Everyone Goes Home

Robbinsdale Fire Station

On a Monday night in November, the Robbinsdale Fire Department allowed me to sit in on their weekly training. That night Greg Hayes presented the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s “Everyone Goes Home: 16 Life Safety Initiatives.” The fast-paced presentation showed numerous video clips of firefighters making mistakes and taking needless risks—sometimes they were lucky, and other times not.

Greg brought the message home as he challenged the class with questions like, “Does our culture ever clash with safety?” In some of the video clips we saw of others making mistakes, we had a chance to see ourselves.

While the videos rolled through scene after scene, he continued to pepper us with questions like, “Have you seen that?” and “Why can we see where this is going…” The scenarios were so accurate and reflective of real-world experiences that at one point the instructor pointed to himself in a photo and said, “Yep, that’s me—what’s wrong with this picture?”

Initiative #1 focuses on “the need for a cultural change within the fire service related to safety, incorporating leadership, management, supervision, accountability, and personal responsibility.” This initiative was the main theme of the night—and to make the message even more personal, Greg shared his story about the impacts of a line of duty death in his department. The room was silent.

The last thing Savage firefighters see as they leave for a call

This program has been presented to about 10% of the firefighters in Minnesota. It needs to be seen by 100%. Crawford Weistling, Tim Zehnder, and Greg Hayes are taking this training to all corners of the state. I encourage fire departments to bring this training to their fire hall. The cost of the class can be reimbursed by the Minnesota Board of Firefighter Training and Education. Make the most of this opportunity and invite the local police and EMS providers to the training as well— this message really does apply to the whole team.

I thank Chief Mark Fairchild, his firefighters, and Greg Hayes for letting me be a part of their world for one night. Greg started the presentation by saying, “I knew what kind of place this was when I opened the door.” I agree—it was spotless. Keep up the good work and remember:

Responder Safety = Public Safety

Up next time…flight crews on emergency runs.

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.
 

Rob

Fitness: The Common Thread

New Brighton Public Safety Special Olympics Torch Run

When I arrived at the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust (LMCIT), I began to look for areas where we might be able to reduce or prevent work-related injuries for our public safety responders. This is a subject I am very passionate about—not only because it is part of my job, but because early in my career I suffered a serious injury myself. (That’s a story for another time.)

The journey has led me to many discussions with chiefs, commanders, training officers, and medical staff on how our responders become injured. We look at the statistics and ask questions like: What were they doing when they got injured? How did it happen? What can be done to prevent or reduce the chances of it happening again?  It wasn’t long before a common thread emerged in all of these discussions.  Whether talking about back injuries related to patient handling, on-the-job slips and falls, or training injuries, at some point our group members pushed back from the table and said, “Well, the best thing we can do is promote fitness,” or “It’s really all about fitness.”  This sentiment has been repeated over and over again. 

Woodbury's Functional Workout: "The Hoseline"

Well, it’s not all about fitness,  but fitness and wellness are certainly major factors. Fit responders use fewer sick days, recover from accidents more quickly, appear to have less severe injuries, and possibly have fewer accidents.

Last summer, LMCIT partnered with St. Mary’s University on a capstone project for their students in public safety administration to research successful fitness and wellness programs. Their research concluded that successful programs have involvement at all levels of the organization—but they do not all look alike.

Armed with that information, we started looking for EMS, fire and police departments that have successful fitness programs. We found groups of volunteer firefighters doing aerobics two nights a week and another doing yoga as a group in their stations. We saw police officers working out and running in community races as a group. One department even e-mails a weekly “functional workout” to their members to do on their own time.

New Brighton Police & Fire Twin Cities Marathon Finishers

When it comes to fitness, one common element that has emerged is that of culture.  Many of the departments with successful fitness programs have made fitness and wellness an integral part of the culture of that department. As one responder said: “It is just what we do.” 

Do you know of a successful fitness program? Does your department have one? Please contact me at 651.281.1238 or rboe@lmc.org and let me know. We are looking for more examples of what you are all doing to keep fit and stay safe on the job, since:

Responder Safety = Public Safety

Up next time…16 life safety initiatives.

In the meantime, keep safe and stay fit.   

Can You See Me Now?

I recently had the opportunity to spend a morning at the Minnesota Highway Safety Center in St. Cloud with Director Bill Ruhr and his staff. The coffee flowed and our discussion covered emergency driving, police pursuits, PIT (Pursuit Immobilization Technique) and distracted driving. When we got on the subject of highway operations and setting up safety zones for emergency responders, Bill said he had something he wanted to show me.

Police car with retroreflectivity markings

We headed outside to the track where the staff has marked up two of their cars with the Battenburg retroreflectivity markings, a style for marking emergency vehicles that has been more common in Europe. The reflective “decals” seemed to have a light source of their own. The staff at the Center has been experimenting with a couple of striping options, shapes, and colors, and have loaded the cars with multiple designs and styles of application. They have also applied the material to the inside of a trunk lid and to the edges of the car’s doors. They invited me to come back at night to see it in action.

What do you think? This style of markings flies in the face of invisible deployment on crime calls and certainly announces your presence—on the other hand, I don’t doubt it would improve visibility at crashes and while making car stops. Squad cars getting struck and officers being injured is a serious problem. So officer safety cuts two ways on this one.

Alexandria Fire Department Rescue Truck

This approach for fire and EMS is a no-brainer. Many of their vehicles offer that big, flat surface to the rear—which some departments are already covering with the “hi-vis” chevron, like Alexandria’s truck pictured here.

But what about for police cars? I would appreciate your thoughts and have posted some poll questions for you to consider in the sidebar of this blog.

I thank Bill and the staff for allowing me to spend time with them and get caught up on all that they are doing. We look forward to following their research. Because at the end of the day:

Responder Safety = Public Safety

Up next time…fitness.

In the meantime, stay safe and be careful.

Rob