Last week, Chicago was the heartbeat of the nation’s fire service. With the International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services hosting its conference and the International Association of Fire Chiefs holding Fire-Rescue International here, it was a week filled with education, information and networking opportunities. After a show, I always review my notes from general sessions, meetings and conversations, looking for quotes that are worth repeating. Here are some from last week: “Everyone here has the potential to make something happen,” said Div. Chief Cheryl Horvath, outgoing iWomen president, at that organization’s conference. “It’s no longer about women in the fire service; it’s about the value that we bring to the fire service. Now it’s up to each of you to make a difference.” “In firefighting and in police you have this tension because interpersonal bonds and close associations between and among firefighters are really important, essential components of the professional culture,” said iWomen keynote speaker Laura A. Liswood, author of The Loudest Duck , a business guide on workplace diversity. A senior advisor at Goldman Sachs, she became a reserved police officer in D.C. after 9/11. “The close personal, fraternal bond, keeps them strong, keeps them safe it keeps them physically, mentally and emotionally healthy, but there’s a tension in that because some people are included in that fraternal bond and some people are potentially excluded from those fraternal bonds based on the unconsciousness we bring to the workplace. So there’s a constant tension — constant tension — with the desire to have these fraternal bonds, but then to have people assume that you don’t belong or you don’t belong.” “Dee Armstrong also lost her husband to cancer. Cancer has my attention and it is one of our priorities to begin an 18,000-member, longitudinal study,” said Acting U.S. Fire Administrator Glenn Gaines said about Armstrong, a female firefighter from his former Fairfax Fire Department who recently died from cancer. “We want to prove the association between cancer and firefighters because you are fully immersed in toxins.” “One of the problems with people in the fire service is what they learn they don’t pass it on and that’s sad — that’s why we lose lives,” said host-city Fire Commissioner Robert Hoff. “Money is an issue, but if we stick to the core of the fire service, which is fire, EMS, public education, prevention, we’ll get our jobs done whether there’s money or not. We have to do our jobs — that’s what it’s all about. …The day you stop learning on this job is the day you should retire.” “When there is a disaster, citizens don’t call DHS or FEMA — they call you ,” said DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano during FRI’s opening session. “Homeland security begins with hometown security — and with the men and women on the frontlines who dedicate themselves to keeping our communities safe every day.” Napolitano went totally off script, according to her staff, and her passion was evident. “She loves the fire service,” said one woman about Napolitano’s extended 25- minute presentation. “On 70% to 80% of your calls, the victim deals with the junior person on your rig,” noted Dr. Richard Gist, moderator of the NFFF’s “Firefighter Life Safety Initiative 13, Behavioral Health.” Gist also shared information the U.S. military’s efforts to address post-traumatic stress disorder and offered the trauma screening questionnaire and After Deployment Web site . “Chiefs can change the rules; only peers can change the culture,” he said. And there indeed were signs of cultural change. Some of the programs for the 2010 IAFC Fire-Rescue International carried the traditional leadership for chiefs and officers, but the majority of the programs would not have been on the IAFC program 20 or even 10 years ago. Now that’s progress.
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Change the Rules, Change the Culture
In the realm of firefighting the pressure to work without making mistakes is tremendous. By it very nature of service to others, the fire service is a higher calling and as such, firefighters feel compelled to conduct themselves under the incessant pressure to be error free. This is reflected every month in fire related magazines and especially in their advertising. It is preached by fire instructors and constantly drilled into us during trainings. It hovers around the firehouse reflected in stories and myth. The problem with this “premise of perfection” is the straightforward reality that mistakes happen. In spite of the best intentions or any amount of training, things can and do go wrong. Successful officers understand that the key to lessening the impact of mistakes is to not allow them to repeat themselves or more importantly gain momentum. Repeating the same mistake over and over can diminish the career of any firefighter. Mistakes that are compounded on the fireground can lead to delays, changes in strategy and tactics, or an unsafe incident. Mistakes in the fire service come from many different sources. Improper training, poor communications and lack of focus are a few of the origins of errors. Over zealous about everything and completely self-critical, the new recruit is totally stressed out every minute of the duty day waiting for that one slip, that one errant moment… the one critical mistake that could spell disaster on the fire ground or at the grocery store. Interestingly, it is this basic “fault” of youth and inexperience that sets the tone for dealing with the more substantial mistakes throughout a fire department. As officers, we agree that the emergency scene is made up of tasks linked together in an appropriate and effective sequence that results in accomplishing a tactical objective. Mistakes arise when this sequence of events is repeated time and time again with success. Complexity gives way to routine, and routine results in complacency. Even more critical, it is during this “sacred” routine that we tend to be closed to outside stimulus, whether from the public or from one of our own. This “isolation” can lead to missed opportunities, poor decisions or inappropriate conclusions, all of which can result in mistakes. In and around the fire station the customs surrounding a mistake are a little harder to define. There are some personnel that simply won’t admit that mistakes occur and certainly not by them. This leaves issues unresolved and little opportunity for improvement. Interestingly enough, the first mistake a newly promoted officer makes is denial. “That didn’t happen on my watch!” Experienced junior line officers are a bit more realistic but quickly learn the art of deflection. “I didn’t drop the nozzle; the nozzle fell out of my hand.” For their part, skilled officers are relegated to administering both philosophies; trying to eliminate mistakes or at least controlling their fallout by taking full responsibly… warranted or not. The key to lessening mistakes is not to preach perfection but to teach the credo that mistakes do exist, but they are not failures. We must adopt a culture in which the first mistake is a learning opportunity, not a source of ridicule and punishment. The “old academy” is gone or should be. The same mistake a second time should by all accounts be the last. Now is the time to question completely and honestly, without blame. The objective is to simply confirm a solution. It is only after the third time that a mistake becomes some type of serious breakdown and it is our job as officers to find it and eliminate it. And for the repeat offender — it is their responsibility to never do it again. As a senior officer, you must develop and reflect a departmental philosophy wherein mistakes are dealt with by honest acknowledgement, objective identification and a thorough resolution. This ensures a lack of repetition while allowing them to serve as a source of increasing success. Out in the open, they can be the seeds of doom or the roots of opportunity. It is up to you. But it is not just about winning achievement. Mistakes are the harbinger of change. You and your department must be open to the possibility that some policies may be outdated or inappropriate. Are you hypercritical in your pursuit of perfect performance or do you modify behavior through tolerance and understanding in your mission to create a better department? Mistakes, like all agents of change, must be incorporated into our fire service culture. To deny or diminish their worth by relegating them to fault and blame by criticizing and punishing is the ultimate error in judgment. Our ultimate goal should be to maintain quality of service and value to the community by aspiring to a principle of growth and progress free from the fear of failure rather than perpetuate a vapid quest toward perfection. Perfection can only lead to satisfaction or disappointment… never joy. Joy is found in the spirit of tradition and the excellence it inspires.
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Mistakes Made or Lessons Learned?
More than ever, volunteer fire departments need to apply for federal grants to stay afloat, said Geoff Maloon, a grant-writing consultant and full-time firefighter/paramedic with the Milpitas (Calif.) Fire Department.
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Volunteers Can Use SAFER, Too
Every industry has individuals who receive little recognition or praise for keeping things going smoothly. We wait anxiously for the power-company employees to arrive when the lights go out, but don’t think about them when the lights work at night; garbage day comes and goes without a thought about the trash collectors who take it away; and residents rarely think about fire and police departments until they need them. But wheels that don’t turn — literally or figuratively — can be a big problem. Think back to the last time you sat in an airport or on the tarmac waiting for maintenance: Mr. Fix-it, in his yellow vest and coveralls, determined if you flew or not. FIRE CHIEF created the Emergency Vehicle Technician of the Year Award to raise awareness of the guys in the emergency apparatus shops who keep the wheels turning — to get them out from under the hood or beneath the truck and put them in the spotlight. This year’s award, sponsored by C.E. Niehoff, goes to Mark Kemper of Sedgwick County (Kan.) Fleet Management. Kemper was the catalyst to form the Heartland Emergency Apparatus Technicians Association for EVTs. HEATA now offers two training and testing opportunities annually, for around 50 technicians at each. Boyd R. Powers, shop foreman for Sedgwick County and president of HEATA, nominated Kemper for his work to establish a program to remount the department’s 21 ambulance bodies on to new chassis for a second life cycle. When the project is complete, it will have saved the taxpayers in Sedgwick County an estimated $1,080,000 by reusing ambulance bodies rather than buying new. While we can only give the honor to one person each year, the seven other 2010 nominees deserve recognition. Art Amidei, Wilmette (Ill.) Fire Department: “Ask anyone who knows him, and they will speak highly of his knowledge, dedication, professionalism and hard work,” wrote Morris Anderson of Wheaton (Ill.) Fleet Maintenance. Hank Henninger, Ruscon Truck Service, Congers, N.Y.: “Our lives depend on [Hank’s] superior craftsmanship, as do the people we serve and protect,” wrote Capt. Harry Stone of the Fairview Fire Department, White Plains, N.Y. Craig McDonald, Comstock Township (Mich.) Fire & Rescue: “Craig understands the importance of emergency vehicle maintenance and his quick response to our calls for service play a major role in my department using him,” wrote Chief Walter Culver. Brian Martin, North Alabama Emergency Vehicle Maintenance, Hanceville, Ala.: “[Brian] is also Master ARFF certified, Hy-rail certified and is on the EVT commission board,” wrote his daughter, Tina. “You cannot find a better mechanic than my dad — I promise you.” Cory Meeres, Victoria (B.C.) Fire Department: “Cory introduced the EVT program to the Victoria Fire Department … and the department now serves as a ‘testing’ location to allow members seeking certification to write examinations,” wrote Deputy Chief Paul Bruce. Tom Myers, Lawton (Okla.) Fire Department: “Tom has built a pump demonstration trailer. … He has taken this state wide and it offers students a hands-on approach of the inner workings of the pump,” write Training Officer Jared Williams. “Tom has done this out of his own pocket.” Chris Stuhm, Westlake (Ohio) Fire Department: “Chris has kept our fleet of fire apparatus and ambulances in top performing shape and has consistently gone the extra yard to keep us up and running,” wrote Chief Dale Kraus. Congratulations to Kemper and thank you to him and the other nominees for their dedication and commitment to keeping fire and emergency apparatus in service.
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Song for the Unsung Heroes
Last evening began with cool lake breezes and a fire-boat salute and ended with moonlight and fireworks as 25 of FIRE CHIEF’s previous Chiefs of the Year gathered to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the awards and to welcome the 2010 honorees into the fold. During the dinner cruise on Lake Michigan, Volunteer Chief of the Year Timothy S. Wall told the audience of fellow chiefs, IAFC and Pierce representatives, and other dignitaries that he attributes his career success to listening. And it was a message worth hearing. Wall — who is chief of the North Farms Volunteer Department in Wallingford, Conn. — spoke fondly of growing up in a large family and his early involvement with the fire service. “The Wall family is in its fourth generation of firefighters,” Wall said, noting his brother, who is an assistant chief, and a nephew who recently became a career firefighter. Career Chief of the Year Thomas W. Carr Jr. came out of retirement to help the Charleston (S.C.) Fire Department recover from tragedy. There, he was reminded that fire departments are about more than just firefighters. “It’s the power of the government and bringing people together. I’m just now beginning to understand the impact,” he said. “We bought apparatus, we bought new equipment; we have great training; we have FIRE grants and SAFER Grants. You can have all the stuff in the world, but if you don’t have the people to do the job, nothing is going to change. In Charleston, there’s a lot of good people.” As he did during his long career with Montgomery County (Md.) Fire & Rescue, Carr shared his award-winning experience with several members of the Charleston Fire Department. He brought several members of the department to the Fire-Rescue International, including two female firefighters to attend the iWomen’s Conference. “As with many things we do in Charleston, anyone interested in attending a conference puts their name in a hat and names are drawn,” Deputy Chief John Tippet said, adding that this year is the first time any member of the department has attended FRI. “That way no one can talk about favoritism.” Charleston Mayor Joe Riley was in Chicago for the awards dinner. He praised Carr and his work with the Charleston department and thanked him for Montgomery County’s response and following the 2007 Super Sofa Store fire. Riley also made a point to thank all the chiefs and officers in the room for their support during the very dark days after the death of nine firefighters in the store fire. Jim Johnson — president of Pierce, which sponsors the awards — presented Wall and Carr with their class rings, solidifying their inclusion in this elite group of chiefs. The Chicago Fire Department provided a magnificent salute from their dive-rescue boats. Even Mother Nature did her part with a full moon. We could not have provided a more perfect way to honor the role of fire chiefs today.
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Reason to Celebrate
Harris Corp. today introduced the GR-100 system, a wireless solution that transmits firefighter locations to command-and-control officers’ laptops. The system has multiple components, including accuracy-enhancing algorithms, inertial sensors and GPS that lets users track personnel throughout an incident, said John Facella, the company’s director of public safety.
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Harris Debuts Firefighter Locator
Last week, I wrote a column that upset a chief. In the column, I talked about the lack of resource measurement in San Diego County based on a conversation I had with Stewart Gary of Citygate Associates, who was hired to do a regional fire-deployment study that assessed the county’s resources and shortcomings. I talked about his findings. Gary said the county did not have an accurate account of its resources and, in some cases, chiefs were fudging response times. I didn’t mean to upset the chief when I wrote this. I know fire management is a tough job and that more of the U.S. needs to improve communication regionally with mutual-aid partners. In fact, I love San Diego County. I lived there for more than four years in the late 1990s in a community called Oceanside, right next to Camp Pendleton. So I know firefighters have a lot to contend with there: urban and wildland fires and fighting traffic on “The 5.” I was just relaying what the consultant had said he found surprising: San Diego County, like many of our counties, needs to do better at tracking resources and providing accurate response times. More honesty needs to be practiced, and I agree with one reader who commented that the fire service needs to admit what the true response times and resource capabilities are. Until that happens, data always will be estimated. “Someone has to be willing to stand up in front of the administrators, at whatever level, and admit that it takes X minutes for X thing to happen,” he wrote. “What that will show is how slow we truly are in responses.” And that is all I meant in my column: Chiefs need to honestly and accurately report resources and response times in order to better serve the public. In return, political purse string holders need to take the data and invest money into areas of need. With that in mind, I’d like to reach out to chiefs. If you struggle with measuring resources and are under political pressure to fudge the data, please e-mail me . I’d like to learn more about the issue and share any solutions I may find.
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Sorry, San Diego County
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CAD Software Accepts, Prioritizes Multimedia Messages
While FCC and public-safety representatives may disagree on spectrum issues surrounding the best use of the 700 MHz D Block, both groups agree on the fundamental goal: establish a nationwide, interoperable wireless broadband communications network that meets first responders’ needs. Exactly how that goal should be achieved is where the disagreements start. FCC officials have contended that the primary barrier to making the broadband network a reality is funding, and that auctioning the D Block is the best way to resolve the financial dilemma at a time when state and local government entities are facing tight budgets in a down economy. Not only would the D Block generate a few billion dollars that Congress could direct toward helping fund the proposed nationwide network, but building the public-safety network in concert with a D Block partner could reduce the cost of building the network significantly. Furthermore, having a commercial partner share Band 14 with public safety would mean better economies of scale for equipment, resulting in cheaper prices for first-responder gear. If the D Block were reallocated to public safety, FCC officials question whether the financial case for the public-safety broadband network would work, with many in the agency noting that the FCC has spent much more time and effort developing a business model than public safety has. Meanwhile, public-safety representatives have claimed that — if Congress reallocates the D Block to first responders — government entities could leverage the spectrum to help fund the nationwide network. Many have interpreted this position to mean that public safety would be willing to lease spectrum to commercial carriers. While such an arrangement could make sense in some circumstances, many industry analysts question whether commercial leases would generate enough revenue to be worthwhile, given the realities of supply and demand. Indeed, leasing valuable spectrum in major metropolitan areas could provide some attractive revenue streams, but such urban areas are the environments where public safety would be least inclined to lease frequencies, because first responders could need all the spectrum, and a commercial operator may not want to operate on a secondary basis. Meanwhile, in rural areas, most industry sources believe public-safety could have enough spectrum to lease to commercial operators in most instances, but airwaves in sparsely populated locations would not be expected to attract significant bids from carriers. But another method of leveraging the spectrum appears to be gathering momentum. Instead of deploying networks solely for traditional first-response users such as police, fire and EMS, many governmental entities would like to let other government departments such as civil-works and inspection departments access the network for a fee. This model would mean more users on the network, which should improve economies of scale compared to the limited public-safety market. In addition, these other departments can bring their own revenues sources — annual budgets and access to non-public-safety grant programs. Such an approach also embraces the notion of converged networking that has become increasingly prevalent, said Roger Quayle, CTO of IPWireless, which developed the technology used to deploy a broadband wireless system on 2.5 GHz spectrum in New York City. “These multiagency networks are run out of the CIO’s organization,” Quayle said. “They aren’t run out of the traditional public-safety radio shop.” One problem with the multiagency model is that current rules only allow first responders to use the 700 MHz broadband spectrum. However, most industry sources believe policy-makers conceptually would support the notion of broadening the definition of a first responder to include critical-infrastructure enterprises such as hospitals, utilities and transportation departments — each of which can play vital roles in emergency scenarios. But, even if the rules were changed, many question whether the non-public-safety entities would be willing to pour resources into gaining access to a 10 MHz network in which public safety typically would be the top-priority user and may not leave much bandwidth to secondary users during an incident. However, adding the 10 MHz D Block to the equation would make public-safety officials more willing to share the airwaves and secondary users more likely to want to participate. “My gut feeling is that 20 MHz is going to be the minimum necessary to actually operate all of these first and second responders in a city like Seattle,” said Bill Schrier, CTO for the city of Seattle.
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Not Just for Public Safety?
Throughout the ongoing debate regarding the future use of the 700 MHz D Block, most of the discussion has tried to weigh the needs of first responders against those of the burgeoning commercial wireless data market, based on their needs for the next five to 10 years. Certainly this timeframe is critical to both wireless sectors. In the commercial market, the availability of smartphones and other wireless devices has resulted in an explosion of demand for mobile data applications, forcing many carriers to rethink their network strategies if they want to be competitive. In the public-safety market, the wireless data demand has not yet matured, but many industry observers believe that first responders will be power users of such applications should a public-safety-grade broadband pipe become available for mobile and portable use. Given these realities, it’s understandable that many federal lawmakers and regulators would like to auction the D Block to commercial operators, which already have demonstrated a need for the airwaves. In addition, many federal officials believe auctioning the D Block spectrum is the best way to ensure that behemoth carriers Verizon and AT&T have legitimate nationwide competition in the 700 MHz band. In addition, FCC officials have spent much of this year noting that having a commercial D Block licensee could provide greater economies of scale for equipment such as handsets in the band class, as well as offer a deployment partner that could help reduce the initial cost of a nationwide broadband network for first responders by at least 50%. Meanwhile, if public safety demonstrates it needs additional spectrum in the future, the FCC has vowed to include first responders in future allocations of the 500 MHz of airwaves it hopes to clear in the next decade. If decision-makers consider only the next decade, the FCC’s position is difficult to refute. After all, public safety has yet to demonstrate its need for broadband applications — although many note that developing broadband apps makes little sense in an environment where dial-up data rates, or worse, are still the rule — and funding the initial nationwide network promises to be a significant challenge. However, such a perspective overlooks several long-term realities that would result from reallocating the D Block to public safety, including the following: The costs associated with building a public-safety network using LTE technology would be virtually the same, whether it is built on the 10 MHz of spectrum licensed to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) or built on 20 MHz with the addition of the D Block, because the number of cell sites that would be needed would be similar. D Block reallocation, combined with a few rule changes, would provide the spectral capacity to enable the 700 MHz broadband networks to serve more than just public-safety entities, which could make funding the systems easier. ( See stor y). Auctioning the D Block almost certainly would mean introducing another guard band into the 700 MHz swath. While often necessary, guard bands do not represent good spectrum management, as those airwaves typically are not utilized at all. Meanwhile, the D Block winner would have only 6 MHz of usable spectrum for an LTE network. If the D Block is auctioned to a commercial user and public safety demonstrates it needs additional broadband spectrum — a scenario that most believe will happen, although the timing is debatable — then public safety would need a portion of future spectrum bands that are cleared for auction. This likely could result in more unwanted guard bands. Locating public safety in different spectrum bands for broadband applications could greatly increase network costs in the future. While adding the D Block spectrum to the network would be a negligible expense to at least double capacity, adding 10 MHz in almost any other band in the future could double the total cost of ownership during that period, particularly when trying to ensure that the network on the new band provides seamless interoperability with the 700 MHz network. By reallocating the D Block now, public safety would have minimal — if any — need for slices of the spectrum that is expected to be cleared during the next decade, so the FCC would be able to focus on using those airwaves to meet its commercial-market goals. While each of these is a compelling point, perhaps the best argument for Congress to reallocate the D Block to public safety involves a long-term view of first-response communications. Most industry experts believe mission-critical voice over broadband eventually will supplant land-mobile-radio systems, although there is considerable disagreement whether that transformation will happen in the next decade, or 50 years from now. But when that evolution occurs, a reallocation of the D Block today would mean that public safety would have 20 MHz of 700 MHz broadband spectrum now and the possibility of adding at least 12 MHz more when 700 MHz narrowband channels are transitioned to broadband use. And don’t forget that the post-rebanding 800 MHz narrowband channels also are nearby. Exactly how much spectrum first responders will need long term is impossible to project accurately. However, reallocating the D Block for public-safety use today would mean first responders potentially have a very attractive spectral platform of more than 35 MHz in the prime 700-800 MHz band on which to build its long-term broadband future. It’s difficult to imagine a better use for those airwaves. What do you think? Tell us in the comment box below.
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D Block Reallocation Makes Long-Term Sense
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