BY BILL MANNING
You’ve heard these words many times. Maybe you’ve spoken them yourself. They’re a bold avowal of commitment to the brotherhood, vocalized by some the way you’d wear a badge of honor. Important words.
But until fire departments adopt and pursue aggressive, real-world firefighter safety campaigns, organizational cultures and politics are changed, policies are revised and enforced, safe practices become engrained in the minds of our membership through training and education, and firefighter safety becomes as important a priority as and integrated within the primary organizational mission, they’ll just be words. And we’ll continue our worsening trend of line-of-duty deaths and injuries.
Every October, hundreds of family members make the trip to Emmitsburg as we pay tribute to the husbands and wives, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty. When they receive the American flag and a red rose, it’s one of the most touching sights you’ll ever see. And you can’t help but wonder, Why? Why did this happen?
Firefighting, in all its aspects, is a dangerous business that’s becoming more dangerous. The statistics bear it out. So it’s encouraging that the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation has taken a lead by creating its “Everyone Goes Home” campaign, created from input from fire service leadership, which lists 16 firefighter life safety initiatives to serve as a blueprint for change. The United States Fire Administration, in support of the campaign, is developing educational programs to assist fire departments in addressing the 16 initiatives. This is good news.
For the campaign to work, fire organizations at the national, regional, state, and local levels must vigorously promote it. And the local fire department leadership must be committed to making the culture change. Action must give reality to the words.
Within that context, it’s essential that the fire service rally around the effort spearheaded by the Columbus (OH) Firefighters Union to change federal regulations regarding SCBA low-air-alarm/time-to-exit warning. The current rule, established prior to 1960, requires that a low-air alarm sound at between 20 and 25 percent of the unit’s rated service time, which for a 30-minute rated air cylinder translates to four to six minutes of air left in the bottle. And often that’s not enough air for today’s fully encapsulated firefighter, engaged in aggressive fire operations deep within the structure, to exit safely.
I refer to Lieutenant David Bernzweig’s excellent article, “Expanding ‘Time to Exit’ for Firefighters,” which appeared in the June 2004 issue of Fire Engineering and which explains in depth the specific arguments and issues—and the critical need—for changing the federal emergency air supply regulations through the NIOSH rulemaking process. The article begins with the words, “The fire service is gasping for breath U.” Indeed. If you have not read this important piece, I strongly encourage you to do so.
Bernzweig and the Columbus firefighters have opened the door to changing an antiquated rule that’s out of step with modern firefighting practices. Their efforts have convinced NIOSH to assign a docket number for public comment. It’s imperative that the fire service walk through that door and change the rule. With asphyxia/smoke inhalation being the leading cause of noncardiac-related firefighter fatalities within structures and the leading cause of all severe firefighter injuries (21 percent between 1993 and 1997), can we afford not to? This change, combined with enhanced fireground air management and other operational policies, will be a big step toward reversing our tragic smoke inhalation injury statistics. For more information, including information on how to make public comment, go to www.timetoexit.com.
Will “everyone go home”? It’s your actions every day, your efforts toward progressive departmental operational/safety change, and support of efforts such as those above that will answer the question. It’s up to each and every one of us to decide if “Everyone Goes Home” are words without effect or an idea that reverberates at every training activity and on every fireground.
