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Richard Marinucci |
Each year the theme of the December issue is “Fire Service Forecast: What We See Ahead.”
It is a chance to pull out the crystal ball and make a guess as to what can be expected in the next 12 months. You can call it whatever you want-prognosticator, swami, seer, or whatever-but I prefer to look at it as sort of a “weatherman.” I can take my best guess, and no one really expects me to be accurate 100 percent of the time. There are many areas of the fire service to consider: service levels (i.e., staffing), apparatus, equipment, training, and firefighter safety.
Service Levels
From a service level perspective, staffing volunteer organizations will continue to be a challenge. This is for a variety of reasons, many of which have been documented by various organizations and individuals. Some departments will continue to maintain their volunteer staff at numbers necessary to provide good service, while a majority will continue to be challenged. On the career side, there should be an uptick as more departments continue to transition to combination or career departments because of volunteer organizations’ challenges. In other career departments, I expect to see increases in staffing in an effort to adequately staff for the required job responsibilities. Many departments lost personnel during the economic downturn and are still not back to where they need to be. Also, Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response (SAFER) grants continue, which help in this area.
Apparatus
Another outfall from the economic downturn was that many departments postponed apparatus purchases. As the economy improves, there should be efforts to replace aging apparatus and purchase additional vehicles for specific needs. The apparatus will have more technological advances-some mandated and some provided by the manufacturers. These should help to improve reliability and ease of use. This does not imply that there will be no need for training and routine maintenance. Departments will need to continue to train personnel on proper apparatus procedures. In some cases, departments will look to specialized vehicles in an effort to meet the needs of the community and various requests for service. Some organizations will look to alternatives to sending engine companies to medical emergencies with less expensive apparatus. This will still be a challenge that depends on the staffing model of the department.
Equipment
Regarding equipment, expect continued improvements in technology and additional tools that take advantage of these advancements. Some of these will be used to improve performance and simplification. Some tools will become lighter and stronger. Those using technology will have more capabilities. One area that should be better is gas monitors. As more information becomes available regarding the dangers of the products of combustion and their effects on firefighter health and wellness-especially related to cancer-there will be more monitoring equipment to help identify hazardous environments and provide information to let firefighters know when air quality is within safe working limits that don’t require special protective measures.
Technology will continue to provide more and more information to and about fire departments. There is almost an overload now, and there is no indication that there will ever be a push to limit what is made available. This information will continue to spread even outside the fire service, and the public will have more access. The bad news is that they will