It has been an incredible year at FireRescue, and we’ve done our best to bring you the best education, people, and stories you won’t find anywhere else. This has been our focus over the past year as FireRescue is your source for all things fire service education: education on what’s happening in the international fire service and the people who are paving the way for the fire service’s future. And we will remain just as focused as we move into 2016. For us to remain focused on the fire service, we must be mindful and attentive to our readers: your experiences, successes, and stories. To do this, we have to continually learn from you what it means to be attentive and mindful. And there’s no better issue to do this with than our final issue for 2015. So what’s in store as you flip through the pages?
Meet our newest op-ed column: Hump Day S.O.S., by the one and only David Rhodes. His take on all things fire service leaves you with renewed perspective and introspection, and you’ll often be left reevaluating your own judgment and ethos. This month, he discusses what it means to have attention deficit disorder in your fire department, what to look for, and how to “treat” it. Welcome aboard, Chief Rhodes!
Being attentive also requires us to look within our department at our culture with regard to managing people. The fire service has its own subculture with established traditions that are undergoing perpetual change. As we attempt to remain attentive to each generation’s needs and challenges, fire officers have perhaps the most important role as they must adapt and change to accommodate our generational changes. Michael DeStefano discusses leading in the new fire service and how it truly is a family dynamic.
Perhaps nothing demonstrably portrays excellent fire service leadership and attention to detail like emergency and fireground response. The decisions we make at both are a direct reflection of our training and capabilities, and we bring you examples of this with a tremendous article from the Tokyo Fire Department about its response to the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. It was an emergency almost all of us will never be tasked with responding to in our careers.
Furthermore, decisions at fires are a unique process unlike any other profession. Chief Robin Gainey shows us how leadership in the fire service is the art of carrying out decision making under incredible situations, combined with the human resource interactions required in all organized operations.
Mike Kirby and Tom Lakamp keep us further attentive on the fireground by focusing on the most important piece of equipment we bring to the fireground: the hoseline. Learn how to select the proper hoseline and where to place it so it keeps its reputation as the most important life-saving tool in the fire service.
While the hoseline is an important tool, there are many tools that members of the fire service could move toward using-including drones. Chief Goldfeder’s Nozzlehead discusses the “groans and drones” of these newest additions to incident intelligence, planning, and strategy. There are mixed reviews of their effectiveness, their role, and their value on the fireground, but they’ll never replace the need for an incident commander’s attentive eyes, ears, and training, especially in the wildland urban interface (WUI). WUI incidents require myriad resources that will tax any governmental entity’s senses and training. Steven Hamilton discusses collaborative training that partnered the U.S. Air Force and the National Wildfire Coordinating Group. This training identified and focused on the shortfalls in training and certification of Department of Defense military and civilian wildland disciplines and what both agencies will focus their attention on in the future.
Future goals should be established during the critique of every training event and incident. A post incident analysis (PIA) should be the primary tool for developing future goals and identifying where attention and focus are needed. Chief Joseph Knitter has us “look in the mirror” to see if our “reflection” is going to be tainted in the eyes of a PIA’s participants. Reflecting the right image requires a PIA to have a clear and concise process so that we see the right image, every time.
The last consideration at an incident is writing the report. Ironically, reports are the first thing others look at when reviewing or deposing our incidents, but the fire service seems to be passive when it comes to this important component of the incident. Christopher Truitt provides us with the D.A.T.A format for report writing so that our reports are as clear and concise as the decisions we made during the incident.
As you can see, we finish the year strong with an encompassing approach to our profession’s perspective and focus. We can’t wait to show you what’s in store for 2016. Everyone at FireRescue wishes you a safe and happy holiday season.
