This feature is part of our new Fire Chief Digital Edition, a quarterly supplement to FireChief.com that brings a sharpened focus to some of the most challenging topics facing fire chiefs and fire service leaders everywhere. To read all of the articles included in the Spring 2015 issue, click here.
Improving firefighter safety is something on every fire chief’s agenda. Identifying the issue is the easy part; solving it is another matter. To that end, we collected a panel of fire chiefs to discuss how they create safer fire departments.
All the panel participants answered all the question, and many of those responses were fairly detailed; I’ve edited some of those responses to retain the main theme. Second, where the participants’ responses were similar, I chose responses to be representative of the group’s thoughts.
What is your assessment of the safety culture within your department?
Carman: Our safety culture is sound in some cases, and could use some improvement in others. Our firefighters are very careful about establishing command, establishing and announcing patent water supply, two out, etc. However, we could make some improvements when it comes to fireground communications, truck work and training, RIC and accountability.
Kasko: Though there is always room for improvement, it is a collaborative culture where all individuals have an active role in ensuring a safe work environment. Safety is not a checklist item that we make sure we do, but rather part of who we are.
King: The safety culture is very high at Wright-Patterson, with a large amount of effort in the last three years to increase all safety practices. This is a hand-holding event for management and union officials. This program has to have union, management and employees fully engaged for the same purpose, the same results. This must be employee-focused for on- and off-the-job safety practices; the employees are cared for 24/7/365, not just during the shift.
Adair: Our culture was one that greatly exhibited safety due to constant monitoring and mentoring. Workplace safety was always the highest on any of our planning phases or any action plan development.
Rhodes: Our organization has a very strong safety culture that has made safety a priority. All of our team members know that safety issues can stop the train any time, and all are empowered to take action when safety issues arise.
The Panel
John “JT” Adair retired as the fire chief from the U.S. Army’s Fort Leavenworth (Kan.) Fire Department.
Jeff Carman has 32-years of experience in the fire service, 17 as chief officer. He’s been the fire chief for the Contra Costa County (Calif.) Fire Protection District for the past 18 months.
Richard Kasko is the manager of emergency preparedness and response for GE Global Research Emergency Services. The agency provides fire, technical rescue, hazmat and EMS emergency response to General Electric’s largest research facility in Niskayuna, N.Y. He also supports the U.S.-based and global research sites.
Jacob King is the fire chief for the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base Fire Department and a volunteer fire chief with the Bethel Township (Ohio) Fire Department.
Art Morales is the fire chief for the Castle Rock (Colo.) Fire and Rescue Department.
Ernie Rhodes is the fire chief for the West County EMS and Fire District in the heart of St. Louis County, Mo., with 28 years as a professional firefighter. He is also a deputy chief of operations for the FEMA USAR BLUE IST and a taskforce leader for Missouri Task Force 1 (one of 28 federal USAR teams), and a member of Region C IMT. |
What factors have influenced the safety culture in your organization?
Carman: About seven years ago two of our firefighters were killed in the line of duty fighting a structure fire. Their deaths, and the subsequent investigation, drove home several safety factors that our personnel have taken very seriously.
King: At Bethel, we conduct NIOSH reviews quarterly with consolidated reports on areas of improvement cited in report in comparison to our procedures and policies, recommended updates to SOPs or creation of SOPs. This community is supportive of a safety culture; the issue is the measurement of safe, as no injuries cause increasing workers compensation premiums or group discounts.
Adair: As the fire chief, I always made time to evaluate all phases and spend time mentoring and leading during a daily planned time with the operation forces and other departments at many different daily activities. Personnel truly buy in when the fire chief takes an active part and leadership role by communicating face-to-face with them and listening to feedback.
Kasko: The strongest factor is GE’s commitment to keeping employees safe from the senior vice president on down. The Niskayuna facility is an OSHA VPP Star site. Our emergency response personnel are volunteers who work on site in various research or support capacities. The majority of our response personnel have been in their career a number of years and take a proactive approach to safety.
Morales: The largest factor was making team safety an issue from the top down. Every member of the team knows that they are empowered to address safety issues, and that we never leave an identified safety issue unattended or unresolved. This was one of the first steps I took as the new chief of the department.
How can fire chiefs determine the right amount of punitive measures versus reward measures when trying to bring about lasting change?
Carman: Safety culture starts from the top down. I have never felt that safety is something that can be successfully imposed upon your employees, but rather it needs to have their buy-in. If not, they will only practice safety when someone is looking. The goal is to have the employees to want to make the change.
In rare cases, there needs to be discipline for someone not following fundamental safety rules, but this should be the exception. Safety is a culture and should be an institutional philosophy if it is to be successful.
King: You have to find a branding that works for your department. Our branding is simple and resonates with all sections and divisions: “The department is training me for retirement!” This means when you retire you will be able to hear you grandkids whisper you a secret, you will be able to see the family with both your eyes and lastly be physically capable to enjoy the retirement with great flexibility and mobility. It’s a little harder for the young ones to truly focus on retirement; most don’t look that far ahead. When this occurs, the scenario just changes to: “Will you be able to walk your daughter down the aisle or play catch with your son?”
Kasko: The key to lasting change is an inclusive environment. We are missing the boat if we are having discussions on whether we have a punitive vs. reward environment. Firefighters are going to make mistakes; we have to focus on fixing the systems and not trying to fix the firefighter.
Instead, everyone must learn to scrutinize the emergency scene or workplace to identify instances where error can lead to injury, understand the organizational factors that can cause or enable errors, re-engineer tactical operations to eliminate error traps and organizational factors driving error, and create layered defenses that will protect firefighters from error-induced injuries.
Morales: Safety has to be a core priority of the chief and the executive staff. As an officer corps, safety issues are addressed first. Our objective has to be to not place blame, but to identify the factors that led to the unsafe act and change them for future safe actions. The culture of safety is a reward in itself, and unsafe acts erode that reward for the whole team.
Does this mix change as the culture changes? For example, a department with poor safety behaviors may rely on reward to initiate change — officers reward firefighters who wear SCBA during overhaul — but after safer practices become the norm, punishment replaces reward.
Carman: Safety should be a philosophy, a culture, and all personnel should work to implement it and follow it. Other than accolades and thanks, I don’t believe there should be rewards for following safety procedures. If someone goes above and beyond, develops additional safety procedures, etc., then recognition should be given to reward that effort.
Kasko: I would be more willing to reward firefighters for near-miss reporting. Then they become part of the solution. When everyone is involved and there is no fear of punishment for making a mistake the safety culture will improve.
If you consider the concepts of Human and Organizational Performance (HOP), it calls into question the goal of many safety professionals of achieving and sustaining zero injuries. The HOP philosophy accepts human error as inevitable, and works around human shortcomings by reducing weaknesses and traps (risks) by instituting multiple defenses to catch mistakes.
For example, an engine company working on the second floor of a structure fire is a high-risk operation. The organization must be resilient to absorb mistakes. Multiple defenses are built in to accomplish this: radio communications, teamwork, mayday training, multiple ladders on the outside of the structure, etc. Great performance is not the absence of errors; it’s the presence of defenses.
Morales: Yes it does, and appears to be cyclical. At first, after the expectation was implemented, team members put it to the test to determine our resolve. Once our resolve was determined to be immovable, the team aligned with our value of safety. As time passes, safety can slide for some, and our resolve as officers must remain constant. Efforts that enhance safety are recognized and rewarded, daily safety practices are the norm.
How does your organization get buy-in from its first-line supervisors in bringing about changes to its safety culture?
Carman: Help the employees help themselves. My experience is that when people develop their own policies instead of having them handed down to them, they buy-in better. Engaging your employees creates pride in ownership.
Kasko: If the safety culture changes to where it is the norm of how a fire department operates then the discussion of punishment vs. reward would be the exception, not the rule. I recently read an article that described a new approach to workplace safety and health by comparing stop signs with traffic circles.
Stop signs create a rules-based system in which motorists come to a stop, look both ways and move forward. It’s about the individual and the rule.
On the other hand, traffic circles — also known as roundabouts — force motorists to be engaged in the process of moving through an intersection. Data shows that accidents and fatalities are less frequent in traffic circles is the concept behind the HOP approach to workplace safety and health.
Everyone (firefighters and officers) is engaged, everyone is alert, and everyone has a role to play. Firefighters should bring their skillsets, their own observational powers, and their judgment to the fight.
The key to HOP is accepting that human error is inevitable, once you recognize that you can’t eliminate human error, you can start to focus on risk. HOP is not the absence of rules or discipline; it is the notion that if you depend on a person doing something 100 percent right 100 percent of the time, you will be disappointed, a lot.
