June 05--The county's new fire and rescue chief continued a series of what she called "fireside chats" Wednesday, introducing herself to personnel and rolling out new safety initiatives.
Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services Chief Denise Pouget took over in July 2013. The meetings are a way to talk with career and volunteer personnel about "where we've been, where we're going and where we're at right now," Pouget told about 15 career personnel gathered in a classroom in an annex at the county's Public Safety Training Facility.
She has held about 25 similar meetings with career personnel and will continue with volunteers. The meetings count as in-service training, Pouget said.
The most recent meetings introduced four bullet points on a list of 16 life safety initiatives developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The meetings will continue as the department rolls out the remaining initiatives, Pouget said.
Wednesday's first bullet point focused on culture shift, accountability and leadership, as Pouget seeks to streamline overtime and add records management systems to track training and inspections for equipment. The department is spending about $400,000, originally intended to re-chassis two Middletown ambulances, to buy mobile data terminals, Pouget said.
"It didn't get broke in 10 months and it's not going to get fixed in 10 months," Pouget said of the department.
The second bullet point, No. 4 on the list of 16, dealt with empowering firefighters to stop unsafe practices. The third, No. 14, focused on educating the public about the department.
Pouget introduced Lisa Lessin, who will assist in the department's marketing efforts across the community. Lessin, a former volunteer recruiter for the department, has been promoted to public safety educator and public information officer. Lessin encouraged fire personnel to come forward with ideas to educate the public about fire safety.
"We're about more than just responding to a 911 call, pulling a hose, putting a fire out," Lessin said.
Much of Wednesday's meeting focused on bullet point No. 13, which centers on psychological support for personnel.
Pouget introduced Dodie Gill, president of Alexandria, Virginia-based New Millennium, which offers specialized behavioral health services to first responders. Gill will help train firefighters beginning in the fall in the Traumatic Exposure Recovery Program, or TERP, model. The model, developed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, looks at learning the body's response to stress as a way to help first responders recover after traumatic calls. From that training, the department will develop what Pouget called "respected peer groups" to help provide an immediate post-traumatic event response for personnel, she said.
"This is all about learning to take care of your own," Gill said Wednesday.
Gill also provides counseling for first responders and accepts the county's insurance, offering an alternative to the employee assistance program now in place, Pouget said.
The meetings come as Pouget has faced criticism from John Neary, president of the Career Firefighters Association of Frederick. He sent an email in early May saying that lack of communication had caused confusion and low morale among the ranks, and he warned that frustrations could lead to a no-confidence vote in her leadership.
Pouget said she wants to move beyond the negative attention, telling the group that she intends to stay in the county's top fire and rescue job.
Pouget is concerned that the no-confidence warning could detract from public safety, she said.
"What worries me about that is not me, it's you," she said.
Neary could not be reached Wednesday.
Lt. Scott Gordon, an emergency medical service supervisor, said he was looking forward to the TERP model. This was the first such meeting he had attended in his 18 years with the department, he said.
"That's never happened before," he said.
Follow Courtney Mabeus on Twitter: @courtmabeus.
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