Recalling (as well as I can) all the changes and advancements that have occurred in my “brief” 30-year career and daring to project from that what I believe the fire service world will look like in 2025, I offer the following brief thoughts:
• Instead of a fire service that occasionally does EMS, we will be an EMS service that occasionally does fire.
• Every jurisdiction in the country will have some form of “mandatory residential sprinkler” legislation on the books-hence, the first projection. Civilian fire deaths will plummet from today’s 4,000 annual average (including 1,500 children a year) to fewer than 2,000 a year.
• Staffing will be about the same. It takes as many firefighters to handle a cardiac arrest as it does to supply and pull a hoseline.
• Four- and five-alarm fires will be replaced by natural and manmade disasters.
• We will still be losing about 100 firefighters a year.
-John “Skip” Coleman, deputy chief of fire prevention, Toledo (OH) Department of Fire and Rescue, is the author of Incident Management for the Street-Smart Fire Officer (Fire Engineering, 1997) and Managing Major Fires (Fire Engineering, 2000). He is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering and a member of the FDIC Educational Advisory Board.
Question: With all the budget cuts in our city, we are attempting to look into the future and envision what the fire service will look like in 15 or 20 years and then work to head in that direction. What do you believe the fire service will look like in 2025 as it relates to staffing and services provided?
Bobby Halton, chief, Coppell (TX) Fire Department
Response: Twenty years from now, Alan Brunacini will be the oldest fire chief in America still responding to calls. Maybe the American fire service will have unified its political resources, capturing what our law enforcement brothers have had for a century now-a cabinet-level official who will react correctly and quickly when our critical support is threatened. In addition, we will have the following.
• National standards will be laws, not guidelines, for staffing and response times (we no longer will be parochial in nature). Staffing guidelines will quantify and qualify hazards and match personnel needs.
• Measured population, target hazards, transportation, and housing models will predict resource needs and establish worst-case plans to meet and effectively respond to recognized targets.
• An adequately staffed and funded National Fire Academy will have a research and development team that will rate and evaluate equipment, PPE, and tools, providing us with real information, not sales pitches and bad science. It will have top-of-the-line staff, paid what they need to support their families, dedicated to providing the very best hands-on and cogitative training. The facility will meet the needs of rookies, veterans, CERT folks, emergency managers, and line and staff personnel and will give equal attention to (and have adequate funding for) the classroom, theory, real world, business, politics, and life.
• Perfect accountability systems will identify everyone on the fireground, real-time vitals and firefighter location, coupled with temperature and chemical recognition of all the fatal gases swarming around us.
• All of us will be paramedics; we might be linked to a doctor who directs medical things over a video hookup in real time.
• Fires will be more deadly than ever. Everything will be polymer based, and fatally toxic, nonsurvivable environments will happen in seconds instead of minutes. The rate of heat release will continue to be catastrophic-when temperatures rise, new synthetics will give off so much heat so fast that reaction time and recognition time will continue to narrow.
• Cheaply built pieces of garbage disguised as buildings being built today will be falling down around our ears.
• Code enforcement will continue to be outpaced by engineers and architects, who will continue to build dangerous enclosed structures that will be harder and harder to make behave.
• Our customers will still dial 9-1-1 when everything goes wrong, and the most romantic job in the world will still be based on hand-to-hand combat.
That hand-to-hand combat will still be dangerous and unpredictable; it will still require bravery, courage, trust, and leadership. We still will attempt to fix problems caused by outperformed designed systems that failed before we were even called. We will fix most and will stop others from getting worse. We will get knocked down, but we will get up again and again. Twenty years from now we will still get there quickly and make good decisions and save good people with little and incomplete information.
• We will have bigger stuff and bigger problems.
• “Bachelor of Science Degree Firefighter” will be the highest sought-after college degree. Men and women who came through the ranks and studied everything will still be eligible to earn the title “Fire Chief.”
• Chiefs will continue to wish they could ride backward just one more time, just to one more good job-one more time to be dirty, tired, happy, proud, and honored to be one of the bravest.
The future is a tricky thing. John Lennon said, “It is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” We need to keep making plans, keep envisioning the future-how it should be-and keep moving toward those pictures.
Rick Lasky, chief, Lewisville (TX) Fire Department
Response: We will be at a pretty interesting level technology-wise. When you look back over the past 20 years, we’ve made some pretty good-size leaps with protective clothing, thermal imaging cameras, SCBAs, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems, radios (well, kind of …), fire detection devices, CO detectors, and the list goes on for quite a while. I’m excited to see what is coming and where we’ll be, but it’s going take some hard work and some changes. I’d like to think we’re going to be better off, but if we don’t ever really get on the same page-all as one team with all of our organizations working together-we’ll never quite get there. We need to be looking at the following:
• Staffing issues-we should continue our fight for more people.
• Politics-we just have to learn how to work the system more and to make it work for us. Sometimes you have to be smarter than the “stone.”
• Budgets-we’ll have to be creative but never give up our fight to protect what we have. There’ll always be someone trying to take it away.
• Homeland security and weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-these concerns will continue to be a way of life.
• Customer service programs-call it whatever you want, but if you can make it work in your area, it works extremely well at getting us more stuff.
• Technology for locating trapped or lost firefighters in a burning building-hopefully, it will finally be there or available to us.
• Firefighter fatalities-the needs, equipment, training, and whatever it takes to get us to knock down the numbers.
• Leadership-a change that works with the troops instead of against them.
• Fire prevention-progressive changes that will help us do that part of our job better.
• Heritage and our good traditions-hopefully we’ll be able to continue to put the firefighter back in the firefighter and the firehouse back in the firehouse. Whether it’s 20 years from now or 100, those two things will have to be there. God help us if they’re not.
Michael J. Allora, lieutenant, Clifton (NJ) Fire Department
Response: Over the past 25 years, we have seen our staffing level decrease from 155 to the current level of 139 uniformed personnel. Over that period, we have increased the services we provide. We have replaced some of our uniformed personnel with civilians, changed the roles of others, and eliminated some positions altogether. Our department provides the EMS service in our city. We have two full-time EMS units and one EMS unit that operates on a part-time basis, depending on our staffing levels. Hopefully, we will see this ambulance staffed on a full-time basis without having to make sacrifices in other areas. We also have a hazardous-materials response unit, a foam unit, and members trained in confined space rescue. We are in the process of getting new boats to enhance our water-rescue capabilities.
The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program is placing a greater emphasis on interoperability among departments. We may see more departments combining their services in a regionalized manner or increasing mutual-aid/automatic-aid agreements to overcome deficiencies in staffing. The fire service will have to enhance its ability to work with other agencies to meet the demands of a changing world. Hopefully, we will not see an increase in the number of terrorist incidents in the United States in the next 20 years. However, we will need to be prepared to meet this threat as well.
Ron Hiraki , assistant chief, Gig Harbor (WA) Fire & Medic One
Response: In 2025, staffing will not increase unless it is the direct result of more calls for service from a growing community. The fire service may be asked to provide a greater range of services.
The public values fire and EMS workers in our community. However, fire and EMS workers are viewed as reactive to problems instead of proactive. Law enforcement officers, comparatively, are viewed as reactive when there is a crime in progress and proactive in preventing or deterring crime when they are on patrol. The fire service will continue to be challenged to provide a wide range of services (or more services) in a cost-efficient manner (with the same number of people). Smaller fire departments like mine can provide these services by having a joint or cooperative team with fire departments of a similar size. Larger fire departments may find that, even with their greater resources, they have difficulty doing the job. They may look to neighboring smaller departments to provide a “third or fourth wave” of trained resources.
We can be more proactive by engaging in activities such as prevention and public education programs. We need to expand from the traditional “fire prevention” to “all hazard prevention.” The fire service can do a better job of informing and demonstrating to the public that all of the training we do is proactive activity. This is for our safety and the safety of the public. Lastly, we need to continue to work together.
Gary Seidel, chief, Hillsboro (OR) Fire Depart
Response: We continually find ourselves being asked to provide more services as we enter the “all risk” emergency/nonemergency business. We now rely on alternative funding sources to support our budgets. We spend considerable time determining workload indicators to justify our staffing levels.
The fire service looks at itself as a one-service organization; we need to expand our vision by looking at the community’s sociological and economical values. We must also be cognizant of legal and political issues being raised and respond to these issues with one voice. We must address and embrace new technological measures that enhance prevention, mitigation, and education. So as we look toward the future, I see this realm of “all risk” response holding true.
We will still continue to identify our risks (hazards and vulnerabilities) in a more global fashion with all participants having formed a “virtual corporation.” In this virtual corporation, we need to emphasize all-risk prevention efforts to reduce emergencies and their impact on individuals and the community. To accomplish the risk and response phases in emergencies/nonemergencies, we will definitely have to increase the amount of in-service training we receive. People will continue to require our services, and we will always respond with trained professionals, using technology that allows us to do our jobs safely, with adequate staffing to accomplish the tasks, thus minimizing our risks-hopefully through this “virtual corporation,” which supports our holistic mission.
Keith D. Smith, chief, Westfield Washington Township (IN) Fire Department
Response: What better way to prepare for the future than to look at what was going on 20 years ago? In 1985, we had just begun implementing incident command, large-diameter hose, haz mat, and positive-pressure ventilation. We didn’t know terrorism, good labor/management relations was just a wish, most of our training manuals were 20 years old, and SOPs were something you looked at only for the promotion test. We were beginning to recognize EMS as worthwhile in addition to its public benefit, federal funding (revenue sharing) had ended, and the National Fire Academy was only a few years old, but it was where we talked about the future. The fire service changed very slowly; most would say we changed by the decade.
In 2025, our rate of growth and technology will increase annually. Some training will be virtual, most apparatus will use alternative fuels, and our turnout gear will be lighter and safer. We will probably be testing robots for suppression, and we will deliver EMS more efficiently without the burdensome system abuse. Most departments will have global positioning, and most firefighters will have helmet-mounted video cameras for TV screens at the command post. And in 40 years, the fire service will look and feel very little like it does today, based on the fact that everything is different in today’s fire service than it was nearly 40 years ago when I first entered. But water will still be our primary friend!
Craig H. Shelley, fire protection advisor, Saudi Aramco
Response: In 15 to 20 years, the fire service will have changed dramatically in the technology arena. With this technology most likely will come staffing reductions. I can remember in the early 1970s when the FDNY instituted new technology in the form of lighter hoses (13⁄4-inch) as well as a water additive to decrease friction (rapid water); the first thing the city did was reduce the staffing on the engines. When the FDNY introduced new technology in its fireboat fleet in the ’90s, it initially resulted in reduced staffing. This reduction was reversed when the new technology failed, but this was an unusual circumstance.
Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, the fact is that technology will replace firefighters. Examine industry, and we can find many examples. Refineries have reduced outside operations personnel with technology. Many of the support services for fire departments have already been modernized, and staffing for these functions has been reduced or eliminated. The fire service focus will shift even more toward prevention and education; again, technology will play a large part.
Video streaming to schools for public education, on-line education to decrease firefighter downtime, video conferencing, and so on, will be everyday occurrences for even the smallest departments. Technology being developed will enhance firefighter safety. Every firefighter will be tracked on the fireground, and thermal imaging will be built into every helmet. I am sure that there are ideas and concepts that haven’t even been thought of yet. Think back even 10 years ago-thermal imaging? Think back 40 years ago-SCBA for every firefighter? The world is changing, and so is the fire service. The industrial revolution is now the technological revolution, with no end in sight.
Thomas Dunne, deputy chief, Fire Department of New York
Response: The future mission of the fire service may be shaped by several elements. Our existing buildings will continue to age, deteriorate, and present greater collapse risks. “Improved” construction techniques, such as hidden truss floors and increased use of plastics, may call for dramatic changes in firefighting strategy. Terrorist activity will have to be considered. The source of a terrorist threat may change, but the tactics will not disappear.
Such factors will require future departments to dedicate personnel and training for the following:
• Traditional firefighting tactics. We have been operating hoselines for more than 150 years. We will be doing the same in 2025 (perhaps less aggressively in certain types of construction).
• Hazardous materials and collapse rescue operations. Experience has shown the value of having specialized personnel to safely resolve these incidents.
• Inspection efforts. We must continue to accumulate vital information on buildings that will become more dangerous because of age, alteration, or construction type.
• Interagency cooperation and communication. These are necessary so we can operate safely and effectively at the large operations we will surely face.
A key part of any plan is to allow for the unexpected. The fire service tends to be conservative. Our ability to adapt to unforeseen social and technological changes 20 years from now may well define our success as a major role player in maintaining public safety.
Christopher J. Weir, division chief, City of Fort Lauderdale (FL) Fire-Rescue
Response: In 2025, the fire service will have evolved from the traditional fire-rescue into an emergency management special operations response system. We’re already seeing the results of this since we are looked on as the “gurus of special operations.” As budgets continue to remain strained, I see many consolidations into regional systems, perhaps ending the one- and two-firehouse communities. It makes sense to share resources instead of wasting money and talent duplicating them. More times than not, proactive fire service organizations are looked to when a problem needs a solution. Our services must be more proactive and far less reactive if we want to remain in the ballpark. We seem to have the answers. Don’t we? Technology will be abundant and firefighting/emergency response gear will possess built-in thermal imaging, communication devices, body monitors, as well as NBC warning detection devices.
With the ever-increasing automatic suppression, fire alarm, and smoke evacuation systems mandated in new buildings, fire prevention will be the major trend in reducing fires in the municipality. The National Fire Protection Association just reported that the number of fires is declining; this trend will continue. Finally, I could write a chapter on what our emergency medical technology and abilities will be like in 2025.
Leigh T. Hollins, battalion chief, Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue, Manatee County, FL
Response: The staffing and services provided in 2025 will be just as diverse as they are today. I see four general categories of response districts now and in 20 years: small towns and communities, rural communities, metro areas, and urban areas. Each is headed in its own direction; I don’t see that changing too much.
In my travels and reading, I see small towns and communities struggling to maintain their identity and “old” lifestyle. These areas will be the ones most likely to see minimal change while struggling with the issue of volunteer vs. paid firefighters to provide the services. Staffing will increase by hiring paid or paid on-call firefighters while services provided will remain somewhat the same.
The rural areas will maintain the fire service “status quo.” They have a long history of taking care of their own. Unless the metro or urban sprawl reaches them, I don’t expect we will see any change in fire services here.
The metropolitan areas will see the most drastic change regarding additional staffing and services provided. They have been in transition for the past 20 years; paid firefighters will continue to replace volunteer firefighters and will continue to add services and consolidate EMS with fire. Also, many fire department/district consolidations and mergers will occur in these metro areas. Some of the services to be added will be technical rescue, haz mat, ALS engines, special operations, and law enforcement duties.
Most urban areas (small and large cities) will continue to struggle with staffing and services. Historically, proper staffing and the services provided by the fire department in our cities have been directly tied to the politics of each particular city. What you see is what you get. It is what it is. Until a major change occurs at city hall, the only time you see a drastic change, good or bad, is when the politicians change. I see no reason to expect that the next 20 years will be any different from the past 50. If urban (and metro) firefighters want increases in staffing or services, they had better look for candidates who support their views, or 2025 will look the same as 2005.
Robert Shelton, firefighter/EMT-1,
Cincinnati (OH) Fire Department
Response: As budget concerns continue to plague our cities, all fire departments are suffering. Despite budgetary and other concerns, I try to maintain a positive outlook for the future. Our responsibilities will continue to expand as the “scene of the world” changes. Hopefully, we will have an even greater focus on training and meeting national standards for firefighters. More importantly, the ever-rising fatality rate will reverse itself: Through training and technology, we will not lose 100-plus firefighters every year.
When I consider staffing and responsibilities in 2025, the picture seems murky. There is such a dichotomy between what the municipalities want us to do-fire, EMS, haz mat, and WMD, for example-and what they are willing to provide in increased staffing, increased budgets for training and equipment, and so on, so that we can meet their needs. City government does not seem to understand that if they want us to do more, they need to give us more.
I hope by the year 2025 we will stop making do with what we have and start demanding more resources to do what we need to do and what they (municipalities) want us to do. As long as we perpetuate the mentality that we can do more with less, we will get less. It is a no-win proposition. We can’t do our jobs efficiently and effectively; the citizens don’t receive the services to which they are entitled; and, most importantly, we are unnecessarily putting ourselves in jeopardy because of a lack of everything.
What will the fire service look like in 2025? I don’t think any of us are sure. But what we do know has a direct bearing on what the fire service will look like in 15 or 20 years. We cannot change the past, but we can mold the future. Whether the future is bright or gloomy is totally on our shoulders, and ours alone. We all need to heed the words of George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Jeffrey Schwering, lieutenant, Crestwood (MO) Department of Fire Services
Response: In the next 15 to 20 years, the fire service will have an uphill battle every day. As I write this, my department faces possible deep personnel cuts. Hopefully, by the time this is published, we would have been able to dodge that bullet.
The sky is the limit for what can be and will be expected of firefighters in the future. In the tradition of the fire service, we will answer the call, whatever that may be, to the best of our ability. Ability will be based on funding. Fire service funding has been cut over the past several years, resulting in an added strain on all of us every time the tones go off.
Staffing has been a difficult problem for years, and I believe that problem will continue long after many of us are gone. Again, funding plays a big part. All the new technology in the world, now or 20 years from now, will not do any good if we don’t have the firefighters. How many mayors and city managers have shot holes in NFPA 1710 and 1720?
The fire service needs to close ranks now, to protect those who come into “the greatest job on earth.” We need to market ourselves to the politicians and the general public as well so that we are not taken for granted and cast aside so easily.
Steven M. De Lisi, deputy chief, Virginia Air National Guard Fire Rescue
Response: If the past is any indictor, the fire service in 15 to 20 years will not be far from where it is today. Many of the following lessons have been around for years; unfortunately, some folks still don’t get it. I fear the same may hold true for the next generation of firefighters. If so, our future will be forever limited until we all learn that ….
• Lights and sirens don’t change the laws of physics. A fire truck is still just a big truck.
• Interior fire attack is the most effective way to put out a fire-and the most dangerous.
• You can repackage the basics, but there is no substitute for good engine and truck work.
• You need discipline to work safely. Slackers on our job get people killed.
• There is NO substitute for experience.
• Wear your protective clothing, including SCBA.
• You have to be in good physical condition to do this job-period!
• Don’t drive a fire truck when you’re drunk.
• If you don’t know how to use something, don’t touch it.
• Write off lost property.
• Look before you back up.
• There are no rekindles-only sloppy overhauls.
• Clean your protective clothing. Dirty gear is not a badge of courage.
• Little fire, little hose. Big fire, big hose.
• Wear your seat belt.
• Block roadways to protect personnel from vehicular traffic.
• Avoid sniffing when checking for suspicious odors.
• Truss construction is deadly.
• Keep your ego in check. Overconfident people take unnecessary risks.
• If you don’t know, ask.
Mitch Brooks, lieutenant, Columbus (OH) Division of Fire
Response: The fire department in the year 2025 will return to its paramilitary roots and have increased staffing because of the multiple threats facing today’s fire service. I really don’t believe that it will get any better from a terrorism standpoint, simply because of the nature of terrorism throughout Europe. It is only a matter of time before there are similar issues in the United States.
The increased technology the fire service will have should be of great value, but with technology comes increased job duties. Haz mat is a perfect example: Who would have guessed 25 years ago that so much of our training would be on haz mats. No matter what the world throws at us, the U.S. fire service will do a great job of dealing with it!
Danny Kistner, battalion chief, Garland (TX) Fire Department
Response: The fire service will be continually pressed to perform more services with fewer personnel. Additionally, those services will become increasingly more specialized and technical, requiring a more highly trained and educated firefighter. The public we serve is becoming more erudite and sophisticated and has a heightened sense of awareness regarding organizational effectiveness.
The modern fire service performs an array of functions, including EMS, hazardous-materials response, prevention, suppression, and technical rescue. More recently, we have been called to prepare for natural and manmade catastrophic disasters. Most firefighters are good generalists in these areas, but these areas are also dynamic and constantly evolving, requiring dedicated individuals to study, adapt, and respond.
EMS, for example, has advanced from providing a minimum of intervention techniques to a more sophisticated level that includes skills usually reserved for the emergency department physicians. EMS will split into providing an emergency services function and one that incorporates some form of home health-care model.
Our customers will demand an ever-increasing level of professionalism as they look to the fire service to fulfill all emergency response needs. Leadership will be held more accountable for fiscal responsibility. Fire officers will be required to obtain degrees. Administrative actions will have to be defensible and justified through bona fide study and research, not tradition. Staffing will come closer to reflecting NFPA standards; however, public accep-tance of interventions such as residential sprinkler ordinances will increase because of their improved technology and will result in fewer fire stations overall. What an exciting time to be in the fire service!
David R. Blossom, chairman, Fire & Life Safety Code Board of Adjustments and Appeals, Orange County, FL
Response: It is likely that there will be continued attempts to cut budgets. This will most likely target fire services because of the trend for additional resources for law enforcement. Continued deemphasis on the fire service will have a negative impact on ISO public protection grades, which will result in less credit for fire protection. The result will be increased costs for insurance coverage in those communities where grades increase. The public will have to make a decision to fund fire protection services or pay the higher costs for their insurance coverage.
Recently in Orange County (FL), there was a move to bring a large commercial piece of a county district into the city limits of Orlando because of the better ISO rating for the area. This caused an immediate dispute between the city and the county. Caught in the middle were the property owners who are paying higher insurance costs for county-protected areas vs. the city, which has a lower ISO rating. This has also resulted in the voters’ requesting that the city and county look at consolidation to save on costs related to duplication within departments. It is likely that this will be a trend as well. There is a perception that consolidation will save money. However, the differences between providing protection for dense areas of downtown with high-rise buildings and unique needs vs. rural areas must be considered.
There have also been questions raised concerning alternative sources of income or revenue generation for the fire service. This trend will probably continue. Some departments have looked to typical sources such as charging a fee for medical services and transport. One City of Orlando commissioner raised the question of charging insurance companies for their inspection services, since it provides a value toward the protection of property and thus benefits the insurance industry. It is not likely that approaches of this type will generate the desired results. It may be difficult to get such legislation, and it is hard to quantify the actual value of the service provided and to identify the insurance providers for each building. However, alternative sources of income will continue to be an important consideration.
Brian Singles, firefighter, Hampton (VA) Fire Department
Response: Hopefully, in the year 2025 the fire service will be much safer in some aspects than it is today. Protective equipment has come a long way since I joined the fire service in 1975 as a young volunteer and also since I became a career firefighter in 1982. Back in the ’70s, most of the smaller fire departments were just starting to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus for their members. Nomex hoods weren’t around yet, and a good percentage of firefighters still wore 3⁄4 boots.
When I was going through live-burn training as a youngster, our instructors advised us that when we felt the heat of the fire on our ears it meant that it was time to open up the nozzle or get the heck out. Today’s firefighter is so overly protected by turnout gear that it is almost hard to tell when it is time to get out. Being fully encapsulated by all of your PPE is just as dangerous-or even more dangerous-than having some skin exposed to the heat of the fire.
Budget shortfalls in some departments have caused personnel shortages. It seems today we are doing more with fewer people. The two-in/two-out rule has really made a difference in how fire department leaders are convincing the local governments to get more firefighters back on the fire trucks for them to operate safely. Slowly but surely, staffing is increasing, even in the smaller departments.
Fire apparatus today is much better than it was 25 years ago; hopefully, that progress will continue into the next 20 years. Firefighting is a family tradition for quite a few of us. When my uncle joined the fire service back in 1933, gasoline-powered pumpers were just taking off. When I joined the fire service, the diesel motor was replacing gasoline-powered apparatus. In the 25-plus years I have been a firefighter, fire apparatus has become more efficient, and fire pumps have improved by delivering greater volumes of water at less rpm’s.
Firefighting is still a dangerous profession, but as time goes on improvements will continue. So when one or both of my sons decide they want to follow in my footsteps and become a firefighter, it will be much safer for them than it was when I first started.
Matt Rettmer, lieutenant, Castle Rock (CO) Fire and Rescue Department
Response: The fire service has been developing into the “Do all, be all” but “Doing more with less” service agency, and trends appear to be continuing on this road. With fewer fires and more medical incidents, the fire service will have to continue to develop its personnel with medical training for these types of calls.
The fire service will become more proactive in teaching the public programs such as “Risk Watch.” It was successful in reducing residential fire injuries and deaths with the intensive smoke detector education programs in the elementary schools. Risk Watch is an excellent example of the type of education that needs to be taught now. This well-rounded program will reduce unnecessary injuries and deaths among the young generation.
Staffing concerns will continue to be a battle with the politicians 20 years from now. This will vary as jurisdictions grow or decrease in population. We need more public education that emphasizes the importance of having a properly staffed department. Some departments may feel they are “doing more with less,” which is quite possible. By performing well with minimum staffing levels, we make it much more difficult to justify increased staffing because the decision makers will say that we are doing well with what we have.
Lance C. Peeples, instructor, St. Louis County (MO) Fire Academy
Response: I have always thought that the St. Louis Fire Department had a pretty ingenious mission statement: “Seeking Opportunities to Serve.” Obviously, planning 20 years into the future presents difficult challenges. Nonetheless, we must identify the opportunities ahead. Hopefully, the trend toward prevention will continue. I foresee increased emphasis on ensuring that all homes have working smoke detectors and child safety seats.
We must learn to target our audience better and evaluate program success as we broaden our safety message to include areas other than fire prevention, including gun safety, water safety, lead-poisoning prevention, and bicycle safety.
As our nation’s population ages, demand for EMS will increase dramatically. We’ll probably become more involved in health screenings and preventive care-perhaps even sending out in-service mobile intensive-care units to people’s homes to provide basic medical services. Increasingly, we may be called to serve as street social workers, referring people to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, medical clinics, and battered women shelters.
Hazardous-materials training and response will continue to consume large amounts of time, as will an increased emphasis on technical rescue. In addition to all those responsibilities, we will still be asked to perform our traditional role of fire suppression more efficiently and more economically. If we can’t defend why six members per company are needed, you can rest assured they’ll be cut. (By the way, what are the six engine/ladder positions?)
Mark Reighard, administrator, Mars (PA) Fire Company
Response: It would be more like what the fire service will have to be. We will need to be more fluid, able to adapt to whatever the situation needs. This means people who are cross-trained, people who can communicate well with the public, and officers who can communicate and express needs to the political powers. The emphasis needs to be directed toward prevention/code enforcement and training departments to stop fires before they start and to train our people to reduce firefighter fatalities. ■
