“InstructorsÕ Conference Again Seeks To Increase Knowledge, Motivation”

Instructors’ Conference Again Seeks To Increase Knowledge, Motivation

Jack O’FarrellDr. Jim TunneyGeorge Oldroyd

The role of a fire service instructor has always involved motivating others to try harder. Less has been heard, however, about how the instructor achieves his own peak performance through selfmotivation. But at the 54th Fire Department Instructors Conference held in Memphis last Mar. 28-Apr. 1, the topic of self-motivation was the lead subject.

Peak performance comes from selfconfidence, according to Dr. Jim Tunney of the Institute for the Study of Motivation and Achievement and also a National Football League referee. Tunney differentiated between personal power (which comes from self-confidence) and position power (which comes only from a person’s rank or position in the department). Effective leaders, he says, get more things done with less resistance through the force of their selfconfidence than the power of their position.

Tunney compared the qualities of the great football coaches he has known. They all emphasized teamwork, selfsacrifice, mental toughness and discipline, he said. The same could apply to great training officers and chiefs.

Rope safety

When it comes to rope, Jack E. O’Farrell said you must play it safe. O’Farrell is area director of the Indiana Fire Instructors Association.

“No rope item has had a bigger influence on the fire service than the deaths of two FDNY fire fighters who fell when their rope broke,” O’Farrell said.

That incident has forced us to evaluate our ropes and rope rescue operations, he observed. He thinks that tragedy is only the tip of the iceberg, but no one is talking much about other incidents for fear of litigation or embarrassment over poor training and equipment.

O’Farrell described one incident in which a rope was tied to the top of a tower in preparation for training. But when the rope bundle was thrown out the window to the fire fighters below, it broke from its own weight—and lack of care.

He insisted that fire departments are obligated to better care for such important equipment. Records of use and storage should be as complete as records kept on hose sections, he said.

He also called for more standardization on rope specifications and use. Training should also be improved. “Technical skills of rope use and placement must be maintained with refresher courses at least every six months,” according to O’Farrell.

Rappelling rapped

Rappelling was said to be the number one cause of injury and death in fire service rope use. O’Farrell insisted it has no real place in the fire service.

He questioned the value of manila rope, too. Still 80 percent of fire departments use it, but he said the quality of manila rope has been decreasing because of a lack of high-grade manila. People think manila has greater heat resistance. Not so, he said. And manila fails without warning, while nylon will usually elongate prior to failure.

“We should adopt the practices of mountain climbers and cave explorers,” he said, because they use rope much more than we do and have learned more. They respect rope.

The theme of this year’s conference was “Seeking New Directions.” However, George Oldroyd would have us first know more about where we are now—by better use of fire statistics. Oldroyd is training officer of the Fairfield, Conn., Fire Department.

Replace emotion with fact

“We’ve got to take emotion out of incident command and out of the budget process and replace it with facts,” Oldroyd said.

Fire statistics, he indicated, can help overcome a lack of experience in handling many situations. He referred to certain large hazardous materials incidents which were fought aggressively in the past—sometimes with disastrous results when an explosion occurred and fire fighters were too close. Any given department was likely to have only a few such critical incidents in a lifetime, so trial and error experience was inadequate, to say the least. Finally, through an accumulation of statistics, other departments learned more about when to attack and when to stay back.

Bob BacaVince BranniganChief Jim EstepDr. Ronald Stewart

Facts could be very important to maintaining public support of a department. For example, a series of major-loss fires could lead the public to criticize fire fighting efforts. But the situation would be different if detailed statistics were kept and they showed the repeated contribution of faulty construction practices that allow rapid fire spread. And it would be different if facts showed the difference between the extent of fire spread before the department arrived compared to after fire fighting began.

Added Oldroyd: “Work loads are generally increasing all around the country and manning is decreasing. In some instances, mass layoffs are pondered. The fire fighter needs all the support from data that can be had. This support can only come from organized fact files, not piles of facts.”

Need models, not critics

Leadership was the subject of Bob Baca’s presentation. Baca, New Mexico’s director of fire service training and education, said, “We have more need of models than critics.”

Model leaders, according to Baca, have certain traits in common: enthusiasm, controlled emotions, decisiveness, humility, vision and a sense of ethics. A good leader is a seeker of knowledge who can adjust to realities of the environment and who is adaptable to changing technology. He listens, encourages and delegates.

All of the qualities Baca mentioned refer to what is required from a leader. He didn’t talk much about what is received in return. That’s understood by a good leader, but not by everyone.

“Too many of us,” Baca said, “worry more about our rights than our duties.

Legal woes

“Sue the bastards!” That battle cry is ever more common today as the public grows less tolerant of even slight errors. As a result, fire service personnel will have more contact with lawyers, according to Vince Brannigan, a lawyer and professor at the University of Maryland.

“You shouldn’t be surprised that we’re after you too,” Brannigan said, after describing the increase in litigation against groups such as doctors and even pastors. “It’s like a dairy farmer looking out over the herd, getting ready to milk.”

Many lawyers specialize in liability cases but, Brannigan said, “there are not many out there working on your side.”

As Brannigan described the current trend, courts used to let injuries go uncompensated because of the 200-yearold doctrine of preserving the city assets at the expense of an individual. Cities were considered weaker then. Now a city’s liability is more recognized. The philosophy seems to be that if a city chooses to run a fire engine, then part of the cost of doing business includes using tax revenues both to buy the fire engine and to compensate individuals who are hurt by it.

He said that 95 to 97 percent of liability cases against a city are from vehicle accidents.

“If you injure a civilian, you—the individual—can be sued in addition to the city you work for,” Brannigan warned.

Through negligence, you could cause a person to be injured, too. For example, he described how a person might ask after a fire, “Is it safe to go back in the building?” If the fire department is ready to leave and everything is secured, it would be easy to answer yes. But you don’t know if the building was in fact safe even before the fire. So the answer must be, “I don’t know.” If you encourage a person to go from a position of safety to a position of danger (even if you don’t understand the danger), you take on a special duty in which you could be found negligent, Brannigan indicated.

Interpretation of law can be complicated indeed. Brannigan said that appellate courts in two states looked at almost identical cases and came to opposite findings. And EMS liability is more complicated than fire fighting or inspection liability, he said.

Keroslne heater safety controversy was addressed by a panel including, from left, William Baynes, Tom Smith and Bruce Pershke from the National Kerosene Heater Association (NKHA). ISFSI secretary, Edward McCormack, was the moderator and Fire Marshal James Dalton of the Montgomery County, Md., Fire and Rescue Services responded for the ISFSI. The NKHA representatives described how the heater hardware had been improved recently. Dalton suggested that the units are safer but not safe enough. We are finally beginning to have some success in lowering fire losses and deaths, Dalton said, but progress will be lost if we allow the proliferation of these units.

—Staff photos

Blending of roles

A continued blending of roles— emergency medical service and fire service—⅛ what Dr. Ronald Stewart called for. He is director of the emergency medicine center at the University of Pittsburgh.

Giving a capsule history of the EMS movement, Stewart reminded that the extension of medical care outside the hospital came from the war in Viet Nam. It was a convergence of need and technology. Before that, 50 percent of ambulances were owned by morticians— rather a conflict of interest, he said.

EMS was, according to Stewart, “a natural development of the tradition of the fire service.” Fire stations were strategically located, with a disciplined staff and an established helping attitude.

So why did a third service evolve? Stewart blamed a lack of leadership in a few localities. Some fire chiefs did not want to become involved.

“Some people like to paint a picture of tug of war between the medical and fire services, but that is going away,” said Stewart. He believes a true blending can be accomplished. Resistance to change is understandable, but he reminded all parties to first think of the needs of the patients.

Combination departments

Blending of two different items was also the concern of Chief Jim Estep of the Prince Georges County, Md., Fire Department. His items were paid and volunteer fire fighters making up a combination department.

“Without a combination department,” Estep explained, “the added cost for full-paid fire protection would be in excess of $100 per taxpayer.”

The jurisdictions around Washington, D.C., have been successfully operating combination departments for years on a county level. Estep says the best systems feature a complete integration of authority and duties of paid and volunteer fire fighters.

Prince Georges County is an active recruiter of volunteers, starting in high schools. By generating a large number of applicants, the department gets to pick for quality. A special slide-tape presentation is used along with public service announcements on television and radio.

“In these days of high power graphics on television, you have to use a creative hook to get their attention,” Estep says. He is happy to make the extra effort.

“We’ve been operating under a Proposition 13-type tax-cutting initiative,” he continued. “Therefore, in our jurisdiction, volunteers are absolutely essential.

Industry cooperation

The necessity of cooperation between the fire service and industry personnel was discussed by Maurice Greiner of the J. R. Simplot Co. in Idaho. He gave an example of two incidents—one with cooperation, one without. The conclusion was obvious.

Both incidents involved fires in warehouses containing hazardous materials. In one, fire fighters were not aware of the hazards but industry personnel advised them about the materials and options for handling. Sounds simple enough. In the other, it was suggested that the fire officers neither solicited nor accepted advice from the “outside” industry personnel. As a result, fire fighters were unnecessarily exposed to the hazardous chemicals.

“Industry often needs the experience and resources of local fire departments,” he said. “But on the other hand, fire departments often need the experience and resources of industry. Each should seek out the other.”

Donald CypherHal BrunoMaurice GreinerDennis Sargent

Greiner’s company has trained 500 fire departments in many states on handling agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers.

Open your doors

Yet another area where consideration is needed is between fire departments and the public supporting them. Each is obviously dependent on the other, but according to ABC News commentator Hal Bruno, also a volunteer fire fighter, his first department was like a private club.

“We’ll put out their fires,” they seemed to believe, “but we don’t need any of them knowing what goes on inside.”

Bruno called for opening the doors to the station. “We need public support. Many of our problems cannot be solved without it. The battle of the budget and arson are just two examples. Expectations for support from a grateful public for a job well done is naive.”

It is also wrong to ignore complaints, even if unfounded. Bruno described what he called a horror story in which a fire department was accused by a fire victim of being late in responding. Many negative stories were in the news, and many people were influenced. The department response: “We know we weren’t late. Who cares what they say?”

He said that attitude was certain to be detrimental.

Red badge of courage?

Awards for heroism are not uncommon in the fire service. But Battalion Captain Dennis Sargent, Sarasota, Fla., Fire Department, thinks too many fire fighters seem to be after the ultimate -prize. It is awarded among rows of apparatus, uniformed personnel, flowers and many words of praise. The ultimate prize is a full-dress funeral.

Legitimate awards for heroism are cheapened, Sargent says, by awards to fire fighters who must be carried from the battle because of smoke inhalation. If SCBA was available but not worn, such victims were said to be stupid rather than brave.

He also complained of important gear purchased on the low bid system. Sometimes the low bidder gets there by cutting corners on quality that could have tragic results.

“Consumer fraud” is how Sargent labels some abuses. In one case the manufacturer featured a Nomex shell and stated it met NFPA1971 standards for flammability. But then the manufacturer added a flammable lining with a warning about keeping it away from flame.

But Sargent’s most frequent target was the fire fighter who seemed unconcerned about safety. Sargent said combining an attitude of fatalism (“It’s just the hazards of the job.”) with a macho pride leads to a high injury rate.

A good safety program can make a difference. Sargent’s department has had no serious injury in the 60,000 alarms since 1973.

He called for giving up smoking, having regular medical exams and mandatory physical fitness programs. One study showed 58 percent of fire fighters already had four high-risk factors. Their onset was unrelated to fire department duties.

Arson

Keeping a step ahead of the arsonist was the topic for Donald Cypher’s presentation. But he immediately challenged the title. “We often can’t even catch up to them, so how can we keep a step ahead?” he asked.

Like every other subject, the arson rate has been affected by the economic crunch. “When people get their backs to the wall,” he said, “some of them decide to burn it.”

Especially homeowners. Cypher began a list of problem groups with homeowners who are having difficulty selling a home.

Juvenile firesetters were called the next greatest problem, followed by pyromaniacs. Cypher said, “We don’t know how many there are—only how many are caught.”

As far as suppressing arson goes, he said the FBI has played an insignificant part, particularly on the local level. Nor are there many people of any jurisdiction on the state government level operating. Cypher indicated many established arson task forces have become dormant.

If Cypher is correct, interest in the arson problem is down from the height it attained in 1980. In five years, he thinks, national interest will be back down to the low level of 1973, before publication of America Burning.

“Refusal of the American public to consider arson a crime against people, rather than a crime against property, is the most serious item hampering arson control,” he stated.

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