Doesn’t it seem a like contradiction to have a holiday like Thanksgiving, when we give gratitude for all that we have, followed by a day of wants with the biggest shopping day of the year?

U.S. fire and emergency services have many blessings to be grateful for. The past decade has brought better training and educational opportunities, safer equipment and apparatus, and an increased focus on health issues and standards. Many of these changes, however, came as the result of a failure, injury or even death of an emergency responder or citizen.

The U.S. fire service will always have needs or wants, and FEMA’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and many corporations that offer grants to the fire service should be commended for their continued support.

With the current economic conditions and the failures of many referendums for expansion of fire and emergency services, fire departments will rely on the FIRE Grant moneys more than ever before. Perhaps it’s time to call on the organizations and associations that consistently receive Fire Prevention and Safety Grants to scale back or not apply for a grant in the coming year to allow more of the money to go to more fire departments — why the grants were created.

The president-elect and his new economic team reportedly are working hard to develop a plan to rescue our struggling economy. Your relationships with local politicians could be more critical next year than in any previous year. From your local city manager and mayor to your congressional leaders, voicing the needs of the emergency service agencies is imperative.

Consider attending the Congressional Fire Services Institute’s 21st Annual National Fire and Emergency Services Dinner and Seminars, April 1–2 in Washington, D.C. Themed “New Beginnings, New Opportunities,” the event will address changes with a new administration and a new Congress.

Join hundreds of other fire chiefs and officers to meet with and thank congressional leaders for nine years of FIRE Grants and to explain your efforts to provide emergency services in their communities.

Speaking of thanks, the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Volunteer & Combination Officers Section recently thanked IAFC President Larry Grorud for his service during Vietnam by presenting him with a military challenge coin. The coin, created by the Grateful American Coin Organization, honors members of the U.S. armed forces and net proceeds support wounded veterans.

“Many who served during this not-so-popular war returned home in less-than-welcoming conditions,” VCOS Chair Chief Tim Wall said when presenting the coin to Grorud. “And to that end we say ‘thanks’ to Chief Grorud for serving, for caring, and for his continued service to his country as chief of the Janesville (Wis.) Fire Department.”

To honor and thank current members of the U.S. military, please remember to send us the name and address of members of your department or family that are serving overseas this holiday season. We will post these on our Web site so FIRE CHIEF readers can send holiday greetings.

On behalf of the FIRE CHIEF staff, have a blessed, safe Thanksgiving.

By Rob Carnahan

“You always get what you always got if you always do what you always did.” That statement is somewhat aligned with the infamous description of fire service culture being 200 years of tradition unhampered by progress. This is an indictment leveled at the fire service’s resistance to implementing techniques, practices and technologies proven in other professions and sectors.

Many reasons and justifications are given for not adapting or adopting the next best idea. Some have merit, as the fire service deals in life and death situations where proven and tested strategies need to be used. However many are just excuses for a risk-adverse nature.

Risk-adverse fire service may seem like an oxymoron, but many who have tried to promote change in this industry have seen bruises from their noble quest. It is often easier to just say no and wait for another to be the first to adopt or adapt.

Chief Ronny Coleman has aptly described U.S. fire service purchasing and operational-cultural habits in a manner that underscores the reluctance to adopt and adapt. Coleman’s thesis is that there are really few early adapter/adopters in the fire service. We tend to wait for sufficient “cover” before adopting/adapting new technology. However once a certain number of fire departments have adopted/adapted the “new” technology, it moves from being a nice to have to a got to have. At this points fire personnel assert that there is simply no way they can do their jobs without the goods or services proposed.

Coleman’s phases of adoption include:

1. 1] This will never work and if it did it will be way to expensive.
   
2. 2] It may work but we can’t afford it.
   
3. 3] It not only works, but we absolutely have to have it to do our jobs.
   

Academia describes this phenomena according to it’s people:

1. 1] Resistors to change.
   
2. 2] Late adopters.
   
3. 3] Mainstream.
   

Coleman’s manner of thinking is illustrated in the way he conducts his personal and professional endeavors which has inspired many in numerous professions. If there is a road less traveled in the fire service, you will find him on it. His influence on the mainstream is profound. His recognition and early exploration of technology enterprises from outside the confines of the fire service have fundamentally changed all of the above categories within the profession.

The enthusiasm of the early adopter/adapters allows them to see beyond the battles on the road to the main stream. For example Coleman’s recognition and early exploration of using virtual reality simulation as an instructional resource led to its use in the fire service. His work at pioneering fire inspection training techniques using simulation, led to development of the software program FIRES.

The FIRES product led to development of “Fully Involved,” which is the company officer critical decision-making training software distributed by Western Fire Chiefs Association. At the time essentially every other profession was using virtual reality simulation technology for certification and training purposes, but not the fire service. This was due in part to the aforementioned thought that it would never work and if it did it would be too expensive.

It is now a no brainer that the current generation comprising most ranks in the fire service, learn differently that the retiring baby boomers, but Coleman did something about it when others were stuck in the “this will never work and if it does we can’t afford it” phases.

In the fire-prevention arena, public education has relied on retiring technology as well. Puppet shows, fire-prevention trailers, the mainstream fire prevention programs, have pretty much stayed the same over the years. Slide Tape shows have been upgraded to computer generated PowerPoint presentation and the use of overhead projectors and transparencies is something that is read about in history books but by-in-large the curriculum available to the fire service public-education professionals is not state of the art in learning technology, either in content of in format. For instance it is unheard of in the fire service for a fire chief to hire professional gamers to spend their work day in a virtual world playing games with children whom they will never meet. Yet in just one kid’s safe virtual world four million kids frequently visit and interact with other avatars, created by kids, exposing themselves to all sorts of life enhancing, social redeeming content, and age relevant safety learning experiences. Just as learning styles of adults have changed in the past few years so has that of children even more dramatically, and the fire service must adopt and adapt to remain competitive if we are to significantly change behavior as it relates to fire safe practices of our most valued resources.

The digital generation, as educational professional call today’s elementary age children, will require a completely new educational paradigm revolution not the just an evolution as we have seen with past generations. The fire service can ill afford to lag behind in adapting learning content to the emerging media or an entire generation will not fully grasp the important fire and life safety survival messages that we have presented in the past. Although it is a few years off the digital generation will soon be those we are recruiting as the nation’s paramedics and firefighters.

The Alaska Department of Public Safety Fire Marshal’s office under former Fire Marshal Gary Powell and his deputy Jodie Hettrick, piloted a multi-year project to develop and implement a virtual world to teach fire and life safety to Alaskan rural children. This is truly revolutionary thinking for fire prevention. With funding from the FIRE Act, Raven Island, was created in the virtual world called Whyville. The technology used by Raven Island makes it possible to reach rural Alaskan’s as easy as it is to reach kids in Anchorage or Alabama with life saving knowledge and skills heretofore taught using the conventional poster, coloring contests and puppet shows. The technology is proven logistically as well educationally, and its ability to change attitudes and behavior is unprecedented. Visiting and learning in Raven Island is free to anyone who can access the Internet.

Alaska was a natural for such an endeavor, since its native children population is up to five times more likely to die or suffer injury from fire related causes than any other U.S. population group. Secondly the rural nature of Alaska’s villages and communities with their Internet access second to none made connecting much easier.

For the most part public educators in the fire service are on the leading edge as early adopter/adapters. They have often pushed the envelope of acceptable practices much to the chagrin of busy fire chiefs. It can be anticipated that fire service public educators will begin approaching chiefs suggesting that their fire prevention personnel not only be allowed to spend time in virtual worlds and other serious gaming environments to reach children to promote fire safety, but be encouraged to do so by their chief. Millions of children, tweens, teens and adults are online in gaming environment as you are reading this article. The digital generation will not only expect but will demand digital technology tools to help them do their jobs. Coleman’s example of early adopting and adaption of digital technologies for the fire service could easily be the justification for fire chiefs to say yes for using the tools new to our industry. At the very least we must remember that if we are to see attitudinal changes to fire injury and deaths in the United States, we need to do things differently than we have done them in the past.

Remember Albert Einstein described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Rob Carnahan, CFO, is the former president of the National Society of Executive Fire Officers and the retired assistant fire chief of the Clackamas County (Ore.) Fire District. He previously serves as chief of Clackamas County Fire District No. 54. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program and of Portland State University. He has also chaired the Oregon State Board on Public Safety Standards and Training and served as an adjunct faculty member at Western Oregon University. Carnahan is a founding partner of Compelling Technologies Inc., a software developer. He has also worked as the fire program specialist for the Department of Homeland Security.

When my daughter gave me an iPod Nano as a gift a few years ago, I asked her to load music for me. Instead, she said she would teach me to do it myself, otherwise I would drown in technology trends. She was right, and I soon moved up to a bigger iPod, then a Nuvi GPS and recently Windows Vista, while three of my childhood friends still don’t even have e-mail addresses.

If you are reading this blog, you obviously are computer literate, but are you savvy? Do you belong to Plaxo or LinkedIn? Do you have a page on Facebook or MySpace? Do you read or post any fire-prevention videos on YouTube or message through Twitter? These sites are now part of the common vernacular, used as verbs as well as nouns — yet most didn’t exist only a few years ago.

Use of electronic means of communications will increase as budgets dry up and travel is restricted. And keeping up with the trends will require serious effort.

I received my first e-mail invitation to join Plaxo a few years ago. It appeared to be simply an electronic address book for business and social contacts, and as I trusted the colleague who invited me, I registered. Soon another invitation appeared from the progressive Bill Darley. When I tried to change my address on the Plaxo site, suddenly I received e-mails from people asking if I’d moved. Still, unclear on the concept of electronic networking, I hesitantly accepted invitations.

When a friend gushed on the value of LinkedIn, yet another business-oriented social networking site, I relented. While Plaxo appears to be more social networking and LinkedIn more business oriented, I’m surprised how many people have joined both Web-networking sites.

FIRE CHIEF Associate Publisher Greg Toritto recently forwarded me a great article by blogger Guy Kawasaki titled Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn. The 10 tips help users keep up with the rapidly changing online communications.

According to Kawasaki, many people use LinkedIn to make a sale or find a job, but users can increase their connectability and find common ground for working with the future generations of employees and colleagues.

When I found Chief John Buckman, Germantown (Ind.) Fire Department, on Plaxo, I asked why he joined. “I started getting notices from it,” he responded. “I don’t even know if I signed up.”

FIRE CHIEF blogger Mark Chubb’s participation in Plaxo was more active. “I joined Plaxo several years ago (before social networking was an “in” thing), after a colleague in Sweden sent me his contact information using the service,” he wrote. “At the time, it was mainly geared toward helping people keep their address books up-to-date.”

The last thing anyone needs is more e-mails, but I keep reminding myself of my daughter’s warning that you need to keep up with what now feels like a tsunami of new technology. So this week I signed up for Twitter and hourly deadlines. Maybe I could just float.

Not too many years ago, the primary rationale for installing sprinklers was property protection, pure and simple. At about the time firefighters came to realize that people weren’t dying in buildings protected by fire sprinklers, they began promoting them in earnest almost everywhere.

As American firefighters are celebrating victory in their efforts to get provisions requiring fire sprinklers in one- and two-family dwellings into the International Residential Code, their colleagues in Australia are caught up in a much different fight with the building industry and its regulatory overseers over fire sprinklers. In Australia, at the moment at least, the fight is not about whether to install sprinklers but whether or not sprinklers must have water supplies sufficient to continue operating after people have escaped a building.

One might wonder how something like this happens. And yes one should!

Australians know better than most what a terrible foe fire can be. The country’s rapidly expanding urban areas remain under almost constant threat from wildfires in or near the urban interface. Persistent drought has compounded the pressures of urbanization forcing most communities to restrict water usage at least part of the year. At the same time, faced with rising costs of providing fire service and increasing construction costs, Australians have embraced regulatory reform eagerly.

Australians, like Americans, have an overwhelmingly positive view of firefighters and place a premium on safety and security by supporting increased wages and improved job security for them. Like their U.S. counterparts, Australian firefighters have aggressively promoted the installation of fire sprinklers, arguing like we have that these systems provide both highly effective and reasonably efficient protection.

Limited resources, both in terms of money and water, but mostly money, have forced Australians to wonder whether they can really have their cake and eat it too. If life safety is the paramount goal of building regulation, and firefighters support fire sprinklers as a means of saving lives, then why not rely on firefighters to save the building once everyone’s out? After all, isn’t that what they are paid to do?

Clearly, it is not that simple. Fire sprinklers do save lives: those of firefighters included. But now Australian firefighters are being forced to argue that their lives depend upon fire sprinklers, and that they cannot afford to fight fires in buildings equipped with sprinklers if they cannot be relied upon to continue operating effectively. This brings us back to where we started, the real benefit of sprinklers is and always has been their ability to contain fires at or near the point of origin, not the building or block of origin.

Firefighters are right to recognize the life saving value of automatic fire sprinklers, but emphasizing life safety as the paramount rationale for sprinklers has a down side when people feel compelled to choose between their lives and the lives of firefighters purely on account of cost. Fire sprinklers make firefighting easier and more effective by protecting property. Without the property protection argument for sprinklers, we may discover the true cost of getting too much of a good thing is a misplaced reliance on firefighters and unreasonable expectations of what we can achieve.

By Mary Rose Roberts

Although it pales in comparison to the $700 billion financial bailout, public safety organizations soon will receive $3 billion in federally funded checks. The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency recently released guidance on how the FY 2009 grants will be spent. Grants will be allocated and are awarded according to a risk-assessment methodology used in FY 2008, according to DHS.

So I thought I would take the space in today’s column to break it down by the numbers. (And yes, to those wondering, interoperable communications is near the bottom of the list.) First of all, more than half of the billions will be allocated to the State Homeland Security Program and Urban Areas Security Initiative under the Homeland Security Grant Program. About $1.7 billion has been allocated to four initiatives below, the applications for which are due March 20, 2009:

$861.3 million: State Homeland Security Program to strengthen and build state, territorial and local preparedness capabilities through planning, equipment, and training exercises.

$798.6 million: The Urban Areas Security Initiative to enhance protection of 62 high-threat, high-density urban areas, with the seven highest risk areas competing for $439 million, or 55% of available funds. The Law Enforcement Terrorism Prevention Activities will receive at least 25 % from both funds for terrorism prevention.

$39.8 million: Metropolitan Medical Response System Program gets divided among 124 jurisdictions for regional, mass-casualty incident response and preparedness capabilities.

$14.6 million: The Citizen Corps Program to states and territories to engage citizens in community preparedness, response and recovery activities.

The rest of the money is targeted to more specific initiatives. Applications for the following grants are due on Jan. 13, 2009:

$388.6 million: Transit Security Grant Program to protect critical transit infrastructure from terrorism.

$388.6 million: Port Security Grant Program to protect port infrastructure from terrorism and support implementation of the Transportation Worker Identification Credential.

$306 million: Emergency Management Performance Grants for the enhancement of state and local governments’ all-hazards emergency management capabilities.

$48.6 million: Buffer Zone Protection Program for critical infrastructure sites, such as chemical facilities and nuclear power plants.

$48.6 million: Interoperable Emergency Communications Grant Program for planning, training exercises and equipment to states, territories, local and tribal governments to carry out initiatives identified in Statewide Communication Interoperability Plans.

$34 million: Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program for catastrophic incident preparedness in selected high-risk, high-incident urban areas.

$15 million: The Nonprofit Security Grant Program to support target-hardening activities at nonprofit organizations that are considered high-risk to be victimized by a terrorist attack.

$11.7 million: Intercity Bus Security Grant Program to assist intercity and charter bus services’ security plans.

$7.8 million: Trucking Security Program to implement security improvement measures and policies that focus on trailer tracking systems, so DHS can monitor, collect and analyze tracking information.

$1.7 million: State Homeland Security Program Tribal will be provided to tribal applicants.

Additional information is available at www.dhs.gov and www.fema.gov/grants.

A couple months ago, I heard Gen. Hal G. Moore and journalist Joseph L. Galloway talk about their latest book, We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam, a reflection on how the war changed them, their enemies and the United States.

In 1993, Moore and Galloway wrote We Were Soldiers Once … and Young, based on their experiences in Ia Drang Valley. In that first major battle between Americans and North Vietnamese in 1965, then-Lt. Col. Moore and 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry were dropped by helicopter and immediately were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. The ensuing battle lasted three days and was one of the most savage and significant battles of the war.

Galloway was a young UPI reporter at the time, and he impressed Moore during the battle. “Galloway stayed with the troops at night and didn’t go back for a hot shower,” Moore said. “He stayed for three days and two nights of the battle.”

Moore and Galloway’s latest book documents their recent return to the Ia Drang Valley battlefield and their meeting with their Vietnamese counterparts. “We wanted to go back to the battlefield to close the loop in my head,” said Moore. They contacted the North Vietnamese authorities for permission and ABC News’ Forest Sawyer accompanied them on the visit.

Moore described arriving on the former battlefield with their enemies. “We put our arms around each other for a moment of prayer for the men who had died in that place. In the end, we shook hands.”

Moore may have been looking for closure, but Galloway had a different opinion. “I don’t believe in closures,” he said. “You never get closure for those who died next to you or died in your arms. You are charged to keep their memory alive.”

Addressing today’s military situation, Galloway argues that America is not at war. “The U.S. Army, Navy, Marines — less than 1% of our population — are at war, and over and over they are deployed,” he said. “They do all the suffering for us who are at the shopping malls. If we’re going to go to war, then it is incumbent to all of us to go to war.”

“Where does it make sense that 1% fulfills all the obligations of all of us?” Galloway asked. “In World War II everybody was involved. They rationed gas, they rationed tires. Who has contributed anything to these wars we’re fighting today? The widows. Either we all go to war or by God none of us go to war. Find another way. The best way to make peace is to maintain peace.”

Whether you call today’s climate one of war or something else, let’s remember the men and women serving in the armed forces as we approach another holiday season. Again, FIRE CHIEF is asking you to send us the names and addresses of firefighters, emergency medical providers, emergency vehicle technicians — anyone serving in the U.S. military this upcoming holiday season. We will post these names and addresses on our Web site for you to send a card or package as this year ends.

One of the more reprehensible things I’ve seen in recent years has been the damage done to chief officers’ reputations by accusations from anonymous sources. These accusations have been sent to commissioners or administrators via letter or e-mail or through strategically placed rumors, and in at least two instances have marred very innovative chiefs with unfounded allegations against their character. In both of these cases, the chiefs turned marginal departments into progressive organizations, cutting dead wood as they evolved. While difficult to prove, these anonymous character assassinations seemed to follow instances where individuals were passed over or demoted for their failure to perform.

In one instance where the wrongly accused chief decided to leave because of the lack of support he received from his commissioners, the fire district he oversaw reverted back into the two departments he had help consolidate. It has been several years since his decision to leave, and while one of the departments continued to progress under strong leadership, the other has struggled just to provide day-to-day operations and has had two catastrophic meltdowns following major fires in past years.

In the most recent example of this type of adversity, a chief held on long enough to retire, leaving a legacy within his department of two new stations, a complete turnover of the fire and EMS fleet, a significant decrease in his district’s response time, a set of written SOGs, as well as inspection and public-education programs that enhanced both citizen and firefighter safety. Unfortunately, he may not be remembered for all the progress he brought to his community, but rather for the unfounded accusations against him. Since his retirement, my friend has diligently sought another career in the fire service. He has hit these allegations head on by openly discussing them with potential employers and sharing copies of the two reports that exonerate him of all the alleged charges.

What has kept my friend going is the support he has received from within his network of fellow chiefs. Early on, he made it a point to reach out to a select circle of close friends for advice and fortunately for him has received continued support and strength through this process. What I have learned is that despite the efforts of two of the finest chiefs I’ve known, sometimes the dark side of human nature turns those we are compelled to discipline into cowardly, vindictive individuals bent only on the destruction of our best and brightest.

Occasionally I remind myself that leadership requires understanding of why we have adversity and opposition to our vision. The truth is that the greater a leader’s accomplishments, the greater the opposition or discouragement an adversary will attempt to throw at your plans. Their objective is to derail the progress or bring the chief down to their level. The trick is to expect and even anticipate this adversity and know that it is a sign that you as chief are actually doing the right thing for your organization. The best way both my friends and I have found in difficult situations is to surround ourselves with a network of true professionals whom we can call upon for frank, honest advice, and then carry through with our ideas while maintaining our professionalism and integrity.

The evening of Dec. 1, 1958, is planted firmly in my memory. I was sitting in my dad’s upholstery shop doing my homework and listening to the radio. The news reports told of a fire at Chicago’s Our Lady of Angels School and the increasing number of bodies being removed. The radio announcer also read a list of hospitals where parents could find injured children and victims’ bodies.

On that cold December day 50 years ago, 92 school children and three nuns were burned to death; the fire’s origin remains unknown.

In 1996, David Cowan and John Kuenster wrote, “To Sleep with the Angels.” Their book details the story about the Our Lady of Angels School fire and the significant changes to fire codes and schools not only in Chicago, but across the nation.

The Our Lady of Angels School fire is called “the fire that no one can forget.” And that is why it was so surprising to hear that, as a result of a lawsuit involving a child falling from a school’s window, the Chicago Board of Education has installed bars across windows of Chicago public schools.

We first heard about the Otis Elementary School’s barred windows from a coworker whose friend works at the school. Classrooms on the fourth floor have a mixture of students, including disabled children, and only one door. The school’s teachers were concerned about an emergency and took these concerns to the principal; they were told that the bars were to keep kids from falling out the windows.

My co-worker asked me about fire codes and schools and I deferred to my contacts at the Chicago Fire Department. A Chicago fire marshal soon appeared at the classroom and pronounced the bars on the window as illegal. The bars could not be opened from the inside or outside, and yes, would prohibit firefighters from entering or students exiting through the windows.

The Chicago Fire Department has since stated that it was waiting for the fire inspector’s official report from the fire inspectors. In the meantime, we’ve heard of two more Chicago public schools that also have bars across the windows.

Ironically, I recently received a review copy of “Remembrances of the Angels” by John Kuenster. It will be published later this month and includes interviews with 28 Our Lady of Angles School survivors, family members of the victims, firefighters, police and reporters. I called the publisher and advised him of the latest twist of fate and school security.

We frequently hear that history repeats itself, but this is one history that must not. Schools must deal with security and access issues to protect students, but emergency evacuation also is critical.

When was the last time you walked through the schools in your area? With the 50th anniversary of this tragedy, why not take a team through every school — public or private, pre-school or university — and review the safety procedures for students and teachers. Be proactive and educate teachers about fire safety in classrooms.

Another common saying goes, “Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.” If, God forbid, history does repeat itself, all of us — firefighter, school teacher, parent and community members — will suffer the guilt for not doing everything we could to keep the children safe.

God bless the sleeping angels.