Attitude Equation
The “attitude equation” when it comes to the fire service is simple: the addition of a good attitude and the subtraction of a negative or a negative attitude and subtraction of a positive. This can be one or multiple people. Depending on how the addition and subtraction go, it can spread a bad attitude like an unforgiving disease that will breed resentment, hatred, and lack of caring through a shift and the department. A good attitude with the subtraction of a bad one can be a breath of fresh air, becoming an unstoppable force of good for the shift and department. There are books written about how just one person can change a crowd by the way the person approaches others.
This is true for the fire service in how we approach each other and the public we serve. If you are on shift, you spend roughly a third of your life at the firehouse. As a volunteer, you spend a lot of time with your brothers and sisters in extreme situations, so we tend to allow others’ attitudes to affect us a little more since these are people we trust, look up to, and rely on. I have seen both sides of this equation—how a good attitude by just one person can lift a shift and department up and a bad attitude can bring a whole shift and department down. The key to it all is one person. It is incredible to watch a dynamic change just by the introduction of a person to a group of people. You can see all the attitudes change. This is not a slow change, either; it seems to almost happen overnight—a group of grown-ups, usually Class A personalities, being brought either up or down by one person’s ability to affect everyone they encounter.
When it comes to the positive part of this equation, it’s incredible to watch: how the people seem to come together, training becomes productive and not a chore, the brotherhood/sisterhood becomes a true bond and is not something just said but truly felt. How do you know when the bond is strong? Family—when families are excited to be around each other, to communicate with one another. This is when you know that the excitement and brotherhood from work have transferred throughout the person’s life. The impact of a good attitude flourishes, bringing up the people around it.
That’s not to say people don’t have bad days. We all do. Having a bad day with a group of people who are there for you is different than feeling like you are going through something alone. Watching a transformation is truly something to behold.
On the other side of the coin is the negative attitude—a whirlwind of emotional shift and department destruction. The unfortunate part is, like the positive-attitude person, it takes only one to bring the foundation of brotherhood crashing down on itself. Sadly, I have seen this side of the fire service as well. It is soul crushing to see people who at one time were happy being brought down. This is more of a shift or department change. Changing a person’s personality is harder. When you are used to being beat down, it is an Everest of effort to bring that person back because the people we tend to let influence us are usually people we respect.
Officers can have this extreme effect on the firefighters below when it comes to these two attitudes. Officers are the people we trust to make the everyday and hard decisions, some of which could have huge impacts on people’s lives. A neglectful, unenthusiastic, lazy officer can break the will of a shift or department. A cheerful, respectful, enthusiastic officer can bring a shift and department together. Both are equally easy to do—bring your firefighters up or bring them down. Officers walk a tightrope of duty, which, in some instances, includes disciplinary actions with their firefighters. However, discipline does not mean abusing your firefighters. Attitude has everything to do with discipline; this is an action of necessity, not joy. Your firefighters know who you are, which is what we want, as the better you know your officers, the less they must ask/direct you or explain tasks. There is trust, trust that can be destroyed by having a poor attitude. This is all up to the officers and the attitude they project on the people below them. “This is how I was taught” is not going to fly. Do better, be better; attitude is in your control. How you treat the people under your command, the attitude you have with them, is all on you!
An officer thinking clearly, confidently, projecting it in voice on the radio, having that positive attitude when things may be at their worst, makes a big difference with the attitude and work ethic of firefighters. Uncertainty, hesitation, being pretentious, and having a negative attitude can have the opposite effect on the fireground. This is the person you don’t want in charge when you are having a very bad day. Only you can choose your attitude. What side of the equation do you want to be on?
Charles Henness
Firefighter/Paramedic
Stephenville (TX) Fire Department
Modernizing the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS)
By Lori Moore-Merrell, DrPH, MPH, U.S. Fire Administrator
Local fire and incident data, and the intelligence that can come from it, should be a primary source of information for fire service leaders at all levels. However, due to an outdated national data system, an unwieldy national data standard, and antiquated methods of data entry, gaining timely information for decision making is challenging for fire chiefs and others across the nation. Therefore, the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) is undertaking a data system modernization effort that will result in a cloud-based analytics platform providing near real-time intelligence to fire service leaders and relevant stakeholders.
The USFA was established in the 1974 Fire Prevention and Control Act (15 USC Ch. 49: FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL §2204). Per 15 USC 2208, the USFA administrator is charged with operating, directly or through contracts or grants, an integrated, comprehensive National Fire Data Center (NFDC) for the selection, occurrence, control, and results of fires of all types (§2208). The NFDC is intended to provide accurate nationwide analysis of the fire problem, identify major problem areas, assist in setting priorities, determine possible solutions, and monitor the progress of programs to reduce fire losses. Currently, due to the extremely outdated legacy data system, known as NFIRS, the antiquated technology, and the indifference of the nation’s fire service toward continued contribution to a relatively obsolete system, the USFA is unable to deliver on its charge.
The USFA mission is to support and strengthen fire and emergency medical services (EMS) and stakeholders to prepare for, prevent, mitigate, and respond to all hazards. This mission is hindered by a lack of credible and timely data from the nation’s fire and EMS first response services. Without sufficient quality data on community risks, fire and EMS departments’ capacity and capability to respond, operational effectiveness, responder and civilian injury and fatalities, property saved, and cause/origin of fire, the USFA is ill prepared to support and strengthen any responder or to report on the nation’s fire problem, first responder preparedness, or readiness for initial disaster response.
Working with the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the USFA launched a modernization effort to develop a new, interoperable fire information and analytics platform, known as the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS), for the American fire and emergency services. The goal of NERIS is to empower the local fire and emergency service community by equipping them with near real-time information and analytic tools that support data-informed decision making for enhanced preparedness and response to incidents involving all hazards. Once launched, the new NERIS platform will provide capabilities for documenting and introducing community risk reduction efforts, associated resilience, and mitigation efforts into the overall preparedness and resilience equation—providing greater insights into vulnerability gaps where resources can be used to harden communities and minimize future emergency and disaster events.
The platform will integrate data from multiple federal data sets, computer-aided dispatch, and other authoritative live data sources to inform community risks including vulnerable populations, the wildland urban interface, drought areas, and flood plains. Further, it will support rapid data capture from hostile event response, including response to structure fires, emergency medical incidents, and hazardous materials events.
NERIS will be built through a research and development contract awarded to the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI). FSRI is a part of UL Research Institutes, the nonprofit safety science organization within the UL enterprise. The vision is that a new data system will be the premier source of information on the nation’s fire problem and on the state, local, territorial, and tribal fire services’ capacity and capability to handle the fire problem effectively, efficiently, and safely. The new system will be flexible and adaptable to the changing needs of the local fire service and first responders nationwide to ensure equity of service availability at the local level and to enable local fire departments and emergency response agencies to access and use their own data for data-driven informed decisions.
Once NERIS is developed and operational, the USFA will work to migrate fire and emergency service departments onto the new platform. The legacy NFIRS will remain operational throughout the transition process, so all fire and emergency services departments should continue to use the current NFIRS data system and maintain status quo until migrated to the new platform.
For the latest information on NERIS development, visit www.USFA.FEMA.gov/nfirs/Neris.
