Dear Readers,
Prior to the presidential election, I received a few letters with questions and comments about the future of our country if:
- The Democratic candidate won: OH NO.
- The Republican candidate won: OH NO.
Well, since then, Donald J. Trump has been sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. Some are elated while some are extremely distraught. Regardless of how you feel, he is the man and is the leader of our country. How do I feel? Glad you asked.
First, as my longtime partner at www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com and at the Fire Department Instructors Conference International Gordon Graham will tell you, no matter who, the best predictors of future behavior and actions are past behavior and actions. So, to personally and socially predict where the president is going, size up the past to have a good idea of the future. Without question, change is on the way – no matter what you stand for.
So, instead of the social and political stuff, let’s look at the potential fire service impact with not only a new president but one who appears to have good support in Congress.
I have always felt that fire and rescue services are a local concern and not so much of the federal government. Now, make no mistake about it, the Federal Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER), FIRE Act grant, and related programs have been a measurable help to communities that otherwise may not have been able to get the staffing and equipment they wanted; that’s a good thing.
However, one of the other sides of that coin is that while the Feds helped, many jurisdictions have failed to adjust their budgets to then pick up the load. Instead, they ignored it, and at the end of grant cycles we see firefighters getting laid off and services dropping back to what they were before. In other words, if the Feds will pay, we’ll have it; if not, we won’t.
What a shame.
Shame on them for failing to look at the needs of their local community and determine what they can afford based on the needs. It often is that simple … or can be. Unfortunately, in some communities for fiscal, political, or both reasons, the public ends up on the short end of the hose when they have a fire.
A LITTLE HISTORY
It appears the first level of federal involvement in fire/rescue services was in 1916 when the Council of National Defense, created by an act of Congress, was charged with the coordination of industries and resources for the national security and welfare.
In 1941, the familiar and official CD insignia was adopted by the Feds with 15 distinctive identification symbols for volunteer workers including firefighter and rescue.
In 1973, America Burning, a report written by the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control, evaluated fire loss in the United States and made recommendations to reduce loss and increase the safety of citizens and firefighters. One focus was that fire prevention and fire safety education for the public were vital to reducing fire losses. The report also said that we, Americas firefighters, need to be better trained.
In 1974, as a result of the America Burning report, Congress passed the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act, creating the formation of the United States Fire Administration (USFA), the National Fire Academy, the National Fire Incident Reporting System, and the Center for Fire Research within the National Bureau of Standards.
One of the most critical findings of the report was the high death rate among American firefighters. As a result of this report, it was the intention that fire departments have life and property loss reduction plans for handling fires before they occurred. Another was to focus on fire protection within buildings.
Take some time to Google America Burning and learn that the more things change, the more they stay the same. And while we have made significant improvements in all areas, there is much work still to be done – for example, the residential fire sprinkler problem and our battles with the home builders and rebuilders.
A couple of other interesting areas the 1974 report addresses include the following:
- Local governments make fire prevention at least equal to suppression in the planning of fire department priorities.
- Communities train and use women for fire service duties.
- More cooperative arrangements among local fire jurisdictions be changed to get help to those who need it quickest (auto mutual aid).
- Local fire agencies prepare a master plan designed to meet present and future needs in fire protection, budgeting, and cost-benefit solutions.
- Federal grants for equipment and training be available only to those fire jurisdictions that operate from a federally approved master plan for fire protection.
- Research productivity measure of fire departments, job analyses, firefighter injuries, and fire prevention efforts.
- Federal financial assistance to local fire services to upgrade their training.
- Fire departments consider providing emergency medical services (EMS) where they don’t.
- Establishment of a National Fire Academy to provide specialized training in areas important to the fire service and to assist state and local jurisdictions in their training programs.
- Review current practices in fire service terminology, symbols, and equipment descriptions, and seek to introduce standardization where it is lacking.
- Focus on the issues related to firefighting hazards created through manmade materials.
- Schools giving degrees in architecture and engineering must include in their curricula at least one course in fire safety. Further, the American Institute of Architects, professional engineering societies, and state registration boards are urged to implement this recommendation.
- Fire codes specify at least a single-station, early-warning detector oriented to protect sleeping areas in every dwelling unit.
- Fire codes should specify automatic fire extinguishing systems and early-warning detectors.
- Federal budget for research connected with fire should be increased.
KNOCK, KNOCK
Who’s there? The future! Shhhh … Quiet … Stop moving! Don’t answer the door.
That’s okay; open it. There is significant history at the federal level and especially in the past 15-plus years, with some decent funding. Some will tell you the funding has mattered, and it has in some cases. Fire departments that had 30-year-old bunker gear got new bunker gear. A 25-year-old engine has been replaced, and some radioless fire departments now have radio systems that work. Some fire departments that had two firefighters responding to fires now have four. Many of our own associations as well as researchers have received grant funding to better support and educate firefighters with some excellent programs and results.
On the other hand, there are some departments like that one-square-mile-coverage-area fire department in New York that received a federal grant for volunteer recruitment and retention for $750,000 – that’s $750,000 for one square mile.
For that kind of money, buy a giant 10,000-gpm deck gun; mount it in the center of town; and when someone reports a fire, have someone aim the deck gun and make most of the fires go away. And then there is the Maryland (suburban DC) fire department that received a grant for a ladder truck in an area where at least four other ladder trucks were literally minutes away.
Nothing’s perfect.
So how does this apply now that we have a new president? I think we better be prepared to take care of our own – locally. Need to recruit new volunteers? You probably don’t need $750,000 to do that. In so many cases that I have seen, it’s the internal BS and internal focus (vs. the “what’s best for those we serve” focus) that makes people not want to join or makes them not want to stay in volunteer organizations. Need a new ladder? Maybe you don’t. Need new personal protective equipment? Budget for it. Sound harsh? By many accounts, there is a very good chance it will be.
According to media reports on all sides, the president is relying on a blueprint budget from the Heritage Foundation that delivers one of the most extremely conservative restructurings of the federal government in decades.
According to one of those reports, the transition team has been at work for months to draft a plan to cut $10.5 trillion out of the federal government over 10 years.
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| While he still certainly loves us, our “rich” Uncle Sam is closing his wallet. (Photo by Pixabay.) |
NOT THE BEST NEWS
You may remember the Heritage Foundation: It is no fan of the fire grant programs. It did some of its own research, and the research found that the fire grant programs failed to reduce firefighter deaths, firefighter injuries, civilian deaths, and civilian injuries. Furthermore, in June 2016, the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general released some highly critical audits of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) program and the SAFER grants administered by the USFA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
SO NOW WHAT?
When my children were younger, one asked me, “Dad, are you sure there is no secret trust fund somewhere for me?” Nah. Nope. If there was, I would have spent it already. Hope all you want, but you better take care of yourself. Naturally I made those statements with love.
I think it’s safe to say that the world of federal fire funding is probably going to change. For those who don’t want it to, I hope it doesn’t, but just like my kid hoping for something in which there were no indications of reality, I think that’s what we are looking at nationally. A new reality.
Even with the political environment of very recent years, 10 years ago the AFG program was funded at almost twice the level it is today. See any trend?
There is no harm in contacting your federally elected representatives to let them know how you feel. If you can prove that the grant program has measurably improved fire services in your community, that’s probably a good way to start the discussion. If you can prove that your local government absolutely cannot afford needed items and programs, that should follow the first statement. I wish you luck, but better than luck is a more realistic alternative program that identifies how your community can solve its fire problem locally, within your area and with your neighbors.
Need more staffing? It’s time to look at an aggressive automatic mutual-aid program.
Need new bunker gear? Get with 10 of your neighboring departments, agree on one spec, and now put that out to bid. Want new apparatus? Same thing. Design a pumper spec (for example), and agree that a fire in your town doesn’t require a different a pumper than their town, and then put 10 pumpers out to bid. You will save money and perhaps even come up with some creative financing.
I am writing this on January 22, 2017, so by the time you read it much will have happened. In addition to the future of fire grants, we can expect change related to the role of fire-service based EMS and healthcare.
Interesting times. Strange days indeed. Yeah, all of that, and that is what leads me to think that there has never been a better time for communities (and locally elected officials) to focus on what they can do and what they are genuinely* unable to do as far as funding their fire department. And then do it. (*Genuinely means based on what’s best for who is having that emergency and who is responding to fix that emergency.
Genuine means a fiscal focus on fact and reality and not personal, disingenuously based nonsense such as anti-union or anti-firefighter prejudice. Genuinely means that parks may get mowed every two weeks instead of one so a new firefighter can be hired … stuff like that.)
In the days of Civil Defense, especially during World War II, there was a very strong focus on people and communities taking care of themselves, and there was a saying that made good sense: The saying “Civil defense is self defense” is well worth dusting off and reusing.
While anything that “may” come along to support the fire service at the federal level is a nice extra, there has probably never been another time when communities and fire departments needed to genuinely (that word again) take care of themselves. While he still certainly loves us, our “rich” Uncle Sam is closing his wallet.
