Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009

Combination BY CHIEF JOE MARUCA, WEST BARNSTABLE LEADING A FIRE DEPARTMENT It’s been said that leading a combination ﬁre department is more difﬁcult than leading either a call/volunteer ﬁre department or leading a career ﬁre department. I don’t know if this true; it certainly feels true, but then I’ve spent my entire career in combination ﬁ re departments, and have never served in a department that is either exclusively call/volunteer or career. There is, however, no doubt that leading a combination ﬁre department is different than leading a career or a volunteer department. The combination ﬁre department’s attraction to a small community is the cost-effective blending of career and call/volunteer ﬁ reﬁghters to provide a higher level of service than either a purely call/volunteer department could provide, or a purely career department could provide. If done right, you can provide a timely initial response, backedup with a well-staffed secondary response. It takes one advantage of the career department – speed out the door – and combines it with one advantage of the call/volunteer department – stafﬁng at a comparatively low cost. But this blending of career and call/volunteer ﬁreﬁghters is also the combination ﬁre department’s most complex challenge to its leadership. Further complicating any discussion about how to lead a combination ﬁre department is the fact that there is wide range of what constitutes a combination ﬁre department. A department with 3 career ﬁreﬁghters and 35 call/volunteer ﬁreﬁghters, and a department with 35 career ﬁreﬁghters and 3 call/volunteer ﬁ reﬁghters are both classiﬁed as a combination ﬁre department. Leading these two departments will be very different. One will be more like a call/volunteer department and one will be more like a career department, yet they both will have common issues that neither type of department face. In combination ﬁre departments, the career ﬁreﬁghters and the call/ volunteer ﬁreﬁghters tend to form themselves into separate groups and ﬁght with each other. This behavior tends to affect every aspect of how the department operates and is the single most complicating factor when it comes to leading the organization. The leadership of a combination ﬁre department must be committed to the combination concept and be tireless in their efforts to prevent the department from splitting. I believe there are two tools that a ﬁre chief must use to prevent the department from becoming fractured along career versus call/volunteer lines. The ﬁrst tool is leading evenly. THE LEADERSHIP OF A COMBINATION FIRE DEPARTMENT MUST BE TIRELESS IN THEIR EFFORTS TO PREVENT THE DEPARTMENT FROM SPLITTING. photos: ©www.dreamstime.com LEADING EVENLY By “evenly,” I mean never favoring one group over the other. It is important to constantly let both groups know that they are equally 20 | M ASSACHUS E TTS FI RE C H I E F 2009

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009

Massachusetts Fire Chief 2009 Contents A Message from the FCAM President Code of Ethics/Vision Statement Bonds of Service Legislative Report The Fire Chief for 2009 and Beyond Leading a Combination Fire Department Remember When Fighting for Code Change Leadership Matters Fire Risk Management - Fire Chiefs - Codes The Current Economy and its Effect on Fire Departments Statewide Fire Mobilization Plan Beware of the Truss Index of Advertisers

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