SYNERGISM

SYNERGISM

FEATURES

INDUSTRIAL FIRE PROTECTION

Illustration by Art Arias

Cooperation between business and the fire service magnifies the results of their haz-mat efforts.

In the early days of the fire service in America, there were great fights among the fire companies responding to a building fire, as each company tried to establish its “turf.” More bystanders were drawn to watch the fights than the fire, which, in many cases, totally consumed the building while the firefighters fought each other.

Someone infinitely wiser than I once said, “Those who have not learned the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them.” And here we are today, repeating the lessons of the past when it comes to hazardous materials incidents.

Oh, the scenes aren’t quite the same as the ones created by those rival firefighters, I’ll admit. But if you look closely, you will see the similarities. Instead of the lack of cooperation among competing fire companies, there’s a tremendous lack of cooperation between the American businessperson and the American firefighter. It makes great sense for the American businessperson—who, in response to the American consumer, uses hazardous materials in providing goods and services—and the American firefighter to cooperate in solving the problems of the alarming growth of haz-mat incidents. Neither business nor the fire service can solve these problems alone. But cooperation can have a synergistic effect potent enough to bring the haz-mat problem under control.

Synergism is the interaction of persons or oganizations such that their cooperative efforts have a greater effect than their individual efforts would have had. In short, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Synergism is often seen in the fire service. No one firefighter can respond to the “average” fire or haz-mat incident and bring the incident to the desired conclusion. Likewise, letting two or more firefighters operate independently on a fireground or at a haz-mat incident often results in disaster in terms of life loss, injury, damage to the environment, or property loss. However, two or more firefighters or other emergency responders working together at a lire or haz-mat incident almost always means saving lives, preventing injury, lessening damage to the environment, and minimizing loss of property. A well-trained team is evident no matter where it’s seen, even off the fireground and back at the station.

The effect of synergism is also often seen in industry. Very seldom can any large and important task be carried out in the business world by one person, or by two or more working independently. Fortunately, in industry, human life is rarely at stake, and property is seldom lost during the performance of most tasks; the objectives are usually manufacturingor salesoriented. The tremendous boost in productivity accomplished by the cooperation of two or more workers when compared to the output of the same workers performing independently has been chronicled since the concept appeared in Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in the 18th century.

The strange thing is that otherwise bright people in both the fire service and business seem to lose their intelligence when it comes to bringing their two organizations together. As a matter of fact, it’s a toss-up as to which side is dumber about working together to prevent and mitigate haz-mat incidents. The problem resembles a case where Walt Disney’s Goofy is trying to work with Dopey of the Seven Dwarfs. (Please feel free to decide which is the firefighter and which is the businessperson.)

Let me say right here and now that 1 recognize that there are instances of cooperation between people in the fire service and people in industry. However, those of you who fit this description belong to a very small and very silent minority; your help is needed in spreading the concept of cooperation that you’ve developed.

I also know that firefighters aren’t dumb. The knowledge of specialized tools and equipment required to master the technical aspects of firefighting is proof of that. And the average American businessperson has above-average intelligence, or that person wouldn’t survive in the business world for long.

It’s just that when these two very important segments of American life come face to face with the problem of haz-mat incidents, their collective IQ seems to drop. To the casual observer, it appears that hof/i sides are contributing to what each believes to be the two biggest lies in the world, w’hen the fire inspector says, “I’m here to help you,” and the businessperson answers, “I’m glad to have you here.” The firefighter appears as an isolated, self-centered, turf-protecting, checker-playing, Dalmation-petting, red suspender-wearing person in a rocking chair down at the ol’ farr house. And the businessperson seems to think of the local fire department only when the plant has an emergency; then, by some miracle of transformation, his fire becomes your fire, and he’s more than glad to let you on the premises with no questions asked.

Let’s imagine, for a moment, utopia as it should be viewed by the fire service. Imagine that the BRT Fire Department conducts regular (that’s regular) inspections at the WLF Co. Imagine that the fire company-size inspection teams are met with coffee and doughnuts, presented by friendly people who brief them on what they’re about to see.

Imagine that during this introductory part of the inspection tour (which should take place on every visit), company managers talk to the firefighters about the WLF Co.’s safety program and ask them to be on the lookout for unsafe procedures in the storage, handling, and use of hazardous materials. Then, imagine the firefighters asking for, and receiving, material safety data sheets and other technical and safety information on every haz mat present.

Typically, the problem has resembled a case of Goofy trying to work with Dopey. It’s a toss-up as to which side is dumber about cooperating.

Now imagine, at the end of the inspection, a meeting in the WLF Co.’s conference room to summarize what everyone from both sides has seen and heard, followed by the offering and acceptance of advice and suggestions, again by both sides. Continue to imagine that both groups now part and return to their other tasks, each feeling a little safer about the operations and haz mats on this site, and each following up on action points listed during the summarization meeting.

One of those action points could be a mock haz-mat incident to provide practice and training for both sides. Another action point could be an invitation to WLF’s president to be the keynote speaker at the kickoff meeting for Fire Prevention Week, at which time he makes a surprise presentation to the fire chief of some needed piece of equipment. It might be a coincidence that the equipment presented would be helpful in mitigating a haz-mat incident at the WLF Co.

Incredible, you say? Impossible? Utopia really is a fantasy? I know all the arguments! We don’t have the time (money, manpower, equipment, knowledge, cooperation of the politicians, support of the taxpayers, cooperation of industry, blessing of my wife, any combination of the above, or any other excuse you want to invent).

The truth of the matter is that each of these answers is a cop-out, and voicing one of them proves you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution. The further truth is that to reach utopia, or something close to it, the fire service will have to work hard to repair whatever damage it has inflicted on its own image over the last two centuries. The fire service will have to come kicking and screaming into the the real world of public relations and marketing (yes, marketing) its services.

Be prepared to make a serious effort. You won’t be able to change in just a few weeks or months what it took decades to put into place. Perceptions are hard to change, but not impossible. The secret is hard work.

And don’t expect 100 percent success. There’s just as high a percentage of Goofys and Dopeys in business as in the fire service. They have the same political reasons for not cooperating that your predecessors had, plus they have the old, worn-out, trade secret excuse.

Specifically, you should make the following moves:

• Get to know the businesspeople. It’s not just the manufacturer you have to get to know, but also the retailer, the wholesaler, the warehouser, the transporter, and any other person who handles, stores, or uses hazardous materials. Find out if these enterprises
• employ anyone who could volunteer to be a local resource for you, such as chemists, engineers, heavy equipment operators, public relations experts, doctors, and nurses.
• Find out where a business’s top managers live (it may be outside your district), and enlist the local fire department there to get to know them on a personal basis. Suggest that the local fire department also approach these managers about being resource people. This double-barreled approach will impress the businesspeople that you really do want and need their expertise.
• If yours is a volunteer department, recruit firefighters from the businesses in your jurisdiction. You’ll be surprised how attitudes change when businesspeople can hear about the work of a local fire department from one of their own, with no ulterior motives involved.
• Get to the know the business. Nothing could be worse than trying to impress on people that you’re interested, yet knowing absolutely nothing about how they earn their living. Needless to say, you must show your interest in a nonthreatening way. Assure the businessperson that you aren’t in the business of giving away or selling trade secrets. Saving lives and property is the only name for the game you’re in.
• Get the businesspeople to know you. Invite them and their managers to visit you. Be prepared for the visit, and present yourself and your personnel as the professionals that you are, paid or volunteer, firefighter or officer.
• Explain your needs and desires to the businesspeople, again in a nonthreatening way. You can’t expect them to keep giving you their attention if you keep trying to “put the bite” on them. If you do it right, they’ll recognize your needs and may consider making regular donations to your department.
• Develop and put into effect training and education programs designed to handle haz-mat incidents that could occur at plants in your jurisdiction. It makes no sense to train your people first to handle incidents that have a low probability of occurring, while ignoring the haz-mats that are used in your jurisdiction. Invite the presidents of local companies to attend some of your training and education sessions. Who knows, they might even decide to offer you the use of better classrooms at their facilities.
• Make your public information officer a real, honest-to-goodness public relations person. Get out news releases on your activities and inform the public about your department.
• Operate your department in a businesslike manner at all times, not just when you want to impress someone. Study successful businesses and successful management teams. You’ll make the startling discovery that they all have one thing in common: attention to the customer’s needs and the desire to fulfill those needs to the customer’s satisfaction.
• Change your own attitudes toward business. It’s true that industry creates hazardous materials, but the products and services are developed because you and I as consumers have demanded them. And if it weren’t for the technology developed by American business, you wouldn’t have the technology and the tools with which to fight fires that you now have.

The overwhelming majority of American businesspeople are honest and hard-working, and they don’t want their employees or emergency responsers to be hurt in a haz-mat incident or a fire.

Accept the fact that the businessperson wants to cooperate with you, and take the steps necessary to open the lines of communication. This will be good for you, for the businessperson, and for the community.

If you need more of a reason to make it work, think of it this way: When the alarm goes off, the people at the WLF Co. will be running out of the building, and the members of the BRT Fire Department will be running in. It’s your life and health at stake. Only Goofy and Dopey might not want to do what’s necessary to protect themselves.

Take the first steps.