National Fire Academy Fate Debated As FDIC Marks Its 50th Anniversary
Counterbalanced by 22 workshops, the major issue discussed at the Fire Department Instructors Conference in Memphis March 21-24 was the fate of the National Fire Academy, as well as that of the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration.
The workshop programs provided a wide variety of detailed information on a multitude of subjects ranging from public fire safety education to fire department operation, training problems and administrative developments.
The White House task force’s proposal to move the NFPCA out of the Department of Commerce and into a new emergency agency that would include the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, now in the Department of Defense, was discussed by George Jett, general counsel for the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. He told the FDIC that President Carter requested the task force study of federal government emergency programs last August 25 with the intent to consolidate a number of agencies. Jett stated that the National Governors Council had urged consolidation of all federal emergency assistance agencies.
Jett voiced the opinion that the NFPCA stature would be enhanced by being moved into the new agency and said its programs would receive maximum attention from the new agency administrator.
However, Jett was unable to spell out specifics of how the change would affect the NFPCA and the future of the National Fire Academy. The existence of the fire academy has been under attack by the Office of Management and Budget, which opposed funding for renovation of the Margaret Webster Junior College as the Washington, D. C., site for the academy.
Fire service fears of what reorganization might do to the NFPCA and the National Fire Academy were reflected in a statement released during the FDIC by the public affairs committee of the Joint Council of National Fire Service Organizations.
The statement declared:
“Based on information we have at this time, we are opposed to the proposed reorganization plan.
“However, we are willing to sit down and talk to the reorganization team regarding the matter.”
The statement was signed by the committee members, W. Howard McClennan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters; Chief John L. Swindle of Birmingham, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs; Charles S. Morgan, president of the National Fire Protection Association; Harold R. Mace, manager, Fire Service Training and Fire Protection Publications, Oklahoma State University; and Louis J. Amabili, president of the International Association of Fire Service Instructors.
Concedes controversy
Jett conceded that “transfer of the NFPCA is the most controversial” part of the plan for the new agency, but he explained that the task force “could find no imperative reasoning why the fire control program should remain in the Department of Commerce.” He said that the emergency medical service program also was under study, but he felt that its linkage with the Department of Transportation was stronger than the linkage of the NFPCA with the Department of Commerce.
A major criticism by the task force, according to Jett, was that there was no single person with the authority to report to the President on major emergencies. He explained that there were more than three dozen department agencies with emergency responsibilities and more than 135 programs. The programs, he added, were found by the task force to be “chaotic and in disarray.”
The proposed federal emergency management agency would be headed by an administrator ranking just below the presidential cabinet secretaries. It is expected that the NFPCA administrator would report directly to the agency administrator, just as he reports directly to the secretary of commerce at present.
Although the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency, with a total of 800 employees, would be the second largest in the new organization, Jett conceded that without the fire service representation, the emergency agency “would be left without its most important arm.”
Other major units that would be merged into the emergency agency include the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration with 900 workers, the flood insurance program of the Department of Housing and Urban Renewal with 300 employees and HUD’s Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, whose 152 employees handle millions of dollars a year without a fixed budget.
While the NFPCA’s staff of 125 appears small compared to these other groups, it has been pointed out that it is even smaller when viewed in relation to the 43,300 in the Department of Commerce. The new emergency agency is expected to have a total staff of 2200 to 2300 persons.
Other groups that would be merged along with the NFPCA are the Office of Earthquake Hazard Reduction, which has been authorized by Congress but not yet established, HUD’s temporary housing program for families whose homes have been destroyed, the National Weather Service’s small preparedness program, the Nuclear Regulator Commission’s small office that helps local governments plan for nuclear emergencies, the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s dam safety program, and a Treasury Department project to monitor imports vital to the country’s well-being that is practically inactive.
Defends fire academy
Describing the National Fire Academy as an “important center for research and training,” W. Howard McClennan, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told the FDIC he was “cautiously optimistic” that the academy will survive. He referred to “unbelievable rumors” that President Carter planned to eliminate the fire academy and expressed his disappointment that the “unbelieable turned out to be true.”
“President Carter himself had assured us of his support for it” (the National Fire Academy), McClennan disclosed.
The IAFF president stated that the OMB indicated the Department of Commerce was agreeable to killing off the National Fire Academy and he commented that the shift of the NFPCA to the proposed emergency agency “can’t be worse than the attitude in the Commerce Department.”
McLennan pointed out that “America Burning,” the report of the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, called for the establishment of the National Fire Academy, which he viewed as the means of catching up with the modern needs of the fire service.
The IAFF president commented, “Progress in this new era means not going forward, but trying to keep from going backward.”
Tipton’s first priority
Declaring that “I’m not here to make excuses,” Howard W. Tipton, NFPCA administrator, declared, “The fire academy has always been the first priority of this administration.”
Tipton stated that the academy did not get an increase in the ’79 budget and the OMB took the position that there was probably no need for an academy. The NFPCA administrator said he then went out and campaigned to retain the academy and as a result of the response he got, “I feel fairly confident that we’re going to win the National Fire Academy battle.”
Tipton added, “I’m ready to go on fighting and I hope you are.”
He declared that reorganization of the NFPCA with other agencies ‘‘would lower the level of the administration and the fire academy” and would “virtually bury us under civil defense.” He added that “to subjugate the fire service to civil defense is just darn wrong” and that as long as he is administrator, “we’re going to fight being placed under civil defense.
Site plans going forward
Despite the current unsettled situation, plans for rehabilitating the Margaret Webster Junior College site for the National Fire Academy “are going forward,” said David M. McCormack, academy superintendent. He stated that the $6 million needed for the renovation has been requested of the OMB and he categorized this sum as “a small amount for the value to be gained.”
He pointed out that a large academy was not the intent of Congress and he agreed with that. At the same time, he declared that it was important to continue with renovation plans for the academy site “without further vacillation.”
Asked about National Fire Academy programs for volunteers, McCormack replied that the programs are designed to reach all fire fighters. Each program, he said, is constructed in modules so it can be delivered to volunteers in time frames suitable to them.
“Academy programs are not designed just for paid people by any stretch of the imagination,” McCormack declared.
He reported that 89 academy courses will have been delivered in 49 states by October 1 and he is anticipating the development of an emergency medical service program in 1980.
Academy has IAFC support
Support for the National Fire Academy also was expressed by Chief John L. Swindle of Birmingham, president of the IAFC during a brief talk to the FDIC.
“The IAFC fully supports the NFPCA and the National Fire Academy,” Swindle said.
He added that he believed in the NFPCA national data collection system and its research activities and he urged his listeners to support these programs.
Swindle reported that the IAFCIAFF apprenticeship program is “doing very well” and he urged all fire chiefs to take a clook at the new EMS apprenticeship program under the same sponsorship.
EMS growth predicted
“The single-purpose fire department is a sacred cow on its way to slaughter,” James O. Page, A.C.T. Foundation executive director, predicted during his discussion of the provision of emergency medical service by fire departments. “My crystal ball suggests that the fire department of the future will be a multipurpose public service agency with high-quality pre-hospital care an integral part of its functions. The fire department of the future will use the same body of personnel in both fire protection and EMS roles.”
Stressing the need to maintain a high level of competence among paramedics, Page declared that the medical director of an EMS program should not only have the authority to order a man to undergo retraining, but he also should have the authority to remove a “burned-out” paramedic from the program.
Page suggested that if a medical director can remove a paramedic who is no longer competent despite efforts to retrain him. then a fire department training officer should have the same authority over fire fighters.
“What justification is there for sending a fire fighter back to active duty after his day at the drill tower clearly shows that he cannot perform adequately?” Page asked. “Is he less a hazard to the public, or his fire company, than an incompetent paramedic?”
Talking to deaf persons
Advice on how fire fighters can best communicate with deaf persons was given by Debbe Hagner, who has a severe hearing impairment and works in the office of the Mount Prospect, Ill., Fire Department. The tips she gave stemmed from her experience in helping Mount Prospect fire inspectors develop fire safety lectures incorporating sign language for deaf students at a local school.
Ms. Hagner said that “if a deaf person asks you to repeat something, try to say it in a different way” because the first wording might have been too difficult to lip-read. Even if an interpreter is present, talk directly to the deaf person, and don’t exaggerate your lip movement, she advised. If you don’t understand the deaf person, offer him paper and pencil but never say, “Never mind, or forget it.”
To get the attention of a deaf person, Ms. Hagner suggested, it is best to give a gentle tap on that person’s shoulder or arm. She explained that in an emergency, a deaf person may shake his head “no” and point to his ear, do a pantomime, strain to speak, or move his lips, making sounds that are not clearly understood.
Sprinkler systems
Changing technologies are affecting fire and building codes and placing an increasing burden on fire service officers who have the responsibility for approving automatic sprinkler system plans, declared John A. Viniello, vice president of field operations for the National Automatic Sprinkler and Fire Control Association, Inc. He pointed out that the installation of a sprinkler system in a new building gives the architect reduced fireproofing requirements, longer exit travel distances, a wider choice of interior finishes and more liberal area and height limits.
The speaker noted that building codes also are requiring automatic sprinkler systems in more buildings at the same time sprinkler systems are becoming more sophisticated.
“No longer do we have simple pipe schedule systems,” Viniello explained. “Systems are now gridded. Systems are now looped. Systems are now hydraulically calculated. We are beginning to see computer applications in system design.”
The speaker saw this as a challenge for fire officers responsible for reviewing sprinkler plans to increase their technical competence in this area. No longer can the insurance underwriter’s stamp on sprinkler plans be regarded as an indication of approval. The ISO plan review stamp represents a shift in thinking in the last 24 months and the revised stamp merely indicates acceptance in relation to fire insurance rating considerations and does not make any representation of “approval,” Viniello stated. Thus, he added, the responsibility for approving sprinkler plans “is now placed squarely on the shoulders of local officials …. and in many instances, that local official is a member of the fire service.
Executive training
Two projects funded by the NFPCA to develop executive training courses for the National Fire Academy were discussed by Dr. John Granito of the State University of New York at Binghamton and Chief David B. Gratz, vice president of the IAFC Foundation. Granito said the need for an “overview program” to offer immediate managerial skills to fire officers resulted in the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs developing, in cooperation with the NFPCA, five modules for such a course. The New York group is now field-testing four more modules that will complete a two-part overview course of 36 hours.
Granito explained that five modules of part I of the course cover influences on the management process, basic decisions in community fire protection, fire service organizational development, executive styles, and fire service management by objectives. Part II, now being field-tested, covers personnel management, decision-making, improving communications, and personnel development and time management.
Evaluation of the results from the 1500 students who participated in the field-testing of the first five modules, Granito reported, showed that while 74 percent of the students preferred a film/lecture teaching technique, the students scored highest, 8.7 out of a possible 10 in quizzes, on material presented by straight lecture. The average quiz score on film/lecture material was 8.35, the next to the lowest score for the five teaching techniques. The straight lecture was preferred by only 18 percent of the students, although it was their second preference.
Objectives set
The IAFC Foundation has established broad objectives and a preliminary course outline in the first of three steps in the development of a course for middle management, primarily firstalarm chief officers, Gratz reported. The next step will involve further research and verification of the duties of middle management officers, and the final step will develop a model of executive development with recommendations on the design of the instructional process.
Gratz said that preliminary recommendations call for emphasis on managing emergency operations and developing communications skills among 20 proposed subjects. He added that the course should strike a balance between theory and practice and that it will include only those technical subjects that relate directly to management functions. The course is intended to be a general management course that will not attempt to fulfill the technical knowledge needs of officers with special responsibilities, such as training officers.
In discussing the development of training programs, Frederick Richards, a senior training technician at the New York State Academy of Fire Science, declared that training can be interesting if the program developer keeps the needs of the student in mind.
“If we continually think in terms of meeting his (the student’s) needs, our thoughts can’t help but develop those points most interesting to him,” Richards maintained.
Richards explained that the instructor should be thinking in terms of the fire fighter learning rather than the instructor teaching and pointed out that “the difference becomes quite apparent when we place ourselves in the student’s position.” To illustrate a way of gaining the interest of the fire fighter while training him, Richards presented an abbreviated multimedia program aimed at familiarizing viewers with the fire problems of shopping centers and high-rise buildings.
Referendum experience
Candor is the word that best sums up the approach taken by Chief Paul Boecker in gaining public approval of a referendum for a $3.5 million capital improvement bond issue for the Lisle, Ill., Fire District. Boecker stated that the public relations program of the fire district, in effect, told the residents, “We have a problem. Here’s the solution and now it’s up to you people.”
After Five years of preparation and waiting, the Lisle Fire District obtained the money for building five stations and purchasing 19 pieces of equipment.
The newest development in the Louisiana State University Firemen Training Program is a correspondence course designed to bring a student up to the Fire fighter performance objectives of NFPA 1001, Carrol Herring, LSU fire training coordinator, told the FDIC. After completing the course, a fire fighter has to take a performance examination administered by a LSU fire school instructor.
Herring reported that LSU Firemen Training also developed a program to train instructors to the first three of the four levels in NFPA 1041, the standard for instructors, and a program also was devised to give architects insight into the need for fire safety by design.
Conflicting inspections
In a discussion of codes and fire safety, Robert Madden, executive director of the Fire Equipment Manufacturers Association, viewed master planning as the route to take away from conflicting requirements, duplicating inspections and conflicts between building and fire inspectors.
“In a number of cities, the master planning process provided the first real, hard evidence as to why building officials and fire officials appeared to be working counter-productive to one another,” he commented.
He explained that permissive building code provisions prevent building officials from operating within the limitations of fire codes and he noted a trend to put more fire protection requirements in mechanical codes. One result of this, he pointed out, is duplicating inspections of standpipes in some municipalities by building, plumbing and fire inspectors.
