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For all the perceived advances in the fire service, the firefighter of today is no less likely to be killed or injured in a structure fire than he was 25 years ago. And the American citizen is far more likely to be killed or injured in a structure fire in 2001 than he or she was in 1977.
More firefighters are killed each year on the fireground than in any other type of duty. Sixty-two percent of line-of-duty deaths in 2000 were either on the fireground or “responding to/returning from,” with fireground deaths by far the majority. Fifty-seven percent of all line-of-duty deaths were non-heart attack or non-stress-related. And the line-of-duty death trend for firefighters in both the career and volunteer sectors has spiked dramatically since 1992.
It’s not hard to see why, in the most critical ways, firefighters are no better off now than they were in 1977.
For years, fire service “leadership” consumed a mind-numbing diet of “business management du jour.” They began wearing suits instead of uniforms. They sought to be heroes in the boardrooms when they should have been looking out for the heroes in the streets. They justified their existence by-and staked their “value” on-selling service expansion without staffing. They danced around the real issues, promulgating a false sense of security that masked an insidious message that firefighters are expendable. All to the pleasure of city managers.
The firefighter in 2001 cries out for leaders strong enough to shoulder the yoke of accountability-the type of leader who, by and large, has been conspicuously absent in many fire departments for the past 25 years.
It’s time to test that leadership, starting with NFPA 1710. The standard is a test of leadership accountability. It’s the new “accountability” standard.
To those who whine about a standard infringing on “home rule,” I say, we’ve had home rule for 250 years, and we’re still getting firefighters injured and killed in unacceptable numbers.
To those who say it’s too expensive, that the tax base won’t support it, I say, for 20 years the fire service suffered because politicians and fire chief/politicians took the easy cost-cutting way out at the expense of fatherless children and widowed brides. I say, Mr. Politician, Mr. City Manager, you’re getting paid very well for your business and administrative expertise, so it’s time to start earning it by getting creative with your funding opportunities instead of running roughshod over the backs of firefighters who will lay down their lives for your families.
To those chiefs with weak stomachs who either don’t know how to begin or are too scared for themselves, I say, you’d better start relearning the tactical firefighting end of this business so you can start to market your product based on the number of people and number of positions it takes to achieve the objective the public expects-extinguishing the fire and rescuing trapped occupants within appropriate safety margins.
To the chiefs who forgot what it felt like to search above the fire or make the long hallway, I say, 1710 gives you a chance to add back into the fireground safety mix something most departments lost years ago: company officers who managed crews instead of working the handlines or operating the saws, from which location they are not in position to perform and communicate ongoing risk analysis, which, in turn, is killing firefighters.
To the chief or city manager rightly concerned about heart attacks and stress, I ask, how many firefighters would still be alive if two weren’t trying to do the work of four, or three the work of six?
To those who scoff at five- to six-member crews for high-hazard occupancies, I say, did you know that fires in vacant buildings, stores and offices, manufacturing plants, and places of public assembly pose more than a 300 percent greater risk to firefighters than fires in residential structures?
To those who say there’s no proof that four-person companies are safer and more effective, I say, there have been quantifiable studies-read them. I say, the city managers managed to cut without quantifiable justification, didn’t they? Four’s not better than three? Are you alien to the fire service or just stupid?
Chief, don’t you know 1710 is handing you some of the leverage you always needed?
It’s not hard: Lack of tactics, brought about by lack of staffing on the scene in a timely manner to accomplish tasks, is killing and injuring firefighters, not to mention civilians. NFPA 1710 begins to address that.
How many more stones do we have to lay in Emmitsburg before we wake up to it?
This is a moral issue. The ghosts of firefighters confirm it. It is time for fire chiefs and city managers to accept the responsibility and be held accountable to a standard that will begin to right the wrongs that have decimated the ranks of firefighters for a long, long time. Anything less is criminal.
