Fire Chief

If art imitates life, the fire service should ask itself what kind of message it is sending these days about our ethics. In a recent episode of the long-running cartoon sitcom The Simpsons, Homer and his friends become volunteer firefighters after a drug-addled Homer crashes his car into the Springfield fire station, disabling the town’s firefighters.

As Homer, Moe, Principal Skinner and Apoo begin receiving recognition, respect and rewards from their fellow Springfield citizens for their efforts, they begin to assume a sense of entitlement. When Mr. Burns, Springfield’s most prominent resident, rebuffs their requests for reward, they begin helping themselves to the spoils of war with the red devil.

As Homer’s behavior begins to spin out of control, Marge and Lisa force him to confront his demons before he loses their respect or further erodes his dignity. As his fellow volunteers scramble for booty in the next burning building they enter, it starts to collapse, literally as well as figuratively. Homer rises to the occasion, rescuing his fellow firefighters from both the fire and the consequences of their looting. All ends well with Homer recognizing that a job well-done is its own reward, regaining his self-respect and the admiration of his loving family.

Good satire always has at its core a kernel of truth. What truth then does this episode reveal about us?

Has the fire service become just another vocal, disaffected self-interest group? Are we signaling the community that we not only deserve their respect but also demand rewards for our service beyond reasonable compensation for our labor and expenses? What does our behavior say about our values? Others can only judge our ideals through our actions. What are we doing to promote ethics and sound moral reasoning among our firefighters?

I recently helped conduct interviews for the appointment of a chief fire officer in a metropolitan fire department. The candidates each were given 10 minutes to prepare a five-minute presentation on a project with which they had been involved, either as a leader or participant, that either promoted or embodied one or more of five key values: service to community, skill, integrity, adaptability and camaraderie. These presentations were, on the whole, disappointing. Ten minutes does not give you enough time to think too long or hard about what you want to say, and as such it minimizes if not eliminates the opportunity to baffle with BS when unable to dazzle with brilliance.

Values are something you feel, and what I saw suggests that we don’t feel too deeply about what we’re doing these days.

Of the four presentations, the two most consistently overlooked of the five values were integrity and service to community. Skills, adaptability and camaraderie strike me more as means than ends. Each of the presentations that emphasized these values suggested in one way or another how the things we do enhance our value to the community (in contrast to increasing the value we deliver to the community) and reinforce our sense of loyalty to one another. I couldn’t help thinking that anyone outside our organization hearing these presentations might need to be forgiven for thinking that we were only in the fire department for ourselves.

Despite my sense of disappointment, even despair, at the quality of the presentations I heard and what they might say about ethics in the fire service, I remain firmly of the view that firefighters join the service out of a sense of longing to be part of something bigger than themselves. They, like most of us, genuinely wish to be of service to others. The rewards for such service come from the tacit knowledge that they are, with our support and guidance, making the world a better place simply through their willingness to put their lives on the line for others.

Of course, we want to minimize the risks we face as well as those we expose our firefighters to. That is only rational and responsible behavior. But we should also want to know that what we do makes a difference, both for us and for those we serve. Too often these days, we seem to avoid situations where we can be assured of making a difference simply because the work that produces those results is not accompanied by the same level or risk and accompanying recognition and reward we get from fighting a big fire or making a daring rescue.

We should see serving the community as a privilege and a calling, not just a job. We should not tolerate a sense of entitlement within our ranks or promote the idea that firefighting is any more noble or necessary than the other vocations we depend upon to make our communities safe, comfortable, prosperous, enjoyable and just places to live. None of this precludes promoting a sense of pride in our profession or recognizing our accomplishments so long as we remember that we are here for others not ourselves.

Getting right with ourselves means getting right with the communities for whom we work and appreciating that their world does not and should not revolve around us. Every community has its Montgomery Burns. If we depend on their recognition as our reward we will inevitably succumb to bitterness and a sense of entitlement. As Homer learned the hard way, when we respect ourselves and place the needs of others first, we will always enjoy a far greater reward, one that can’t be taken from us.