NFPA Journal - September/October 2012 - (Page 20)

>>perspectives What other NFPA goals are you working on? Another one of our 2012 corporate goals involves NFPA 1561, Emergency Services Incident Management System. We’d like to develop a curriculum to reinforce how the standard can be used to inform command officers of their responsibility for all incident safety. The reason I promoted that is because in every single report you read on firefighter death investigations, one of things that’s invariably What we’re seeing is American workers spending more and more hours at their jobs, which is contrary to what was predicted 30 or 40 years ago. Lumped on top of that, we’re seeing a decline in the economy, which is forcing people to take second jobs. The net result is volunteers with less discretionary time. Concurrently, their work as firefighters is placing greater demands on their available time, because the role of the fire service— career and volunteer—is expanding. In what ways? Based on nFpa reports, we’re seeing a significant decline in the number of volunteer firefighters. We’re seeing older firefighters retire. What we’re not seeing is an equivalent number of young firefighters entering the volunteer ranks to make up that difference. that presents us with some pretty significant challenges. mentioned as a contributing factor [to the death or injury] is a lack of fireground control—either failure to recognize dangerous conditions or failure to properly account for and manage personnel on the scene. I was excited that the board agreed to promote the use of NFPA 1561 in a way that will enable the fire service to improve incident scene safety. Our participation in the solution to the wildland fire problem is also important. We made it one of our corporate goals last year to address this issue, so I’m pleased that we’re following through on it. NFPA’s goal is to have 1,000 communities take part in our Firewise Communities/USA® Recognition Program by 2013, and we’re approaching 800. We’re making good progress. Also, I want to continue to capitalize on our affiliations with other national organizations that are also addressing this problem. Speaking of affiliations, how might the synergy between NFPA and NVFC address challenges facing the volunteer fire service? We’re into all sorts of activities that 30 or 40 years ago we didn’t do—emergency medical services, Hazmat, the list goes on and on. So you have a greater demand for your services and a greater demand for training to provide those services. At the same time, you have less time to spend doing it. It’s like the perfect storm. What’s the solution? We get smarter about how we do our recruiting. The volunteer fire service has what I like to call the Marine Corps mentality. I do not disparage the Marine Corps by saying this, since I have nothing but the highest regard for the Marine Corps, but my point is that every single person entering the Corps is going to qualify as a rifleman. You might turn out to be a pilot, but if you’re in the Marine Corps, you’re also going to be a rifleman. We have that same attitude with the volunteer fire service. If you want to join, you have to be a firefighter. When we do that, we immediately exclude a large segment of the population that wants to donate something to their department but doesn’t want to be a firefighter. If not fighting fires, what are some tasks these people could perform? You can describe a whole array of challenges for the volunteer fire service, but you can distill them down to two categories: time and money. Of the two challenges, the greater one is time. The demands on time are coming at a very interesting point in our history. Whatever roles the fire department needs. A retired teacher, for example, might want to help out during FPW doing promotions or talking to schoolchildren about fire safety. A mechanic might want to help out with maintenance. A certified public accountant might help prepare a budget. I think part of our solution is to shift some of the nonoperational responsibilities we place on volunteer 20 NFPA JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2012

NFPA Journal - September/October 2012
Contents
First Word
Mail Call
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Lessons of Comayagua
After Waldo Canyon
Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fires in 2011
Fire Loss in the United States in 2011
Section Spotlight
Research + Analysis
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - September/October 2012

https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2024spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2023spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2022spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021winter
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021fall
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021summer
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_2021spring
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20201112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20200102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20191112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20190102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20181112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20180102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20171112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20170102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20161112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_201610_sprinkler
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20160102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20151112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20150304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_201501
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20141112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20140102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20131112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130304
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20130102
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20121112
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120910
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120708
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120506
https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nfpa/journal_20120304
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com