By Dennis L. Rubin
The first Wingspread fire service conference met in February 1966, when 10 senior fire service leaders met at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin, with the mission to identify current and future significant fire department impacts. This work has continued quietly for the past 55 years without interruption; it may be the fire service’s best-kept secret. The history of the conferences and the seven conference reports are available at the National Fire Heritage Center Web site.2
Continuous Improvement: The True Culture of the American Fire Service
Wingspread Conference VII concluded in August 2021.1 Attendees discussed the following broad topics: our members, our customers, emergency operations, facilities, technology, apparatus and equipment, and sustainability (environmental protection). Below are some of Wingspread VII’s “Statements of National Significance to the United States Fire and Emergency Services.”
The American fire and emergency services need to constantly and consistently strive to treat all members and the general population with respect and dignity. This first significant statement addresses the need for the national fire service to commit to being an equitable, fair, diverse, and inclusive workplace. It not a new direction, value, or revelation, but it needs to bubble to the top because of the repeated and ongoing negative behaviors that seem to capture news headlines daily. Public safety organizations must be steadfast and enforce zero tolerance for hazing, discrimination, harassment, and workplace violence and abuse of any kind. The financial and organizational time wasted on defending against and, at times, losing civil actions is significant. The resources used to defend actions against response agencies could be directed to resolve many other organizational needs.
Fire departments should be agents of change and a part of national critical infrastructure that will help solve America’s fire problem at the community level. The committee discussed the need for federal, state, tribal, and local governments to reasonably maintain facilities, apparatus, and equipment to allow them to complete the work that is expected of their emergency response system. Some stations and apparatus are in poor condition, and the lack of support runs from small town to big city departments.
One busy urban engine, ladder, and medic unit noted responds to more than 10,000 calls a year. The station is falling apart, the sleeping quarters windows are unable to keep the weather out, the heating plant is unable to keep the station warm during cold weather, and this busy station would not pass a fire prevention inspection. Considering our fire and emergency services facilities, apparatus, and equipment as part of the national critical infrastructure list would raise our stature, making the fire service a priority. This action moves the fire department from the bottom of the priority list to a higher and more visible ranking.
Fire and emergency services must continue independent rigorous research on all areas of operation and administration, to emphasize firefighter health (physical and mental) and safety. The committee discussed the positive impacts and improvements that scientific research has brought to our industry. Developing a mental fitness entrance testing measurement was identified as a new area of scientific research, similar to the candidate physical ability test (CPAT) that is used to measure physical ability before an entry position is offered. Participants pointed out episodes of newly hired emergency response members failing and being separated from service because of their inability to cope with the stressors of the work. This mental fitness component is missing in many entry selection processes. Most departments do not use a mental fitness screen measurement before hire, while some are using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The MMPI was developed in 1940 and has been improved over time to determine the mental fitness for duty of some professions.
There is a salient need to provide expanded nonemergency medical care in local communities. Fire and emergency services continue to be overburdened by low-acuity (minor) medical calls that could be resolved through the application of programs such as community paramedicine and mobile integrated health care. Suburban and urban communities are managing an ever-increasing emergency medical response workload without an increase in resources. Applying the long-standing response model of waiting for the alarm to sound is not resolving the negative community impacts. These include overcrowded hospital emergency departments, extended response times to both ambulance and fire alarms, and the exposure risks associated with emergency response. Some departments have used a preemergency response medical care system to significantly lower system misuse. This has changed the workload dramatically from all emergency responses to scheduling the time for low-acuity assistance calls. The resources to start and maintain an effective community paramedic mobile integrated health care response program should be a shared cost, with the local hospitals shouldering the largest portion of the costs.
The capability to recruit, retain, and train a qualified and diverse workforce has become an increasingly difficult task, requiring additional resources. The conference committee discussed the need for significantly more resources along with a fresh approach to solve this emerging and mission-critical problem. Fire departments should consider hosting preparatory academies focusing on academic and physical abilities. These two programs should be offered year-round to better prepare firefighter candidates for entrance testing and to be ready to do the job beyond passing the recruit training. The CPAT program offers an excellent orientation process that could easily be expanded. Along with CPAT, fire organizations could offer a similar academic training program that covers the eight or so dimensions of a standard written entrance examination to be implemented to provide or refresh the necessary skills to be successful as a firefighter. The discussion moved to the concept of offering child-care services to be able to compete with private-sector employers.
Other Topics Discussed
Several other visionary topics were discussed during this meeting. Some made the final report, while others did not.
- Adopting existing military technology for the fire and emergency services—specifically, the military’s war fighter uniform program that adds the soldier’s real-time medical performance (vital signs) telemetry back to the command-and-control center.
- Expanding or developing additional educational programs at the same level of a master’s of business administration degree—for example, a command-level training program was recently implemented in the Fire Department of New York, comparable to the six-month police executive program offered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The United Kingdom Fire Services’ executive chief officer training program was also discussed.
- The need to implement a unified command process nationally; several examples were given in which support agencies did not or could not participate at the command post of major incidents, leaving an information void.
- The need to better understand gangs and social anarchists to develop an effective operational plan.
- Discussion of the development of a national standard/model procedure for response to abandoned, vacant, and derelict building fire responses.
. . .
The Wingspread Conference process has not been well known; there is very little recorded information regarding the impact and effects of the diligent work of many of its notable early participants. In 1996, Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department took over and ensured that the Wingspread process would be more visible. Upholding his vision, 10,000 copies of the Wingspread VII final report were printed and distributed, and it has been presented at many fire and emergency services conferences. An electronic version of all seven reports is available without charge online.2
Endnotes
1. Wingspread VII. https://wingspreadvii.org/.
2. The National Fire Heritage Center. The Wingspread Conference Reports. https://fireheritageusa.org/archives-news/the-wingspread-conference-reports.
Dennis L. Rubin is the interim fire chief of the Kansas City (KS) Fire Department.
