As Executive Fire Officers the responsibility of safety and the establishment of a proactive safety culture undisputedly, lies with fire department leadership……Specifically, the fire chief. Now, I know what you’re probably saying, “Yeah, yeah, yeah….I’ve heard all of this before”. But if we have all heard this before, then why are we still seeing firefighters injured or killed on the job with alarming consistency year end and year out? USFA recently reported that we saw a decline in firefighter deaths in 2009 in comparison to 2008. This is certainly progress; however, as Chief Cochran has already stated, it is still too soon to claim victory. We have safety pioneers such as Dr. Clark, Chief Daniels, and Chief Goldfeder (to name a few) who have time after time dedicated themselves to the safety, health, and survival of firefighters from across the world.

                They are doing their part and we must remain vigilant in making sure that we continue to do ours. Where do we start? We must take an honest look at the true “safety culture” within each of our respective organizations. First and foremost we must have the “buy in” from all ranks of our membership to keep safety as a priority. My philosophy has always been that the quickest way to get employee buy in is through employee empowerment. Each organization’s disposition will differ dependent upon size, type of department (career, volunteer, etc.), and call volume but one thing that should be consistent amongst all fire departments is the unwavering commitment to safety. When considering employee empowerment as it pertains to safety, there are several things that come to mind:

·      Do you have a NFPA 1500 committee? – Most departments have a 1500 (Safety) committee that is comprised of members from each shift to include firefighters. Meeting frequency is normally once a month and topics such as facility issues, review of on the job injury reports, PPE needs, and near misses are communicated and documented in this forum. Best practice is also to publish the meeting minutes to everyone in the department to review.

·      Inter-department Safety Flyers – Whether the flyers include safety information from near misses within your department or you as the Fire Chief would like certain topics highlighted, this could be the means to do so. The responsibility of creating each flyer can be rotated amongst members of the NFPA 1500 Committee.

·      Coordination and implementation of safety stand down -  It is common for fire departments to participate in at least one safety stand down a year. A safety stand down could be conducted after an employee is injured or has a near miss but most importantly, we should be proactive and have safety stand downs to prevent injuries on the job from happening. One tool to use is the IAFC’s safety stand down which is held annually. This year’s stand down will be from June 20th-26th and the theme is “Fit 4 Duty”. The NFPA 1500 committee and or other personnel can be tasked with coordinating the activities for safety stand down week.

From a Fire Chief perspective, there are many resources and efforts that are available to us to assist in changing the safety culture of our organizations. Some of these initiatives include but are not limited to:

·         International seat belt pledge

·         16 Firefighter life safety initiatives

·         Take 5 for safety

·         USFA LODD Report

·         Department injury/safety violation data

My definition of “culture” is values and beliefs. This is applicable from an individual and organizational stand point. We have to establish that the values and beliefs of the fire department’s that we lead revolve around the safeguarding of safety for our personnel and the people that we are sworn to serve. We should be communicating the importance of safety every opportunity that we get. The more the word is heard, the quicker the ideology will materialize into fruition. 

 

Reginald D. Freeman is currently serving as the Fire Chief for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, GA.  Chief Freeman has been awarded member status with the Institution of Fire Engineers, accredited as a Chief Fire Officer Designee (CFO), Fellow of Harvard University’s Senior Executives for State & Local Government, member of the Program Planning Committee for the IAFC,  and he is currently on NFPA’s Technical Committee for Fire Officer Professional Qualifications.  Furthermore, Chief Freeman serves on the Website Committee for the Safety, Health, & Survival section of the IAFC. Chief Freeman has a Bachelor of Arts in Leadership, a Master of Science in Executive Fire Service Leadership, and he is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Management with an emphasis in Homeland Security.