FHWorld18: Effects of Culture in the Fire Service

A career in the fire service is unlike many others for a host of reasons, and one of the most obvious surrounds its culture and reliance on tradition.

As a younger generation of firefighters begins moving up the ladder and into leadership positions in the coming years, many of the traditions and cultural norms surrounding the profession will be challenged in new and interesting ways.

The subject was tackled during a session this week at Firehouse Wold in San Diego by Lt. Benjamin Martin of the Henrico County, VA, Division of Fire.

"You have a new guard being hired and an old guard that's training them, and there's a disconnect that comes back to culture," said Martin, who has over fifteen years of experience in public safety and has written several articles on the cultural challenges faced by fire service leadership.

Martin sees culture as key to firefighter behavior and performance—and firefighters often can't see it for themselves because of their cultural immersion.

"If you worked on a shift where everyone is like-minded and the values are the same, and everyone is committed to the mission and their training, how easy is it to go to work?" Martin asked. "It's a lot of fun. But if you don't have that or you have only one or two guys who want to train and the majority of your shift don't, then it's like puling teeth every time you go to work. So how do you change that culture?"

Martin used an analogy from the business world to describe firefighter culture: It's like an iceberg.

The part of the iceberg that you can see above the water contains things like values, mission statements and standard operating guidelines, but those items that are below the surface are things no one talks about out in the open like the unwritten rules of tradition, expectations and personal feelings.

"Those things can easily flip the iceberg if you're not careful," Martin said.

Martin admits that he started out believing change was very difficult in the fire service, but experience taught him that if firefighters see the value in a particular avenue of change, they will embrace it.

"If I could give you right now an SCBA mask with an integrated thermal imaging camera that didn't cost you the farm, would you want that?" Martin asked. "There would be a learning curve, but I imagine you would want that if it was shown to be reliable. You'd probably take it tomorrow."

"But if I ask you to shower immediately after a fire or not put your bunker boots by the bed where you sleep, what happens? That's the kind of thing that created heartache at your organization? Stuff that's meant to keep up safe?"

Martin stresses that firefighters need to understand the difference between internal and external culture.

Internal culture is what sets the boundaries for the job and the work that is supposed to be done. It is comprised of the values, assumptions and beliefs of a fire department. External culture is something else entirely and relies more on how the public perceives what firefighters do and what to expect of them?

And some elements of external culture—the heroic and sometimes unrealistic images the public takes in from TV shows, films or news reports—are completely out of a fire department's hands.

"The public can expect a service we don't provide or an action that we can't do," Martin said

But the fact remains that internal and external culture need to maintain some sense of harmony

"The further away these two things get from each other, the more we're at jeopardy," Martin said. "If our behaviors don't align with the expectations of the citizens, is that a problem?" 

Martin then went on to list off a slew of incidents where firefighters and their behavior, both on and off duty, wound up reflecting on their brothers and sisters not just in their own departments but around the country.

Incidents such as fraud, drunk driving, hateful use of social media, sexual violence and harassment—to name just a few—can have a profound impact on the public trust and how everyday citizens view the fire service.

Martin offered the example of a citizen willing to hand over a limp and lifeless child to a trained firefighter without asking his or her name simply because of the patch and badge on their uniform.

"And I didn't earn that," Martin said. "The guys before me earned that. And the guys before them. So there's a very real and palpable sense to not just leave it better than how we found it, but to protect it."

"That trust that they've earned so that those doors are open for us when we pull up to that house."

Martin used the analogy of the public's large amount of good will toward firefighters being like a bank account, and every time someone steps up and saves a life or helps someone in need, a deposit is put in that account.

But it's when a firefighter does something selfish or illegal that money is taken out of the account and put into the offending firefighter's pocket, providing a negative impact on the public trust. And many hard questions involving the culture come up as a result of these incidents.

"How hard is it in your department when someone messes up to actually hold them accountable without them grieving it or the union getting involved?" Martin asked.

Ultimately, a firefighter is not simply responsible for knowing how to run hose, conduct a primary search or ventilate during a fire. Interacting with the public and conducting yourself under the banner of the public service mission can breed positives for both internal and external culture.

"You can screw up your water supply, you can screw up your assignments, you can screw up your tactics, but if you're nice to them and it looks like you're trying and nobody dies, they'll bring you iced cream the next day," Martin said.

"That's the amount of grace that we get (from the public)."