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Indianapolis, IN (April 20, 2016) - In his welcoming remarks at this morning’s Opening Ceremonies, Fire Engineering Editor in Chief and FDIC Education Director Bobby Halton described a mosaic of the firefighter character that has sustained the fire service’s reputation for courage, honor, and civility. At the same time, Halton alerted the audience to the fact that forces in today’s society can work to undermine firefighter code and honor unless firefighters continue to value and uphold those attributes and practices: “For the fire service of today, it is a time of great discovery and of great debate, a time of tremendous advances and of troubling criticisms,” Halton said.

Character
There are various schools of thought about the origin of character, Halton explained. Some believe character is inherent in us at birth. This may be so; but, still, it is not too late, he asserted, citing the influence of parents and education: “Most agree that with training, with example, with exposure, and with habit, you can create ‘character.’ It is self-evident that how one conducts oneself in manners of honor, courage, and civility is dictated by one’s background and education as a gentleman or a gentlewoman.” The right mentoring, the right examples, and diligence, can help good men and good women to become great firefighters.”

And beyond that, added Halton, “We can imbue firefighters with heroic dreams.” He quoted Benjamin Disraeli: Nurture your minds with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.

This firefighter character, Halton said, should involve devotion to the mission, loyalty to our fellow firefighters, respect for authority, and a desire to reflect the highest moral ideal. That ideal for firefighters, the one that rises above all the other ideals is, "Honor Before All," Honor Ante Omnia:  We will never under any circumstances leave anyone behind. Whether they are rich or poor, they are like us or different from us, they are mentally healthy or mentally ill, whether they contribute to society or live off the generosity of society, we leave no one behind.

High Standard Threatened
Noting that the fire service’s tradition of high standard is ‘continuously threatened,’ he repeated a warning issued almost 20 years ago by Fire Service sage Tom Brennan: We are losing our fire service. It is time to take it back. Although little has been done in response to this prediction, Halton said, it is not too late to act.

The answer to Tom Brennan’s clarion call, Halton said, has been with us since our inception. We are required to do what George Washington has directed us to do: Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God. Raising that standard requires that we embody fairness, exemplify self-control, exhibit sympathy, and embrace duty.

Halton drove home his messages with riveting examples of military men and firefighters who displayed all these virtues under conditions of extreme duress. All involved leaving no one behind, Honor Above All, Honor Ante Omnia.

Mosaic of the Firefighter Character
What constitutes the firefighter character that will “get the fire service back” to where it should always be? Among the components Halton cited are the following:

• Charisma and representing all that is good, honest, and noble. ‘Adapting’ the statement of Kurt Vonnegut that the fire engine is a  stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man, Halton noted that it is the firefighter that is a stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man. Trying to uphold this image leads to tremendous moral and ethical demands, said Halton.

Alluding to Thomas Hobbes’ view of the world as a place where every man is against every man, Halton said fire

Indianapolis, IN (April 20, 2016) - Steve Pegram, in his keynote address this morning, shared with the audience how firefighters can take a step toward saving a life ‘without ever riding a fire engine again, without going on a call, and without even getting out of their seats” by becoming organ donors. He also related how ‘the simple’ 4 F’s Rule’ --Faith, Family, Friends, Fire Department—the priorities by which he strives to live his life--figured prominently in sustaining him and his family during a crisis involving the illness of Mollie, his wife, and their long, distressing wait for donor lungs that almost arrived too late.  

Pegram and Mollie, a nurse, were married for 16 years and had a son, Jackson, and a daughter, Riley when Mollie, who was 37 years old, developed a nagging cough. The cough grew progressively worse and whatever was causing it was adversely affecting Mollie’s stamina and overall health.

Following is a summary of Pegram’s account of the long ordeal the family underwent as they waited and waited for the donor lungs that would ultimately save Mollie.

One morning while I was at work, Mollie called to say she was in the emergency room (ER).  I wasn't surprised. I knew that something was wrong. When I arrived at the hospital, Mollie was in severe respiratory distress. A scan showed she had a huge pulmonary embolism lodged between her heart and her lung. She was rushed to the intensive care unit (ICU), where she was aggressively treated to save her life. In a few days, her condition stabilized.

But, nagging questions remained: Why did she get so sick so fast? Where did the embolism come from?  After a few months and additional tests, we learned that Mollie had pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that doctors said had no cure and could kill Mollie in a few years if she did not have a double lung transplant.

Our family entered into a pattern of living fraught with repeated visits to the hospital and tests and reevaluations that revealed that Mollie’s body was in an escalating struggle for oxygen, jeopardizing her vital organs and, ultimately, her life.

Friends, Brotherhood, Hope
“Throughout my life,” Pegram interjected in his description of the medical crisis, “people have appeared at different times, at just the time for the right situation; many of them firefighters.”

As Pegram went on with his account of Mollie’s brave fight, the audience could see how accurate this statement was and also how the 4 F’s Rule figured prominently.

One example involved Chief Billy Goldfeder, a good friend and mentor of mine, who helped locate a doctor for Mollie. Goldfeder and I met while in high school in New Jersey. When he heard about Mollie, he contacted me and said when he was a volunteer firefighter on Long Island, he rode tailboard with a young boy named Johnny Ornes. Ornes now was a thoracic surgeon at Johns Hopkins University Hospital—and, his specialty was lung transplant. Here is just another example of the great network the brotherhood of the fire service is.

Dr. Ornes immediately reviewed Mollie’s case and quickly confirmed that lung transplant was the only chance for survival, and he said it should be done soon while Mollie was still strong.

We chose the Cleveland Clinic instead of Johns Hopkins because the clinic was 3.5 hours away from home instead of nine hours away as Johns Hopkins. Cleveland Clinic  is one of the top lung transplant centers in the country. At the clinic, it first had to be determined if Mollie met the criteria for a transplant. Testing results showed that she did, and she received a Lung Allocation Score (LAS) rating of 45. The LAS dictates where you are on the national waiting list. The higher the number, the sooner you will get transplanted--or at least that’s the theory.

Indianapolis, IN (April 20, 2016) - Firefighter Jason Rivera, an 18-year veteran of the fire service and a member of the New Haven (CT) Fire Department, was awarded the 2016 Ray Downey Courage & Valor Award at Wednesday’s Opening Session. Robert Biolchini, chairman of the board, PennWell Corp., presented the award. Fire Department of  New York Battalion Chiefs Joe and Chuck Downey, sons of Ray Downey; Ron Siarnicki, executive director, National Fallen Firefighter Foundation; Chief Ron Kanterman, National Fire Academy Alumni Association; and Bobby Halton, Fire Engineering editor in chief / FDIC education director, also members of the Selection Committee, participated in the ceremony.

Incident Scenario
Just past midnight on March 1, 2015, Firefighter (FF) Jason Rivera responded with other units to a working fire in a 2½-story balloon-frame, wood dwelling. He was assigned to the pipe position.

The call was for a reported structure fire, approximately 500 yards from Engine 6’s quarters, which allowed for a quick response. However, Truck 4, which responds from the same station, was already out at an alarm and would be responding from a district away, delaying the first-due truck significantly. This factor also delayed placement of the second-due engine, as it had to stage on the snow-covered street until the truck arrived.     

On arrival, Engine 6 transmitted a working fire in a 2½-story balloon frame, wood dwelling with fire venting from the second-floor windows and out the front right door (duplex). The fire burned down the stairs. One of the occupants had propped open the door with a shopping cart, creating a flow path. The stairs were on fire from top to bottom. Lt. Herschel Wadley continued his size-up and ordered a 1¾-inch handline to the second floor. At this time, a report of a trapped victim was relayed as Engine 6 began a rapid deployment and an aggressive attack.

Since Truck 4 was delayed, engine companies were assigned the primary search. FF Rivera began to control the stairs and made a push under high heat and zero visibility. On the way up the stairs to the second floor, they were met with heavy hoarding conditions and a well-involved structure fire. Engine 6 began attacking fire and was making headway. At this time, the firefighter assigned to the hydrant radioed that the hydrant was frozen and an alternative water source was needed. Engine 9 quickly backed to Engine 6 and laid hose to a secondary water supply. During this time, the attack team was thinking about the life safety of the victim and knew that survival would be predicated on maximizing the 500-gallon tank on the engine while the relay was established.

FF Rivera continued to push in and extinguish heavy fire until his attack line became hung up at the coupling. Lt. Wadley asked FF Rivera to try to hold his position while he attempted to correct the hoseline issue. Having a hand tool and knowing that Engine 4’s crew was attempting to gain access to the third-floor stairs where the victim was thought to be, FF Rivera, still alone in zero visibility with high heat pushing down on him, breached the wall from the living room to the kitchen. He alternated playing the line into the hole and in front of him into the heavily involved kitchen. He managed his tank water and held his position despite the fact that his body was being burned.

His actions made the Charlie side of the structure more tenable for Engine 4 to perform the primary search. Engine 4 made the stairs in the rear to the third floor and quickly located an unresponsive male. They moved the victim to the rear yard, where they had to negotiate a fence and deep snow.