Emergency Vehicle Operations, Apparatus Placement and Purchasing

This issue marks the 30th anniversary of Firehouse Magazine. It only seems appropriate that we go back in time and fine out how the Emergency Vehicle Operators Column got started and why the Emergency Vehicle Operators Column has withstood the test of time. You may want to stop reading or turn the page but wait there are life lessons to be learned. Not that the I want to grandstand or be self promoting but rather to share these really important life lessons.

                I was born and raised in Otisville, a very small town at the base of the Catskill Mountain’s seventy seven miles northwest of New York City. When I was 18 years old my dad ordered me to join the volunteer fire company. I had just graduated high school and my dad made it perfectly clear that if I still wanted to live at home becoming a volunteer firefighter was not an option. My dad was a past chief of the Otisville Volunteer Fire Department so he felt it was in my best interest to join. At the time I can honestly say I did not think much of this idea however given my financial status at the time I could not afford a place of my own so I joined. I had a terrible time in high school just graduating by the skin of my teeth. I hated high school so I had no reason to continue the pain in college. So I reach the second condition of keeping my happy home, I had to get a job. The year was 1974 inflation was out of control and jobs were difficult to come by. However I was fortunate enough to get a job making industrial batteries at C and D batteries. I am not sure what hell is like but this place seemed to me to be hell on earth. The bell dinged at 8 am you were working the bell dinged at 10 am you had 15 minutes for coffee before the bell dinged again. I received acid burns, was hit by shrapnel from exploding batteries and got lead poisoning. This place was no fun. But I had the Volunteer firehouse. I started to go to company drills and get trained going to my first class called essentials of firemenship. Then I went to a few fires and I was hooked. I finally figured out what I wanted to do with my life. It is kind of funny unlike many of you who always wanted to be firefighters from an early age it took me the better part of 18 years to figure it out. I remember the night when this guy came to the firehouse and wanted young guys to sign up for Fire Protection Technology degree being offered by the local community college. I had never given much thought about going to college but then never had a subject been offered that I really liked, until now. I worked all the overtime I could at the battery factory to make enough money to pay for college. While at college there were any number of firefighters from the F.D.N.Y. who were going to college on the G.I. bill having just returned from Vietnam. We called these guys scholars for dollars, they were great guys. Most everyone in the Fire Science program was a lot older than I was with the exception of 4 other volunteer firefighters who were around my age. One night at one of our coffee breaks one of the city guys as we referred to them, asked if we like firefighting and if we would like to do it as a career. We all agreed that this is what we wanted to do and we eventually all got on the job and became New York City Firefighters.
The year was 1976 the first year of the first issue of Firehouse Magazine. If you have every issue of Firehouse Magazine like I do you will know that in 1976 it started as a magazine that came out every other month. As part of going to fire college and just wanting to be a good firefighter I subscribed to all the trade magazines, I got Fire Engineering, Fire Command, Fire Chief and I even joined the N.F.P.A. and got there Fire Journal Magazine. Of course as stated in 1976 I subscribed to that new Magazine, that new kid on the block Firehouse Magazine. As I read all the magazines two facts became clear to me. First a high percentage of firefighter fatalities occurred while operating emergency vehicles and the second was that no one was doing anything about it. Nobody wrote about it to any great degree, no body talked about it, and there were very few pictures if any. The only time that any information about emergency vehicle fatalities were published occurred during the summer when the N.F.P.A. would release the previous year’s line of duty death statistics.
I was appointed to the New York City Fire Department July 11, 1981 just 5 years after the first issue of Firehouse Magazine hit the fire service. It was around 1991 that I became a fire instructor for Orange County. I was asked by officials at the county fire training center to put together an Emergency Vehicle Operators Course for the county. I finally was given an opportunity to have a positive impact on the emergency vehicle driving problem although it be in only a small portion of the country. But you have to start some where and I was really excited about this opportunity. After a few short years of being named a county instructor I was then appointed and certified to be a New York State Fire Instructor. At this level I was able to impact the whole state of New York actually being invited to give state certification in Emergency Vehicle driving to other state fire instructors. Working at the state level started around 1993 and I enjoyed this challenge as well.
By now Firehouse Magazine was now being published once a month and at this time had been in existence for over a decade. Still in 1993 no one was writing or talking about Emergency Vehicle Operations. I had an idea although I had never really written anything before how about a monthly column on Emergency Vehicle Operations to heighten awareness and help prevent line of duty deaths. I put a proposal together and submitted it to a fire service monthly magazine where I hit a wall and my idea was politely refused. I was devastated, I though I had a terrific idea that would save a lot of firefighters lives. I would raise firefighter and public awareness on this very important safety issue. How could anyone stand in the way of such a noble idea? But they did. I went to work at my city firehouse in a funk I was really disappointed. My funk soon ended as we went out the door to a good first due fire. As a firefighter a good first due job usually does the trick. At that fire I saw my friend Mickey Conboy from Rescue Company 3 and came over to say hi after the fire and then he said “ I hear you have a great idea for a monthly column on Emergency Vehicle Driving you should talk to Harvey Eisner the Editor of Firehouse Magazine. I reply that I thought that I had a great idea but I was already refused by one magazine. But Mickey insisted call Harvey at the Magazine hear is his number as he wrote Harvey’s phone number on a piece of paper. I took the piece of paper however mentally at that time I had no intention of calling Harvey as I did not want to set myself up for further disappointment and ultimately failure. I will never forget the next time I went to work was on a Wednesday about two hours into the tour I received a phone call and on the other end of the line was Harvey Eisner from Firehouse Magazine. I was in shock. One of the Giants in the Fire Service was calling me this nobody from nowhere. Harvey said that he had heard about my idea and thought it was a good one. He went on to ask the next time that I was working and I said that I was working the weekend. He then asked if he could come visit me on Sunday afternoon at the firehouse. I replied absolutely. Harvey then asked if I had a resume’ and I said that I did and then he asked how many ideas that I had for potential columns. I informed Harvey that I had a lot of ideas and he suggested that I type out all my ideas and bring my resume’ to our informal meeting which I did. Boy Sunday could not come fast enough. I was really excited perhaps this was the opportunity that I had been waiting for all those years. Sunday was a very hot summer’s day and like any firehouse we always played around with water. As Harvey was coming up the apparatus apron someone from the roof threw a bucket of water on this giant of the fire service. I again was devastated. No way was the now soaked Editor of Firehouse Magazine going to give me any credence at all. I could not have been more wrong for Harvey Eisner is a fireman’s firefighter; he was one of the guys. Our meeting went terrific. I had one moment where I thought that there could potentially be a problem when he suggested that rather than an every month column that I start out writing every other month. “I am not trying to dissuade you however he said the deadline for an every month column come up very quickly. Harvey new the magazine business and he was right so I started writing the Emergency Vehicle Column for Firehouse Magazine in the fall of 1993. When I was in college I did really well however when it came to my English class the best I could do was a B. I probably could have won a vote in my English Class for someone least likely to get anything published on a national level. So with great pride I took an autographed copy of my first article to my English Professors house. She got a big kick out of both the fact that I got published and the fact that I had come to her with a copy of the magazine a full 15 years after I graduated from college. We both had a good laugh.
Harvey Eisner and Firehouse Magazine took a big chance 13 years ago by giving the Emergency Vehicle Operators Column and myself a chance. Today much is written about Emergency Vehicle Operations, there are more pictures of apparatus today in part due to the internet then ever before, and yes more people are talking about Emergency Vehicle Operations.
This year I believe was the breakout year for Emergency Vehicle Operations. The second annual national fire service stand down was just completed and the subject matter for the stand down was Emergency Vehicle Operations. The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation just completed and mailed to every fire department in the United States a video on Emergency Vehicle Operations. The International Association of Firefighters through a grant have put together an excellent program on the Safe Operations of Emergency Vehicles. The Key Note Speaker for the 2006 Firehouse Expo is in part going to speak about Emergency Vehicle Operations. Both New York City Fire Department Unions, The Uniform Firefighters Association and The Uniform Fire Officers Association at there respective delegates seminars this past spring had a speaker address both bodies on Safe Emergency Vehicle Operations. To my knowledge these presentations were the first of there kind having never been done for either union before. It is not that we are killing more firefighters in driving accidents than we use to nor unfortunately are we killing any less either. The fact is that Firefighter Apparatus accident Fatalities have remained constant at about 25% per year for as long as statistics have been kept which is almost 3 decades. When Firehouse Magazine started 30 years ago no one was doing anything about the driving problem, 13 years ago Firehouse Magazine took a chance and started the Emergency Vehicle Operators column and now through a collaborative effort between Firehouse Magazine and myself we have raised the fire service’s awareness and have finally after all of these years made Safe Operations of Emergency Vehicles a National Issue. For Firehouse Magazine they have realized that the chance they took 13 years ago paid off. For me having spent the last 13 years trying to make the Safe Operation of Emergency Vehicles a National issue was a dream come true and I feel vindicated to some degree and for this nobody from nowhere a great deal of personal pride. Although one of the original goals was to heighten the awareness of Emergency Vehicle Operations quite frankly I did not think it was really possible. Yet I was willing to give 110% to try because firefighters were dying and someone had to do something. I love the fire service and firefighters almost more than life itself and it causes a great deal of pain every time a firefighter dies in a vehicle related accident while responding or returning. At times I feel like I have failed. With The Safe Operation of Emergency Vehicles now on the Fire Service Radar Screen perhaps history will be written to make this year the breakout year where we can drastically reduce the number of Emergency Vehicle Driving Fatalities. So what would be a first good step WEAR YOU SEATBELT, that would have an immediate impact and would significantly reduce the firefighter line of duty death rate substantially in just the first year.

LESSONS LEARNED

One person can make a difference. One of my finest moments was receiving a letter from one of my Emergency Vehicle Driving Students thanking me for saving his life. For you see he had never worn a seatbelt prior to the class and started to wear his seatbelt after the class. Two weeks after the class he was involved in a non-fire related personal vehicle accident where his seatbelt saved his life. I do truly believe that one person can make a difference. Whether you are a fire chief , a training officer, a company officer or a firefighter that truly wants to make a difference you really can.

You do not need to work in a big municipal department to make a difference nor do you need to live in a big town to make a difference. As pervously stated the population of my town was about 800 and my volunteer fire department had about 30 members.

Never give up on your dreams. I dreamed one day on having an impact on the fire service which I think I have. The Phoenix Fire Department certainly look upon as one of the best run municipal fire departments in the country had some fire officers from truck companies take my ladder class. On the basis of that class the Phoenix Fire Department has completely re-written there aerial ladder and tower ladder operations and positioning procedures. Now that is having an impact.

If you think you have a good idea you probably should pursue it. I was almost ready to give up after I was refused by that first magazine I am certainly glad I did not or Emergency Vehicle driving issue may still be treated the same way they were 30 years ago.

Never doubt you’re self. Listen to and follow your heart.

Although it is rarely done listen to your parents or perhaps a senior seasoned firefighters they probably have an awful lot to offer. My father certainly helped lead me in the right direction. If he did not forcibly suggest that I join the Volunteer fire house I almost certainly would not be writing this now.

Some doors will open others will close and some will not open at all. Do not get discouraged. I almost got discouraged and that certainly would have been and is a bad attitude.

If you have passion and energy for what you do and you are doing the right thing ultimately it will work out in your favor. This in turn will help to benefit everyone.
                Stealing a line from President Kennedy, with a twist: Ask not what the fire service can do for you ask what I can do to improve the fire service. For one person can make a difference and that one person might be you.
                Happy Birthday Firehouse Magazine we come a long way baby!!!!