For a variety of reasons, including an airline fiasco that left me without luggage for four days, I decided to drive from Chicago to Denver for Fire-Rescue International. I needed some think time, and driving a five-speed doesn’t let you do much else.

The drive took around 16 hours, with an overnight in Council Bluffs, Iowa, but it was amazing. Many times, I wondered where would rescue workers come from if there was an accident on those stretches of I-80. This is the land of small volunteer fire departments, and none were visible from the interstate. Instead of 4- to 6-minute response times, it could 15 or 20 minutes before help arrived. A Chicago suburb‘s EMS was proud that it’s response to a heart-attack victim spanned 42 minutes from on-scene arrival to rolling the patient into the operating room for surgery. A heart attack could be fatal traveling across the vast cornfields of Nebraska.

But I did more than just reflect on response time; I thought about lack of time, good uses of time and more.

During breakfast on the last morning of FRI, I told a few of my buddies that I felt my “B.S. detector” was broken — I had been wowed by a few individuals, impressed with their vision, intelligence and achievements. I felt inspired by these very likeable personalities, but after working with them on various projects, I learned they weren‘t dependable. Were these revered individuals just all talk?

One chief offered that perhaps over-commitment was the real problem. The fire and emergency services are about people helping people and responding to needs. Too often, we take on more than we can possibly handle and end up spreading ourselves too thin. We become frustrated with being bogged down and, as a result, we disappoint others.

It‘s tough to say no when there are so many genuinely good causes to act on and support. I always come back from trade shows and conferences with stacks of business cards and notes for follow up. I find meeting new people and hearing new causes stimulating, and following-through is a commitment I make to them and to myself.

But as I thought about the committees, boards and new projects I am involved in, I wondered if I, too, had let people down by spreading my time too thin? Most likely, I had. An adage goes, “If you want something done, ask the busiest person you know.” This certainly is true, but saying “yes” too often can dilute other efforts or the value your word.

The long drive home was great think-time. The rain slowed me down on Sunday, and that‘s when I remembered, “Slow me down Lord, ease the pounding of my heart,” and that was a good thing.

Lately we‘ve been writing about the problems that firefighters are having on the fireground with digital radios, which in some cases have had difficulty distinguishing between a human voice and background noise. Indeed, recent tests conducted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration indicated that analog systems provided greater audio intelligibility than digital systems in four out of nine environments, including when SCBA masks and personal alert safety systems were in use.

But tests conducted by a radio technician in Florida suggest that the problem isn‘t the digital radios at all, but rather firefighters who haven‘t been trained adequately on how to use them in high-noise environments.

Terry Forehand, systems manager for Nassau County, said he put Motorola‘s XTS series and EFJohnson‘s 5100 ES series to the test in a variety of scenarios designed to replicate conditions on the fireground. Chainsaws were fired up, PASS alarms were triggered and a tunnel collapse was simulated. According to Forehand, the radios performed well. He said a few minor adjustments needed to be made to the Motorola handsets, which included turning off the automatic gain control.

But no adjustments needed to be made to the EFJ radios, which feature the enhanced half rate IMBE vocoder that has been specified for the second phase of the Project 25 standard. Currently, EFJ is the only digital radio vendor using this vocoder.

Forehand was impressed. Right now, the county exclusively uses Motorola radios, but “I would choose to buy the EFJohnson radios based on this testing — they work,” he said.

The real problem according to Forehand is the firefighters. “They need to do more training. We have to get them comfortable with being in noisy environments,” he said.

John Oblak, EFJohnson‘s vice president of standards and regulatory affairs, agreed and said an International Association of Fire Chiefs working group came to a similar conclusion, recommending “common sense” best practices that included talking directly into the microphone, knowing how to hold the microphone in relation to the voice port on the SCBA mask and — when possible — talking on the radio before triggering the PASS alarm.

“This will go a long way to mitigating the problem,” Oblak said.

This writing is not intended to suggest that the NTIA study is off base. Rather, it is intended to offer some additional food for thought. Apparently, some fire departments are considering abandoning their digital systems and going back to analog. Certainly others that have been considering an upgrade might now be putting those plans on hold, perhaps permanently. Given the clear performance advantages of digital technology, such knee-jerk reactions would be unfortunate.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs celebrated its 135th anniversary during Fire-Rescue International last week in Denver. The theme of the conference and exhibition was “Soaring to New Heights,” and make no mistake — this was a conference about chiefs.

The general session began with a dramatic re-enactment from the Great Boston Fire of 1872, and then–Boston Fire Chief John Stanhope Damrell‘s arguments for better building codes with local government leaders. The fire destroyed more than 700 buildings, displaced hundreds of people and took 30 lives.

Damrell called for a conference of engineers and officers, forming a year after the fire what eventually became the IAFC. “This audience is very much like that first group that I addressed at that meeting,” said the Damrell character in the re-enactment. “They are still here because you are here. I saw the same commitment and enthusiasm that have long been fostered by the IAFC.”

Recalling Boston‘s devastation and Damrell‘s anger with local leaders, IAFC President Steve Westerman encouraged the audience to support the upcoming residential fire sprinklers vote Sept. 21 in Minneapolis “You must make your voice heard,” he said. “Fire sprinklers save lives and save firefighters‘ lives.”

But the conference didn’t just remember the accomplishments of chiefs past. IAFC President‘s Award recipient Chief Tom Carr, Montgomery County (Md.) Fire & Rescue, “offers us all an example of what can be achieved if we think beyond our own departments,” Westerman said. Another recipient, Chief Michael Freeman (Ret.), Los Angeles Fire Department, “… stood fast in his commitment,” Westermann said. “An example to us all.”

FIRE CHIEF was honored to be part of the general session and to present the 2008 Fire Chief of the Year Awards, sponsored by Pierce Manufacturing. Pierce President Wilson Jones described the company‘s parallel commitment to the fire and emergency service and the dedication of each 2008 award winner.

The 2008 Volunteer Chief of the Year is Chief Michael Lee, Bethany Fire Department, Reidsville, N.C. A former state trooper, Lee joined Bethany Fire more than 20 years ago and also is currently a captain/company commander with Greensboro (N.C.) Fire Department. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina‘s Fire/Rescue Management Institute and is currently attending the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy.

Lee is a quiet, humble leader. During the Chief of the Year dinner, he said that he doesn‘t like to be called “chief” because he‘s “just part of the team” and doesn‘t feel he deserves that honor. Several subsequent speakers at the dinner, including U.S. Fire Administrator Greg Cade, insisted that Lee deserves the honor of being called “chief.”

The 2008 Career Chief of the Year is Charles L. Werner, Charlottesville (Va.) Fire Department. Werner joined the department in 1978 and worked his way through the ranks to become chief in 2005. Focusing early on for better communications for firefighters, Werner has left no stone unturned or minutes idle in his war for interoperability within the fire and emergency services. Whether teaching, meeting or writing, Werner has fought for better communications on the fireground.

But there‘s another story about Werner. At the Chief of the Year dinner, Werner said he believes in empowering his personnel and his response is frequently, “’why not?’ New ideas can come from any title.”

When one staff member was tasked to find an area for a new fitness room, she responded that the chief‘s first floor office would be the best location. Werner agreed and moved to a smaller office on the second floor. Subsequently, when a firefighter offered to try a new painting technique on the cinder-block wall in the chief‘s office, he said “why not?”

“I now have a Tuscan-style wall in my office,” Werner laughed.

Humble and empowering — it is a year for great fire chiefs.

Recently I read Generally Speaking by Lt. Gen. Claudia Kennedy (Ret.), which turned out to be a really good book on leadership and an overall great read. I would recommend highly it to all FIRE CHIEF readers.

One of the chapters deals with Kennedy’s Army experiences that influenced her attitudes about fairness and equality. Kennedy was appointed as a member of the secretary of the Army’s Senior Review Panel on Sexual Harassment after several non-commissioned officers serving as drill sergeants at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland were charged with various offenses to female trainees ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault and rape. The review panel used information from 30,000 soldiers worldwide gathered from surveys, focus groups, personal interviews and observations. Specific data analysis involved a cohort of 15,000 male and female soldiers across all branches of the Army.

The most valuable nugget I took from this chapter was the panel’s finding that the Army had a significant issue in an overall lack of respect and dignity, which created an environment where sexual harassment was tolerated and in some cases condoned. Kennedy wrote:

Not surprisingly, the Review Panel found that Army leaders were the critical factor in creating, maintaining, and enforcing an environment of respect and dignity. But too many leaders had failed to gain the trust of their soldiers.

The good news was that the panel also found many examples of good leadership around the world, where the leaders created high levels of respect and dignity in the harshest and most challenging work environments, even in deployments like Kuwait and Bosnia. The panel identified that these units had good leaders who:

• Set standards for the members of their organization.
  


• Exemplified, through their personal conduct, adherence to those standards.
  


• Enforced and maintained those standards for the other members of the organization.
  


• Demonstrated genuine care and concern for their soldiers, regardless of their rank, race or gender.
  

I think there’s good stuff here that can serve the fire service as well. I believe that these same characteristics are what we need to strive for to create an environment that prevents not only sexual harassment, but other forms of harassment and intolerance as well, from entering our work place, thus creating an environment for success. The Army units that were led by leaders with these characteristics were also high performing, operationally proficient units. Providing respect and dignity in the workplace will do that for you.

Twenty years ago, the International Association of Fire Chiefs organized and funded a meeting of fire chiefs, fire mechanics and apparatus manufacturers to discuss a significant increase in apparatus maintenance issues and liability. As a result of that first meeting, the Apparatus Maintenance Section was created, the Emergency Vehicle Technician Certification program evolved and NFPA 1901 grew muscles.

Over the past 20 years, the fire mechanics have evolved parallel with the technology in emergency apparatus. Fire chiefs have recognized that the mechanics-turned–emergency vehicle technicians are now a critical part of their department‘s team.

Six years ago, FIRE CHIEF magazine‘s In Service approached the Apparatus Maintenance Section with the idea to recognize and raise the awareness of emergency vehicle technicians with an annual award.

This year, Spartan Chassis became the official sponsor of the 2008 Emergency Vehicle Technician of the Year Award, which was presented at the IAFC‘s Apparatus Maintenance Section‘s annual workshop in Denver.

Among the nominees received this year was Craig McDonald, president of McDonald‘s Towing & Rescue and Emergency Vehicle Products, Comstock, Mich. McDonald is a state-certified Master Mechanic for heavy-duty trucks and EVT.

The letter nominating Texas Association of EVT member Tom Price, Coppell, Texas, stated that Price recently was certified as an EMT (on his own time) because Price felt if he understood the work the personnel do, that he would have a better idea of how his repairs or how problems affect the fire personnel and the patients.

Twenty-nine–year equipment maintenance specialist Tom Sova, Boca Raton (Fla.) Fire Rescue Services, was nominated after being selected as Florida‘s 2007 EVT of the Year. Sova holds master certifications for ambulance and heavy-duty fire apparatus and maintains 33 pieces of emergency vehicles.

From the nominees, the Apparatus Maintenance Section Board selected Don Dominick, Master Mechanic for the Stillwater (Okla.) Fire Department, as the 2008 Emergency Vehicle Technician of the Year.

Dominick started his career with the city of Stillwater‘s fleet maintenance 29 years ago. He has 16 separate ASE certifications, most recently an EVT Certification Master Ambulance Technician.

In presenting the award to Dominick, Spartan Vice President Bill Foster said, “Without the mechanics of the fire service, the ‘pride don‘t ride.‘ They have a great responsibility in the role of keeping all of our equipment [Department of Transportation] inspected and on the streets every day and that‘s a major goal, especially with budgets and budget cuts. There are no budget cuts with DOT and safety and those are important factors that the mechanics have to deal with.”

Supporting the 2008 EVT of the Year award, Larry Dodson, OEM Account Manager, Allison Transmissions Inc., said, “We are honored to support such a prestigious award. With the continuing improvement on our products, someone needs to be updated and aware of the products. We have a product that is dependable and with technicians like Don Dominick who keep them running.”

Dominick said, “What an honor to be awarded this recognition and I appreciate my department and my administration for the honor. I appreciate FIRE CHIEF and the Apparatus Maintenance Section for recognizing the technicians that are out there doing their jobs.”

Fire Chief Marion Blackwell kept the announcement a secret from Dominick. “Don is an outstanding member of our organization, very family-oriented and many times goes above what is required,” said Blackwell. “It‘s hard to find employees like that today.”

Blackwell also commented that Stillwater surrounded by volunteer departments. “Our relationship with volunteers is extremely important, since we‘re an hour from both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Don is always willing to help the volunteers‘ with their apparatus to keep it operational.”

In his letter nominating Dominick, Asst. Chief of Administration Tom Bradley wrote, “… as his direct supervisor, I have come to the realization that this department could not function effectively or efficiently without Mr. Dominick‘s expertise.”

Congratulations also to the IAFC‘s Apparatus Maintenance Section on 20 years of educating chiefs and officers on emergency vehicle apparatus specification and maintenance.

In 1873, in response to fires that nearly destroyed Chicago, Portland and Boston, New York City Fire Chief Eli Bates invited a group of chief engineers to attend a demonstration of his department‘s three new aerial ladders.

Over dinner, Chief John S. Damrell suggested the formation of a national association of fire department chiefs. Their mission would be to “bring forward an exchange of ideas and introduce new machinery that would facilitate the working of fire departments.” The result was the International Association of Fire Engineers, later renamed the International Association of Fire Chiefs.

Next week the IAFC celebrates its 135th anniversary at FRI in Denver. The mission of the association has expanded to meet the evolution of fire and emergency services, yet the original mission is still the heart of the IAFC: networking and education.

In the FRI Conference brochure, IAFC President Steve Westerman references the question continually asked of chiefs and officers, “Do you have what it takes?” While the answer to that question lies within you, as does education, there is also immeasurable value in sharing or networking with your peers.

A few months ago, the Task Force report on the nine firefighters that were killed in Charleston, S.C., in 2007 was released by the City of Charleston. Among recommendations, the report called for more attention to fireground tactics, code enforcement and leadership skills. This comprehensive report is also a reminder to every fire chief and every officer of their personal responsibility to be trained and prepared to face the challenges of today‘s fire and emergency services.

In 1998, the 125th Fire-Rescue International was held in Louisville, Ky. Besides the Annual Apparatus Maintenance Section Workshop, there were six pre-conference programs for attendees.

Ten years later, the pre-conference and conference has expanded to a full five days of educational programs. The first day of pre-conference has 14 programs offered, including several two-day workshops. Networking opportunities abound among the educational sessions, during the division and committee meetings, and during social events. The exhibit portion offers two days of apparatus and state-of-the art equipment to help your purchasing decisions.

There‘s little question that the Fire Department Instructors Conference is the premier training conference for firefighters, but if you want a conference for leaders and aspiring leaders, it doesn‘t get any better than FRI this year. Of all the Fire-Rescue International conferences I have attended — starting in 1986 — I think this year has the best line-up of educational programs I have seen.

If you are in Denver for FRI next week, please stop by Fire Chief’s booth (#3021) and say, “Hi!” Let us know if we‘re right or wrong that this is the best FRI program line-up in 135 years!

One of the longtime problems in public safety communications has been the fact that the frequencies used by first-responder agencies are dispersed throughout the spectrum chart. In the name of interoperability, multiple vendors have designed myriad network-based solutions that allow patching between systems operating in different bands, but there‘s always a fundamental caveat: patching doesn‘t work if there‘s no coverage in the band in which your radio is designed to work.

As a result, public safety has become accustomed to stories of 800 MHz radios being useless when big-city personnel are dispatched to an incident in a rural area, where radio coverage likely is provided in the VHF or UHF bands, forcing the need for radio swaps or more creative solutions.

But such scenarios might not exist much longer, as multiband radios will be available from several manufacturers in 2009, providing public safety agencies with options that have been discussed at trade shows such as this week‘s Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials in Kansas City. The difference between this APCO show and previous industry trade shows is that agencies can now contrast and compare multiband portable radios from multiple vendors.

The trend started earlier this year at the IWCE conference in March, when Thales Communications announced its Liberty radio. The Liberty, a key component in a DHS pilot, can operate in the UHF, VHF and 700/800 bands, and was public-safety-ready in March. Since then, Thales has tweaked the prototype shown at IWCE — adding, among other things, a color display — and plans to make the Liberty radio generally available early in 2009, said Steve Nichols, Thales‘ director of business development for DHS/public safety.

Another multiband radio showcased at IWCE came from Harris, which displayed a multiband offering targeted to federal agencies. While impressed with the technology, several public-safety officials at the show expressed concern that Harris would not be able to make the radio for public safety, which needs gear with greater interference-mitigation characteristics. Apparently, such concerns were unfounded, as Harris this week has unveiled a public-safety version of its multiband radio.

One significant drawback associated with these radios is that they do not operate on proprietary systems used by most of public safety, only on P25 systems that represent a relatively small — but growing — portion of the market.

That‘s what makes the introduction of Motorola‘s APX 7000 multiband radio so significant. This new portable operates in the VHF and 700/800 MHz bands — and Motorola promises that a UHF and 700/800 MHz configuration is coming soon — not only on P25 systems. It also works on Motorola SmartNet and SmartZone systems that are used by a large percentage of U.S. public safety agencies.

The inclusion of proprietary protocols in a multiband handset makes such devices not only valuable interoperability tools but promises to make the migration to new P25 systems much smoother than has been the case in the past. Public-safety officials have made no secret that they hope that network vendors such as Motorola and M/A-COM will license their protocols to third-party multiband radio manufacturers, but there are serious questions whether the strategy would be in the legacy companies‘ financial best interest.

Regardless, the fact is that multiband capability no longer is a subject relegated to theoretical debates during conference sessions. These three vendors have products that can be seen and will be available next year, and more multiband handsets from other manufacturers should hit the market in the near future.

This reality opens up a new set of possibilities for public-safety communications. Once again, a big technological hurdle appears to have been cleared, leaving public-safety agencies to wrestle with two age-old issues — finding a way to pay for new equipment and developing the agreements and procedures to ensure that technological progress result in effective interoperable communications, not flexible chaos.

When I first entered the business world, conventional wisdom held that you never talked about sex, politics or religion. These topics were considered taboo and their consequences feared. But today, sex and politics are headline news and hard to avoid in conversations. Religion is discussed, but primarily in the context of warring religious factions.

Could a fire department be held up as an example for the world‘s religions to co-exist? With his ministry doctorate, Carl G. Carlozzi has studied the world‘s religions. As chaplain of the Phoenix Fire Department, he is convinced that religions could learn a lesson from their local fire department.

“I think people do talk about religion and don‘t know it,” he said. “[We talk about] what we are, how we re-connect … most organizations are service-oriented and there to bring them together and offer help.”

According to Carlozzi, every religion — Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism or any practice with a higher power — aims to bring people together and co-exist peacefully. But for many years Carlozzi believed that something was wrong with religious organizations — they got off the track. How they could get back on track was to take a close look at fire departments. “In a sense, we‘re all religious,” he said.

Carlozzi became an Episcopal priest in 1965. He retired early and persued his doctorate degree and post-graduate training in family therapy. Carlozzi later served as a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Arizona Task Force 1 and was deployed to the Oklahoma City bombing and Ground Zero.

Carlozzi‘s position with the Phoenix Fire Department is funded by the William S. and Ina Levine Foundation. “The mayor said I was the only ‘free‘ full-time employee because I work for the fire department but get paid by a Jewish foundation,” Carlozzi said.

After presentations to community groups and organizations about how fire department personnel are trained to deal with traumatic situations, Carlozzi created a slideshow with various religions’ golden-rule variations of “treat others well” and their parallel to Phoenix’s mission of “Be Nice! Treat all people with dignity and respect.”

“The Phoenix Fire Department is just a wonderful organization; it was under Chief [Alan] Brunacini and is now under Chief [Bob] Khan,” said Carlozzi. “They care about their personnel as much as their citizens and community. It‘s fun being part of a great organization and everybody is a spoke in a great wheel, and I‘m just one of the spokes.”

The presentation was so well received that Carlozzi has published a book, Fire Department Religion. The book is a quick read, but the parallel of religion and fire departments is clever and convincing.

“In the fire department, we don‘t make judgments on who you are or what you believe,” Carlozzi said. “Simply stated, ‘You have a need, we respond‘.”