The United States fire service is built on years of high standards, strong traditions, and the hard work of countless men and women who worked diligently to uphold these standards and traditions and to pass them on to the next generations of firefighters. The fire service is facing some challenges-challenges in our jobs and leadership, challenges that we can and will overcome.
Our job requirements are constantly changing to meet the expanding needs of our citizens. New technology and modern building materials and practices seem bent on making our jobs more dangerous. Our training and certification requirements seem to be compounding daily, sometimes at the expense of mastering the skills. How in the world are we supposed to continue providing for the safety and effectiveness of our firefighters, who provide our citizens the highest levels of service?
I believe we can accomplish this by instilling in our personnel the values, traditions, and moral obligations that have made our departments successful over the years. We must demand that our people be well trained; know not only “what the book says” but also how to do it and how it all works together; and feel confident at the end of the day that we are very good at physically doing what we do.
There are many opinions about the “why” generation and how to lead these firefighters. I’ll give you some more to think about. It seems as if many people think that we’re supposed to personally explain every order and requirement so that we can have the buy-in of all staff members. I submit to you that there are times in the fire service when we don’t have the time to explain everything. When you are told to do something, you need to do it “because I said so.” Before you start yelling, this obviously doesn’t apply to extraordinary safety concerns. In addition to the time factor, it’s a given that if you have to put forth the effort to learn the whys and what fors about something, you will likely have a better understanding than if someone just gave you the simple answers.
There are some very loud voices out there proclaiming that today’s fire service is a “W.A.S.P. club” that needs to work harder to get more minorities, women, and protected classes on the job. Baloney! Unless you have factual information to prove this, don’t accuse me or anyone else in the fire service of discrimination just because we aren’t willing to lower our standards. The men and women in the fire service should be of the highest caliber and should display the highest levels of honesty, integrity, and ability. Without these characteristics, the fire service and the public would be more likely to suffer harm because we lowered our standards in the name of political correctness.
America has long been known as the land of opportunity. That means we all have the opportunity to work hard and earn our place in life. It does not mean that we are entitled to anything simply because we draw a breath.
We all have a job to do and a responsibility to do it to the best of our abilities. Many aspects of the modern fire service are changing-some are for the better. We must be able to embrace the changes that make us better and safer. That doesn’t mean that we have to change just for the sake of change.
David Goodwin
Lieutenant
Cañon City (CO) Area
Fire Protection District
FDIC “Wow! Amazing”!
Fellow firefighter Paul Hockley and I finally decided to bite the bullet and attend FDIC 2014 at our own expense. We are glad we did despite 53 hours of travel time to get to Indianapolis from Perth, Western Australia, via Hong Kong; Newark, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; and then Indy.
The quality of instruction delivered during “Conventional Forcible Entry,” “Man vs. Machinery,” and “RIT Combat Drills” was second to none and justified every minute spent in economy class. Paul and I agree that the hands-on training was the best training we have received in almost 15 years, and we’ve been spreading the word throughout our organization and have been generating a lot of interest from firefighters and officers alike. Additionally, we got a lot out of attending the classroom sessions. As for the trade show, wow, just wow! Amazing!
I’m sure many firefighters send these e-mails. I just wanted to say it was a job well done, we are glad we attended, and we’re hoping to come back for FDIC 2015.
Justin Foureur GIFireE
Senior Firefighter
D Platoon
Welshpool (Western Australia) Fire Station
Editor’s Opinion “timely”
This letter refers to Editor in Chief Bobby’s Halton’s “One Man’s Opinion a Right We Must Defend” (Fire Engineering, May 2014). The topic is current, is on point, and desperately needs to be repeated for the leadership of today’s fire service. We recently survived a near-miss meltdown, which was opinion driven. We have a young group of people here, which provides me with a great leadership opportunity every day. In the end, a consistent message was delivered that reined in the antagonists and brought us back to focus. Great stuff.
Kenneth J. Scandarato, EFO, CFEI
Fire Chief/Marshal
Norwich (CT) Fire Department
Fire Engineering Archives