By Mary Jane Dittmar
Introducing himself as an “overachiever,” to the audience at the Opening Ceremonies this morning, Keynote Speaker Eric Roden quickly followed with, “You are all overachievers.” He explained that the FDIC is attended by overachievers, whom he described as individuals who have “knowledge, passion, and drive” and a “100 percent chance of influencing others when they get home.”
Overachievers operate on a different level—they “operate above”– in the fire service, Roden noted, the level “that makes the fire service what it is.” He compared the climb to and experience gained at this “different” level to ascending to the floor above the fire to operate. The floor above the fire “is considered the most dangerous place to operate; and it can be hot, dangerous, lonely, and exciting all at once,” said Roden. Those assigned to operate there usually do so outside of the visual purview of the others on the fireground. But those who come back from the floor above are more humble, more knowledgeable, and better than they were before they had gone, and they always look forward to the next trip.”
To participate in these benefits, Roden said, you must perpetually look for those stairs [to the higher level], or you will miss out on potential discoveries and successes. Roden equated “overachieving” with “operating above.” Those who continually look for the stairs to the floor above and seek out every opportunity their career has to offer find self-actualization. He offered many examples; several follow.
Overachievers, Roden noted, possess common traits and virtues. Initiative is one of these attributes. He cited as a fire service overachiever, one who found the stairs to the floor above, Fire Department of New York Commissioner John T. O’Hagan. “Commissioner O’Hagan exuded the dearest of overachiever virtues, initiative, Roden said. “He saw what was missing in the fire service and diligently went after it. Among O’Hagan’s many accomplishments were inventing the tower ladder and super pumpers, instituting municipal data-driven deployment, and developed protocols for inspecting and fighting fires in high-rises that are still in use today.
The late Andy Fredericks, who lost his life in the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, was another overachiever. Roden called Fredericks’ September 1995 article “Return of the Solid Stream” momentous. This young and relatively unknown FDNY firefighter, Roden noted, “brought attention back to the most important unit in the fire service: the engine company.”
Roden cited the “virtue of bravery,” and offered the example of then FDNY Rescue 1 firefighter Kevin Shea, who on May 5, 1991, “dangled from a rope off a 12-story building in Midtown Manhattan,” to effect a rescue of a civilian. In 1993, Shea responded to a World Trade Center bombing and was seriously hurt after falling 50 feet into a crater while climbing through the rubble.
Courage and bravery were evident also in Ray McCormack, “a young firefighter from FDNY Ladder 24, who, with a rope tied around his waist, served as a human anchor for Shea and the rescued person, Roden noted. McCormack, Roden added, “exhibited that very same courage at the 2009 FDIC during his keynote address, which “forever put fire service culture into the conversation of risk vs. reward.” This type of courage also creates “great personal risk,” Roden pointed out.
The fire service had had its share of “overachieving scientists” as well, Roden said. Among them were Keith Royer and Floyd Nelson, “who brought us the game-changing Iowa Fire Formulas and the methods of fire attack in the 1950s that are still being taught to this very day.” As for today, Roden announced: “Not since Royer and Nelson have two individuals had the ability to start a contemporary conversation of firefighting effectiveness by using proven and groundbreaking fire-based research as Steve Kerber, Underwriters Laboratories, and Dan Madzrykowksi, National Institute of Standards and Technology. “They took hypothetical risk vs. reward and began quantifying it for the first time, rather than anecdotally theorizing it and muddying up the conversation. “
Professionalism is another virtue Roden highlighted. He said “there are tons of overachievers that have put faces to professionalism.” He mentioned as an example Captain Robert Morris, who discovered three encompassing words that will get you through any door or out of any building: Gap, Set and Force,” the basis of teaching forcible entry among countless teaching groups. Three other words of Morris, ‘Vent, Enter and Search,’ explained Roden, “have become the American truck company.”
Roden said his goal was “to make chiefs cool again, and not simply a position in our fire departments.” Also, by “looking at data in an entirely different way with some elite academic institutions,” Roden said, I’m out to show HOW important you really are to your communities, rather than simply why you are.
“The floor above,” Roden told audience members, “starts with you.” It starts with the desire to operate on a different level than everyone else seems to be. You have what it takes to change the fire service.”
Erich Roden is a 21-year veteran of the Milwaukee fire service and a battalion chief with the Milwaukee (WI) Fire Department, where he is assigned to the Training Academy. He oversees a staff of 21, who train more than a thousand members in various programs. He is an online editor for Fire Engineering and is a co-founder and editor of Urban Firefighter.
