Since the first of the year, Ohio has suffered several serious fires that have raised media attention. In just this state, there have been 14 to 16 fire fatalities, depending on the coroners’ final determinations. Two of the fires, which appear to be arsons, have claimed 11 of those lives.

In a 20 mile radius from my city, there have been fire fatalities in Mason, Forest Park and St. Bernard, and two more people died in a motor-vehicle crash in Fairfield Township, either from the impact or from the resulting fire. There have been at least three other major fires that displaced more than 30 people, all in residential occupancies and caused by space heaters or heating systems, cigarettes or smoking materials, kitchen fires, or candles. I don’t know if these occupancies had smoke detectors, but at least one family of 11 attributes their escape to a working smoke detector that alerted them to leave.

In the last few weeks, the USFA, the NFPA and the IAFC all have disseminated media releases on accidental fire causes. But are you prepared to get your fire safety message across when talking to the media, especially after a major fire? If not, it is as easy to prepare as going to the Web sites of these and other outstanding fire service organizations to look up statistics, view press release ideas or find additional contact information.

If all else fails, there are two quick fallbacks. The first is to talk about working smoke alarms. If the building had them, highlight their success story and talk about how the smoke alarms alerted family members who, with an exit plan, had enough time to escape the building. If there were no working smoke alarms present, tell how since their introduction more than 30 years ago these devices have helped lower the number of fire fatalities in the United States by 70%.

The second fallback is to talk about sprinkler systems. If the fire is in a newer home or commercial occupancy, talk about how a sprinkler system would have or did help extinguish the fire. Sprinklers, especially in residential use, could greatly reduce the remaining number of fire deaths in the United States and add to firefighter safety.

The Institution of Fire Engineers–USA Branch both in a preliminary Web cast in February and at a national meeting in late March will discuss the next steps in fire prevention and public education. “Vision 2020” is the brain child of my good friend and fellow FIRE CHIEF author, Ozzie Mirkhah. This conference will help set the benchmarks to follow in fire prevention for the next 15 years. Be a part of this exciting time that will be as close as your computer.

Designing a fire station or facility can be both exciting and daunting. Whether it’s your first station or your 20th, each project breeds new challenges and marks a significant investment in the future. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be alone on the journey.

When FIRE CHIEF held its first-ever Station Style Conference in 2006, the goal was to pair emergency services leaders with experienced design professionals who would help departments design and build facilities to meet their evolving missions. Based on attendee input after that conference in Phoenix and last year’s event in Denver, we have made several improvements for the 2008 Station Style Conference, which will be held April 26–29 in Phoenix.

This year’s conference will feature more presentations by end-users and department personnel. Presenters for the general session this year will include several fire chiefs from across the country who have experience in building multiple stations.

No conference programs are scheduled for Saturday, April 26, but those who arrive early can participate in a golf scramble. The event will run from 12:30 p.m. until evening and promises networking opportunities and friendly competition, followed by dinner and prizes.

The preconference program begins on Sunday, April 27, and features two sessions. The first is a re-organized program for fire and emergency personnel called “Beginning Design.” Nine architects will offer ideas and guidance and answer your question one on one. The program will be limited to 100 fire department personnel or 40 departments.

The second preconference session, “Experience Speaks,” is designed primarily for architects and will be moderated by Editor Rick Markley. Several chiefs from across the country will share their experiences in building fire and emergency facilities.

Breaks will be provided that day. In the afternoon, attendees will have the opportunity to tour Phoenix fire stations in various stages of development.

The conference opens with the general session on Monday, April 28. Afternoon breakout sessions will cover air-quality systems, doors and windows, and flooring. The day will conclude with a reception.

A second general session will bring the conference to a close on Tuesday, April 29. Attendees will be provided with breakfast, lunch and breaks on Monday and Tuesday.

FIRE CHIEF has secured a special conference rate at the downtown Wyndham Hotel Phoenix, which is located within walking distance of a wide range of dinner options.

Registration is now open for the conference. For more information, a complete agenda and speaker notes, or to register, click here.

I hope to see you in Phoenix.

We’re less than a week away from the beginning of the much-anticipated auction of 700-MHz spectrum, but we still have no indication whether a wireless operator will bid on the 10 MHz of commercial D Block airwaves, which is supposed to be paired with public safety’s 10 MHz to provide the foundation for a nationwide wireless broadband network for emergency responders.

Since the well-chronicled demise of Frontline Wireless earlier this month, speculation has been rampant among industry observers whether an operator will submit a minimum bid of $1.3 billion for the D Block. And all we have is speculation, because the FCC’s anti-collusion rules prohibit the agency or anyone else from disclosing whether any entity even submitted a qualified application for the D Block license, much less whether they actually will bid on the spectrum.

I have yet to find an industry observer who believes there is better than a 50% chance that there will be a bidder for the D Block. The reasons for not bidding are numerous, but a key point is the $15 billion to $20 billion projected cost for a network that needs to provide unprecedented coverage and performance. In addition, the fact that the public-private partnership model is unproven represents the kind of uncertainty that investors are trying to avoid amid a projected credit crunch — a reality that apparently undermined Frontline.

However, FCC and public-safety officials continue to express optimism that there will be at least one bidder. I hope this optimism is warranted, because the proposed public-private partnership is an inspired way to give public safety much-needed broadband tools without having to find the massive amount of upfront capital to build a network.

If no D Block bidders emerge in this auction — and we won’t know that is the case until the auction is completed, probably sometime in March — the FCC would have to reauction the swath of airwaves, presumably with different rules governing the spectrum. This could be as simple as lowering the reserve price, or it could involve altering the buildout or public safety–related requirements.

Promising to complicate matters in such a scenario would be the timing of events. Even if a second auction is fast tracked, there’s a decent chance that the identity of the winning bidder would not be known until June. FCC rules provide the D Block winner and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust — the licensee for public safety’s broadband spectrum — six months to negotiate a complex network-sharing agreement. Such a timeline presents the possibility that the FCC would need to review the terms — or disputed aspects — of the network-sharing in December or January, when history tells us it’s likely that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be a lame duck or replaced, regardless of which party wins the White House.

If a typical post-election FCC transition occurs during this time period, it may be difficult for the agency to devote the kind of attention to the network-sharing agreement that it would like in a quick manner, as staff will be processing new appointments, shuffling offices and helping provide last-minute preparations for the transition to digital television that is scheduled for February 2009.

Regardless which scenario occurs, leadership from the PSST is a vital component to making the public-private partnership concept a reality. Educating the emergency-response community about the 700-MHz broadband endeavor is a must during the next several months. In addition, the PSST may have to work even more with public safety to retool expectations regarding network specifications in an effort to make the project more palatable to a commercial operator, without compromising the primary mission.

With the process having so many moving parts, it’s doubtful that the 15-member PSST board will be able to reach an internal consensus on all issues that will face the licensee. However, maintaining a united front publicly is crucial, as signs of dissension could undermine the PSST’s position in negotiating the network-sharing agreement.

Similarly, it is important that the PSST — an entity with no clear way to generate revenue until a network-sharing agreement is reached — demonstrate that it is financially stable enough to withstand even protracted delays, because any indication of weakness in this area could be exploited by the D Block winner in negotiations.

In a federal-government arena, decisions typically are made at a glacial-like pace. That has not been the case with this public-private partnership concept, which amazingly moved from a dismissed notion last March to an FCC order less than five months later. Hopefully, the pieces will fall into place — beginning with a commercial partner and strong PSST leadership — to allow this innovative idea to become a broadband reality for emergency responders.

The organization Women in the Fire Service started in 1982 with a focus on female firefighters and officers. Years later, during a Fire-Rescue International in Kansas City, five women fire chiefs took me to lunch to talk about promoting a new organization for female chiefs, one that would address leadership skills, networking and other concerns of women chiefs. That was the impetus for the Women Chief Fire Officers Association, which started in 1997.

Two years ago, I hosted a meeting in FIRE CHIEF’s Chicago office between the WFS and the WCFO to discuss common problems and possible solutions that might offer stronger support and enhanced services for both organizations. Working together also could offer expanded opportunities for networking and career development.

The two organizations continued their dialogue and this fall they announced they would merge into one organization: the International Association of Women in Fire and Emergency Services. WCFO President Chief Laurie Mooney, EFO, and WFS President Bttn. Chief Cheryl Horvath will serve as co-presidents of IAWFES, which now has close to 1,100 members.

“Many WCFO’s members can reflect upon their own career achievements, promotions, networking and mentoring successes,” Mooney wrote on the WCFO’s Web site, reflecting on its decade as an organization. “While we can all admire our past successes, we must rededicate our future efforts for strengthening a proactive network that supports, mentors, and educates current and future women chief fire officers.”

A new Web site will launch next week, as will registration for the Eighth Biennial Fire Service Women‘s Leadership Training Seminar, which will be held April 24–27 in Glendale, Ariz.

According to Horvath, speakers will include U.S. Fire Administrator Chief Greg Cade; Dr. Larry Iverson, well-known for workshops in the wildland sector; Kimberly Alyn, who will discuss promotions; and Bttn. Chief Katherine Ridenhour, with her dynamic workshop on assessment centers. In addition, Ridenhour also will hold a tactical workshop on strip mall fires.

“You do not have to be a member or female to attend this leadership training seminar,” said Horvath. Look for the ad on the IAWFES seminar in the January issue of FIRE CHIEF.

Remember the five women chiefs I lunched with at in Kansas City? Each one is retired but still actively involved in the field of emergency services. They have passed the torch to a new generation of women in the emergency services and I think the future is looking pretty bright.

By Joan Buzzard

On Nov. 1, 2004, the Effingham (Ill.) Fire Department experienced a change in leadership that forever changed operations in this small southern department. The newly appointed chief was from the north and believed that teaching his firefighters ownership responsibilities was just as important as other training and quickly implemented these beliefs into action. While ownership and in-house accountability aren’t new concepts in the fire service, success stories such as Effingham’s are deserve attention, as they reinforce these principals and prove they work.

Effingham is a small yet progressive town situated 200 miles south of Chicago. The department needed to reorganize and change shift hours, staffing and training requirements to serve a growing community. With nearby interstates and two major rail lines, officials realized they needed a leader with proven skills who could prepare the combination fire department for a variety of disasters.

While fire department personnel were expecting some of these changes, a change in leadership meant some apprehension. But Chief Joe Holomy was experienced, educated and most of all committed to the ideas and beliefs of ownership and accountability.

So how does a new chief — a complete stranger to the community — reorganize personnel responsibilities and implement new shift hours and training requirements, develop a sense of ownership and accountability, and still manage to have everyone talking to him?

Devoting adequate time to understanding and realizing the potential of each individual firefighter/officer within the ranks is the first step. Delegating responsibilities based on individual strengths and interests is a must for positive results. Allowing some input from personnel in this area is beneficial, but trusting your instincts and experience to guide you with your final decisions is required, too.

Personnel assessment is not a new concept, but it bears repeating and is applicable to fire departments large and small. Any emergency agency that supplies multiple services to the public, no matter how small, should assess personnel and then establish divisions/committees guided by these assessments. In doing so, the workload is delegated, and expertise can be developed in multiple areas. Remember to assist from a distance; set deadlines and hold each person accountable in his or her respective area.

However, the essential component needed for the concept of ownership to take hold is true accountability. Ownership, in this application, means that everyone is held accountable for the success of the department and all are expected to contribute their share toward that end. Each committee whether it is strategic planning or training, should be comprised of a mix of members from the career and POC/part-time or volunteer ranks when possible. Each member then should be expected to respect the opinions of others, educate and train in their respective areas, attend meetings to establish goals, and contribute to the formation of any plans to implement new ideas. Division/committee leaders of each area are also responsible for submission of budgets and monthly reports for their areas.

So what is the chief doing during this time? He is sitting in on the various committee meetings, contributing his ideas, evaluating new suggestions, mentoring the members of the department, keeping an open mind, and trusting his fellow firefighters to do their jobs. If the chief is truly committed to the concept of ownership, his door is always open to his staff and their ideas. Communication is the key; constructive criticism is always allowed while any negative feedback is evaluated for merit purposes only. Any recognition for achievements accomplished is usually shared by all. As chief, remind your firefighters it is “their” department and any goals achieved are a direct result of their diligence and hard work.

In the end, if you have held true to these beliefs and implemented these practices, you have not only fostered enthusiasm within your department but you have managed to instill a sense of pride that results from taking true ownership. A new found respect between you and the members of your department will develop provided a professional decorum built on trust is established and maintained. Work ethics are forever changed and a sense of pride for goals established and accomplished are the end result. An added outcome bonus is the new leaders that you have mentored for the next generation.

In less than two years, the Effingham Fire Department was reorganized and operating at peak performance, thanks to Holomy and the department personnel who believed in him and the concepts of ownership and accountability.

During this same two-year time span, when he was implementing the positive changes within his own department, Holomy managed to pull together 20 area fire departments/districts into what is now known as MABAS Division 54, applying this same concept of ownership. It did not take long for the chiefs of these area departments/districts to realize the benefits in training together and meeting often to solve problems within their division. Their dedication and ownership beliefs have helped them organize and create the Illinois MABAS Division 54 Hazmat Tech A Team that now serves Homeland Security Region 17.

A department can achieve ownership and true accountability with hard work, dedication and a strong leader. However, ownership does require constant maintenance and a personal pledge by all department personnel, administration, and city leaders for continued cooperation and accountability.

Joan Buzzard is the executive secretary to the fire chief for the Effingham (Ill.) Fire Department. She also has served as the secretary to the Effingham Board of Fire & Police Commissioners. Currently, Buzzard is the MABAS Division 54 executive board secretary, a board member of the Illinois Fire Service Administrative Professionals, a member/writer for the IFSAP Newsletter Committee and a volunteer member for the Illinois Mobile Administrative Support Team for MABAS. In 2005, she obtained certification as Fire Service Executive Support with the Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshall.

This week, a Missouri volunteer firefighter was sentenced to three years in prison for voluntary manslaughter for a fatal crash that killed a 17-year-old boy. In November 2006, the volunteer was responding to a brush fire in his private vehicle — no lights or sirens — at an estimated 84 mph. While passing one car on a blind hill, he hit another car head-on, killing the high-school junior.

According to the U.S. Fire Administration‘s provisional report on 2007 firefighter fatalities, two of every 10 firefighter fatalities occurred while responding to or returning from an incident. While seatbelts and speed were not necessarily factors in all of these fatalities, they were contributing factors for most of them.

I sit on the program committee for the Fire Department Safety Officers Association‘s 20th Annual Apparatus Specification and Maintenance Symposium. We discussed including a program on driver safety. I pushed hard for the committee to bring in a speaker on the Smith System, which trains drivers and instructors for a number of large commercial fleets. I learned about the Smith System when I worked for United Parcel Service as a customer-service manager. I was required to take the same driver-training class as all UPS package car drivers, and the Smith System‘s five keys to safe driving remain with me to this day.

The symposium begins on Jan. 20 in Orlando, Fla. The afternoon speaker will be James A. Smith, senior vice president of training for the Smith System. Smith (no relation to the founder) will talk about safe driving for emergency vehicle apparatus.

“Reading the [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] reports, I kept seeing two things: departments had to put SOPs into practice and that people needed to be trained in driving,” Smith said about preparing for his presentation. “Is that training being accomplished?”

Smith will talk about forward-motion accidents, rollovers and the issues involved with higher centers of gravity and cornering. “People aren‘t seeing it early enough and are letting their head and feet get ahead of their minds and eyes,” he said. He also will discuss safely entering intersections, based on his experiences training ambulance drivers.

“We‘re going to give attendees options and something that they can take back and use — the keys to safer driving,” Smith said. “It‘s not how to operate specific vehicles; it’s about driving safely.”

As I‘ve said in previous years, this is my favorite no-frills, common-sense symposium for chiefs and officers involved in specifying emergency vehicle apparatus. Other speakers include Chief Billy Goldfeder on “The Apparatus People: Why You Do What You Do?” and my favorite dynamic speaker, attorney Jim Juneau, delivering a reality-check with “How to Keep Your Butt Out of Jail: The Liability of Apparatus Operators and Spec Writers.”

It‘s too late for the Missouri volunteer firefighter to stay out of jail, but the programs offered at the this symposium will help you specify and maintain safer apparatus and hopefully will keep you out of jail or the funeral home.

The Jan. 7 edition of U.S. News and World Report offered “50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2008.” The collection of articles suggests New Year resolutions that will help improve both individuals and their communities. My wife, Diana, who is a classically trained dance teacher, was immediately drawn to the article on learning to ballroom dance for both fitness and recreation. I was drawn to the article urging folks to join their local volunteer fire departments and serve their communities in an organized and time-honored fashion.

The article indicates that 72% of the firefighters in the United States are volunteers, but these numbers have dropped by 8% since 1984. It also indicated that volunteer departments also need non-emergency support staff, and interested individuals should contact 1-800-FIRELINE for more details on how to volunteer.

The article is extremely timely as it follows an article by Jim Wilson, fire chief of Mariposa County, Calif., in the fall issue of the IAFC‘s VCOS News, the newsletter of the Volunteer & Combination Officers Section. Wilson reminds us not only should volunteer departments be on a constant mission to recruit and retain good members, but also that not every member needs to be trained or certified in every type of emergency handled by that department. Specialty-response members could be certified in traditional interior structural firefighting with or without wildland firefighting, EMS only, or support. He defined support to include such duties as the rehab team, accountability, logistics or PIO work. Aside from the emergency scene, these individuals also could help with any number of clerical duties to assist the officers and the department in administration.

Those of us who rely on volunteer or part-time firefighters in part or solely need to make a New Year‘s resolution not only to recruit good candidates for our department but to also make the volunteer recruiting process more user-friendly. Wouldn‘t it be great if this started a trend back to individuals taking time for community service that included more help for the local fire department?

With the 700-MHz auction less than three weeks away, speculation is rampant regarding which operators will secure valuable spectrum, particularly for the 10-MHz D Block that will be paired with public safety’s 10-MHz in the band to provide the foundation for a nationwide broadband wireless network.

Jan. 4 was the deadline for the 266 potential bidders to make their upfront payments to the FCC and complete their applications to participate in the auction, something that most were expected to do. Assuming they fulfill their application requirements, the vast majority of bidders will be regional players likely pursuing some of the hundreds of licenses available in the A and B blocks — airwaves not encumbered by rules requiring open access (as in the 22-MHz C Block) or a deal with public safety (as in the D Block).

“Of the 266, the majority are after the A and B blocks,” mobile wireless analyst Andrew Seybold said during an interview with MRT. “There are very few on this list, I would guess, that have the stomach to go after the C and D blocks.”

Indeed, bidders will need deep pockets to secure one of the seven C Block licenses — the combined reserve price is $4.6 billion — or the nationwide D Block license, which will require a minimum bid of $1.3 billion. That’s a lot of money to invest before spending a dime on network deployment.

Groups that can be ruled out include Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and the cable consortium that bid in last year’s AWS auction, because none of them filed an application to participate in the auction (some cable firms are expected to bid individually, probably on a regional basis).

Familiar names that have filed applications and have the money to make a bid on nationwide spectrum include incumbent wireless providers like Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, as well as intriguing entrants like Google, Frontline Wireless, Qualcomm, Chevron and Vulcan Spectrum, which is headed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Seybold believes Chevron and Vulcan are seeking targeted regional spectrum, while Qualcomm is most interested in the E Block — an unpaired 6-MHz swath that is adjacent to the airwaves the company is using for its MediaFLO mobile-broadcasting initiative. Google is expected to bid on the C Block, which includes the open-access mandate the company championed before the FCC.

While it’s possible that one or more of these four entities might be interested in the D Block, none would be considered a probable D Block bidder. Seybold said Qualcomm’s broadband public-safety experience in the Washington, D.C., area makes it particularly intriguing, but he doubts the vendor will want to risk being seen as a competitor to its service-provider customers.

With this in mind, Seybold said he believes the most likely D Block bidders are Verizon Wireless (bidding as Cellco Partnership), AT&T Mobility and Frontline Wireless (bidding as Licenseco). Frontline publicly has expressed interest in working with public safety on a nationwide basis, while Verizon and AT&T have been discussing possibilities with public-safety officials for more than a year.

“I didn’t see any other names that could step up,” Seybold said.

Key officials representing the FCC and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust, the licensee for public safety’s 700-MHz broadband spectrum, have expressed confidence that an operator will bid for the D Block. But Seybold is not so sure any bidder is comfortable it can build a network on the spectrum that will meet public safety’s requirements and still deliver the return on investment needed to keep stockholders happy.

“That one’s too close to call for me,” Seybold said.

It is the possibility that no one will bid on the D Block that has to be most worrisome to public safety and FCC officials right now. Without a bid, the current idea of a public-private partnership for a public-safety network will have to be scrapped, and the first-responder community will be left with 10 MHz of prime spectrum and no clear way to fund the buildout of a network on it.

Hopefully, when the auction opens on Jan. 24, at least one qualifying bid will be made. Of course, the FCC’s anonymous-bidding rules will preclude us from knowing who has placed the high bid until the auction is finished — probably in March — but just knowing that a qualifying bid exists will let everyone involved proceed along the course established by the FCC last year.

At that point, it will be much easier for PSST officials to sleep. And they need their rest now, as burning the midnight oil could become the rule when the PSST tries to negotiate a network-sharing agreement with the D Block winner during the six-month window after the auction.

A fresh snowfall and a new calendar have a lot in common — both are clean and waiting for your input. Hopefully, you‘re enjoying the 2008 Station Style Calendar that was mailed with FIRE CHIEF‘s December issue. If you haven‘t received one, let me know.

Speaking of calendars, recently I found a really clever one created through a cooperative effort from the Gibraltar, Wis., school district and five Door County volunteer fire departments: Baileys Harbor, Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Gibraltar and Sister Bay/Liberty Grove.

For the third year, the school district held a poster competition for children in kindergarten through seventh grade. Each poster relates to an aspect of fire prevention or fire-safety education. Winners were selected by age group, and their photo appears on the calendar cover along with Sparky the Fire Dog and fire officials. The competition was so strong that a few months feature two posters and 19 students had drawings included in the 12-month calendar.

According to Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Chief Chris Hecht, local businesses sponsor a page of the calendar, and the remaining costs are covered by each of the fire departments. “We print about 1,500 calendars,” said Hecht. “Each student gets a calendar and the rest are available in the community.”

Hecht said that one of the guidelines was that each poster had to have a message that was quickly understood. Fifth grader Hannah Copiskey‘s poster cautions to “Always have two escapes out of every room and a meeting spot.” Beside each hand-drawn poster is a public-safety message that reminds people to display their fire number clearly outside their home and to designate a safe meeting spot in their escape plans.

This calendar is a clever way to get the kids involved in fire prevention and fire-safety education, but it also serves as an appeal for volunteer firefighters. The inside cover shows dramatic pictures of local fires and asks, “If your neighbor needed help … wouldn‘t you want to do more than just stand there?” It also provides contact information for each of the participating departments for interested volunteers.

I think this approach to fire-safety education for youngsters is really positive on several levels, including making the message more personal and rewarding. If you‘re interested in learning more about the Northern Door County Fire Department 2008 Fire Safety Calendar, e-mail Hecht at checht@newwis.com.

Be healthy and safe in 2008!