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.

Make no mistake, fire and emergency medical service is physically demanding work — always has been and always will be. Despite the technology that has made the job safer and less punishing, fighting fires still involves people lugging hose into burning buildings and carrying Mrs. Smith down two flights of stairs at 3 a.m. Over the course of a 25- or 30-year career, the small aches and pains can accumulate into larger health issues.

Get a group of firefighters together in any setting and ask them what they like about being a firefighter. It won’t be long before someone talks about the “fellowship.” I’d like to share a story about a firefighter who does more than talk about it — he lives it.

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.

Where will the fire service’s next generation of employees and members come from? The focus for many years has been recruiting women and minorities to reflect the community that a department serves. Today the challenge is how to attract and keep people from the newest pool of potential employees or volunteers: the members of Generation Y.

Is it to create employment for career employees or to provide a social organization for volunteer members? Is it to provide a work schedule that enables employees to work other jobs or own their own businesses? Or is it to provide the necessary emergency services to prevent the unnecessary loss of life or property from fires, medical emergencies, accidents and the other calamities of daily life?

Don’t those employees who are showing up too tired for work have supervisors? If so, why are these supervisors enabling such behavior? Why aren’t they fulfilling their responsibilities to their other employees and to the public by allowing only those who are fit for duty to respond to fire and EMS calls?

Many U.S. fire and EMS organizations use some form of the 24-hour shift for around-the-clock staffing, but that may soon be changing for both employers and employees. Changes may stem from employee safety and decision-making capabilities while working 24-hour shifts, organizational liability for actions by employees working 24-hour shifts, and changes in worker attitudes about work schedules in general.

The U.S. work force is undergoing some serious seismic shifts, not because the earth is shifting, but because the demographics of the available labor pool are changing drastically. This is particularly true for fire and EMS agencies.

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a multiple-fatality fire in Chesterfield County. A recent fire prompted me to think about the stuff that firefighters do every day to help make Chesterfield County a safer place to live: primarily smoke detectors and in-service training.