Line-of-Duty Deaths Continue to Soar: It is Time To Take Act

 

Reprinted from the November 2009 issue of Firehouse Magazine.

 

Enough! The fire service is tragically losing over 100 firefighters each and every year in horrific line-of-duty deaths (LODD). There are a number of choices each firefighter, department, organization or affiliate can make to help prevent many of these incidents. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Everyone Goes Home, Courage to Be Safe program promotes the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. Taking these initiatives and applying them on an everyday basis will help save firefighter lives.

 

The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) is partnering with all fire service organizations to reduce the number of line-of-duty fatalities. The Council recently announced the Volunteer Firefighter Health and Safety Priorities, which are set forth in a series of B.E.S.T. practices for the fire and emergency services, divided into four main focus areas of Behavior, Equipment, Standards, and Training. Find the full list of priorities at www.nvfc.org/health_safety. The NVFC partnered with Provident Agency to distribute a poster with these priorities to every department in the country. You can order additional copies from the NVFC office at 1-888-ASK-NVFC (275-6832) or nvfcoffice@nvfc.org.

 

One of the B.E.S.T. practices outlined in the Equipment focus area is: Provide and require the proper use of full personal protective equipment (PPE). In an effort to highlight this critical issue, I am challenging all fire departments and departmental officers to fully implement this priority. Too many times we witness news footage of firefighters wearing SCBA with a face piece hanging while they are in smoke conditions. Too many times we arrive on scene and see firefighters with only some PPE donned, thereby reducing their personal protection.

 

Use of full PPE should never be viewed as a personal choice and should be mandated in Standard Operating Procedures and Guidelines or statements of B.E.S.T. practices. Proper use is required to ensure the health and safety of our firefighters. Company officers need to become much more diligent in requiring firefighters to fully comply with the proper use of PPE. Chief Officers, in particular, must model proper behavior by wearing full compliments of personal protective equipment on the fire ground and during training evolutions. Departments must ensure that their firefighters have safe and effective PPE and mandate that it be used and worn properly.  If the department cannot afford proper PPE, there is financial assistance through the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (www.firegrantsupport.com).

 

Firefighters and officers believe they are making the right decision and sometimes act prior to fully protecting themselves. Seeing firefighters using short cuts to maximize their life-saving efforts can impact the entire fire ground. Chief Officers without bunkers, helmets, or other PPE makes for a poor incident, and possible injury or LODD circumstances. Leading by example provides all firefighters with a sense of safety always. Knowing that leadership values the work that each firefighter provides is good crew management.

 

Moving Everyone Goes Home from words to standard practice is enacting cultural change within the fire service. As a result, this will become a higher standard on personal choice. Changing the focus to protect self first must be your highest priority. You must continuously be part of the solution, never part of the problem. Taking the time to properly use full PPE will help you with Life Safety Hazards, giving you more protection to save victims in their time of need.

 

It is time to move words into action. Enough is enough, let us collectively work to provide and require the proper use of full personal protective equipment. We can reduce our LODD to fewer than 100 – in fact we can do better!

 

Learn more about this and all of the NVFC’s Health and Safety Priorities at www.nvfc.org/health_safety.

 

Kevin D. Quinn has 34 years of experience in the fire service. He is a Deputy Chief of Union Fire District in Rhode Island, Past President of the Rhode Island State Firemen’s League, Rhode Island State Advocate of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Everyone Goes Home-Courage to Be Safe Program and member of the Foundation’s Rhode Island Local Assistance State Team, liaison of the South Kingstown Decontamination Unit, member of the Hope Valley HazMat team, and member of numerous federal, state, and local exercise design management teams. Chief Quinn has served on the National Volunteer Fire Council Board of Directors for 31 years as Alternate Director for Rhode Island and is Vice Chair of the Council’s Health and Safety Committee. He also holds a Master of Science in Counseling and Educational Psychology and a Master of Science in Education.