ARE YOU UP TO THE CHALLENGE?
An Open Letter from Roger Melchior,
PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR, ALLOVEZ, WISCONSIN
Whenever I visit the National Fire Academy, the first place I stop after check-in is at the Fallen Fire Fighters monument. It is always a somber moment when I visit because it gives me time to reflect on the lives of the men and women who are honored at that place. Having worked in a large city near the Academy for most of my career, I had the pleasure of working with many of the men who were from Maryland. I remember how Francis Blackstock died from a heart attack, how Mel Rosewag fell from a pumper and died from a fractured skull, how Nelson Taylor was caught in a backdraft, how Eddie Arthur was killed in a vehicle accident, and the list and memories go on and on. What is difficult is that I worked with all of these men and was in the funeral detail for two of them.
During that visit, I also reflect on what the Academy has meant to the fire service and wonder where we would be without it. In the past 20 years, we have done better and better in areas such as safety, incident command, tactics, fire prevention, and arson investigation. I attribute this in large part to the impact of classes offered at the Academy and through field deliveries. In a “normal year,” firefighter deaths are well under the 170-plus of the mid-70s, but that still should be unacceptable to all of us.
When teaching State Weekends in the early 1990s, I always told my classes that I looked forward to the year when on the Sunday of Fire Prevention Week we would have a celebration instead of a memorial service. I believe this can be done, but only if we all work hard to eliminate fireground injuries and deaths.
According to the 1999 World Almanac and Book of Facts (a Christmas gift from a former chief in New Mexico), 1997 saw a 9% decrease in fire losses and a 20% decrease in fire deaths for civilians; 83% of these fire deaths occurred in residences that had always been the most common type of response for most departments. We are doing a good job, but we need to do better.
As members of the National Fire Academy Alumni Association, our mission is very clear. We need to build grassroots support for the Academy, its programs, and its dedicated employees. With the arrival of the “White Paper” in the Spring of 1998 and the subsequent responses from other employees and management to the Blue Ribbon Panel Report, 1998 has been a very interesting year. This is especially true for those of us who feel there is a tremendous potential for growth and positive change at our premier fire service educational facility.
As a relatively new organization, the Alumni Association is one that spans all segments of the fire service: You don`t have to be a chief, an instructor, or a union member, and you don`t have to pay dues. All that is required is that you have attended a class either at Emmitsburg or through a field delivery.
If we are ever going to achieve zero tolerance for line-of-duty deaths, we all must get involved, speak out, and promote the Academy as a place of learning and research. To my knowledge, the four men whose names I mentioned earlier never attended a class at the Academy, but it`s their memory–along with the memory of the people whose names are on the other bronze plaques–that should be the driving force for the rest of us to be change agents for the better. Are you up to the challenge? H
