Boots on the Ground
As I sat in on last weekend’s Everyone Goes Home Safety Summit, I realized that the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is the perfect organization to lead firefighter safety efforts. The organization honors fallen firefighters and helps their survivors, offering support with job training and scholarships. And by doing that work for so long, it’s easy for the NFFF to notice fatality trends year after year.
We all know what the foundation noticed: Annually, more than half of firefighter line-of-duty deaths result from heart attacks or stress-related illness. Vehicle accidents and training accidents are the second- and third-leading causes. In fact, fire fatalities aren’t common.
The NFFF created the 16 Life-Safety Initiatives five years ago appear to help prevent such preventable fatalities. As part of that effort, the organization also launched the Everyone Goes Home program to deliver these training initiatives. And the programs seem to be making a difference.
With the support of the Assistance to Firefighters grant program and Fireman’s Fund Insurance, the NFFF can deliver the program across the country at no charge. Regional Advocate Manager Billy Hayes oversees the 10 regional advocates, plus state and local advocates.
Advocates are the boots-on-the-ground volunteers. In the three-month period between November 2009 and February 2010, they spoke to 733 attendees at 72 sessions. Advocates conducted more than a third (34.7%) of their visits in all-volunteer departments, followed by 26.4% in combination departments and 19.4% in career departments. During the visits, three topics dominated the discussions: incident safety and situational awareness, health and wellness, and emergency vehicle operations/response driving.
Former Deputy U.S. Fire Administrator Charlie Dickinson spoke to summit attendees about success of the Everyone Goes Home program. Dickinson recalled his experience in 1995, as the fire chief in Pittsburgh when three firefighters were killed. “It’s a horrible thing to carry as a fire chief, that it could have been prevented,” he said.
Are you doing everything you can to make sure everyone in your department returns home safely? Consider investing the time in the Everyone Goes Home program for your department.
