Volunteers Set Priorities for Help From USFA at National Workshop
Associate Editor
Hazardous materials and business management were selected by representatives of the nation’s volunteer fire service as the top priority areas for assistance from the United States Fire Administration (USFA).
Four other priorities also were defined by representatives of volunteers from 48 states during the second National Workshop for Volunteer Fire Service held Aug. 8-10 at the National Fire Academy (NFA) in Emmitsburg, Md. The workshop, called Stonebridge II, was a repeat performance of the Stone-bridge Conference held at Snowmass, Colo., in August 1979. Both conferences were conducted by the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) under the sponsorship of the NFA and in cooperation with the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Service Instructors.
Other priorities ranked by the workshop were federal responsibilities for training in third place—separated by just one point from the no. 2 priority, business management. Emergency medical services rated fourth and tied for fifth place were development of a model retirement program for volunteer fire fighters and an intensified arson awareness program.
Priority specifics
The priorities were selected from 42 resolutions developed by work groups on 10 different subjects. Each conference member participated in two different work groups. After the first round of 20 work groups, each participant then attended a double session in a different work group. The first of the double sessions refined, expanded or discarded proposals of the initial work group on a specific subject and in the second of the double sessions, further discussion led to agreement on three to five resolutions listed in order of priority. In a plenary session, each Stonebridge II attendee was asked to first list what he regarded as the 10 most important resolutions and then to list five of the 10 selected resolutions in order of priority.
Specifically, the no. 1 hazardous materials resolutions urged the NFA to concentrate hazardous materials training efforts on incident management and to deliver this training to all fire fighters through “existing training systems,” using the train-the-teacher technique.
The second priority business management resolution called on the USFA to “develop a procedures manual and field course covering budgeting procedures, funding, record keeping and money management for volunteer fire departments by the end of fiscal year 1981.”
Federal assistance
Consideration of federal responsibilities for training resulted in a third place priority resolution that recommended providing “packaged train-the-trainer programs to all state training programs for all existing and future NFA programs, beginning June 1981.”
The fourth priority resolution stated “that the level of emergency medical service involvement should be a local level decision and not be an outside mandate.”
The fifth place in the priorities was shared by two resolutions that each received the same number of points in the selection process. One resolution asked “that the NVFC and the USFA develop and promote guidelines for a model retirement benefit program for the volunteer fire service at the state or local level.”
The other resolution declared “that awareness of the arson problem should be presented through mass media and an expanded system of rewards for information leading to conviction be coordinated through the USFA.”
Oddly enough, the arson awareness resolution was not in the unweighted list of 10 most important resolutions. It tied for fifth priority through the weighted point value system used.
Other resolutions
The other resolutions in the top 10, determined by the number of times mentioned by conference participants, were as follows:
With USFA funding assistance, the NVFC should “collect and disseminate information regarding compensation and benefits available at state and local levels.”
Make each state training authority “the resource center for the receipt, distribution, and cataloging of training and education information, materials, and programs.”
Recommendation that “all volunteer fire fighters should be trained to a minimum first responder level, as described in the Department of Transportation’s first responder program.”
Place greater emphasis on the “delivery of National Fire Academy fire/ arson courses to the grass roots level. Additionally, the NFA resident fire/ arson courses should be opened up to the volunteer fire service.”
The volunteer fire service should support “the adoption and ongoing improvement of hazardous materials 126-A” (the proposed hazardous materials identification system developed by the Research and Special Programs Administration of the Materials Transportation Bureau of the DOT).
Gains indicated
The failure of three work groups to place any of their resolutions among the top 10 is interesting because it indicates advances made by the fire service. For example, the work group dealing with the image of the volunteer fire service came up with suggestions dealing principally with public relations and it apparently was the opinion of the conference that public relations no longer required the attention it got at the 1979 session when it merited no. 5 in a list of nine priorities.
The performance standards and the information transfer work groups also failed to place a resolution among the top 10. Performance standards was a subject new to this year’s volunteer workshop and it failed to meet the competition of other areas of concern. A year ago, information transfer in general and the dissemination of federal assistance program information were priorities 2 and 3, but this year, other problems were viewed by the general workshop as more pressing.
Development of courses
Ken Pauken, director of the USFA office of program planning and evaluation, told the conferees that the USFA had increased its publication of information to meet the information demand voiced a year ago. He also reported that courses urged by the volunteers a year ago are being developed in the management of emergency medical services, hazardous materials I and II, management of physical fitness programs, and instructional techniques for company officers.
Before the work groups met to develop resolutions on arson, Pauken reminded the conferees that they had received in their workshop packet a copy of the USFA draft of the proposed arson prevention program for rural areas. This draft adapts metropolitan arson prevention programs to suggest how rural areas, as large as counties, can get citizens in general and various governmental, business and social groups involved in combatting arson.
Pauken also pointed out that more places are being made for volunteer fire fighters in NFA courses and said that this was already being done in the arson investigation course.
Thinking of volunteers
Expanding on this later, B.J. Thompson, NFA superintendent, stated that the National Fire Academy has conceived a number of programs and offered weekend seminars particularly for volunteers. He said that more than 300 volunteers have attended seven programs at the academy. Thompson reported that 18 percent of the students in courses conducted at the academy are volunteers and in regional programs, 27 percent are volunteers.
In another effort to increase volunteer attendance, Thompson explained, the NFA is offering courses conducted from Saturday through Monday on an intensified basis that are the equivalent of normal five-day courses. He added that some two-week courses have been intensified to run through two weekends so that volunteers lose only five working days instead of 10.
Third service threat
The third uniformed service concept for EMS that is being promoted by the Department of Transportation was discussed by Mike Olson, who handles EMS for the USFA. Olson charged that highway safety funds are being used by the DOT as a weapon to promote EMS as a third uniformed service and declared that a DOT conference in Maryland concluded that delivery of EMS by the fire service is “the least acceptable” alternative.
Olson refuted this position and declared, “The largest single provider of EMS is the volunteer fire fighter.”
The USFA position on the third service concept was defined by Gordon Vickery, USFA administrator, who declared, “We think it (EMS) belongs in the fire service, volunteer or paid, and while I’m around that’s going to be my stand.”
He said that the fire service never had any input in the DOT discussions about developing a third service for EMS. Pointing out that the fire service has the stations and the manpower for operating EMS, Vickery declared that it’s not in the best interest of the citizens or the fire service to establish a third service.
“We couldn’t find a legitimate argument why we should sponsor a third service,” Vickery asserted.
Backs fire service
Joseph Moreland, USFA deputy administrator, pointed out that the fire service delivers 70 to 80 percent of EMS and “that’s how it ought to be,” and he added, “The emergency medical service belongs in the fire service.”
The deputy administrator urged the volunteer representatives to become vigorous in publicizing the role of the fire service as a first responder to emergencies. This is necessary, he explained, if the fire service is to get the recognition it deserves in governmental planning.
“Until we recognize that the fire service is the emergency first responder, you will continue to be forgotten by the local, state and federal planning people.”
Moreland questioned whether the people who plan the handling of emergencies are aware that the fire service is their “major manpower resource.” He declared that the fire service operated best at disasters because it is the service that is accustomed to handling dayto-day emergencies.
The USFA deputy administrator noted that the USFA was the only section of the Federal Emergency Management Agency whose latest budget request was not cut.
Operation Dixieland
An innovative program to reduce fire deaths in Arkansas, one of the states in the southern belt of high fire death rate states, was explained by Richard Strother, USFA associate administrator for the office of planning and education. Called Operation Dixieland, the program to reduce deaths in Arkansas will be a “concentrated effort” by each segment of the USFA. Strother said that the objective is to concentrate USFA resources so that there will be a visible impact on the Arkansas fire death problem, and if this proves effective, it will influence other states in the high death rate area to take similar action.
Strother added that the USFA will try to show that if you can reduce fire deaths in one state by an intensive program, you can do it elsewhere.
Vickery endorsed the Operation Dixieland concept and commented, “I hope we will always be innovative enough to come up with these new concepts.”
Prevention gets credit
When asked whether available statistics that show lower fire death rates in Europe than in the United States are valid, Phillip Schaenman, USFA associated administrator for the National Fire Data Center, responded that the British statistics are valid and “better than ours.” In European nations, he added, some statistics are better than ours and others are worse.
Most of the lower death rates, he concluded, have to do with the fact that “they spend a heck of a lot more on prevention than we do.”
Strong prevention programs also were credited by John W. Overbey II of the National Fire Data Center for the low fire death rate in Europe. He said that in 1978, there were 8400 fire fatalities in the United States and a $5 billion direct fire loss. Both the life and fire losses, he stated, were predominantly a residential problem.
In comparing the fire experiences of foreign countries, Overbey noted that while Japan has the lowest building fire rate, it also has the highest fatality rate per fire.
Volunteer future
Discussing the future of the volunteer fire service, Chief M. H. Estep of Prince Georges County, Md., warned that the future is short unless a volunteer recruitment and training program is developed. He explained how high school students in his county are the target of a recruiting program. Getting recruits at an early age and giving them adequate training, he declared, offers the best hope of filling the ranks of the volunteer service and retaining those who have been recruited.
At the end of the national workshop sessions, Vickery was asked what one thing could be done by the volunteer fire service that would be most helpful to the USFA. Vickery responded that he didn’t know if there was one special thing. He commented, however, that the fire service had almost no political input on the national level and he regarded legislative support as “all-important.”
E. James Monihan, president of the NVFC, then promised that legislative support—“provided we agree with you.”
The National Workshop for the Volunteer Service was arranged by a steering committee consisting of Monihan, Donald Flinn, general manager of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and Louis Amabili, past president of the International Society of Fire Service Instructors.
