The Fire Service As An Industry

One could say the Fire Service possess one unique quality about how it operates daily and that is the culture and the community that lies within every department. Culture is defined as defined by Miriam-Webster “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations (Definition of Culture, 2017, para. 5).” The many diverse aspects of each department in still’s a variety of cultural differences separating one department from the next. At the heart of all departments, fire service culture is the men and women who work and train hard to serve their communities as prescribed by the Fire Chief. The Fire Chief, however,

The Golden Fire Department (GFD) is proud to introduce our newest employee Kathleen (Katie) Quintana! Katie Joined the GFD Fire Prevention Bureau staff in mid June 2015. She worked for the City and County of Denver for 10 ½ years, there she held a variety of clerical and administrative positions. Her last few years with Denver, Katie worked for the Denver Police Department doing photo enforcement, after that she was a 911 call taker. In 2005, she accepted a position with the Aurora Fire Department (AFD) as a front desk receptionist. Shortly after she was hired, she was promoted to fire inspector. Katie spent eight years with the Aurora Fire Department. During her tenure, she became an ICC and state certified Fire Inspector II, she also received

BAUGHMAN TWP. — The East Wayne Fire District Board of Trustees approved placing a 3.1-mill levy for fire operations on the November ballot during its Thursday meeting.

Did you know that the earliest form of firefighting took place in Rome in 24 B.C? After almost being destroyed by unruly conflagrations, Rome created a fire department consisting of about 7,000 paid firefighters. Their fire crews responded to and fought fires, and also patrolled the streets with the authority to fine anyone who disobeyed the fire prevention codes (Hashgan). The major piece of firefighting equipment the Roman's used was the bucket, which was passed from hand to hand to deliver water to the fire. Additionally, they used an ax, which was utilized to remove the fuel and prevent the spread of fire, as well as to make openings that would allow heat and smoke to escape a burning building.

So where do I start, after spending 27 years in an entity that from day one emphasizes leadership development and experiencing a broad spectrum of leadership from the extremely great leadership to the very poor leadership with varying degrees in between. Along the way I have discovered that good leaders have either an innate ability or have learned over time (through trial and error) how to effectively influence a very diverse population of individuals, providing them with the proper purpose, direction, guidance, and motivation, thus ensuring they work as a team to accomplish common goals. But not all leaders have the same challenges to overcome when exercising leadership skills, the services both military and emergency (e.g. fire, police,

department on February 5 of 1850 with the formation of Mutual Hook and Ladder station #1.

Board of Directors – The governing Board of Directors of the Texas Fire Chiefs Association.

Continuing with the theme pf department promotional processes, Michael High’s presentation, Promotional Process, provided a glimpse into the North Star Volunteer Fire Department (NSVFD). His evaluation of the promotional process showed that the overall process was the same for paid and volunteer members. Interestingly the fire department has used career positions to develop a core staffing consisting of some lower level position, but mostly staffing officer level positions. Their promotional process is largely based on time served in a current position and educational requirements for the promotional position. These requirements were described to be listed in the department’s Standard Operating Procedures. It was Michael’s presentation that

(Northouse, 2015) Based on that assessment of integrity, it is clear that The Leary Firefighter Foundation is a good example of Leary’s leadership integrity. He established the mission for that foundation and has stuck to it. Leary has demonstrated the ability to bring hockey players and large cooperation’s together to achieve a similar goal. Leary has been able to instill the trust in so many people from the Board of Directors to the volunteers that help keep the organization going seventeen years later. According to Antonius, “Leadership requires a particular expenditure of personal effort and energy rather than just power relations.

Initially, the whole body model was validated by predicting the changes in Tc_N during cold water immersion and exercise conditions and was later applied for the firefighting scenarios. Cold water immersion and exercise at constant intensity are among the preferred scenarios for assessing the human body models [10]. Both the ambient temperature and the overall heat trans-fer coefficient (h) values can be varied or kept constant. This allows the model to demonstrate its capability to evaluate the influence of variations in the environmental conditions on the body temperatures. The whole body model incorporates variations in metabolic heat generation rates, local blood perfusion rates, shivering, and sweating to compute the variations in Tc_N,

Candidate Miles' five paragraph order briefing to his fire team was clear and the content was equally as clear and in order. SNC confidently briefed all the vital key points and formulated a solid verbal plan prior to execution of the obstacle. Upon entering the problem SNC's initial plan did not work to his advantage but, he without pause or hesitation he was able shift gears and came up with a secondary plan. Although, the second plan did not work as well, he quickly readjusted and mentally calculated a follow on plan. SNC's sound and timely ability to make hasty decisions during points of friction gave great credit to himself as a thorough decision maker. The communication emphasized by SNC throughout the problem was a great asset as

The incidents surrounding the Garland Fire Department (GFD) use of a mayday on September 8, 2013 is nothing new in the fire service. Although the situation did not result in a Line of Duty Death (LODD), it can be considered a “near-miss”. It is important in the fire service to understand the circumstances that took place on that day in order to ensure that we learn from them and ensure the safety of all firefighters going forward.

The Hanford Fire Department (HFD) is a full service fire and emergency services agency focusing on providing proactive life safety and customer services to the 586 square mile Hanford Site. The team consists of over 100 highly trained and skilled professionals that provide services to the entire Hanford community, including all Site contractors, in support of the safe and timely cleanup of the Hanford Site. These services include, but are not limited to, full spectrum emergency response to fires including wildland fire incidents, emergency medical incidents, rescue operations, hazardous materials incidents, chemical/biological and radiological incidents/accidents. Additionally, the Hanford Fire Marshall's Office provides overview authority,

The Neverland Volunteer Fire Department is facing multiple challenges. Not only the possibility of amalgamation within the Horizon County is pending over the Fire Department, it seems to be affecting department head officials to a point where unity of command is really fragile. The internal problems that we see happening is causing a lack of respect between firefighters and higher ups and even between managers itself. Not only respect is fundamental in a fire service but it is also essential to maintain a professional level of services.

The greatest threat facing the Modern Fire Service is the rate at which firefighters are dying in the line of duty. Excluding the terrible event of 9/11 that occurred in 2001 that forever changed the dynamics of the emergency response services1, firefighter deaths have averaged around 100 fatalities each year for the since 1990. This unacceptable rate of firefighter deaths has found its way to be a benchmark in the industry. The problem is that the benchmark should be zero firefighter deaths while on duty and every year that there is a fatality is a year that the fire service has failed its members. The number one cause of firefighter related deaths yearly is proven to be medical, stress, or overexertion related fatalities2. All of these causes of firefighter deaths can be avoided with implementation of training and awareness.