IMPLEMENTING SAFETY PROGRAMS

IMPLEMENTING SAFETY PROGRAMS

VOLUNTEERS CORNER

Insurance and liability issues, coupled with NFPA 1500, Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, have focused increased attention on safety considerations in volunteer departments. Some departments have been wrestling with tradition in their efforts to implement the mandated safety measures: Members see no reason to change when their departments have not had significant safety problems in the past, they are used to functioning independently and feel that they need answer only to themselves, or they often subscribe to a macho image that makes it seem natural to take risks. The cost of implementing some of the safety policies has been another drawback for some volunteer departments. The result has been that volunteers account for a significant number of firefighter injuries and deaths.

Contributing to the urgency for volunteer departments to adopt safety recommendations and standards is that many small town volunteer fire companies have been taking on more responsibilities as suburban populations significantly have grown in recent years. Volunteer departments that used to respond to 10 to 20 incidents a year now find themselves answering hundreds of calls.

By taking a proactive policy approach that increases safety on the fireground, improves members’ health and physical fitness, ensures apparatus safety and the use of protective clothing, institutes infectious-disease precautions, and designates a safety officer, volunteer departments can avoid a situation that will force them to adopt reactive measures in response to a tragedy.

Volunteer departments can institute safety initiatives with varied degrees of success—but only if they commit themselves to an improved safety campaign. Some of the mandated changes can be accomplished with simple, minor adjustments in the department; others involve major shifts in department members’ attitudes and organizational policies.

SOME APPROACHES

Among the approaches and solutions that have helped department officers in volunteer fire and rescue departments to implement safety programs based on NFPA 1500 are the following:

• Obtain a commitment from the organization. Voting for policies may be the only way to accomplish safety goals within a volunteer company. The members should use a participative process to develop a “mission statement” related to safety. Doing this takes time, and the end product may seem “diluted” compared with the officers’ original intentions, but the process provides a foundation on which to build.
• Reaffirm the organization’s structure and evaluate it in light of today’s challenges. This approach provides an excellent opportunity to appoint a safety coordinator. The position may be newly created, or the responsibilities can be assigned to another position. This individual would follow through on safety-related plans and policy development; the planning experience will help qualify the safety coordinator for the position
• of safety officer. Also, the organization’s record keeping and maintenance procedures should be evaluated and the tasks simplified by having the elected administrative secretary maintain —in addition to department meeting and membership matters— members’ records on injury, illness, disease exposure, training, and health maintenance.
• Verify the credentials of the training officer. Volunteer companies have an assigned training officer. The first step is to ensure that this individual is qualified from a human relations as well as a technical standpoint. A dynamic individual clearly is needed, since this person must be able to “lead the horses to water and make them drink” without turning them off. A company may have to offer some nontraditional volunteer benefits to retain volunteers. Such benefits are a big help to the training officer, who will be introducing such issues as general membership qualifications, enhanced training programs, and basic certifications for officers.
• Explore alternatives. Some practices routinely used by departments in the past have been condemned as being unsafe and must be replaced with safer procedures. One of these practices is riding on the tailboard or running board of the apparatus. A volunteer department in Virginia purchased a used police vehicle for one dollar and used it to transport to the scene firefighters who previously rode the tailboard. This solution made it possible for responders to arrive safely without the department having to incur a major capital expense.
• Inspect and maintain vehicles. Maintaining vehicles and SCBA requires constant attention; two Connecticut firefighters recently lost their lives when the apparatus brake failed. If you do your inspections and maintenance work in-house, manufacturer and national standards provide guidelines. If maintenance cannot be done in-house and contracting is fiscally restricting, you might consider
• merging services. One Florida fire district hired a full-time mechanic and contracted out this service to other districts. The arrangement produced additional income that allowed the district to expand vehicle maintenance service benefits for the department as well as its “customers.”
• Make the protective clothing and SCBA issue a high priority. Follow proven standards, which are published nationally, as guidelines. The cost issue can be resolved by making group purchases with other departments. Once the appropriate gear is purchased, members are required to wear it. Draw up standard operating procedures that clearly state what is expected of the members and, more important, of all officers, who must set an example.
• Require that all active responding members receive an annual physical. Most volunteer companies do not have a full-time physician, but a physician in your community might provide the required services in exchange for honorary recognition or status. Some members may object to physicals, but they are needed for the welfare of all concerned; otherwise, medical and legal problems may result.
• Wear a personal alert safety system (PASS) device. This practice ensures the safety of members using SCBAs. One way your volunteer company can meet the cost of the PASS devices is to ask the local business community to sponsor the purchase.
• Account for members at the scene. Using an incident command system is a more organized —but different—way of operating at an emergency. One of its primary benefits is that it increases safety by providing the means to account for all members on the scene. Volunteers in one New York department, for example, use personnel tags, placed with the incident commander, to identify’ all members on scene in case of an emergency. This policy was instituted after two department members were killed in a building fire. The search process in the tragic incident was hampered by a lack of information about w hich
• members had responded to the scene. Again, developing the discipline that will ensure members’ use of the tags entails training and having all officers set the example.
• Conduct safety inspections at the department’s facility. Many volunteer companies conduct fire life-safety inspections of the facilities w ithin their communities. The same practices, codes, and standards must be applied to their facilities. Holding regularly scheduled company safety inspections sets an excellent example for the community as well as increases safety for members.
• Keep volunteers physically fit. This is a serious challenge for many departments, and accomplishing this goal requires diplomacy and a commitment from the organization’s leaders. A volunteer fire department in Pennsylvania actually got all its active members involved in aerobics training. The program turned out to be an extremely high morale booster as well as a fitness builder.
• Safeguard members’ mental health. Members’ mental condition is as important as their physical condition. Volunteers must be provided with the means to deal with stress and anguish. A member-assistance program can provide professional services to ensure members’ positive well-being and performances. Volunteers from the 17 independent companies comprising the Loudoun County (VA) Department of Fire-Rescue are part of the local county government employee assistance program. The volunteers pay nothing for this benefit, which includes participation by family members. The organization’s leadership must promote the availability of such services and not downplay their value. In a volunteer system, a valuable member easily can be lost to an emotional, stressful, or substance-abuse problem if an employee assistance program is not available.

GETTING STARTED

Implementing a safety program is challenging for any fire officer, but it is even more so for the officer managing volunteers. The key to success is “selling” the program to the organization. Members must “buy into” it; forcing it on them should be a last resort. A policy written by the chief will not be as successful as one derived at through the concerted efforts of all department members. The proposed changes and the challenges they represent may cause some turmoil that must be dealt with in a proactive manner.

Implementing modern safety programs in a volunteer organization sometimes places the department in a predicament. If the organization ignores today’s trends toward safety developed through history and standards, it is only a matter of time before an incident occurs that will be tragic for members personally and the organization professionally. Members may be injured or killed, and the department and its members might become involved in a legal situation that produces multiple regrettable results.

Departments that successfully have introduced safety programs for their volunteer members have found the following actions helpful:

• Leading the organization to committing itself to developing safetyoriented programs and related changes.
• Developing a “safety task force” to identify the direction the department w ill follow when adapting to the changes resulting from the new ly introduced safety requirements. This group should conduct a needs assessment and develop goals and objectives the department can use as a “road map.”
• Prioritizing the organization’s needs and using the approaches presented above as a guide for implementing the safety programs.
• Continuing to market, monitor, and manage the changes that occur in the organization. As previously discussed, department members must feel that they are a positive part of the change and must not feel intimidated by the resulting changes. This goal can be realized only if the leaders plan proactively and communicate with the membership.