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STAND DOWN 2006: When in Rome ....
The issue of safety is one that has confronted and challenged each new generation of firefighters. We have been focused on making the fireground a safer work environment since 6 AD in Italy, when the Vigils were organized. This first organized fire department came about after a devastating conflagration in Rome. These first firefighters would form bucket lines to apply water (engine folks' ancestors), and "bucket line helpers" using hooks resembling today's pike poles and ladders would pull down surrounding buildings (truckies' ancestors) to prevent fire spread. This all came about in the name of fire safety and was very well coordinated and extremely effective worldwide, until the fall of the Roman Empire.
Today the Italian fire service is 2000 years old. 2000 years ago, our culture was focused on working to make things safer. 2000 years from now, when our great-great-great grandchildren run the show, they will be working to make things safer--2000 years of efforts at making things safer from fire and disasters not only for us but for our fellow man. It is this relentless quest for a safer fireground, a safer job, on which every firefighter worth his salt must always be focused. The culture of our fire service has an instinctual need to improve our species' ability to protect itself from fire and consequently to better protect its firefighters while carrying out our time-honored tradition of service to others.
The problems that our Roman ancestors faced were cluster housing and extremely flammable structures; they were faced with educating and protecting a large urban population. That population sometimes acted in ways that made the Vigils' job frustrating and repetitive. Sometimes the Vigils worked in understaffed companies with leaky buckets using cheap and flimsy hooks. Often when the Emperor could not think of whom else to send to solve a problem, he sent the Vigils. They worked long hours in miserable conditions, and reportedly they loved it-oh, they complained, but no one quit! Thank goodness things have changed. We as our Roman predecessors are challenged by our society's own affluence. We have customers who have more stuff and in increasingly larger flammable structures. While we are not pulling down buildings to stop fires anymore, someday our tactics may seem as primitive. The firefighters fight the fires and issues of their day. Not to take anything away from the Romans, but I'll take good bunker gear over a toga any day. So safety is not and will never be a back seat issue to the fire service, we are risk managers, and when possible, risk eliminators.
During this second annual Stand Down, we are focusing on vehicle safety. To understand how critical this is, just look at how many good firefighters we lose every year to traffic accidents and to being hit while operating on roadways. Look at how many traffic accidents we are involved in. You could argue that alot of this is just numbers, but alot is not--it is that one second that we zigged when we should have zagged. How you approach every day is how the Stand Down needs to set your focus. Every day we need to look at our profession and its mission, the safety and survival of everyone. Every time you put on your uniform or answer that pager, every second from that point until you change out or go home, needs to be your best. A friend, Matt Lawrence, told me, "When you live prepared, you are prepared to live."
Matt understands that being prepared is the number one job in managing safety. Safety is achieved by training thinking firefighters to always be ready to do what is needed and to be focused on what they are doing, where they are doing it, and why. Persons involved in nonsafe behaviors fail to recognize the consequences and effects of those behaviors on themselves and others. Addicts are the best example of persons who have little or no respect for consequences.
Unsafe behavior in our industry can be fatal; repeated unsafe behavior unfortunately cannot be tolerated. You and I have to say, "Stop." We are players in the arena here; we are not critics who never handled an attack line or never ran code down a busy highway at rush hour while a thermal column rose over our first-due. You and I have both been there, so this is insider talk; you don't need to drive on the racer's edge to be a good driver. If your crew is busy saying Hail Marys, they are not going to be ready to get into the fight when you get off the E ticket ride and kiss the ground. All good firefighters can and must stop any person from endangering themselves or their crew.
Often failing to take action is as bad the action itself. I recently visited with a great firefighter who was upset that he had to take the initiative to slow down a reckless driver in his city. His anger was at his chauffeur and his officer. His exact words for the officer were, "He needs to grow a spine; he needs to grow up." The man is 40 years old. I hope he grows up before he stops some innocent kid from getting the chance.
When you see a rig moving, especially running code, everyone should be buckled up and seated. If someone gets up to dress, stop the rig and sit the happy camper down. If you are a chief officer and you observe this, politely ask the rig to pull to the right and stop. If you place a mirror to the officer's lips and it fogs, maybe he needs to be drug tested. How many of us need to fall from the cabs of moving trucks before we understand that we never unbuckle to dress out in a moving rig--ever?
The fire service culture is often mistakenly identified as condoning or promoting unsafe behavior, generally by critics who have never been inside. This assumption is based on Hollywood and fish stories; in real fire departments, it is not so. At our core, it is not culturally acceptable to any good firefighter; recklessness is exactly opposed to our fire service culture. It assault our core values. You can take chances off the job, but on the job you have to responsible. The job of leaders, teachers, and mentors is to correct and adjust behaviors to ensure our members' safety and survival. The way to change other's behaviors is to have leadership that models safe acceptable behaviors and secondly requires accountability at all levels for adherence to safe behaviors. Sometimes the leader is challenged by defective firefighters from the firefighter factory and, as Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid"--just get rid of them.
This second annual National Stand Down starting today is so very important. A Stand Down for the United States Air Force is a period of nonflying because of poor weather, required maintenance, or the like. We are using our version of the Stand Down to focus on "the like."
Being stood down requires us to review our own behaviors and review our organizations' policies to ensure that we are prepared to do our jobs and are we doing our jobs properly. It may well be that in our reviews this month we find a policy that unintentionally places one of our own in an unsafe position--a position we did not intend to put them in. I am sure this can happen, as it did to me and my deputy chief at last year's Stand Down. A policy developed for traffic safety by my deputy chief, John Glover, which was some of the finest and most advanced work of its kind, was interpreted by a member in the field in a way neither he nor I intended. During the Stand Down this came up; it was addressed and corrected that day. The member was not intentionally committing an unsafe act. He had honestly misinterpreted a policy, quickly fixed by Deputy Chief John Glover, who reviewed the issue departmentwide during the Stand Down. That is one example of why a Stand Down has to be taken seriously and is so very important.
We have decided not only to set goals for safety and survival, but we are expecting-no, demanding-that our leadership live the example. We are demanding sobriety, health awareness, and accountability from those who are leading. If you just pinned on your company officer's jewelry, that would be you; if you are the senior firefighter, that would be you; if you are in training, it's you. We are being asked in Stand Down 2006 to focus on the most controllable of all the safety issues we face, vehicle-related issues. It is time we all stand up to the dangerous drivers among us, to the inexperienced whom assume speed is somehow related to competence. Refuse to allow anyone to bust intersections-ever. We all have the right regardless of our rank or position to demand safe and sane transportation to the fireground where much less controllable issues face thinking firefighters. Buckle up, take it seriously, slow down, think before you act, and be safe out there.
Chief (Ret.) Bobby Halton
