THE CORE MISSION IS EVERYTHING, FOR NOW
BY BILL MANNING
The core mission of the fire department is simple. I even think most of us can agree on it:
1. To prevent fires.
2. To control fires at their points of ignition, or limit them to prescribed compartmentized areas, via engineered building systems.
3. To rescue civilians in need and extinguish fires with the least possible number of firefighter injuries.
Does your fire department or fire agency–does this fire service as a whole–satisfy this core mission as well and effectively as it can?
The answer is no. I know this is correct because if fire departments everywhere were fulfilling their core mission effectively, would America be the fire loss leader of the industrialized world?
Without total devotion to and investment in the fire service`s core mission, we are saying, in effect, every minute of every single day, that 4,000 civilian deaths, 100 firefighter line-of-duty deaths, 100,000 firefighter line-of-duty injuries, and billions of dollars in property damage from fire each year are acceptable. We are saying that it is an acceptable risk.
If it is not, in your mind, an acceptable risk, then the fire service is living a big lie. Knowing that considerably more can be done to reduce the still-appalling yearly fire losses is perpetuating a lie against the fire service and against American citizens.
We have shown our genius for “improving” the fire service, but this year and next year and the year after there will be about 4,000 civilian fire deaths, 100 firefighter line-of-duty deaths, 100,000 firefighter line-of-duty injuries, and billions of dollars in property damage. What have we improved? How have we improved? How do you define “improvement”?
The fire service of America is paying a heavy toll to cross that “bridge to the 21st century.” That toll is 4,000 civilian fire deaths, 100 firefighter line-of-duty deaths, 100,000 line-of-duty firefighter injuries, and billions of dollars in property damage.
Eradicate “symbolism over substance” in the fire service. The substance is qualified by the three questions, How well have we prevented? How well have we protected? How well and safely have we rescued and extinguished?
Today and for a long time to come, the fire service should and must think of little else. Devotion to the core mission is the only solution for a fire service that, right now, talks a big talk but is all too willing to pay that terrible fare to cross that metaphorical bridge.
And if there comes a time when we can prove statistically and analytically that the “acceptable” has been replaced with the positively unavoidable, then and only then is it moral to occupy the fire department with all that which now are tragic distractions.
