My wife, Diana, and I recently returned from a two-week vacation in Norway and Denmark. Whenever we travel, I like to stop and talk shop with firefighters whenever possible. During this trip, we had the opportunity to visit fire stations in Honnigsvag, Trondheim, Geiranger, Bergen and Stavanger. Three of these departments had career firefighters, while two relied solely on volunteers. With the exception of the equipment and apparatus manufacturers, the friendly atmosphere is no different than stopping in at a fire station in Wilmington, Fresno or Wyoming.

There is never a time when I don‘t learn something. For example, at the main station in Stavanger there is a beautifully restored 1935 Pierce open-cab engine sitting in the center bay of the apparatus floor. The engine survived the World War II and along with a post-war truck manufactured by the White Truck Company provided much of the fire protection for the city for close to 30 years. The Pierce remains the pride of the department and it is used for parades and special events. Unfortunately all that remains of the White unit are the front grill and a few photos on display in the department‘s museum.

What these visits prove is that firefighters are part of a “family” that is quickly becoming international. This year, more and more international travelers are visiting the United States on vacation and a good percentage will be firefighters and their families. With very few exceptions wherever we have traveled, we have been warmly welcomed at any fire station and treated not as stranger, but as friends. We need to be prepared to do the same if these guests visit our fire stations. There is value even in this brief international exchange.

Firefighting issues and problems are universal, and hearing a different approach to problem solving may give us some ideas to try in our own department. One such concept is air management. While we have only begun the discussion of how this fits into our accountability system, our Scandinavian and European counterparts have been tracking individual air usage for years. They record the SCBA pressure of every firefighter entering a hazardous environment, and rely on the company officer to keep the accountability sector informed of the lowest crew pressure each time they communicate with their sector officer or incident commander.

Firefighters are firefighters no matter what city, town or village they protect. Keep the welcome mat out for them. They are as eager to learn from us as we should be eager to learn from them. Wherever you go, whether to another country or another part of your state, spend some time with your fellow firefighters. Enjoy the conversation, share your knowledge when it is appropriate, network so you can call upon this expertise again, and take back at least one new idea to try on your own.

The fire service takes ladders for granted — until one fails. Boyd Cole saw too many aerial ladder problems as a volunteer firefighter. Consequently, he spent his career raising industry awareness and advocating safer ladders for firefighters to climb and crawl on.

Firefighters lost a good friend this week when Boyd died in Lincoln, Calif., after a brief but tough fight with acute myelogenous leukemia. He was 75.

In the early ’60s, Boyd was a fire equipment salesman and volunteer firefighter in Rancho Cordova, Calif. Wearing both hats, he saw the need for safer ladders and standardized testing for those ladders. Boyd started National Testing in 1978 and went on to work for Underwriters Laboratories from 1981 until he retired in 1996.

During his time with UL, Cole tirelessly worked for research and standardized testing of ladders. He traveled extensively to investigate and improve ladders and aerials for the fire service. Boyd also was a popular presenter on ladder technology and testing, speaking at hundreds of seminars and workshops across North America.

I first worked with Boyd in the early ’90s through the Emergency Vehicle Technician Certification Commission and the IAFC‘s Apparatus Maintenance Section. As the seasoned member of the team, the well-dressed Cole had an extraordinary way of clearing the political hurdles and getting to the point. He always had simple answers for complicated questions.

Whenever I saw Boyd at a trade show or a conference, I anticipated getting the third degree: What was I doing? What wasn‘t I doing that I should be doing? Why not? Boyd held everyone accountable for improving some aspect of the fire industry.

Boyd was a doer, not a talker. He served on numerous NFPA standards committees including 1500, Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program; 1901, Automotive Fire Apparatus; 1904, Aerial Ladder and Elevating Platform Apparatus; 1914, Testing for Fire Department Aerial Devices; 1921, Portable Pumps; 1931, Manufacturer’s Design of Fire Department Ground Ladders; 1932, Use, Maintenance, and Service Testing of In-Service Fire Department Ground Ladders; and 1971, 1972, 1973, relating to turnout gear.

For 10 years, Boyd also chaired the committee for NFPA 1071, Emergency Vehicle Technician Professional Qualifications. He supported and recognized the work of the emergency vehicle technicians and never missed an Apparatus Maintenance Section workshop.

Boyd is survived by his high-school sweetheart and wife of 57 years, Betty, and their six children, including three firefighter sons and one Air Force police officer daughter.

Boyd Cole climbed many ladders and aerials in his career, demanding improvements to ladder technology and recognition for the guys in the shops. This week, he reached new heights.

Last week, we shipped off to the printer a new supplement called PSAP, which will be published with Urgent Communications‘ August edition. In it is an interview with Brian Fontes, the new CEO of the National Emergency Number Association. Fontes told senior writer Donny Jackson that creating a universal service fund could solve the funding woes that long have plagued the public safety answering point sector. It’s a great idea, and long overdue.

In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act — an update to the Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC — which established the Universal Service Fund, to which all interstate telecommunications providers must contribute. The idea behind the fund was to create a subsidy mechanism to ensure that citizens who lived in rural, low-income or high-cost areas would have access to telecom services that were comparable to those enjoyed by urban dwellers — who benefit greatly from economies of scale — at comparable prices.

There is little question that affordable, advanced telecommunications services enrich lives. That said, a well-functioning 911 system saves them. Clearly, a dichotomy exists today between the 911 service enjoyed by residents of densely populated areas and that available to those in sparsely populated areas. Indeed, of the counties nationwide that still do not have Phase II wireless enhanced-911 service, the vast majority of them are rural.

And the money doesn‘t exist to upgrade them, either to Phase II or, better yet, to the next-generation technologies we‘ve been hearing about. Four years ago, Congress authorized $1.25 billion over a five-year period for Phase II upgrades, but only $43 million has been appropriated so far. NENA officials believe that recent legislation that allows funding from the ENHANCE 911 Act of 2004 to be used for purposes other than Phase II — something some on Capitol Hill believe will be better politically, given the advent of next-gen 911 and the fact that the most populous areas already have made the Phase II upgrade — will help the money to flow, and they‘re probably right.

But $1.25 billion isn‘t going to be enough to bring next-gen 911 services to every American, regardless of where they live. To get the job done, Congress is going to have to step up and make a bigger commitment to this. Yes, I know this is a tough economic climate, the federal budget is under extreme pressure, and taxpayers will be in no mood to hear about USF fees, even if they only amount to pennies per month.

But Congress always seems able to find taxpayer money for pet projects, regardless of the economic climate. It needs to make NG 911 a priority. And Fontes should make a USF model for the PSAP sector his priority. He‘s onto something.

Better still, let‘s create a public safety USF fund that also could be used to fund the proposed nationwide wireless broadband network in the 700 MHz band. We live in a world that grows more dangerous by the day. We, and the first responders who serve and protect us, need — and deserve — the very best emergency communications.

This week I visited the largest air show in England. The Farnborough Air Show is held every other year, alternating with the Paris Air Show, and it attracts some 250,000 military members, aviation professionals and enthusiasts who want a look at current and future innovations.

One such innovation is the 600-passenger AirBus A380. Currently only a handful of airports can handle loading and unloading the aircraft. But as I watched it circle above the field, I couldn’t help but think about the magnitude of a potential disaster with a plane this large.

After watching the planes, I did what comes natural for me: I wandered over to a couple fire trucks parked outside the exhibit halls.

The Hampshire Fire & Rescue Services provides emergency services for the Farnborough show. In case of an emergency, the Hampshire fire brigade is responsibile for the exhibition area and the airport‘s own emergency service is responsible for the Category 10 airfield, according Hampshire Fire Safety Engineer Phil Yarney.

“We don‘t attend calls outside the fence line,” said Yarney, an 18-year veteran of the fire brigade.

Hampshire adds only four reserve fire trucks and staff, including two small brush trucks, to cover the show. They also have a couple ambulances on standby, including a new, silver paramedic BMW. Fortunately calls aren‘t that frequent once the show opens.

“The previous week is all about inspecting the site, the electrical capabilities and to keep the risk and management down during construction weeks before the show begins,” said Yarney. “Because of the sensitivities of the area, it‘s a low-risk and low-volume event for us.”

One thing that impressed me at the show was its focus on environmently friendly airplanes. Displays for reduced emissions, fuel savings and lighter-weight plane bodies covered the exhibit halls.

How long until the emergency service industry starts to look at alternative fuel sources and lighter, more durable materials? How long until it accepts products that don’t affect food supply or the environment and that make use of recyclable materials? My money says these products already are in the works, and the fire and emergency services should be ready to embrace them.

Another item that caught my eye was a dual-helmet system. The design has an adjustable headband and retractable goggles for all Level-1 operations except for building-entry firefighting. A protective shell for firefighting fits over the top of the rescue helmet and is fitted with a retractable face shield and ear protection. Unfortunately, NFPA standards restrict the use of this particular helmet in the United States, according to one of the sales reps.

Aviation virtual-training software was another highlight at the show. American defense company Raytheon demonstrated its unmanned aerial vehicles with technology based on X-Box and Nintendo games. The company hired game developers to create virtual cockpits that use joysticks and control pads. Raytheon representatives said the gaming techniques are much quicker than traditional keyboards.

I‘ve seen several really good examples of similar technology here in the United States. High Voltage Software Systems devloped a state-of-the-art training program for incident commanders that challenges critical decision-making skills. Compelling Technologies also developed an incident command training system for company officers.

And UAVs already are making an impact here in the United States. In an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger credited an unmanned NASA aircraft with helping save a town from wildfire, calling the plane “one of the most exciting new weapons in our firefighting arsenal.”

The plane, an adaption of the Predator military drone, can stay in the air for more than 20 hours. It uses an infrared imagery system to identify hot spots and transmit that information.

The air show reminded me that Interschutz 2010 is on the horizon. Interschutz is the largest fire and emergency show in the world, bringing together the global fire service once every five years.

Imagine the possibilities and save your pennies!

On any given day as United States Fire Administrator, I receive an abundance of information regarding the nation’s fire service. As one can imagine, some of the information is good — and some is tragic.

It is the information I have been receiving over the past weeks which motivates me to comment today regarding the use — or more importantly, the lack of use — of seatbelts. It is a tragedy when we lose a firefighter to a fire; it‘s a national fire service tragedy and embarrassment when we lose firefighters from vehicle ejections.

This is something we can put an immediate stop to. Each and everyone one of us owns this problem. We are each responsible for the actions we take, or don‘t take. We are each responsible for stopping these preventable losses from ever occurring

Is riding fire apparatus unbuckled an act of bravery? What will you tell the survivors of a firefighter lost simply because they would not buckle up? What will the burden be of the survivors during future graduations, weddings and other significant life events be, knowing their firefighter could have shared it all by taking the simple step of buckling up? As company officers and supervisors, how could you possibly leave a station without your firefighters strapped in? I ask you today as fire service members, what part of firefighting is so important that you must be unbuckled riding on fire apparatus? What part of the mission of the fire service is so important that we allow firefighters to travel (by fire vehicles or POVs) without being securely belted into their seats? A common excuse is that riding unbuckled saves time, but in fact ejection and actions resulting from lack of seatbelt use impede the missions of your departments.

Enough is enough. Buckle up.

Several weeks ago I received word that Dallas Fire Chief Eddie Burns Sr. successfully led a department-wide effort to secure the 100% support of seatbelt usage by the members of the Dallas Fire Department. Over 1700 employees of the Dallas Fire Department have taken the simple and straight forward national seatbelt pledge to ensure that each and every member of the Dallas Fire Department is safely secured to moving fire apparatus. My sincere congratulations to the members of the Dallas Fire Department and to Chief Burns for this achievement.

Just yesterday I learned that Frederick County, Maryland has also achieved their 100% seatbelt pledge commitment. They join the growing ranks of departments that have achieved 100%. Given the recent actions of the Dallas Fire Department, Frederick County Fire Department and others including the IAFC Board of Directors, the staff here at the USFA have taken the pledge as well. We do not have fire apparatus here at USFA; we do however have a dedicated staff traveling back and forth from Washington, DC in official vehicles and involved with national response efforts of FEMA. Just as important, a significant number of USFA staff also volunteer in local fire and EMS departments.

I am pleased to announce that the Canadian Fire Services have also joined this effort.

When I heard the news of these and so many other departments now taking the pledge, I knew immediately there was no department in this nation — or Canada — that could not take this simple step to improve firefighter safety.

As many of you already know, and many others should know, firefighter Christopher Brian Hunton, age 27, was a member of the Amarillo Texas fire department for one year. On April 23, 2005 he fell out of his fire truck responding to an alarm; he died two days later from his injuries. Brian was not wearing his seat belt. It is in his name — and in the names of others who suffered a similar fate — that we continue to work to ensure all firefighters buckle up. It requires such little effort to ensure all firefighters go home at the end of the day and not become victims of this preventable death.

This is the second time I have addressed this issue with the fire service through the Chief‘s Corner, yet people keep dying, in part, due to their not wearing a seat belt. In my opinion, each and every one of these deaths is preventable. I truly wish I could understand why this act is looked upon with disdain by firefighters. I would like someone to explain to me why they feel putting their lives, their fellow firefighters and family at risk is a part of their job. Instead I continue to get line of duty death notifications where firefighters have made the conscious decision to risk everything and not wear their seatbelt.

Buckle up and take an extra moment to make sure your fellow firefighters are also.

The International City/County Management Association recently announced an audio conference for city and county managers called, “Asking Your Police and Fire Chief the Right Questions — to Get the Right Answers.”

The ad asked, “How many police and firefighters do you really need? How well are your public safety departments performing? Are ‘officers [firefighters] per 1,000′ and ‘number of calls’ really meaningful measures?” Government managers want to know how and why they should fund public safety the way fire chiefs want them to, so they are us to establish and use management practices that produce “meaningful” measures.

Recently Fire Chief Tom Carr of Montgomery County, Md., faced this new but relevant challenge. A new county executive and chief administrative officer changed the face of performance measures and created a county service performance system that was, in reality, the department head‘s personal performance plan.

Carr‘s management staff held several intense discussion and planning sessions to develop in just over two week what the new system identified as three to five headline, or essential, measures. These measures were chosen for their ability to reflect many of the department‘s efforts and resources and their effects. One example is the time-honored measure “percent of fires confined to the room of origin.” While this is not a new measure, it shows a number of components that affect how the service manages fire risk.

I recall first reading about this measure in the early fire service measurement manual, Procedures for Improving the Measurement of Local Fire Protection Effectiveness. This seminal work by Phil Scheanman, John R. Hall Jr. and others, published by NFPA, is as relevant today as when it was released in the mid 1970s.

Analyzing a measure such as how often we are successful at confining fire can address many dimensions of service. Consider that the following factors have an affect on an area of service depending on how it is applied. If residents fail to notify the fire department of a fire and fight it until it becomes unmanageable, the fire grows. If the 911 and dispatch function takes too long to prepare a fire call, the fire can grow. If you do not have enough fire resources or they are too far apart, response time increases and your fire can grow. If you do not have well-trained staff or have too few of them, their tactical work can be ineffective and the fire can grow. On the other hand if you have robust public education and an aggressive fire sprinkler ordinance, you may be able to reduce the risk of fire or control it before it reaches flashover. So this measure can help you see how well you are doing.

In the case of Montgomery County‘s measures, the government next implemented a program where department chiefs would need to come before the chief administrative officer and other county executive staff to discuss statistical factors of performance. This program, known as County Stat, can focus on data from the performance measures or choose key areas of problems or risk. Like New York City’s Com Stat program, the focus is on improvement and accountability. Montgomery County‘s program is billed to be less confrontational than the famous days of grilling New York‘s police commanders.

All this effort at looking at and studying how services are delivered is intended to sustain on environment of excellence and to focus on using resources in the most efficient way and applied to the most important needs. Ultimately the vision is to create a performance based budget where the chiefs would be required to offer evidence of results for how they are using funds.

Looking at recent changes to the U.K. fire service, one can see an influence of performance-based budgeting. Concerned with an increase in life and property loss from fire, the United Kingdom has committed more focused management of the risk. Consequently they have reprogrammed funding and staffing from a more reactionary operational response to one where it focuses on reducing risk through aggressive outreach education and evaluation. This could be one result of a performance and results focused approach here.

We‘ll see where this program of measurement goes but with tight economic times you can bet that executive governmental managers will continue to receive scrutiny over how resources are allocated and what results are achieved from them.

One of the things I really admire about volunteer fire departments is their spirit and determination to make do with few resources. While the FIRE Grants have helped a good many departments across the country, there’s more need — and there always will be — particularly for those departments that can‘t quite compete with experienced grant writers.

If you want to see spirit and determination, you should get to know Monte Egherman. He is a retired battalion chief out of Peoria, Ariz., and assistant chief for Buckeye, Ariz. He also is the firefighter fitness and CPAT director for the Glendale Community College Fire Science Program and author of Fitness for Firefighters: Enduro-Strength Training. Former Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini wrote the book’s forward, and Bruno doesn‘t throw his endorsements around lightly.

During his career, Egherman has won numerous state and national competitions in power lifting and bodybuilding. He also is certified as a strength and conditioning specialist, public manager and fire officer. Egherman believes that firefighters are “industrial athletes” who need to “train the way they play.”

“You‘re buying into a good 35 years of fitness training,” Egherman told cadets in a fitness class. “Training never stops. It all still has to come down to working with turnout gear on, pulling hose and carrying heavy objects.”

Egherman‘s fitness class at the community college is for Fire Ops 1 and 2 students and designed to prepare them for CPAT. This isn‘t just another jumping-jack fitness program, either. Egherman designed the fitness program around firefighter tasks, using equipment and gear already in a fire station. I watched cadets with weighted vests run up and down the bleachers, squat and pull lengths of hose, and work on team-building by lifting and carrying an oversize tire from an ARFF vehicle.

Egherman says you don‘t need a lot of money to have a fitness program. “There‘s nothing here that any poor fire department couldn‘t do,” he said as he stowed the equipment in an old trailer under the stadium bleachers.

“You can‘t help anyone else if you don‘t take care of yourself first,” Egherman cautioned the class. It may be in five minutes, it maybe in five years, but if you don‘t keep up with the fitness training, that‘s how firefighters die,” he said. “It doesn‘t stop here. You‘ll never stop training.”

Keeping with the fitness program, many firefighters and paramedics who have trained in Egherman‘s Enduro-Strength system come back and help with the classes.

Imagine if all incoming firefighters and EMS personnel continued fitness training throughout their careers. What affect might that have on first-responder deaths — on or off duty?

In the July issue of FIRE CHIEF, two editorial advisory board members, Robert Rielage and Mark Wallace, and a long-time columnist, Ronny Coleman, offer their views on what the Phase II report on the Charleston Sofa Super Store means to the fire service. In Size Up in that same issue, J. Gordon Routley, who headed the task force that authored the report, gives his thoughts on the situation. A month prior, task force member Brian Crawford shared a reflection on the year-old tragedy.

The situation at the Charleston furniture store overwhelmed that department and revealed flaws in its incident command, culture, equipment, water supply and communications. It also revealed flaws in how structures are inspected and permits issued. The report is the industry’s leading topic of conversation, and rightly so.

In the variety of directions this industry-wide conversation has gone, one common theme consistently rises to the top: The Phase II report holds lessons that could improve any fire department, and the greater tragedy would be if those lessons went ignored.

The latter part of that summary is, of course, a very real concern. As humans, we exhibit a profound tendency to repeat the mistakes of others and shun the advice of the wise.

My commute takes me past a large roadside cross, placed to commemorate the well-publicized tragedy of a woman and her children who died nearly two years ago when she failed to beat a freight train to a crossing grade. Earlier this week, I came on the scene of three people who were killed trying to outrun a train with their car.

Deciding not to shoot your car around down crossing gates does not come after soul-searching, analysis, research or any of the other weighty elements that lead to safer firefighting. Generally, people resist change and believe that bad things only happen to others. Poring over a nearly 300-page report, examining the flaws of a department (and its chief) and instituting meaningful change is intellectual and emotional hard work.

We can look at the Charleston Fire Department one year after the tragedy to get an idea of how hard that work will be. It is far too early to judge whether that department will improve. Yet there is concerted effort in that direction.

Because the task force’s Phase III report will assess Charleston’s improvements, the industry will have a reliable view of how much change was implemented.

That raises another concern. How can we measure the affect the Charleston fire and the recommendations have had on the larger industry? In truth, we probably can’t. The industry does not have the luxury of having a task force in every department analyzing and reporting on the level of improvement.

In place of a comprehensive solution, let me offer this proposition to all chiefs and chief officers in the United States and abroad: send me an e-mail telling me what changes you are making or already made after the Charleston tragedy, and I’ll publish those in the pages of FIRE CHIEF.

My hope behind this is two-fold. I would like to see and share evidence, albeit anecdotal, that nine Charleston firefighters did not die in vain. It also is my hope that seeing what some chiefs are doing will inspire other chiefs (through idea sharing and peer pressure) to undertake the hard work of self-examination and change.

You can reach me at rick@firechief.com. Please indicate where you are from and that I have permission to publish your e-mail.

How do you measure success? Can a fire chief be successful without being successful in both personal and professional areas? Certainly a successful fire chief can get firefighters, medics and equipment to an emergency scene safely and quickly. But success is difficult to quantify, and that is where self-satisfaction — knowing you are doing your best — is part of success.

Can we ever report to city managers or councils the number of lives saved through our pre-hospital care? Can we ever measure the quality of life for a family that was spared immeasurable grief by a timely rescue at a fire? We can recite our annual monetary damage loss statistics from fires, but how do we account for the personal treasures, family memories or heirlooms spared by our actions? That measure of success must come from the personal satisfaction we have with our job.

Some chiefs look at their new equipment and the additional stations or personnel they‘ve secured for their community. Others may point to how many of their people have gone on to become chiefs, and they can be justly proud of those they‘ve helped to secure their dream. But recently when I was playing with my 18-month-old grandson, Jack, it suddenly hit me — sometimes success comes in things as simple as the smile of a child. It was the same smile I‘d seen in a group of third-graders who recently took a field trip to our central station. They showed trust, interest and respect for the firefighters and medics giving the tour.

That thought sent me to find a copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson‘s Success, and I realized that sometimes the most difficult things to measure such as success can be expressed very simply. Here are excerpts from Emerson‘s timeless work categorized into words we all want to live by:

Humor:. To laugh often and much.

Honor: To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children.

Ethics: To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends.

Aesthetics: To appreciate beauty.

Character: To find the best in others

Philosophy: To leave the world a little better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition

Duty: To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.

This is to have succeeded!

Some of the best Fourth of July celebrations I can remember were when my dad was a member of the volunteer fire department. We would watch the parade, which was led by the Veterans of Foreign Wars color guard, followed by the mayor or other politicians, and included the parade of fire trucks.

The fire department would invite surrounding departments to send a rig, so consequently there might be 10 fire trucks, including our department‘s chrome yellow rig. Firefighters’ kids would be plunked on top some of the fire trucks to throw candy, wave little flags and scream at friends over the sirens. Firefighters riding on the back step would watch out for the kids so they were OK. Other firefighters would squirt the crowds with water from the trucks to the delight of some parade watchers.

After the parade, everyone would head back to the fire station for hot dogs, homemade salads from the auxiliary and beer before the neighboring firefighters would return to their towns for their own parades.

At dusk, everyone would go to the park district to watch the fireworks display; a couple fire trucks would be on standby. While we waited for the show, children would light sparklers and wave them in circles or squiggly lines; a few daring boys would throw them into the air. Older boys would set off cherry bombs or sizzlers.

Those were the good-old days. None of the kids ever fell off the rigs, nor did the firefighters. Throwing candy still was allowed. The sirens didn‘t make the kids deaf. The homemade salad didn‘t give anyone salmonella, and the beer in the fire station was free. Nobody had enough calls to worry about taking a rig out of service to go to another town for a parade.

Ground displays at fireworks were close enough you could see the guys torching the tubes. Nobody cared how hot sparklers really were; if you did get burned, you must have been goofing around with it. And, ah, the sulphur-like smell of spent fireworks was fantastic.

How many of these memories are no longer appropriate or legal? Memories sure have a way of casting a haze over risks, that is, unless a risk comes to fruition.

When my daughter was an E.R. nurse, she always talked about writing a book called, At What Point Did You Think that was a Good Idea? Emergency medical teams see a lot of risks that end badly, and the Fourth of July is no exception.

Still, I never miss the start of a Fourth of July parade. Watching all the fire trucks gives me chills — even if I can‘t ride on top.

Make it a safe, happy holiday.