Tag Archives: fire department management

This brings to question, are fireground officers and today’s firefighters receiving adequate training? The question remains, are proper size-ups being conducted to allow for a decision regarding whether it is an offensive or defensive fire attack [situation]? It all comes down to decision making capability and fire ground safety. We simply need to focus on the basic fundamentals of fire fighting.

We focus on the young likely because its easy. But, what we Fire Prevention Demoprovide in education is often lost in an overriding effort to entertain them. Further, without reinforcement of the fire safe/prevention message in their home environment, any value is soon lost to the parent's daily example/attitudes towards fire safety.

Fire department leaders owe it to their members and their communities to OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAensure that the department’s physical facilities have the appropriate installed fire protection, e.g., fire sprinkler systems, undergo the same inspections for potential fire hazards that they expect from the public they serve.

The behaviors of adults in the USA account for 78 percent of the preventable residential fires. So why do the vast majority of fire prevention educations that Fire and EMS departments deliver each year target children? If we’re looking to significantly reduce the following types of fires, why don’t our programs focus on adult behaviors?

From the volunteer fire company perspective, they were getting people in and getting those folks the required training, but then they were not able to actively participate in service delivery. There was a broad-based feeling (revealed when we conducted focus groups with volunteers) that all they ever got to do was “be the backups”.

In the end, firefighters contract disease, illness and death through inhalation, ingestion or absorption. To prevent exposure means wearing air and USING it, clean bodies and clean PPE. While the prescription for prevention is simple, the process is complex.

If you are a fire service leader who's REALLY interested in attaining zero firefighter deaths and injuries, you must take 32+ minutes to watch this video that was produced by Dr. Burt Clark. (Dr. Clark has served the American Fire Service for 40+ years and is one of the "founding fathers" of the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy, along with the now-retired Charles "Chuck" Burkell).

I’ve come to realize that firefighters dying in fires is our very own inconvenient truth in the fire service…In spite of all we know about fire, in spite of all of the advances that have been made in technology, in spite of all of the advances in the science of fire prevention and suppression, in spite of the billions of dollars spent—firefighters still die.

I know that I learned a great deal from everyone whom I facilitated, and my officers and their firefighters really looked forward to our short but productive sessions. They always said that they appreciated the time I spent with them because they learned how to be better initial incident commanders, and they learned what my expectations were for them at the emergency scene in that role.

There is a lot more that can be done to use social media in a community emergency, but this should be a good “starter kit”. So what are you waiting for? Your community emergency, either man-made or naturally occurring, is “just around the corner”.