Type of Organization

Industrial/Institutional

Job Function

Community Affairs

Years in Fire/EMS:

6

Primary Fire/EMS Department:

SCFSEA

Years With Department/Agency

6

Other Past or Current Departments and Organizations

Suffolk County Fire Safety Educators Association

My Training:

Former EMS, Program and Seminar Director for ASIS NYC Chapter (Security Industry).

About Me:

Currently President of Prevention Pals Corporation, a NFP that brings together senior citizens and elementary school students on fire prevention and life safety projects. Since older persons and young children are the two groups most likely to perish in home fires, all programs are geared to reinforce best practices that can be incorporated into their daily lives and help prevent them from becoming unfortunate statistics.

Day Job:

Consultant in the Security Industry

Relationship Status:

Married

Why I Joined Fire/EMS

After being at the WTC during 9/11 and during the 1993 bomb incident, I decided it was time to get more formal training so that i could be effective helping others in critical situations.

Top Issues Facing Responders:

People sign-up and stay for a short time, and then the department is either to 'cliquish' or it stops being relevant to the new volunteer's life so retention becomes a critical issue.

Many volunteer departments are still a bit like "old-boys clubs" and don't welcome change easily or smoothly incorporate new participants of a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. That undermines all the initiatives that are grant-funded to get more volunteers.

We have to come up with ways to meet some changing community needs over the next couple of decades: typical destructive fires will be on the decrease with better notification, more installed sprinkler systems and more fire-retardant building materials; EMS calls will continue on the increase; real disasters and terrorist acts are going to take a significant toll on resources. There's much "talk the talk" and NIMS training for what we can think of, but there is no way to know if it will be sufficient or useful.

Some combination of paid and volunteer services has to balance out so that the wealth of possible talent in any community doesn't shun fire service because they aren't getting paid.