Picture your neighbor’s house…steam and smoke lazily coming out of the hole in the roof as you watch salvage and overhaul crews entering the house. Most of the men and women too busy to realize that you are there watching, not knowing that you are a 
firefighter and understand the entire process that is unfolding in the front yard of the house next door. You know it will only be a matter of time before the rest of the neighbors start asking you questions. Why did it take so long for them to arrive? It looks like they did more damage than the fire? How come they didn’t just spray water right in the window? We saw the fire coming out through the window and yet they still broke the door down? Did they have to break every window?
You look across the yard and see the firefighters laughing and joking. There are firefighters across the street that look like they just fell in the mud, they are dirty, soaking wet with sweat and they have towels around their necks and are having vital signs monitored. One of the most prevalent thoughts running through your head is “thank God no one was hurt”!
As a firefighter/ paramedic, you can feel for your neighbors. You understand the firefighters laughing and joking, but wish you could remind them of where they are and who is watching them. You see the tired crews starting to form back up. You can’t hear what is being said, but you know they are talking about what they saw and did as the first in companies. It will come back up in the critique later this week.
As a Fire investigator you start watching a different scene unfold. Another worker wearing different boots, a hard hat, carrying a clipboard, and stopping every so often to take pictures, he will be methodical in his search. Most likely starting from outside the residence and working to the interior. Moving from unburned area to the area of most damage, he will follow tell tale signs that will lead him back to what happened. After performing fire investigations, I have been looking at fires in a new way. Firefighters very rarely come face to face and have to converse with the occupants from a residential fire. They are happy to see the beast and now have another notch in the belt; another story to tell girlfriends, mothers, brothers, and fathers. Even though it is bragging, they are happy they got to do what they were trained for. Fire investigators will be putting their hands on the large non-descript charcoaled pieces that were once prized possessions for the occupants. They will see the hurt, pain, and stress placed on an individual and family from a fire.
As you get bored, you head inside looking to see if you have any pop, water or beer to offer the firefighters. You know that you won’t have to part with the beer! Although there will be the comment “maybe tomorrow morning at eight if the offer is still good”! Another thought starts to creep up in your head. What could I do to help prevent this as a public educator? Where would I start? Who needs it more?
I look back to when I first got into the fire service, and feel it starts here. We are failing right from the start.
“…it’s too often the case that our citizens have little or no understanding of what it is we can accomplish. They don’t understand that our most visible activity, fire suppression, is our last effort. Fire prevention, including public education and code enforcement, are the most powerful tools we have at stopping a fire in the first place and the resulting damage that is caused to both life and property.” – IAFF Article
Often, I have heard other public educators saying we need more than a couple hours to speak with new cadets. When we are taught what to expect in our jobs by watching training videos. This is our only preparation for our journey through the fire service. Most of these videos and the bulk of time involved in these trainings come down to extrication, HazMat, EMS and firefighting. The only way to invoke change is start at day one with the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. Life Safety Initiative number one states “Define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety; incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability and personal responsibility.”
To this day I do not know why I am in Public Education. The only thought I can offer is that I have been told by friends, not in the fire service, that I am more passionate about my job than any other person they know. I would like to think this is true regarding most firefighters. My co-workers probably wonder why I am in Public Education, since I am not a very good speaker. I get through with passing marks because everyone within the department works hard and understands how important public education is for our residents’ safety, to our trustees, to our Chiefs, and for our jobs.
There are very few firefighters who got into the job for the good pay, time off, and the excellent benefits. Most took the job because they wanted to be a firefighter! Maybe at a young age they were influenced by a firefighter who helped them, they new a firefighter as part of their family, or they just saw the fire engine and never wanted anything else. The pay has gotten a lot better, the time off has stayed the same if it has not improved, and the benefits have always been good. Now the benefits are starting to dwindle or we are being asked to pay more for the same benefits. The few who have an axe to grind with fire departments are yelling about the money and the benefits of the job. The large amounts of people out of work don’t like this, and the municipalities who have pension deficit issues are jumping on this and blaming firefighters. Throw in the few boneheads who make mistakes in full view of the public while at work or wearing their uniforms and we will be on the losing battle of the Public Education front.
The change needs to start now and we need to work on all members who are not buying into the program. Public Education is more than teaching stop, drop and roll to the residents. It is selling the next fire station, hiring more firefighters, saving jobs during the recession, recruiting future firefighters, the same ones who might be helping us as we enter into the senior citizen population. It could be for new legislation to protect pensions for firefighters and their spouses. Firefighters might teach that young girl who saves her family with something she learned from the school visit she had.
We will not eliminate the boneheads, but hopefully we will get more of them to stop making our job harder. Overcoming bad public images are extremely hard to fix. Watch at roll call or lunch the next day you work and someone will bad mouth someone else. The person who has been called out by a co-worker will almost always have a tag now. Imagine being the firefighter trying to overcome a tag. It is almost impossible. Try fixing that tag that a few thousand people have given your department. Try doing it with such a limited exposure to them.
The circle here is dependant on Public Education and performing our job in a very capable and timely manner. Good press is a result of well-trained individuals acting well within a team concept. Bad press happens when an individual doesn’t think and removes himself from the team concept. It is far easier to erase good press than it is bad press. Ask a Chief how to build good will in the community. He will have more answers than you will have time. Ask the same chief how to get over the black eye one person has given the department. You will get the politician answer. He will talk about everything but the direct question.
In less than ten years we went from America’s heroes to greedy and lazy. September 11th was a very tragic day for the fire service as well as the country. Thousands of people commented on brave New York City Firefighters going up as “we were coming down”. Everyone saw the images from that. Did anyone see an image of a firefighter doing something wrong? No, they went about their job even after losing 343 brothers. Many have forgotten those images. In a time of difficult financial decisions, we need to stand up and show why we are hired for this job. If you are not making a difference, your job looks very disposable to a city manager or trustee who is looking to get rehired by the voters.
- By Bartlett Fire Protection District FF
Example of a fire departments list of community resources: http://www.sccfd.org/public_education.html
Other Ideas
- Have a FAQ section on your department on locals website detailing what the fire service does
- Hold community open houses
- Volunteer in your community not because you have to but to be part of the team
