Fire Chief

After about four months, it became clear to both of us that my public-sector upbringing and their private-sector, family owned ways of doing business weren’t a good fit. And in that environment there’s really only one person who can go.

A couple years ago, my department was awarded a $300,000 Assistance to Firefighters Grant to upgrade our communications equipment. At that time our dispatch center, transmitter and antenna system all were 40 to 50 years old. It was designed to use a dedicated telephone line to carry audio from the dispatch console to the transmitter that was over a mile away on the city’s water tower.

“We deserve whatever we can get,” is not a reasonable answer to reasonable remuneration for firefighters. The dangers of the job do not justify additional pay; they demand a well-trained and engaged work force that practices what it preaches.

It looks like the Dayton (Tenn.) Fire Department will be looking for a new fire chief. According to the Rhea County Herald-News, Fire Chief Jack Arnold has quit after 29 years with the fire department.

Gone are the times of guaranteed budget increases, facility and equipment expenditures, and staffing allowances to fit the needs of a changing and growing working environment. Departments across the country are being asked — or required — to do more with less. As it was with many businesses in the 1980s and ’90s, fire departments are now faced with downsizing, a word thought unmentionable in the fire service until recent times.

By Joan Buzzard
On Nov. 1, 2004, the Effingham (Ill.) Fire Department experienced a change in leadership that forever changed operations in this small southern department. The newly appointed chief was from the north and believed that teaching his firefighters ownership responsibilities was just as important as other training and quickly implemented these beliefs into action. While ownership and in-house accountability aren’t new concepts in the fire service, success stories such as Effingham’s are deserve attention, as they reinforce these principals and prove they work.

In a recent issue of the Building Safety Journal International Code Council CEO Richard Weiland talks about the fire service’s increased participation in the building-code process. I think it’s important to note that ICC recognizes this shift and its importance to the code industry.

The AFG program is constantly looking to document success stories. These success stories help illustrate and reinforce the value of the program and how it has made a difference in our ability as the fire service to handle both routine and extraordinary emergencies.

Fire and EMS organizations have a fiduciary responsibility to the people who pay the bills, be they taxpayers, donors or business sponsors. Whether an organization’s annual budget is $10,000 or $100 million, it is responsible for providing the best possible service for the dollar.

I was in Charleston, S.C., on the three-month anniversary of the fire that killed nine firefighters. That day Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. gave his first report to the community. The report outlined the behavioral health and financial assistance to the fallen firefighters’ families and praised the Post-Incident Assessment and Enhancement Review Task Force that was brought in to assess the fire department and make recommendations to help bring the department into the current century.