What does it take to be nominated for FIRE CHIEF’s Volunteer Chief of the Year Award? For 14 years, fire-service organizations and associations nominated dedicated individuals who they believe could represent the leadership of the volunteer fire and emergency services. A few years ago, we opened the nominations beyond national and state associations to find those chiefs who may not be visible nationally, but who have made a difference in their departments and their communities.

Among the volunteer chief nominees this year are individuals who are skilled in fireground techniques, excel in disaster-preparedness education with their community, and talented at stretching budgets.

Chief Tim Bogisch of the McQueeney (Texas) Volunteer Fire Department recently was selected as the Guadalupe County Fire Chief of the Year, for his “top-notch leadership and technical excellence” throughout 30 years in volunteer firefighting. Bogisch strives to ensure McQueeney residents are prepared for potential disasters with his annual newsletter with safety tips and proactive planning.

Chief David Turner of Saline County (Kan.) Rural Fire District #5 showed great dedication and leadership, inspiring his personnel to lower the ISO rating and insurance premiums to benefit the local homeowners, according to his nomination letter from Bryan Armstrong, director of emergency management. Turner also responded to Hurricane Katrina and developed new training programs for personnel and citizens based on that experience.

In 1979, Chief Steve Wilkinson started as a junior firefighter with the Agriculture Center Volunteer Fire Department in Bessemer City, N.C. According to Robert Smith’s letter of nomination, among Wilkinson’s achievements as vice president of the Gaston County Firefighters Association was to establish a tanker strike team to improve the county’s water problem during large fires. After suffering a stroke at an apartment fire eight years ago, Wilkinson fought back to recover and return as fire chief.

Members of the Surfside Beach (Texas) Volunteer Fire Department nominated Chief Pete David for his 25-plus years of commitment to the department. David is also a member of the Brazoria County Firefighters Association and the Texas State Firefighters and Fire Marshals Association. His nomination letter described David as a “role model” who also is “a great instructor/teacher. He encourages the discouraged and allows you to make mistakes providing you learn from them.”

Chief James Seavey of the Cabin John Park (Md.) Volunteer Fire Department received nominations from the IAFC’s Eastern Division, the National Volunteer Fire Council, the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire Rescue Association and former Chief of the Year winners. “Jimmy has stepped up as a leader in numerous fire service organizations, from his county’s fire service commission to representing Maryland in the NVFC,” wrote Chief Phil Stittleburg, chairman of the NVFC and 1998’s Volunteer Chief of the Year. “He is not afraid to speak up for the fire service and for the volunteer, and he advocates for volunteers at every opportunity.”

The 2009 Volunteer Chief of the Year will be named at the opening session of the International Fire-Rescue International in Dallas, Aug. 27. And while we can name only one volunteer chief, every one of these volunteer fire chiefs is a winner in their department and in their community.

By Patrick Kelly

How many firefighters and officers have sat around the kitchen table and complained that they never see “the administration.” Have you ever heard them say that administration doesn’t understand what goes on in the field? Each and every one of you has been on both sides of this discussion at some point in your careers. And the longer that perception persists, the more it becomes reality.

Change the department mindset that the fire chief only interacts with the troops at graduations, funerals and to administer punishment. You are the only one who can make this happen. However, it will take commitment on your part to leave your comfortable office and face the tough questions from the troops on their turf.

Management by walking around (MBWA) can be used at all levels within the organization. This style of management/leadership has been around in many forms for quite some time. MBWA has been attributed to Bill Hewlett and David Packard in the building of their business. It has also been used widely in recent years by many company executives as a way of keeping in touch with the pulse of their staff, employees and industry changes as technology moves at light speed in reshaping most professions and industries around the globe.

However, the American fire service has been slow to take up and embrace this contemporary strategic management/leadership tool. Way too many fire chiefs stay locked up in their safe offices believing they and/or their executive staff are the only ones who have the knowledge, skills and ability to lead the organization. Perhaps this is due to a lack of self-confidence, the fear of letting go of too much control, or a combination of these and other factors. No matter the reason, it is imperative that all members of senior management make it a priority in their schedules to get out of the office and stay current at the street level.

To simply walk and snoop around and not act on information provided by all members will accomplish nothing. In fact, this strategy will probably be detrimental as it will lend credence to the perception that staff listens but rarely hears and seldom if ever acts on some great ideas that are being discussed at all level throughout the organization. Great leaders listen, learn, and absorb as much as possible. They store this knowledge and information away in their “toolbox” to be used in the overall management of the department as challenges arise.

Leaders also must be patient while listening. You must act only when you are comfortable that you have an accurate assessment of the situation. Making rash decisions without obtaining the pulse of the department many times leads to inappropriate organizational or change decisions that are doomed to failure. We see this on the fireground when a hasty size-up is made and decisions implemented prior to obtaining all the facts. In both instances it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain a positive outcome once we have gone down the wrong path. It is imperative to do everything you can to gather enough good information to produce positive outcomes from the start.

Leaders must be willing to get down and dirty while letting the members of the organization see first hand they are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Commit to showing up at emergency scenes at all hours of the day or night and perform basic functions such as pull hose, carry medical equipment or walk around and observe both the positive and negative aspects of every scene. Attend post-event critiques and provide input and guidance to help educate younger managers. Or simply show up for dinner or lunch and sit around and talk honestly and openly with the troops. These simple but effective team-building exercises can’t be a one-time occurrence but something leaders are committed to on a daily basis.

When you think you have a good insight into the psyche of the department and have figured out what makes it tick, it is time to start over again. The fire service is an ever-changing profession and change is frightening to many within the fire service since it removes us from tradition and our comfort zone.

Make the daily commitment to be involved at the ground level. You will see big dividends within the organization in a relatively short time.

A firefighter dies in the line of duty every three days, and with each LODD, another family begins the spiraling stages of grief.

The firefighter’s chief and colleagues hover over the family and show support through the funeral, but for them, life eventually slips back into a routine. Where can the widow or widower, parent and children find help?

All chiefs know about the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s annual memorial weekend in October, but if you’re fortunate enough never to have lost a firefighter in your department, you may not know all that the NFFF really does.

The NFFF pays the transportation and housing for fallen firefighters’ families for the memorial weekend in Emmittsburg, Md. There, the families can meet other survivors of fallen firefighters — some attending for the first time, others returning help the first timers.

The foundation offers counseling sessions, lunch, small group sessions and dinner on the memorial Saturday, followed by candlelight ceremony in the basilica. The weekend wraps up on Sunday with a National Memorial Service at the memorial site on the campus.

The weekend is a time to celebrate the lives of the fallen firefighters and to share with and help those who are left behind. However, the memorial weekend is just the tip of what the NFFF does for firefighters and their families.

The foundation provides year-round programs for the survivors of all fire service personnel who gave their lives in service to their communities. It offers scholarships to help children, stepchildren, spouses and life-partners with post-secondary and vocational studies. Last year, each person who applied received a $2,000 scholarship. Peer support programs match survivors with others who have lost a firefighter and even send out personal remembrance cards on the anniversary of the loss.

The NFFF also offers training through “Taking Care of Our Own” workshops, which teach fire department personnel how to preplan and provide insight and awareness of the needs for family and co-workers should the department experience a line-of-duty death. The Local Assistance State Teams (LAST) aid the family and department after a LODD and help with filing for federal, state and local benefits. Also offered is “Chief to Chief,” a networking program that matches chiefs who have similar experiences.

The NFFF also take proactive steps with the “Everyone Goes Home” program, which provides awareness of the 16 Firefighter Life-Safety Initiatives to reduce firefighter fatalities.

What’s truly amazing about the NFFF is that it doesn’t publicize everything it does for firefighters and their families. The congressionally mandated 501-c-3 organization gets most of its money through grants, donations, golf outings and sweepstakes.

“This year is the first time since World War II that charitable giving has not gone up,” said the woman sitting next to me at the meeting of the NFFF’s corporate advisory board this week. “Everyone is tightening their belts.”

But firefighters continue to die and more families need assistance. Don’t stop giving to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. A family you know might need them some day.

By Jordan D. Pollack

Last year, FIRE CHIEF published two articles on fire-prevention programs in Great Britain and Scandinavia. Both articles portrayed well the emphasis in those countries on fire prevention versus suppression. We, as a community of fire chiefs, must take that information and seriously reassess our priorities. Because the U.S. fire service is community- and jurisdiction-based and not nationalized, it is up to each of us to drive this campaign.

I still remember vividly growing up in the 1960s in New Haven, Conn., and watching as Engine 8’s crew went door to door doing home fire inspections and passing out fire-safety information. I remember the men standing on the tailboard, poised in their tan slacks and light-blue uniform shirts, ready to spread the gospel of fire and life-safety like neighborhood missionaries.

Some 40 years later in my third job as a chief, I sit at my desk putting together yet another community fire-prevention program. I look at our fire service — the glamour, lights, excitement and heroics — and am amazed by how much we chiefs are so focused on crisis management and not prevention. It comes as no great surprise that the general public is caught up in the same thinking. The average American citizen focuses little on fire safety unless one of three things happens: their child brings home information from school, they have an unfortunate encounter with fire, or the fire services bring them information directly.

We are long overdue to start thinking outside of the box. Most fire departments today, whether volunteer or career, have some sort of fire-prevention program in place. The most common is to have a prevention division of sorts, which in any career department is largely focused on code enforcement and plan review — it is often a forgotten child to the suppression wing, which receives the glory and funding. Most larger city departments include company-level fire inspections where firefighters do walk-through inspections of businesses to promote fire safety. This is an excellent tool on numerous levels promoting not only fire safety and education but also public relations and familiarity with occupancies for firefighter safety and effectiveness during an incident. This is an excellent step in the right direction, but it needs to be expanded to homes, apartment complexes and all occupancies.

During a trip to the National Fire Academy as a peer grant reviewer, I listened as then–Acting Administrator of the U.S. Fire Administration Charlie Dickenson spoke about fire prevention in the fire service. He commended the 100 or so folks in the auditorium for assisting with the prevention grant program. Then he went on to discuss how the fire service is still expending more energy on new equipment and vehicles than on prevention. Some 2,900 applications were received in 2007 for the Fire Prevention Grant Program. Concurrently, 21,000 applications were received for fire equipment and vehicle requests through the Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program. That statistic is staggering. How is it that we, a community-oriented network of caring professionals, are not putting more energy into fire- and life-safety prevention?

I met with Charlie later that week to discuss the current state of affairs in fire prevention. He said that there is no real movement afoot within the fire service. We are still focused on response, and that responsibility is becoming more elaborate with each decade. We are still obsessed with the toys that continue to expand in their complexity and cost, newer and fancier gadgetry commanding our attention. Many of us know that four well-trained firefighters with an older, working engine can outperform a crew with newer, fancier equipment and lesser training. As I reviewed numerous grants at the National Fire Academy that week, I read time after time “…after wages, vehicle maintenance, equipment … there is little funding left for fire prevention education, thus we are requesting federal funding for … .” As fire chiefs, we are still not prioritizing fire- and life-safety education in our budget justifications to our governing bodies.

How many chiefs have programs in place that involve going door to door to do home fire inspections and outreach? How many of us are giving priority to our prevention officers who are tirelessly educating and enforcing? Are there more than a few of us standing strong behind a goal of every occupancy in the jurisdiction having a minimum of one working smoke alarm? How many of us are doing aggressive campaigns with our elders on home fire and accident prevention? I would guess that a number of volunteer based departments in our country are succeeding at this. But I can’t help but wonder if the fire community could also do similar in our cities’ low income housing areas as well. How difficult would it be to refocus our energies and get our engine companies to begin door-to-door campaigns in our cities as well as our smaller towns and villages? Look at wiring, smoke detectors, heaters, candles and other potential fire hazards, bringing our focus into the homes of our constituents before it’s too late. How many of us are truly getting into our residents’ homes – either literally or through written and visual information? Even a simple home fire safety brochure under the door can have a huge impact. Checkout the Toronto Fire Service home fire safety brochure; it is an excellent model of a simple and effective brochure. The London Fire Brigade goes door to door educating its residents about fire and life safety. They have figured out a proactive approach: get out and meet and educate.

In some cases, this may become a union question, but at some level this is simply a management issue. Former Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini set a precedent by showing that union issues can be dealt with most effectively by inviting staff and management to sit together to develop the goals and objectives of the fire department. I would hope that our nation’s career personnel would jump at the opportunity to heighten public awareness of fire safety in their customers’ homes and businesses. With the mission of maintaining the health and wellness of our communities being paramount, this would seem to make some sense.

Should not the International Association of Fire Chiefs and International Association of Fire Fighters be working hand in hand, alongside the U.S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association to promote fire safety education? Of course this happens, to a degree, but it is high time that we all begin aggressively working together to attack the problem. Getting our nation’s firefighters (volunteer and career) on the streets and sidewalks is paramount in the campaign. If chiefs don’t take advantage of this valuable and massive resource, we are missing the boat, and more importantly, under-serving our community. It is our responsibility and mission to change the culture of the fire service, maintaining our readiness to respond, while focusing on the primary mission of fire, injury, and illness prevention

There is a wealth of support out there to develop and maintain an effective, ongoing campaign focused on fire safety and preventative healthcare for your constituents. If you are not doing so already, make it happen; chiefs hold the trump card on this one.

Jordan D. Pollack is chief of the Breitenbush (Ore) Fire Department.

It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for emergency vehicle technicians. I saw my brother’s hard work and dedication while keeping his department’s rigs in service, and I know that fire department mechanics often get more grief than praise. That’s why FIRE CHIEF created the Emergency Vehicle Technician of the Year Award — to recognize the quiet heroes behind the scenes and under the trucks.

One nominee this year is Glenn Brown, a career firefighter with the Lisle-Woodridge (Ill.) Fire District. For the past 20 years, he also has worked for the department as an emergency vehicle technician in his off-duty hours, acquiring his ASE certification for automobiles and medium/heavy trucks, and his Emergency Vehicle Technician–Ambulance Technician certification in the process.

“He has made education, safety and certification among his top personal/professional priorities,” reads Brown’s nomination letter, which also emphasizes his willingness to teach the next generation of technicians.

Chief Walter Culver of Comstock Township (Mich.) Fire and Rescue nominated Craig McDonald for the 2009 EVT of the Year Award. McDonald not only is president of his own company, McDonald’s Towing & Rescue and Emergency Vehicle Products, but he also is a certified Michigan Firefighter II, Hazmat Operations and Vehicle Extrication Specialist. McDonald also sponsors classes for fire personnel and strives to keep “himself and his employees up to date on training to enhance their knowledge and skills — of the newest technology related to emergency vehicles,” Culver wrote.

Loveland (Colo.) Fire & Rescue Chief Randy Mirowski wrote that one of his first acts as fire chief in January was to visit every division, every station, every company and every firefighter on the department and ask them three simple questions:

• What are we doing well at Loveland Fire and Rescue that we want to keep doing?

• What areas do we need to improve in?

• As your fire chief, what can I do to best help us in that improvement process?

“Nearly every place I went, the firefighters wanted to talk about the great mechanics we have and, particularly, Warren Miller,” Mirowski wrote.

But that great service wasn’t always the case in Loveland. When Miller started at the Loveland Vehicle Maintenance Division of Public Works in 1991, the fire department didn’t trust the division’s technical skills and would not allow it to work on fire apparatus.

“I am proud to state that in Loveland, the customer trust and cooperation between Loveland Fire Rescue and Vehicle Maintenance is exemplary because of this outstanding trust and the bond between our EVTs and the entire fire and rescue department.” Loveland Fleet Manager Stephen Kibler wrote in his nomination letter. “I believe Warren Miller is the best EVT in the country, if not the world.”

Another amazing EVT nominated this year is Mark Kemper of Sedgwick County (Kan.) Fleet Management. When Kemper returned from the Texas EVT Conference a couple years ago, he was the catalyst to form the Heartland Emergency Apparatus Technicians Association for EVTs. HEATA now offers two training and testing opportunities annually, for around 50 technicians at each.

Boyd R. Powers, shop foreman for Sedgwick County and president of HEATA, nominated Kemper for his work to establish a program to remount ambulance bodies on to new chassis for a second life cycle. According to Powers, the Sedgwick EMS group was skeptical about the EVTs’ abilities, however, Powers and Kemper proceeded and recently completed their 14th ambulance with seven more to go. When the project is complete, it will have saved the taxpayers in Sedgwick County $1,080,000 by reusing ambulance bodies rather than buying new.

“Mark has always been the team leader on this project, and when a team member needs instruction, he is the go-to guy,” Powers wrote. In spite of being thrown a curve when Ford shut down production of E-450s, the switch to Chevrolet 4500 was overcome by Kemper.

The winner of the 2009 EVT of the Year Award, sponsored by Spartan Chassis and Allison Transmission, will be announced at the IAFC Apparatus Maintenance Section’s Annual Workshop in Dallas on Aug. 26

Does your fire department have a safety program? By this, I mean do you have a designated safety officer program with certified safety officers and standard operating procedures and guidelines?

Bob Finley, certification coordinator for the Fire Department Safety Officers Association, has seen many metropolitan fire departments at conferences preach about safety programs they don’t actually have.

“Everyone always wants to look at the big fire departments for an example of a good safety officer program, but bigger is not always better or smarter,” Finley said. “Neither Chicago, Philadelphia nor St. Louis have a safety program. But I see so many smaller fire departments that have some excellent safety programs.”

I asked Finley for some examples of safety officer programs, and he immediately thought of four fire departments: Shreveport (La.) Fire Department; Cobb County (Ga.) Fire & EMS; Sedgwick County (Kan.) Fire District #1; and Northport Fire Department, Long Island, N.Y.

“The Northport Fire Department is doing some pretty neat mutual-aid safety-officer work because all of the departments are volunteer and many of their people work in New York City,” Finley said.

Finley knows what he’s talking about. He started his fire-service career in 1970, working his way through the ranks in volunteer, combination and career departments. He was an associate instructor at the University of Missouri Fire & Rescue Training Institute and later became chief operating officer of the university’s emergency service system and employee and student fire-safety programs. Finley’s experience with Missouri’s state certification and the International Fire Service Accreditation Congress were invaluable to the FDSOA as it developed its incident safety officer and the health and safety officer certification programs.

“Bob Finley was the only one that I thought of who could handle the certification program for FDSOA,” said Mary McCormack, the association’s executive director.

One department that has worked toward that certification is Sedgwick County Fire District #1, outside Wichita, Kan. When the department began the process four years ago, Chief Gary Curmode and Div. Chief Terry Mauldin became certified incident safety officers. Next, Sedgwick’s battalion chiefs and company officers became ISO certified. Now the department has 60 certified incident safety officers and several members also have the administrative-level health and safety officer certifications.

“Now, ISO certification is required for Sedgwick firefighters to be promoted to a company officer,” Finley said. “What’s really unusual is that the firefighters pay for their ISO certification exams themselves.”

And now taking the exam for ISO certification has become easier. Fire science students at Columbia Southern University, one of the original online universities, will be able to take the exam online.

“When people ask me if we have an online course, I can now refer them to Columbia Southern University,” Finley said.

Students also can take the exam at the FDSOA’s Annual Safety Forum, Sept. 21–25 in Orlando, Fla. The forum will feature a two-day academy, 16-hour incident safety officer and health and safety officer courses, and the certification exams.

The application period for the Assistance to Firefighters Fire Station Construction Grants closed last week, and the wait to see how the $210 million will be allocated begins. I’m anxious to see how many departments submitted applications and how they breakdown between new stations and renovations. I suspect FEMA will be in for a surprise when sees how many departments are in need of assistance.

Several architects I talked to were slammed with helping fire departments submit grant applications. A few chiefs of small departments e-mailed to ask me whether it was worth asking for small sums — $225,000 — and I encouraged them to submit. I think the best step FEMA took was capping the grants at $5 million per station, which hopefully will let more volunteer departments share in the $210 million.

I also had an interesting conversation with Don Dommer, a registered architect for 41 years. In that time, he has seen a lot of changes in the fire service and public-services architecture.

Dommer told me that between the end of World War II and the late seventies, fire departments tended to build structures that were simply functional and sufficient. Many of the buildings that were built in that time period now not only are outdated, but aren’t functional for the fire departments’ expanded responsibilities.

“In the late eighties, the buildings were not much better,” Dommer said. “The fire service has evolved and is much more sophisticated about the issues of structural upgrades, gender issues, turnout gear in the bay areas and so on.”

Even in the past 10 years of the Station Style design awards, I have seen significant changes in station floor plans, exterior designs and requirements. Yet the renovation category receives the fewest entries year after year. And Dommer said his firm has not had contracts for many station renovations since the early part of this decade. “We have one now and I worked on three federal stimulus grant applications for six or seven stations; three were renovations,” he said.

What percentage of the grant dollars will go to renovations rather than new fire stations? I look forward to finding out.

In his new book Shop Class as Soulcraft, political philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Michael B. Crawford examines value of manual labor and craftsmanship. He concludes, among other things, that the meaning of such work lies in the pursuit of excellence, which is evidenced in two ways: the objective quality of one’s work product and the recognition of one’s mastery by other skilled craftsmen. Crawford argues convincingly that much of what passes for work these days lacks such qualities by favoring conformity over quality.

Difficulty in reducing a job to a series of easily repeated steps described by rules or algorithms that one can rely on to produce repeatable results and consistent high quality distinguishes the kind of work Crawford considers most meaningful. This sort of work, he argues, defines culture in the form of shared meaning, and in doing so promotes a sense of community. Such qualities characterize work that relies on tacit knowledge, intuition and expertise. Crawford cites firefighting as an example of such a craft.

As members of that craft, we should carefully reflect on the question raised by Crawford’s analysis: Has our pursuit of rules, standards and measures diminished our profession? Are we lowering the bar rather than raising it when we equate quality with compliance?

Without a doubt, we have obligations to others outside our profession to prove our worth. Clearly, this is no mean feat. It begs of us the question, “What do others expect?” Our profession’s efforts to answer this question by reducing our internal values to a series of quantifiable measures such as response time, crew size and similar metrics diminishes the inherently qualitative nature of “a good stop” or a “righteous save” while neglecting altogether the cultural disposition required to sustain commitments to preventive measures. It also marginalizes the highly situational nature of these experiences, which often arises from more from opportunity than skillful execution.

The high esteem in which firefighters are held owes itself in no small measure to the subjective experience of how we conduct ourselves rather than any objective standard such as response time or crew size. People think we did a great job even when we know we didn’t simply because our crews responded in an orderly, focused, and compassionate fashion. In many ways, this is what really counts, not that people hold us in high esteem, but that we acted in a manner consistent with both their expectations and our own values.

As leaders in our profession, we have nothing less than a moral obligation to resist efforts to define agency in terms of simple rules or standards. We know that how we respond makes as much or more difference to the public than questions such as “how fast” or “how many.” Being a good fire chief requires us to respond to both communities — our profession and our jurisdiction — in ways that appeal to moral reason without resorting to oversimplification or moralistic prescription. We can start by asking both communities to consider carefully what qualities distinguish good work.

One of the things I love about the fire service is its tradition of storytelling. All firefighters have a stash of stories, and the more years they are on the job, the more colorful their stories are. I’ve been told firefighting, rescue and EMS stories for well over 50 years, and I’ve learned the best stories have unforgettable lessons learned.

Santa Rosa (Calif.) Chief Bruce Varner told me that when he applied for his former position of chief in Carrollton, Texas, he did his homework on the city manager. Shortly after starting the job, the city manager left for another job and the number two assumed the role.

“The new city manager knew nothing about me and I knew nothing about him and that was my fault for not knowing the number two in the organization.” Varner said, suggesting that when you look at an organization, you look at the whole organization.

For an aspiring chief or a newly named one, stories about the right and wrong ways to be a chief can be an enriching experience. That’s why I was blown away when I heard about a new program, “Executive Edge,” that will debut next month at Fire-Rescue International.

Chief Alan Brunacini will hold a two-day seminar, the Executive Edge: Bruno’s Boot Camp for Fire Service Leaders, as part of a joint venture between Arizona State University and the International Association of Fire Chiefs. Attendance will be limited to 25 participants.

Brunacini will focus on the experiences of three seasoned fire chiefs: Varner, a former Phoenix firefighter who became chief of other departments; Cliff Jones, who has been with the Tempe, (Ariz.) Fire Department for his 30-plus-year career; and Dennis Rubin, head of fire and EMS in Washington, D.C.

“There will be case studies and part of it will be chiefs telling their life stories,” Brunacini said. “It’s not all positive, but lessons learned and then we’ll give the students time to interrogate and engage them.”

While teaching leadership courses at conferences, Brunacini would ask his students what lessons they wished someone had taught them before becoming fire chiefs. Their answers provided the basis of this program.

“It is not designed to replace any traditional program like the [Executive Fire Officer Program],” he said. “It’s a share some of the behaviors that people have been through. I think it will be useful experience for youthful chiefs.”

A recruiter or headhunter also will be on hand to talk to the group about what they look for in résumés.

“One of the things we want to do is to share all the things not to do,” Varner said. There’s a whole bunch of stuff you should do and a whole bunch of should not and we hope to balance that.”

While the cost for this program is steep — $995 for the two days — it could be a unique educational experience for new or aspiring chiefs. For more information, contact the IAFC’s Jennifer Cooke at 703-896-4822 or jcooke@iafc.org.

“The process ought to be enjoyable, certainly for the teachers, but also for the students,” Brunacini said. “Some of it might be abrasive with new approaches, but I think people are pretty open to that and will receive it with a happy heart.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate just announced the 14 lead organizations that will participate in the testing and evaluation phase of the multiband radio project. It’s the final step before manufacturers start inundating the marketplace with their own version of the radio. The eventual widespread availability of the radios makes me wonder: If multiband radios hit the market next year and public-safety agencies nationwide adopt them, why do we need to build out a broadband, public-safety network?

I’ve seen an early version of the multiband radio from Thales Communications, which was demonstrated nearly at the 2008 International Wireless Communications Expo. The Thales radio has been used throughout the pilot because the company landed a hefty $6.275 million DHS contract to develop it. The radio operates in the 136–174 MHz, 360–400 MHz, 402–420 MHz, 450–512 MHz, 700 MHz and 800 MHz frequencies — letting command-and-control personnel communicate across bands during a large-scale, cross-jurisdictional incident. The radio also is capable of tapping into to other channels, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather channel. As a result, it has the capability to be the crucial technology to solve the nation’s communication interoperability issues.

The radios seem to solve the issue of interoperability.  They work across frequencies and agencies. It’s a technology that can be used now for cross-agency communications without public-safety folks waiting and waiting for D.C. insiders and the FCC to work out the details of a nationwide, broadband public-safety network. But Dr. David Boyd — director of command, control and interoperability for the directorate — disagreed with me, saying he doesn’t believe multiband radios will make the buildout of the network obsolete. Instead, it helps with the migration from one type of network to another.

"This becomes the bridge device [to interoperability]. So if you are going to build out a public safety network you would expect commanders and so on to want a multiband radio for the build-out so they can communicate with the new network as they build it out," Boyd said. "And, interesting enough, it would let users work between the new and the old network as it is happening."

Boyd said the final pilot will test how the radio can be used in day-to-day operations. After the pilot program, the DHS expects the data to be used in two ways: Industry will use it to determine areas of improvement on their version of the multiband radio and users will be able to look at the key lessons learned from the pilot program. Results will be documented at the conclusion of the test, and all findings and lessons learned will be published in a report that is expected to be posted on the SAFECOM program Web site in early 2010, Boyd said.

But I still wonder: Once public-safety agencies get their hands on a multiband radio, will they still clamor for a public-safety network or will they let it go as yet another bureaucratic debacle that’s years from fruition? Only time will tell.

What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.