The U.S. Fire Administration came up with an ingenious — if not necessarily original — idea: an online archive where members of the fire service can share information. Fire Prevention and Public Education Exchange aims to serve as a centralized location for national, state and local fire-prevention practices and public-education materials. I recently spoke to Chief Sandy Facinoli, Prevention & Information/National Fire Programs for the USFA, about the program and how it can help chiefs in their day-to-day decision-making.

Facinoli said the administration has been working on ways to make it easy for information across the U.S. fire service, and the new archive provides such an opportunity.

“We have noticed for some time that there are all kinds of great materials being generated nationally and regionally and it’s hard to find it all,” Facinoli said. “Sometimes it’s on the Web, sometimes it’s not. … And so our strategic plan from 2009 to 2013 included a goal to create a repository of fire-prevention and public-education materials.”

Information-sharing between leadership and those in the field can only lead to positive results. Where one department might have a lessons learned on aerial rescues at a high rise, another may have documents on how to tackle a wildfire in the wildland-urban interface. Facinoli said the USFA’s goal is to make such resources available to the fire service. If one department has a successful program, fact sheet, podcast or other media, it can be sent to the USFA for posting on its Web site.

It only makes sense that the USFA should create a forum where all of the information will be categorized and organized for all of the fire service to use. It’s long overdue. If other departments have found the best way to tackle an issue, why should another re-invent the wheel? Instead, they now can tap into the Web site and read the strategies that were successful to other departments.

“Anything that will be helpful to our fire service in helping reducing fire loss is what we are looking for,” she said. “We just want to be a conduit of sharing the information from one source to another. We are not in the middle of loaning the materials but hope the exchange allows collaboration across the fire-safety community.”

By Kriss Garcia



There comes a time in most fire professionals’ careers when they look around and realize they aren’t where they thought they would be. They aren’t wearing the brass they thought they would be wearing and they aren’t doing what they thought they would be doing.

For myriad reasons, people end up where they end up — some do it consciously others subconsciously. Regardless of how you got to where you are, focus on the positive rather than the negative. Look at what you have accomplished, who you have helped, what good has been attributed to your actions and, most importantly, if you have done what is right.

I knew I wanted to write about leadership or motivation in the fire service, but didn’t know what kind of reception I would get or what kind of audience it would appeal to. I knew I had to say things that for many departments are like the 300-pound gorilla no one chooses to notice.

Many leaders — regardless of their rank or lack thereof — stand up for what is right, knowing that there will be a personal cost. Many of these individuals find themselves marked as instigators or are accused of not being team players for doing nothing more than what they believe is right.

What is it that they are doing wrong? Why is doing what was right sometimes so difficult, so costly?

Once I met a wise old man named Roger Crowley, a retired actor and collector of John Wayne memorabilia. We started to chat, and before long our mutual admiration for John Wayne was taking up most of the conversation.

Roger noted the direct relationship between John Wayne, The American Legend and the fire service, an american legend. I told Roger of a rationalization I had been using as of late — I watched too much John Wayne as a kid. This poignant yet thoughtful position struck me as the reason why some professionals find themselves somewhere other than where they thought they’d be. When I told this older, rugged yet striking gentleman this statement, he smiled, paused looked up to the now red sky and said “Yea, but when you do what the Duke would have done, don’t it just make you feel good?”

We talked about a great quote or saying that would encompass the ideals of John Wayne and the fire service but found it hard to settle on a single one. We knew that John Wayne wanted to be remembered in these simple words Feo, Fuerte j formal which translated means “He was ugly, he was Strong and he had dignity.” But what we were looking for was something more universal, something one could hold in their hand as a torch based on the ideals of the man simply referred to as “The American Legend.” We spent the rest of the evening trying to determine what quote we could we use to inspire leaders of today to do what is right?

After a few million stars came out and passerby’s raised more than a few eyebrows, we decided that each of us should be able to have our own quote. My personal favorite comes from John Bernard Books in the movie The Shootist: “I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people and I expect the same from them.” Roger’s favorite quote is not from a movie but is rather a favorite saying of John Wayne’s, one he liked so much it is on his headstone. “Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday”.

With that we diverged from John Wayne to many a great villain who without exception, regardless of what epic adventure they were in, believed that the end justified the means. All of these great villains were essentially doing the same thing; they were trying to get somewhere or obtain something at the expense of others. It took a legend such as John Wayne to right these wrongs either for himself, as in Chism or as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit, or for his family as in movies such as Big Jake or Cahill U.S. Marshall. Other times he did it for the organization he was representing such as United States of America in the Green Beret’s or In Harms Way.

All this being said, the fallacy comes when we believe that everything will always work out the best for us if we just do what is right. Like the vast majority of the fire service regardless of your hero’s, many of you have sacrificed your own career and even livelihood because you choose to do what you thought was right.

You have chosen to stick up for the truth and to have integrity regardless of the cost to you. You have done what is right.

You have selected not the path of promotion or compliance but the path of courage. John Wayne had this to say about courage; “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway”. You have chosen to fight battles for values knowing very well that as Capt. Rockwell Torrey (In Harm’s Way): John Wayne would say; “All battles are fought by scared men who’d rather be some place else.”

Often times, it seems as though some strive to put more and shinier things in their retirement shadow box rather than in the moral bank of ethical behavior. Sadly we even consider having more and being more as the only measure of success.

We often times some think that the end will justify the means, which is a position that is always wrong. Doing what is right is often times what is most difficult, that being said it is still what is right. Right is right and doing what is right with courage and dignity may not ever pay off for you in your career but as John Wayne was famous for saying “I have tried to live my life so that my family would love me and my friends respect me. The others can do whatever the hell they please.”

We all know of people in and out of the fire service that have not always necessarily did what we thought was right. This article could have easily focused on these villains of the fire service and their actions. Instead I intended this article to be praise for those of you who have chosen to do what is right. This may be the only accolades you ever get for doing so, however it is you and your type that keeps the great men and women of our fire service providing other humans undying service with dignity and compassion. It is you that are the true American Legends.

For those of you who have sacrificed yourself, I applaud and respect you. Promote yourself today to the position of the keeper of what is right. It is one of the most important and difficult positions you will ever hold. The only thing that you may get to show for it is our gratitude and the ability to always truthfully look in the mirror and say “Good Job, You did what was right”. You will sleep every night knowing that you have made a stand for what gives our chosen profession, steeped in tradition, the respect within our communities; You have done what is right. Regardless of the personal cost, you will rightly so carry on the tradition of an American Legend.

In some sense you may have all followed the advice Marion Morison’s (John Wayne) father gave him while he was growing up: “First is to always keep your word. Second never insult anybody unintentionally, if I insult you, you can be sure I intend to. Third, don’t go around looking for trouble.”

At various times in your career you may not be where you want to be, or you may not be treated as you think you should, yet when all else fails and when the curtain finally closes on your career, remember it is not what is in your retirement shadow box that matters. What count’s is in the legacy you have left behind in the hearts and souls of those you have been an example to.

What we give is much more valuable than what we take away.

To you regardless of your rank or lack thereof, thank you for doing what is right, or as John Wayne would say; “A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by, no matter his job.”

Keep up the battle; it may seem difficult at times. It will seem scary and at times you may think you are the only one doing what is right. But be assured it is not that difficult, it is actually quite easy. Regardless of the situation, do what is right.

As John Wayne would say: “When in doubt tell the truth.”

The economy is tight, but fire departments still are investing in safety, as could be seen by the attendance of more than 180 safety officers and instructors at the 20th Annual Fire Department Safety Officers Association Safety Forum in Orlando.

The week began with two-day academies for incident-safety officers and health-and-safety officers, followed by certification tests for the 91 participants.

Chief Ron Siarnicki (Ret.), executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, gave a four-hour pre-conference workshop on LACK: Leadership Accountability Culture Knowledge, part of the NFFF’s Courage to be Safe series.

“Are you on the path to a line-of-duty death or injury?” Siarnicki asked. “Every 78 hours, a firefighter dies in the line of duty.”

The NFFF’s intent is to create programs that offer specific steps to raise awareness of safety in fire and emergency departments and train the trainers to take the program back to their local departments.

When Siarnicki asked the safety officers about continuing safety problems they dealt with, responses included: unbuckled seatbelts, non-use of SCBAs during overhaul, freelancing on the fireground, motivation to change and not buckling helmet straps.

“We must all accept responsibility for our actions and consequences starting from the top down and starting from the bottom up,” Siarnicki said. “Train, learn, teach, every day.”

In another Courage to be Safe workshop, Billy Hayes, director of communications for the District of Columbia Fire/EMS, and Chief Ron Dennis (Ret.), executive director of the Arizona Fire Chiefs Association, updated attendees on progress made since the implementation of the 16 Life-Safety Initiatives five years ago.

“Last year there were 23 LODDs from motor vehicles,” Dennis said. “It’s almost October and as of right now, there have been nine LODDs from motor vehicles, and three were unbelted. The number is down and we believe there is hope that we are changing.”

They also offered suggestions on how to implement the initiatives in individual departments.

“Over time, minor safety issues escalate to moderately significant safety violations.” Hayes said. “Watch how fire engines respond out the door on a daily basis to automatic fire alarms because that will tell you how they respond. We don’t invent new ways to kill firefighters we keep doing the same thing.”

Courage to be Safe other NFFF programs are available at no cost to departments. Information is available on the foundation’s Web site.

The conference’s keynote speaker, D.C. Fire/EMS Chief Dennis Rubin, features his “Lemons to Lemonade” program. After a series of disastrous fires in historic buildings, D.C. Fire was able to turn the incident into a teaching moment.

After receiving the wrong address for a house fire, which resulted in the death of a young girl, the department launched. Smoke Alarm Verification & Utilization. The program not only provides smoke detectors, but it puts firefighters out into the community to educate residents about the importance of working smoke detectors.

Rubin ended his program with “Rube’s Rules.” Among them is visibility in the department and in the community. “I do two community events a week, one during the day and one evening,” he said.

I particularly liked Rube’s Rule, “Someone is always watching you,” which can be comforting or cautionary.

Every few months, I hear from someone promoting a “unique” or “revolutionary” new product for the fire service. I’ve followed the fire industry for 23 years, and there have been few truly unique or revolutionary overnight successes in this industry. While firefighters can be “MacGyvers” on a fire scene or rescue incident, they still are very traditional and rely on peer recommendations.

But fire equipment and apparatus are in for some serious changes based on new technology, environmental issues and budgets. Calling for change is a new generation of users who expect constant updates, fancy widgets and apps for informed, easy use.

At Fire-Rescue International, I came across some interesting new concepts in apparatus that are worth investigating.

To comply with the EPA’s 2010 emission reduction mandates, chassis manufacturers are using diesel particulate filters that can become clogged with frequent idling. Service on DPF can run as much as $5,000 per truck.

After hearing concerns from customers at FDIC, Rosenbauer America developed its Green Star idle reduction technology, which can save the two types of green: money and the environment. The system uses an auxiliary power unit to bypass the main chassis engine, reducing the strain on the DPF, and save thousands of dollars in fuel, oil and DPF service fees. IRT maintains the apparatus 12-volt system, 120-volt system, chassis heating and cooling systems when the fire pump is not engaged, thus saving gallons of fuel. The auxiliary power units are eligible for some or even full reimbursement from in many states from Clean Diesel Grant program funds, and the Green Star system can be retrofitted.

Two of the most creative minds in the fire industry, Ron Ewers and Carl Becker, also have been tinkering with apparatus again at Classic Fire.

“A lot of people will drive a water pump with a compressor,” Ewers said. “This is an air compressor with a compressor that drives the water pump and is really good for pump and roll.”

Their new system allows the pump to be located anywhere on the apparatus and the ability to control the air compressor from the front or rear. In fact, Ewers designed the system to be the easiest system in the world to use.

“It’s lighter and takes up less space and is cost effective and can be operated from inside the cab,” he said.

A training chief told me about E-ONE’s new Water Master tanker, a self-filling vacuum system that can be filled at up to 2,000 gpm without a Class A pumper. The tanker can self-fill from up to three suction inlets using almost any alternative water source including ponds, rivers, lakes, ditches and swimming pools.

The vacuum tanker features baffled aluminum tanks that hold up to 4,000 gallons of water and a 460-cfm vacuum pump, allowing one operator to deliver more than 250 gpm in a three mile shuttle.

While I’ve become more skeptical about the terms “unique” and “revolutionary” referring to products, the decision really rests with the end user and the end result.

I’m open to your suggestions. What would you describe as revolutionary in apparatus?

Imagine that you’re the lead rescue planner for an event that has attracted more than 100,000 people. Then imagine that, sometime during that event, sensors indicate a possible anthrax contamination. That’s exactly the situation Tom Shannon, the current chief of the Salt Lake City Fire Department, found himself in nearly two years ago.

At the time, Shannon was the assistant fire chief for the city of Glendale, Ariz., which was hosting the Super Bowl in February 2008. Shannon was the liaison to the NFL, was responsible for credentialing and tracking hundreds of firefighters and emergency medical technicians, and was tasked with ensuring that those first responders performed in compliance with the National Incident Management System.

I recently spoke with Shannon about how mobile-data devices and applications are being used effectively by public safety during large-scale events and incidents.

Midway through the first half of the Super Bowl, an air-monitoring system indicated the presence of anthrax. At halftime, another positive indication occurred. There were 80,000 people inside the stadium and another 30,000 or so milling outside the building. So, the decision to execute a mass evacuation was no light matter.

“Before you pull that trigger … you need to authenticate all the data you’re getting,” Shannon said. “You need to ask, ‘Is this real, is this real, is this real?’”

Fortunately, it was learned that the air-monitoring system had indicated a false positive, so no one inside or outside the stadium was at risk. The key to it all was the ability to check other sources via the mobile-data system and share that data across myriad agencies. “That was huge. We were able to put off what really could have been a pretty sizeable event of mass prophylaxis,” Shannon said.

With all due respect to the chief, I think they put off an evacuation that would have resulted in mass chaos, not just in the greater Phoenix area, but across the country. Can you imagine having to evacuate 110,000 people? And can you imagine the strain on the communications infrastructure, both commercial and public safety, if such an event had occurred?

More chilling is what might have transpired if the mobile-data system had not been in place. In such a scenario, there would have been no way to quickly determine whether the reading was real. If the threat was a hoax, that could have resulted in an unnecessary evacuation that would have put tens of thousands at risk of injury. Worse, if the threat proved to be real, the necessary evacuation could have been delayed, risking hundreds or thousands more taking ill or dying.

Wilson (N.C.) Fire/Rescue always is on the cutting edge of new technology, being an early adopter of GIS, GPS and mapping systems. With a visionary leader like Chief Don Oliver, the department was bound to be progressive.

In early 2006, the department found a unique opportunity. A 1,024-square-foot duplex on a 60-foot by 60-foot lot adjacent to the department headquarters had become available for purchase. Oliver discussed with his staff the options and how the property might best be used. They decided to convert the property into a community fire and life-safety center.

In 2007, Wilson Fire/Rescue secured an Assistance to Firefighters Grant for $184,000 to develop the Fire & Life-Safety Adventure House. Local donations totaling in excess of $35,000 — nearly double the required 10% local match required by the FIRE Grant — helped the department build a state-of-the art-facility focused on public education for the city and the greater Wilson area.

“Located directly across from the Wilson Boys & Girls Club, the vision is to produce a facility that will address many of the cutting-edge life safety issues that impact our citizens and community,” Oliver said. “We predict that this state-of-the-art facility will draw many visiting groups from throughout eastern North Carolina with the innovative educational packages which we will present.”

The Fire & Life Safety Adventure House http://wilsonnc.org/departments/firerescue officially opens next week.

The new public-education center is designed to cater to its multi-national community, with printed and spoken word available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic.

“We’ve converted everything to those languages — printed word and sound,” Oliver said. “We have developed eight learning stations so that kids can learn at their own speed.”

The city of Wilson has 13 schools, and the fire department has scheduled time for each second-grade class — 53 in all — to spend time in the center.

The handicap accessible center features individual rooms including bedrooms, a kitchen including a stairwell set up with hazards (toys) on the stairs.

“The kids learn the dangers of tripping on items left on the stairs,” Oliver said. “Each group that we take through the building has an opportunity to learn about not only fire, but safety issues in the home.”

Oliver saw another benefit to this facility recently when 35 members of the local homebuilders’ association toured the facility.

“We [set off] the sprinkler booth off, brought the builders into the fire station, fed them dinner and took them throughout the new life safety center,” Oliver said. “The national homebuilders are against residential sprinklers, but we found a new understanding among this group when we explained how we could work together.”

Rural fire departments struggle to provide services. They depend on free manpower, the goodwill of community fundraising and the empathy of a city council that believes the fire service should be properly funded. Without such support, volunteer fire departments have to depend on their own sweat equity to make the department run, including tweaking equipment to make it last one more year or spending mornings flipping pancakes for a fundraiser in hopes of purchasing new bunker gear.

It’s not fair. And frankly, I don’t understand it. How do people work full-time jobs, take care of family responsibilities, and still find time to not only train for the fire service and fight fires, but also to donate to fundraising administrative tasks like stuffing envelopes for a letter-writing campaign?

I spoke recently about this with Jim Bollinger, 30-year chief of the Marble Hill Fire Department in southeast Missouri. The department is one of the lucky ones; it has an annual budget of $100,000 to support community services and to provide gear and training to the 22 volunteers on the team.

The fire department also is part of an automatic mutual-aid system with surrounding towns and is the only department that runs extrication rescues in the rural area.

“That’s because some of the surrounding fire departments don’t even get a budget from their city,” Bollinger said. “It’s like in some of these areas the fire departments are treated like the bastard child and that’s not right.”

Bollinger admits he doesn’t have an answer, only worries on how departments will stay operational while modernizing to meet current safety standards. He points to the NFPA standards for SCBA devices that pushed the price up significantly. Marble Hill is ready for an upgrade, but Bollinger is shocked by the sticker price.

“We are ready for an upgrade, and when we bought the units six years ago they cost around $1,600,” he said. “Now, I hear they may be around $7,000. It is virtually impossible at my department’s size to afford the units… and some other departments depended on fundraisers. What are they going to do?”

Bollinger believes in safety standards and has no complaint there. He just can’t see in today’s economic climate that volunteer departments are going to be able to comply — although he says they must to protect the lives of firefighters. However, the departments just don’t have the funding support from cities and counties — and can’t operate if they don’t meet the standards, he said.

“The fire service really needs support from local government,” he said. “Remember, a fire doesn’t know the difference between a volunteer and career firefighter.”

It’s not like Bollinger is saying anything new. So what’s next? Will more governments add volunteer departments into their fiscal budgets or will services be slashed across the country? I am unsure as of now, but would hate to see volunteer fire departments across the nation slowly shut down, leaving pockets of our rural communities vulnerable to fires.

As the nation gathers to remember the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, some will relive a parent’s worst fear — the loss of a child.

Al and Maureen Santora are among the parents who lost a son on 9/11. Christopher Santora, 23, was an FDNY probie firefighter on Engine 54. Christopher, the family’s middle child and only son, was following in his father footsteps; Al Santora is a retired FDNY deputy chief.

Christopher was supposed to go off duty at 9 that fateful morning. He lived with his parents, who were expecting him home. But at 9:20 a.m. they received a call for all firefighters to report back for duty. “I knew he wasn’t on his way home,” Al Santora said.

Christopher turned up on the list of missing the next day. Al began making the rounds at Ground Zero, hospitals and the morgue trying to locate Christopher or members of his engine company. Maureen was confident that her son was alive, but had amnesia; it was just a matter of finding him.

Fifteen firefighters from Christopher’s station were killed. The Santoras attended the first funeral. And they continued to attend funerals; the Santoras knew the fathers and sons of the fallen. All the while, Maureen remained confident that Christopher would be found.

But by November, the Santoras reluctantly agreed to set a date the next month for Christopher’s memorial service.

And then two days before the service, the city notified the Santoras that there had been a mistake and the first funeral they attended was in fact their son’s body. The city exhumed the body and the Santoras buried their only son.

“It’s a miracle that I would find my son,” Maureen Santora said. “I buried him. I visit him and feel his presence. It would have been very different if we never found him and I feel for the 1,100 people who were not found.”

Only five of the 15 firefighters from Engine 54 were found. Remains still are being found and the pain continues.

“Buildings can be replaced, but you can’t forget the human element of this tragedy,” Maureen Santora said. “For those who lost people, families are still split apart and the fragmentation still is going on.”

The Santoras attended the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation’s Memorial Weekend in 2002. And they continue to participate.

“It’s the parents who are forgotten — everything was so focused on the widows or the children,” said Cathy Hedrick, the mother of a fallen firefighter who now works in corporate relations for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. “We actually find that the parents are more involved with NFFF programs because parents don’t move on; widows and children do.”

Christopher will always be 23 years old to the Santora family. Al and Maureen tell their grandchildren about their Uncle Christopher and his intelligence, resourcefulness and his wonderful sense of humor.

Sept. 11 is a difficult day for the Santora family, so this year, in honor of Christopher, Maureen decided to host a family gathering at the themed Jekyll and Hyde restaurant in New York City, complete with wait-staff in monster costumes.

“Christopher would have loved it and he would think it was fun,” said Maureen. “I’m sure we will be forced to laugh because getting through Sept. 11 is tough and we know he’ll be smiling with us.”

President Dwight Eisenhower once said, “There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.”

The nation hasn’t gotten back to the way it was, either.

Early in 2007, the International Association of Fire Chiefs alerted its members to reports that the digital handsets used in many new radio systems were incompatible with the ambient noise frequently found in most fireground situations, including alarms from breathing apparatus and nearby chainsaws.

These anecdotal reports were largely confirmed in an IAFC report released last year that detailed the outcome of several objective tests on the subject conducted in 2007 and 2008 by the National Institute of Standards & Technology/National Telecommunications & Information Administration laboratory in Boulder, Colo. Three types of systems — 25 KHz analog, P25 full rate and P25 enhanced full rate (12.5 KHz analog was tested on a limited basis) — were tested in nine environments.

All systems tested met National Fire Protection Association standards of 80% intelligibility when no SCBA masks or background noise was involved. In addition, all systems failed to deliver intelligible communications in four of the nine fireground environments tested. However, when a firefighter uses an SCBA mask or personal alerting safety system, digital systems often were not as intelligible as analog systems, according to the NTIA report.

News of the tests spread like wildfire — pardon the pun — within the first-responder community. Many firefighting departments and unions brought the test results to attention of elected officials. In some cases, plans to migrate to a digital radio system were put on hold; more often, firefighters demanded that analog communications be used on the fireground until digital radios were proven to deliver intelligibility that is at least as good as analog.

In Saginaw County, Mich., the county conducted a test that demonstrated that the statewide radio network — a digital system—was as intelligible on the fireground as the county’s existing analog system before switching operations to the digital system.

Meanwhile, since the digital-radio issues were brought to the forefront, the vendor community has moved quickly. During the past year, Motorola and Harris RF have demonstrated the benefits of noise-cancellation features and other techniques leveraged in their new multiband radios in their trade-show booths. Meanwhile, digital vocoder technology continues to improve.

Despite the improvements, no vendor representative has made the bold claim that the digital-radio issue for the fireground has been resolved, only that progress is being made. While that seems apparent, such progress needs to be formally measured to get clear the air among many firefighters that digital radios are not as good as analog radios.

Some in the industry believe a new set of NIST/NTIA tests should not be done until digital radios begin including the new vocoder that DVSI is expected to release later this year. While the exact timing of the tests is debatable, it seems that an update to the tests conducted two years ago in a fast-moving portion of the industry is needed.

My rusty shorthand got a real workout last week at Fire-Rescue International in Dallas. After reviewing the notes from general sessions, meetings and conversations, I found several quotes worth repeating.

Jimmy Faulkner, a presenter at the IAFC’s Apparatus Maintenance Section workshop, asked attendees what they should do first when they get a new fire truck.”Weigh it.” he said. ”Before you start putting your stuff on that new rig, you better to make sure it complies with state restrictions.”

Also at the apparatus maintenance workshop, AMS Liaison Chief Fred Windisch offered some advice. “A fire chief can’t do his or her business without properly maintained, safe-operating apparatus,” he said.

At the Green Designs session, David Acomb, AIA, of Rick Swisher Architect, cautioned attendees to “not develop within 100 feet of any wetlands.”

The 2009 International Benjamin Franklin Fire Service Award for Valor was present at Thursday morning’s general session. As recipient Nicholas DiGiacomo received his award to a standing ovation, an IAFC staffer commented that the Miami-Dade firefighter was “the face of modesty.”

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano addressed the crowd at that same general session. “We need to be a culture of preparedness and we need to recognize that safety and security is not just the responsibility of a federal agency, a city or department,” she said. “Every citizen and every family has a role to play here. It’s as simple as being able to mitigate the spread of the flu, have an emergency kit in the home and take some CPR classes from the Red Cross. The whole notion is to get out of this business of people assuming that somebody is going to take care of us.”

Newly sworn-in U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran recognized the staff of the USFA, the Atlanta and Shreveport fire departments he previously served, and his family. To his mother, Jane, he said, “You gave me my life and inspired me.”

Former FEMA Director R. David Paulison, who is joining Motorola’s Government and Enterprise Funding Programs as a spokesperson, said of his new position, “It’s all about making sure fire departments know about the availability of funds and grants”

John Linstrom a longtime FIRE CHIEF columnist and author of “Unintended Consequences,” said “Every 10 years we should be detoxing firefighters [but] how do we do it without going to a long detox program?”

As with any conference, seminar or trade show the sharing of ideas, problem-solving and networking is always invigorating and this week, in particular, a great way to start a new fall season.