I originally put this on my blog, but I decided I would like to hear some discussion about it as well, so here it is:

From the title, you might get the idea that this post will be about global warming.... well its not. I looked at the draft report from NIOSH on the Charleston LODD's from last year, and got to thinking about the climate in which we do our jobs. Incidentally, the report is available at: http://static.wciv.com/niosh.pdf.

Maybe I am just venting and maybe this will conclude with some ideas for positive change, I don't know. But I do know that generally speaking, the public, the municipalities we serve, and the OMB's who regulate our funding all expect that funding and supporting fire department is a one time expense, much like one's first set of Scuba equipment or a set of golf clubs. The expenditure, once made should be it, right? They think that one set of hoses and tools are all we need to go on for ever, taking no notice of advances in technology or tactics that change how we work. Many deparetments, most in fact, face overwhelming opposition when they try to acquire new apparatus or equipment. "But you just got a new engine last........well fifteen years ago, and if your tools are broken or worn, well why weren't you taking care of them?"

Folks seem to think that because fires are less and less frequent, our equipment lasts longer and longer, failing to realize that the equipment we use on the fireground is the same as the equipment we train with routinely. Most peole don't have any idea how often we train in a hands on way, and that the equipment we use wears out. Yet they expect that all fires to which we respond will be extinguished with little or no damage. Budgets are cut nearly annually, manpower is cut routinely, and the level of service is expected to remain the same. Why? because we believe in what we do SO MUCH that we will try against the odds to maintain a high level of service in the face of impossible odds. It has always been what we do, beat the odds.

As I looked at some of the pictures of the Charleston Sofa store fire and its aftermath, I was poignantly reminded that every time a firefighter dies in the line of duty, the public turns out to pay their respects, then votes down additional funding in the next election. If the public wants to support fallen firefighters, they should walk into the booth with the memory of the fallen foremost in their minds and vote FOR every funding request that fire departments need. How quickly we forget.......One had only to notice regular traffic driving over charged supply lines at the Charleston fire, or most others for that matter, to see that the public is either too ignorant of what we do, or too apathetic to even avoid driving over the hose they can't imagine might wear out! I don't know how to change this but I think it must.

Or is it because we don't look at what we do as being important? Maybe the fact that we don't close the road to protect our deployed hose lines indicates that we don't feel we are important enough to take such a drastic step. Perhaps an almost routine failure to yeild at traffic signals sends the message that we don't care about the safety of the people we serve. Maybe our continual refusal to wear proper PPE at incidents shows the Funding authorities that we don't value what they work to provide for us, if we can't be bothered to wear SCBA at a car fire, what reason does anyone have to believe that we will wear them at Structure fires? How many pictures and videos are floating out on the internet that plainly show us out there NOT wearing some little piece of PPE like helmet, gloves or SCBA at calls where it would be appropriate to do so? Nearly every one will show some little violation of OUR SOG's.

If we NEVER gave the public or our funders the opportunity to think that ours was any less than the most important job in the world, we would not have the funding issues we have. If we ALWAYS used the PPE we were issued on every situation where PPE was required, we would be safer, and we would send the message that we care, about the job we do, the equipment we are provided, and the people we serve. If we drove to calls with due regard EVERY time, we would be safer, and the people we serve would see that we care about them.

The bottom line is this: We exist becuse of a need to Safely manage emergency situations. If we do not work in a safe manner, then we are part of the problem, not the solution, and what Office of Management and Budget wants to throw money at a problem rather than a solution. We should be the solution. Once we are that, the money will come.