Participants at the TAMPA2 Summit broke into 10 groups to discuss various aspects of the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives (LSIs). Each group was tasked with developing 10 action items for their area. Following are the 10 broad categories and select issues each group discussed.
1. Thermal Assault
- Air management–how far should we go?
- How can we best apply fire science, including UL and NIST studies?
- What are the essential issues needing attention in PPE design? How do we reduce heat stress and yet increase the ability of equipment to sustain heat?
- How do situational awareness and risk management impact firefighter safety?
- How do we ensure that technology incorporates built-in safety?
2. Physical Health
- What strategies should be we focus on to reduce firefighter cancer and heart disease?
- Are age limits for operational members appropriate?
- How do we reinforce the importance of diet, exercise and nutrition?
- What is the proper approach to firefighter medical examinations and incumbent fitness testing?
- What are the most pressing occupational disease exposures (vehicle emissions, etc.)?
3. Firefighter Survivability
- How does culture impact survivability?
- What is a culture of safety and where does tradition fit into it?
- Is any loss acceptable?
- How can leaders model survivability?
4. Behavioral Health
- How can the fire service better address suicide, depression and post-traumatic stress?
- What behavioral health models and best practices should the fire service draw on (military, medical, etc.)?
- How can we overcome the stigma often associated with behavioral health?
- How can we build a peer support model in which family members, spouses and firefighters who are burn victims are all helping one another?
5. Leadership
- What kinds of data should fire departments be collecting and analyzing?
- Where are we at with fire-based EMS?
- How do we identify, mentor and support next-generation leaders, trainers and authors?
- What role does adaptive command play in fire service leadership?
- How can leaders best apply evidence-based research, business principles and new information about fire science?
6. Transportation Trauma
- How do we address the idea of “irrational urgency” in emergency vehicle operation?
- How can we make highway scene operations safer?
- What role does simulation play in producing safer apparatus operators?
- What factors (age, experience, maturity, etc.) must be considered when crafting driver training requirements?
- What factors (age, type, maintenance, size, weight) must be considered when designing vehicles and determining whether they’re safe?
7. Open Space Firefighting
- How is wildland firefighting changing, and what terminology (wildland/urban interface, open-space fires, range fires, etc.) needs to become part of our lexicon?
- How can we ensure that structural firefighters are adequately trained to fight open-space fires?
- How do we address the aging aerial firefighting fleet?
- What guidelines should govern how municipal departments work with state and federal agencies and contractors?
- Why do wildland fires contribute to so many LODDs?
- How can we design more effective communications equipment for open-space firefighting?
8. Reducing Fire Occurrences
- What is the firefighter’s/fire officer’s role in advocating for fire sprinklers?
- What emerging technologies should the fire service be following/supporting to reduce fire occurrence?
- How can we partner with community groups and organizations to enhance prevention efforts?
- How do we reinforce the relationship between fire prevention and firefighter safety?
- Are building codes and standards being sufficiently applied in today’s built environment?
9. Company Officer Development
- How do we help new officers transition from buddy to boss?
- What guidance do company officers need about social media?
- Do traditional ethics have a place in the “millennial age?”
- How can we help officers make better decisions and build personal and professional integrity?
- What’s the right way to challenge the “legends” of the fire service?
10. Training and Education
- What role does simulation play in developing firefighters?
- How can we make live-burn training safer and more effective?
- What role does online learning play in the fire service?
- Do all firefighters need a degree, and how do we ensure fire science programs are teaching the right things?
- How do young members learn best?
- How do we preserve the lessons of the past while also teaching for the future?
Stay tuned to FirefighterNation.com and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation for the action items produced in each group, and next steps.
