TO SOME, IT MAY SEEM WE ARE drifting as we look for answers to the complicated problems facing the profession of firefighting. Nothing could be further from the truth. That appearance of drift is a reflection of the complexity of fire protection; finding solutions requires an understanding of the interconnectedness of a wide variety of issues. Those outside the fire service routinely look to find universal solutions. Whether it is staffing, equipment, command, or funding, nonfirefighters seem to be drawn to one-size-fits-all answers. All firefighters have had to tweak and adjust these “universal” solutions just to make them work, so we rarely seem to fall into that trap. On most issues-not on all issues-we see things more locally. So what is it that truly unifies us? Simply, it is our unrelenting passion for our primary mission. We are obsessed with our neighbor’s welfare. Combat veterans will tell you they fight for their fellow soldiers; they fight to protect the soldier next to them. We do, too, only our foxholes are our neighborhoods.
Every firefighter’s day revolves around a series of problems-usually someone else’s but, occasionally, our own. We have sworn to respond swiftly, carefully, and unquestionably whenever someone calls us. This is our reason for being. So every day we find ourselves fixing a problem or figuring out a problem, getting someone out of one or ourselves carefully into and then skillfully out of one. This is a great way to live, solving problems. Helping people is rewarding. In firefighting, rescues, and medical responses, firefighters are conditioned or preprogrammed to win. Statistically, we win a lot more than we lose. Maybe this is why we take losing so personally. Winning does not mean we have solved the problem completely or it can never happen again because we are aware of it. But, we feel we have made a dent, some progress, and we are right. We are in the finishing business. We look to resolve things positively.
Fire departments are established to protect the lives and property of the community. We exist to serve our communities. Our overwhelming desire to protect our neighbors drives us to be us, to obsess over our service’s number one principle: “continuous improvement.” We relentlessly examine our work techniques to ensure we are doing all we can for our citizens. Thousands of years of service have taught us that if we concentrate 95 percent of our efforts into improving what we are doing well for our citizens, our number one mission, most of our internal issues will start to self-correct. As we make improvements to our service delivery, there is a corresponding improvement in our own organizational situations.
It is simple math to recognize that 95 percent of what fire departments are doing is going well. We should not be and never will be satisfied with just “going well”; we always want to do better. We need to be better at every fire-better than last time, that is-the goal of evaluating our experiences and the nature of good firefighters. We know that to understand what to do about the five percent of our service delivery that needs correction, we need first to understand as much about all aspects of the issue as possible.
We cannot become fixated on the sharp end of events, on the results. If we look at a driving accident, for example, the inexperienced automatically default to the driver. The cause must be driver error. Seasoned veterans recognize that there is some amount of driver responsibility involved; however, they expect that when we really examine the event technically and socially, we will find many integrated underlying issues. It is too easy to say the driver was an idiot or to rant on and on about how he should have been driving more slowly. Anybody can tell you how the accident happened or how to fight yesterday’s fire, but smart firefighters want to know why. What influences did his training, experience, staffing, supervision, beliefs, emotions, equipment, and environment play? We must examine all of these factors. Then we can measure the accident in relation to the mission. Was the driver more concerned about getting there to function vs. how fast he could get there? About how to best position the rig vs. just beating the other rigs? If how well we do something-“continuous improvement”-has more value than how fast we do it, then we are squared away.
In some cases, corrective action is going to be required to solve some issues, but before we try to correct something, there are actions we need to take. Always start with our primary mission, protecting our citizens. We know 82 percent of civilian fire deaths (roughly 4,000) occur in one- and two-family homes. We know we can reduce the probability of civilian fire fatalities by ensuring smoke detectors work; by being more proficient at ventilation, laddering, search, and handline advancement. We know fire death risks double for those age 65 and triple for those age 75; we know kids also account for a large percentage of all fire deaths.
We must drill every day on what we do every day. We can now treat smoke inhalation better; we can pay more attention to the young and elderly in our first due. Our mission is to change those numbers. That is why we are dedicated to continually improving. We have always had our community’s back.
