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In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Jim Silvernail

Battalion Chief

Metro West (MO) Fire Protection District

Fireground Decision Making for Suburban Company Officers

Tuesday, April 19, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.

I am a product of the Fire Department Instructor’s Conference. Much of the success I have had springs from Fire Engineering and FDIC. I have been attending this conference for the past 14 years and still consider myself a student. The experiences I have gained in this learning process have motivated me personally and, career-wise, to become involved in the fire service.

This will be my sixth year instructing at FDIC and my eighth presentation, including classroom and workshop. My topic is based on a needs deficiency I perceive in this industry. For years, I have experienced the absolute best hands-on training that this fire service has to offer. I also attended the highest quality fireground discussions from the most experienced fire service instructors and professionals in the nation. However, I still felt the need for more training for tactical implementation for my demographic, Suburban America.

Fire Engineering is not only the top fire service education provider, but it is also a responsible stakeholder within our industry. It understands this dilemma and has taken on the responsibility to deliver education to all demographics within the fire service. To maximize safety, effectiveness, and efficiency, Fire Engineering has filled these gaps and has allowed instructors like me to share their message.

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Becki White

Assistant Chief of Training and Fire Prevention

Eden Prairie (MN) Fire Department

Why Fire Prevention Education Doesn’t Work in Today’s Fire Service

Tuesday, April 19, 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

After participating in a few fire prevention education sessions with my department, I realized that we aren’t developing and delivering our messages in a manner consistent with educational best practices. Many of our statistics and much of our advice are unfounded or outdated. I have a background in education and have worked with many great fire safety educators throughout my fire service career. I have combined my experiences and background to identify the areas in which the fire service is struggling with getting out consistent, accurate messages. My presentation calls out some of these inconsistencies and provides strategies for changing delivery models or messages to accurately get our messages across to the various audiences we are trying to reach.

Last year, I received quite a bit of feedback after the class from departments that had revamped their educational messaging. There was much discussion on why messages were selected and which messages are still valid and should be reinforced. It’s good to see discussion happening in the fire prevention and fire safety worlds, since it’s our interface topic with the public in a non-emergency mode. If we enhance the messages we are sending, understand them, and stand behind them, we would look more professional to the public. We will also create opportunities to reach out and build partnerships with organizations in our community and state; this will help future with funding through grants and other opportunities.

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Shawn Pruchnicki

Faculty, Ohio State University

Using Human Error as a Tool to Build a Safety Culture

Tuesday, April 19, 1:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.

My primary motivation is that my working across many domains will enable me to help students to better understand human error, thus resulting in better investigations and recommendations after an incident. As a former paramedic/firefighter, airline pilot, and practicing emergency medicine pharmacist (toxicology), I have seen the devastating results and lost opportunities and leverage for change that poorly performed post-incident investigations can cause. They only serve to place blame on the humans involved and have no consideration for the normal nature of normal work and how the complexity of systems can result in large surprising outcomes that greatly exceed the “errors” that were made.

If we are going to produce meaningful recommendations, we must craft meaningful investigations that are sensitive to the normal nature of work. No one comes to work to die, and the choices they make are based on far less information than what we have in hindsight during an incident investigation. Their choices should be viewed on what they actually knew during the operation, not on what is known in hindsight.

The most optimal effect I hope this workshop will achieve is that the fire service will follow the lead of other safety-sensitive domains, such as aviation, that have carved a path through the darkness and are willing to explore new methods in understanding why sometimes it all goes wrong. This is the first time this course is offered at FDIC. 

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Ron Kanterman

Chief

Wilton (CT) Fire Department

Safety Leadership

Tuesday, April 19, 8 a.m.-12 p.m.

Being a leadership and safety advocate, author, and lecturer for more than 20 years, I thought it appropriate to combine the two. The class is geared toward the responsibilities of company officers, but incident safety officers, health and safety officers as well as other "fire bosses" can learn from this experience. If I had to put my finger on what motivates me to teach such a class, it would be my 18 years with the National Fallen Firefighter's Foundation (NFFF). I teach this class to give the students the tools they need to do anything in their power to get in between their firefighters and an injury or worse.  

This year, I will be the deputy incident commander for the NFFF Memorial weekend. In addition, I've been active with the LAST and Everyone Goes Home programs for more than 10 years. I've seen the grief, the tears, and the anguish on the faces of the families and the firefighters who are left to pick up the pieces after a line-of-duty death.    

I have gotten mixed feedback from my students. I attribute this to the fact that the masses are never ready for change. Moving the fire service toward a safer working process requires change, and lots of it. They leave class excited with a handful of tools, programs, and the right attitude--until they get back home and lay it all on the desk of the chief or some other boss. For those fire departments that are progressive and current, the safety firefighters easily get through. For the old-school departments, it’s a lot harder to do safety leadership. There are hard lessons to learn: We don't wear masks at most fires and never during overhaul. There's a rampant cancer rate in those departments. The old-school tough guys are dying because they are/were old-school tough guys. This is about being smart. We have the technology, the tools, and the equipment to work safer and stay healthier than ever before. Now, we need the leadership to make it happen. Those who have hit the wall on returning home have called me and asked about how to get it done. I tell them to go through the wall, around it, over it, or knock it down. It's daunting, but someone has to do it. I look forward to reading in a fire service history book someday soon about how the Everyone Goes Home program and the Firefighter Cancer Support Network were instrumental in helping to lick the current health problems that plague today’s American fire service. It's up to all of us.