Instructions Select one of the 16 National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s (NFF

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Instructions
Select one of the 16 National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s (NFFF) Life Safety Initiatives that needs the most attention in your department. The initiatives can be found at this link: https://www.everyonegoeshome.com/16-initiatives/
Write a one-page essay on why your department needs to focus on this particular initiative and what you recommend changing. Identify the culture and behaviors in your department related to safety that this initiative will address. Describe what behavioral changes are expected to occur as part of the initiative. Also, discuss how your selected initiative addresses personal and organizational accountability. Be sure to include an introduction to your essay. All content must follow APA guidelines, including all sources used, which must be cited and referenced according to APA standards.
If you would like a refresher on writing essays, including introductions and conclusions, consider watching the tutorial located here .
Required Unit Resources
Chapter 1: Fire and Emergency Services Culture
Chapter 2: Personal and Organizational Accountability
Unit Lesson
Welcome to Unit I.
Throughout this course, you will be introduced to the basic
principles and history related to the national
firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, focusing on the need
for cultural and behavioral change throughout the
emergency services. The course includes action-packed
assignments that require you to work outside of your
study area or firehouse. The value-added part of this work
will benefit your organization and community for
years to come.
As for Unit I Emergency Services Culture and Accountability,
it includes Chapters 1 and 2 from your textbook,
which cover topics discussed much less often than they
should be. Think back to the minute you started any
new job or became a member of a new group. You probably
almost immediately started identifying different
characteristics of the organization and could tell if
members were accountable to themselves, each other, and
to the organization. New firefighters also do that as soon
as they enter the firehouse. As someone on the job
UNIT I STUDY GUIDE
Emergency Services Culture and Accountability
FIR 2302, Principles of Fire and Emergency Services Safety
and Survival 2
UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
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already, a senior firefighter or a fire officer, you set the
stage on the apparatus bay floor for future
organizational culture and accountability.
Ford (2017) defines culture as a set of traditions,
procedures, norms, attitudes, behaviors, and personnel
demographics that occur in a department and are influenced
by the local community. Stop for a few minutes
to reflect on your current organization’s culture. What were
things like when you first started on the job, and
what has changed over time? How did cultural change take
place? Many times, it is the attitude of one that
spreads to many. Was the attitude a good one or a bad one?
Some have probably resisted certain changes to
the culture of the organization, especially related to the
safety topics we will be discussing throughout
this course.
Implementing changes can be
difficult, especially with an
embedded culture that values
how things have always been
or how something has been
done. Take, for example, one
of the simplest of personal
decisions, one that has resulted
in too many firefighter deaths,
the decision not to wear a
seatbelt. From rookie firefighter
to seasoned fire officer, the
personal and leadership
decision to make cultural
change in an organization must
be steadfast. Unfortunately,
cultural changes often occur
when a pivotal event or tragedy
injures or kills a firefighter.
Take a little less than 13
minutes to watch the video linked in the Suggested Unit
Resources section, which provides an overview of
the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF). Not only
does the NFFF take care of the families of fallen
firefighters, but they have been instrumental in the
creation of the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives listed on
pages 23-24 of the textbook.
With culture and tradition comes personal and organizational
accountability, which will be the reading in
Chapter 2. In Burton Clark’s (2015) book, I Can’t Save You,
But I’ll Die Trying: The American Fire Culture, he
talks about firefighter deaths and injuries as being more
than a numerical value that can be prevented. When
a firefighter is killed, it should not be considered as just
part of the job (Clark, 2015). If this is truly the case,
then why has the fire service not reduced the number of
firefighter deaths dramatically over the years? Are we
failing to learn from previous tragedies and repeating them?
A lack of training and education should not be an
excuse. Is resistance to personal and departmental
accountability the cultural change blockade? Leadership
should make it a priority to convince all firefighters,
citizens, and public officials that the rates of death and
injury are not acceptable, and a higher regard for safety
would still control fires and save lives (International
Association of Fire Chiefs & U.S. Fire Administration,
2015).
So, now that you can see a cultural issue that leads to
firefighter deaths and injuries, how do we fix it? We
must hold each other and ourselves accountable to
established procedures and best practices on the
fireground. Technology continues to change to improve
operations, and so can people. From the top down
and the bottom up in all fire departments, members must be
prepared to do what is right to prevent injury
and death.
Seatbelts in fire apparatus
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and Survival 3
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Training was mentioned earlier, but let’s return to it now
because it is vitally important to firefighter and fire
officer
efficiency and effectiveness. Whether you come from a
volunteer, combination, or career department, training is an
essential function that can embed safe practices into all
firefighters. Do you ever wonder if your crew is fully
prepared? If so, fix it with training. Again, a cultural
challenge
is that the fire service often spends money
disproportionately
to what are most important, people. Training budgets are
regularly the first line item cut when money gets tight.
Become a tireless and innovative trainer to make your crew
the best it can be, even if funding is limited. This can be
done at the firefighter, fire officer, or chief level. Even
without
funding, as a senior member of the department, you can
share your experiences, both good and bad, with all of your
crew. Start conversations by providing scenarios to the
crew,
and discuss best practices on how to speak up and how to
have situational awareness in addition to the more technical
skill requirements.
You were trained at a young age by a parent, sibling, or
another family member much in the same way that
we as firefighters are trained. One area is situational
awareness. As a child, you were probably told to pay
attention or know what is going on around you so you do not
get hurt. It might have taken a few times to
comprehend, but once a risk was identified and correlated to
what the guardian was saying, it all clicked. In a
similar fashion, through training or experience,
instructors, senior firefighters, and fire officers teach young
firefighters what to be aware of and how to avoid risk. For
example, why are young firefighters taught to
approach car fires at a 45-degree angle and sweep the hose
stream under the vehicle? They have to be
trained about the hazards of tires exploding, gas struts
exploding and shooting through trunk lids or hoods,
and the need to cool the gas tank. Today, we must even
consider mobile methamphetamine labs and other
hazardous material situations. Along with solid situational
awareness and tactics, we have to be able to
identify the risks. What are we saving? If a car is fully
involved in fire, is a savable person inside? The answer
is no because of uninhabitable fire and smoke conditions. Do
not risk injury or die trying to save something or
someone who is not savable.
We will look into risk management much more in Unit II;
however, this is a perfect time to mention
empowerment. Young firefighters typically have been taught
to follow tactical orders without much allowance
for variation. In years past, this has undoubtedly left
risky operations unchanged due to a fear of speaking up
in the name of safety. Let’s think about a hypothetical
example. Your fire department is dispatched for a motor
vehicle crash with injuries. The scene is fairly chaotic
when your chief arrives on scene and reports multiple
injuries and one person still trapped in the vehicle. When
you arrive on the scene and hop out of the fire
engine, you notice that the chief parked under low-hanging
power lines. Further inspection reveals the wires
are connected to a broken and unstable utility pole that was
hit by the vehicle involved in the crash. It would
be important to make sure the chief sees the electrical
hazard immediately. You should pass the information
on to your officer or make immediate notification to the
chief if quicker. It is our job to change an unsafe
mentality by empowering all firefighters to stop unsafe acts
on the emergency scene before a tragic injury or
death occurs. Take some time to reflect about empowerment
and how you can improve this component of
your department’s safety culture.
Summary
As a firefighter, you have a responsibility not only to your
community but also to your fire department to create
a culture of safety. Consider the current culture in your
fire department. What procedures and best practices
are not being followed? Do you have members who are
resistant to change? Do they have the die-trying-hero
mentality? What training could be introduced immediately to
bring awareness to safety issues and to begin
the cultural change, if needed? What experiences do you
have, or have you learned from others that you
could pass along to young firefighters? Does your department
encourage employees to speak up if they spot
a safety issue? If not, how can you begin to enact change?
Does your department provide training that would
increase your situational awareness? You can address these
questions in your assignment for this unit.
Firefighters in training exercise
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and Survival 4
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References
Clark, B. A. (2015). I can’t save you but I’ll die trying:
The American fire culture. Premium Press. America.
Ford, T. M. (2017). Fire and emergency services safety and
survival (2nd ed.). Pearson.
International Association of Fire Chiefs & U.S. Fire
Administration. (2015). National safety culture change
initiative (USFA Report FA-342).
https://www.usfa.fema.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/fa_342.pdf
Suggested Unit Resources
In order to access the following resources, click the links
below.
The two links below provide additional insight and resources
on the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation
and the Everyone Goes Home program.
National Fallen Firefighters Foundation:

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