell goes off, firefighters are a lot safer because of John,” said Orozco. “He made sure it was safer. He got the industry to have standards and didn’t hesitate to tell the legislators what firefighters needed.”

The family has requested that memorials in Eversole’s name be sent to the attention of Tony Martin at the Fireman’s Annuity and Benefits Fund of Chicago, 20 S. Clark St. #1400, Chicago IL 60603.

Earlier this month I wrote about how Greensburg, Kan., was wiped out by a tornado. Many readers responded and offered donations and services. The Kansas State Fire Marshal‘s office has sent FIRE CHIEF a list of items that the Greensburg Fire Department needs. If you have surplus equipment that you would like to donate, e-mail mcnortok@ksfm.state.ks.us.

• Assorted couplings: double males of various sizes, double females of various sizes




• Reducers: 1¾-inch, 2½-inch, 4-inch




• 2 Sledgehammers




• 2 Pickhead axes




• 2 Flathead axes




• Pike poles: 2 10-foot, 2 8-foot, 2 6-foot




• 4 Hydrant wrenches




• 8 Spanner wrenches




• 3 Life safety ropes, 200 feet




• 1 Webbing spool, 100 feet




• 2 Spine boards




• 2 Stokes baskets




• 1,000 feet of 3-inch hose




• 800 feet 1¾-inch hose




• 400 feet 2½-inch hose




• 2 Storz-to-thread adapters (LDH): male and female 4-inch threads




• 1 Roof ladder, 14 feet




• 1 Extension ladder, 35 feet




• 4 Gated wyes, 2½-inch




• 2 Halogen lights




• 2 Hard suction 6-inch with strainer




• 4 Fire extinguishers




• 4 Nozzles, 1¾-inch fog




• 2 Nozzles, 2½-inch fog/straight stream




• 1 Deck gun, master stream




• 1 Hose rack




• 4 Indian packs




• 8 Grass brooms




• 1 Halligan tool




• 2 Rechargeable handlights




• 1 Thermal-immaging camera




• 1 Binoculars




• 1 Quicky saw




• 2 Plug & Dike kits




• 1 24-volt cordless Sawzall




• 1 24-volt cordless circular saw




• 1 Cordless drill




• 1 Set of Vetter bags with attachments




• 1 MSA Orion multigas detector




• 1 CGI (carbon monoxide/oxygen/LEL)




• Barbecue grill




• Television




• DVD/VCR player




• Pots/pans




• Kitchen utensils




• Tableware




• Picnic table




• Portable basketball goal/ball

The mailing address is Greensburg Fire Department; 200 E. Wisconsin; Greensburg, KS 67054.

Donations may be sent to Fire Chief Jay Koehn; 221 E. Nebraska; Greensburg, KS 67054; Attn: GFD Donations

Many of us in the American fire service have been placing a great deal of emphasis on safety for many years now; witness most recently the now-annual Stand Down for Safety, Dr. Burt Clark‘s campaigns for firefighter mayday procedures and the National Fire Service Seat Belt Pledge. We all have an appreciation for the physiological and psychological impact of on-the-job injuries, not to mention the financial impact of accidents and injuries in the workplace, for both the individual and the organization. But how many of us think about safety away from the job?

One of my colleagues, Bttn. Chief Jim Fitch, recently published the following in our daily e-mail newsletter that goes out to our organization:

This weekend I was wrapping the trim on my garage with aluminum. I was trying to get as much done as time would allow until I had to take my son to a baseball game. All was going well until I managed to slice my finger open with the edge of the aluminum. Later in the day, it occurred to me that my accident occurred for two reasons. First, had I been wearing a pair of gloves, the accident would have never occurred. Second, I was rushing to do something that required more time than I allowed. I did not respect the potential hazards of the situation; I failed to operate with the proper attitude toward safety.

Think back to an accident you have experienced or witnessed. Were you respecting the potential hazards, were you wearing your PPE, or did you have the right attitude? I bet you can place yourself in one of these situations during some accident in your past. You know, you have control over these conditions. We are issued some of the best PPE available, we just have to use it. Every time! You have the ability to embrace a safe approach to your job. You control your attitude and actions.

Safety is our responsibility, not the [Tactical Safety Officer]‘s, not your supervisor‘s, not the Fire Chief‘s. Everyone in our department makes contributions to our safety. Training and Safety provides excellent training, Plans Review ensures fire protection systems are properly designed and functioning, Logistics keeps us supplied so we can perform our job &hellip everyone‘s efforts can be linked to our safety and well-being.

Our organization has long embraced and emphasized safety through training, equipment, and operating procedures all of which assist us in the performance of our duties. So regardless of your rank or job function, if you see an unsafe action, show your respect for that person‘s safety and address the situation. If someone addresses a safety issue with you, don‘t get miffed; thank them for showing their concern. We have to watch each other‘s back.

Have a safe day!

JEF

Good stuff, eh? How many of us take our safety attitude home with us when our tour of duty is complete? Perhaps we would all profit by doing our best to make safety a 24/7/365 behavior, not just a work behavior that we leave at the fire station or office. What do you think?

When was the last time you tapped the resources of one of the major fire service organizations to help answer a difficult question? Four times this year I have gone to the research sections or the expert personnel of several fire service agencies to help with answers to difficult questions. These have ranged from questions on the lighting package and visibility standard for a new aerial ladder on order, to data on the reliability of home smoke alarms when asked to comment to the media “on the record.”

Another inquiry from the Visiting Nursing Associations required research on what was needed for an 86-year-old, hearing-impaired woman to remain living independently in her own apartment. Again, the resources of several agencies were tapped to help the VNA devise a solution that meant someone could remain safe yet maintain her independence.

Most recently, I was able to obtain several studies on the subject of SCBA air management from the National Fire Academy’s Learning Research Center. Throughout these projects I also used the NFPA, IAFC, American Red Cross and past articles from FIRE CHIEF magazine.

So the question is, what resources have you used recently to help solve problems? What Web sites do you find helpful and user-friendly? Would you prefer Web access or expert individuals to answer your questions? Let me know what you find helpful for answers to your difficult issues.

The U.S. Fire Administration has “advocacy” as one of the key words in its description. A search for the word “advocacy” on the USFA Web site yields 82 hits, indicating that advocacy is a core principle within the USFA’s mission. The word advocacy means active support, and The Free Dictionary.com defines advocacy as “The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy; active support.” As a function of defeating the U.S. fire problem when there were over 5,000 civilian and close to 200 firefighter deaths per year, it was determined that a strong central advocate was needed to reduce the risk against fire.

So advocacy is a good thing, right? Well, maybe not. As USFA staff were getting ready for the Prevention Advocacy and Resource and Data Exchange Conference, which was held May 17–19 at the National Fire Academy, an unnamed federal manager suggested or otherwise directed that advocacy be removed from PARADE or changed to some other “A” word. But how can you advocate to reduce the national fire problem if the organization created to be an advocate can’t accept the appropriateness of the word advocate in the title of one of its key programs? We certainly haven’t declared “Mission Accomplished” yet.

In 2003 a group of fire and life safety professionals gathered at the NFA to begin planning and organizing the first PARADE conference. It was this group of some of the nation’s leading fire marshals and members of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire and Life Safety Section, the International Fire Marshals Association and the National Association of State Fire Marshals who decided that advocacy needed to be a key word in the name of the prevention group. Even if the name included only the first two words, prevention and advocacy, the word advocacy was a logical choice because it embodied the mission and function of the USFA.

So what is behind the urgency to drop advocacy as a USFA attribute? More to come on this story, but in the mean time maybe you can suggest an appropriate word that means active support. “Prevention Accomplished”? No!

Of course I know that you’re smarter than a fifth-grader (though some of the questions on that TV quiz show have raised some doubts about myself), but can you answer a few simple questions that have come up in conversations over the past two weeks on the road? I’m on a quest for some honest answers.

• Do you and your department plan to participate in the IAFC’s Safety Stand Down the week of June 17–23? Will you participate more or less than last year? If you won’t be participating at all, why not? (No recriminations here, just the truth.)




• Did you or your department participate in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Whistle Stop Bus Tour? If yes, what was your opinion of the tour? If no, besides distance, why not?




• In what ways does your department participate in the “green” environmental movement? Recycling? Solar panels? Other?

The 20 most interesting responses to janet@firechief.com will receive a set of SPRI exercise bands and a Chicago Fire Department Exercise poster, so include your full name and address in case you’re a winner!

Speaking of chances, how would you like a chance to receive $5,000 worth of top-quality, new equipment and tools free for your department? For the past four years, the Fire & Emergency Manufacturers & Services Association has offered fire departments a chance to win equipment from their members in exchange for filling out a simple online survey. In each of the past three years, fewer than 1,700 surveys have been completed, so your chances of winning could be pretty good! If your department would like the chance to comb through FEMSA member catalogs to select new equipment, then complete the questions at www.femsa.org/survey. A winner will be selected at the FEMSA meeting in October.

Finally, don’t you hate when people don’t pay their bills? Especially if they agreed to pay but then waffle and start changing the rules about payment? What if the late funds are supposed to be paid to fallen firefighters’ survivors?

The Department of Justice is the guilty culprit in this situation, and it’s time to help persuade President George W. Bush to tell them to pay up. The DOJ’s administration of the Public Safety Officers’ Benefit program, particularly the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act (PL 108-182), has made only two positive determinations out of the nearly 250 claims. This dithering around is an insult to Congress that also is forcing families to jump bureaucratic hurdles to prove their claims.

The Hometown Heroes Act, which was unanimously passed three years ago in both Houses of Congress, was created to provide a “presumptive benefit” to the families of public safety officers who die from a heart attack or stroke in the line of duty.

On behalf of the firefighters who gave their lives in the line of duty, I encourage you to write a letter to President Bush on your department’s letterhead and mail it today. Sean Carroll of the Congressional Fire Services Institute offers a sample letter, which you can download as a Microsoft Word document at firechief.com.

(Editor’s Note: CFSI Executive Director Bill Webb clarifies that this letter is being circulated on Capitol Hill for members of Congress to sign. “While a letter writing campaign by the fire service is important,” says Webb, “we need Congress to send a message to the White House as well.” To that end, he encourages members of the fire service to contact their senators and representatives to sign this letter to the president.)

I’d bet if these Hometown Heroes had the chance, they’d send a letter on your behalf, especially if the money helped make a mortgage payment or school tuition for your survivors.

Back in 2000 I had the good fortune to represent my department at FDIC in Indianapolis. It was my first time attending that fire service conference, and like thousands of others I was not disappointed. The vast array of educational presentations — not to mention the awesome number of vendor displays of the latest in emergency response technology — was overwhelming to say the least.

One of my most lasting “take-aways” from that trip was a session on conducting tactical simulations for company officers. Instructors from the Albuquerque (N.M.) Fire Department delivered a great program on how to conduct low-cost tactical training for company officers. They created graphics with PowerPoint and photo-editing software that depicted fire situations for occupancies in their locality. The department created one scenario per month that all the chief officers then took to the field to use one-on-one with their junior officers. Each scenario had a written Incident Action Plan, in addition to the graphics on overhead transparencies — remember those? — so that training was conducted consistently.

The goal of their work was not to have a “testing” scenario that put the officer in the hot seat; rather, they sought to provide an opportunity for officers to work through an incident scenario that could happen any day. Then the officers could discuss how they handled the problem. The goal was to have a 30- to 40-minute coaching session, much like a head coach watching his football team run a play in practice before quickly discussing how well the play was executed and what needs to be improved before Sunday‘s game.

I brought their concept home and immediately began using it with the company officers in my battalion. I was a new battalion chief at the time and found that it helped me establish credibility and trust with my new team. (I had a battalion at that time of six stations and eight company officers.) I know that I learned a great deal from everyone whom I facilitated, and my officers and their firefighters really looked forward to our short but productive sessions. They always said that they appreciated the time I spent with them because they learned how to be better initial incident commanders, and they learned what my expectations were for them at the emergency scene in that role.

Here are some common themes that we‘ve learned over the years doing these tactical simulations.

The 7 Fundamental Steps of Firefighting

In the absence of a “slide in your tray” of how you handled a similar type of fire, i.e. “R-Prime Recognition” decision-making, we all need to know these seven fundamental objectives for fire situation control and use them as our guide for decision-making:

• Size-up.




• Call for help.




• Rescue.




• Protect exposures.




• Locate and confine the fire.




• Extinguish the fire.




• Overhaul the fire.




• (Salvage and ventilation anywhere these objectives are needed.)

Just like the ABCs of EMS — you can’t move to Breathing until you have a secure Airway — we shouldn’t move from a higher-priority objective until that primary objective has been accomplished. For example, protect exposures before committing resources to extinguishment.

The Importance of the On-Scene Report

This first radio report, usually transmitted from the front seat by the first-arriving officer, should start to “paint the picture” for other responding resources. Those other fire companies should start to “see” the same building and fire conditions as that first-arriving officer.

A standard “On-Scene Report” should include:

• Number of building stories




• Type of construction (Example: wood-frame, ordinary, non-combustible, fire-resistant)




• Type of occupancy (Example: single-family, multi-family, small commercial, strip shopping center, industrial)




• Fire conditions observed (Example: “Fire showing from the second-floor window on “Alpha” side, heavy smoke issuing from eaves.”)




• Name of the command (Example: Engine 14 has Sand Hills Command)

In addition to the basic information, identify for all companies which side of the structure is Side A for command purposes so that everyone is working from the same “map.” Many occupancies these days, especially apartment and office complexes, have really unusual layouts; everyone can have a different opinion regarding which side of the building is Side A depending on their direction of arrival. By orienting everyone to the building layout upfront, the incident commander can avoid communication issues later in the incident.

Continue to paint the picture for those other responding resources with your continuing communication. Include pertinent descriptive terminology such as “garden apartments” or “townhouse apartments” rather than just “multi-family dwelling.” Your on-scene report should sound something like this: “Engine 14 is on location with a two-story, wood-frame, single-family dwelling. I’ve got fire showing from the second-floor window on Side Alpha and heavy smoke issuing from eaves. Engine 14 has Sand Hills Command on Side Alpha.

Communicate Incident Action Plan in Size-up Report

Your size-up report — the second radio report after you’ve left your unit and completed your size-up of the situation — is where you need to articulate what your initial Incident Action Plan is going to be. By articulating the IAP, the other arriving fire companies have a better idea of what tactical objective they might be given.

Your size-up report should include:

• Existing fire conditions (”Fire showing from second-floor window on Charley side.”)




• Status of incident priorities (”All occupants accounted for, preparing for fire attack with 1¾ line, awaiting rapid-intervention crew before making interior attack.”)




• Tactical assignments for incoming resources

A good size-up report should sound something like this: “Sand Hills Command to all units. Fire also showing from second-floor window on Charley side. All occupants accounted for. Operating in offensive mode, preparing for interior fire attack with 1¾ line, awaiting RIC. Engine 1 take RIC and Truck 14 provide forcible entry for fire attack to Engine 14.”

Confirmed Communication

Orders received are not orders confirmed until the receiver repeats the message back to the sender. Example: “Truck 3 from Command, forcible entry support for fire attack on Floor 1 with Engine 11.” The order is confirmed when Truck 3’s officer communicates, “Command from Truck 3, copy forcible entry support for fire attack on Floor 1 with Engine 11.”

Position Ambulances to Leave Scene Prior to Firefighting

Ambulance crews need to ensure that they position their units so that, in the event of a civilian or firefighter casualty, the ambulance is in a position to be loaded and leave the scene without having to back up. The crew also needs to bring their stretcher to the scene and secure EMS equipment from one of the first-in fire units to have the total patient-care package in close proximity to the incident to ensure “seamless patient care” in the event of a firefighter or civilian injury or rescue. (Our ambulances are staffed with cross-trained firefighters of BLS or ALS certification. An ambulance is part of every first-alarm assignment, and the ambulance crew is a fire or EMS resource available to the IC.)

We’ve progressed from using overhead transparencies and now use computers with LCD projectors in the fire stations, but the coaching concepts are still the same. I think you can experience similar success by giving your company officers the “play,” letting them “run the play,” and then talking about how they did.

My officers and I have experienced many situations over the years where we’ve responded to an incident, managed the emergency, and then afterwards the first-in officer came up to me and said, “Just like the one we ‘burned’ [in a tactical simulation] a couple of months ago. Right, Chief?” Right.

Fire protection professionals have been working for nearly 30 years to promote the installation of residential fire sprinklers in U.S. homes. It is the one way to reduce home fire risk, short of actually preventing fires from starting. Teamed with smoke alarms, residential sprinklers nearly eliminate fire deaths in homes. Only those who are intimate with the fire are at risk.

Smoke alarms have been a very effective means of alerting residents to fires if they are installed properly and are operational. Despite the requirements for smoke alarms in building and fire safety codes, they are not installed or functional in all housing units. According to one white paper on the subject, home smoke alarms are absent in approximately 4 million housing units. These 4 million homes are where 50% of all fire deaths occur. The paper further presented that another 21 million housing units have alarms that are missing batteries or are otherwise not operational.

One way to provide long-term protection against fire in homes is through the presence of residential fire sprinklers. But we need to start now so that the United States includes this effective safety technology as new homes continue to be built. One way to obtain a national requirement for residential fire sprinklers is to make it part of the building code. This could happen this spring in Rochester, N.Y., where hundreds of fire service representatives will be fighting to include residential fire sprinklers in the International Residential Code as part of the International Code Council’s code cycle hearings. They want to move it from its current place as an appendix and voluntary to a mandatory requirement.

Providing requirements for residential sprinklers in the residential building code removes the necessity for each individual jurisdiction to exercise the legislative or regulatory influence to create local code language. It has been very difficult to achieve this, in part due to the overwhelming opposition of the building industry to the inclusion of sprinklers. If we depended on a strictly local approach — one township, city or county at a time — it is difficult to imagine that we would ever get to the appropriate critical mass of sprinkler-protected housing to make a big difference in fire safety. Residential sprinkler technology has been around for close to 30 years, and we have made little impact in the housing stock that has been built since that time.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2005 there were 396,000 residential fires that resulted in 3,055 deaths and 13,825 civilian injuries. Four out of five fire deaths occur in homes. We know that a significant number of these casualties could have been prevented if the residents had been afforded the opportunity to escape their home before a fire had grown to the point where it either blocked their escape or rendered them physically unable to react. Residential fire sprinklers offer residents more time to react to fires in the home because sprinklers are designed to contain a fire and reduce its potential for flashover. We need to start now to provide this protection in homes for the future. Eventually redevelopment for more density and modernization will allow us to increase the presence of sprinklers in all homes.

Residential fire sprinklers also have become a focus for national efforts to reduce firefighter casualties. Clearly a significant number of firefighter deaths occur either on the scene of fires or en route. Reducing the fire’s growth and preventing flashover makes the fire more manageable and results in a safer environment for firefighters. The requirement of residential sprinklers in homes is one of the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives identified by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Everyone Goes Home program. Initiative #15 says, “Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers. Progress toward this goal could begin to be realized with increased installation of residential sprinklers.

You can learn more about the efforts to include language requiring residential fire sprinklers at the IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition Web site.