ROCKVILLE, Md.-- In an effort to push for fire apparatus driver safety, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Fire Health and Safety Subcommittee and Fire Chiefs Committee held a two-day symposium at the Montgomery County, Md. Fire and Rescue Services' training academy the weekend of Oct. 20.
Entitled "Arrive Alive," the event included opening ceremonies, group discussions and breakout sessions on many of the issues involving driver safety as it applies to the fire service.
One of the event's keynote speakers, FDNY Lieutenant Mike Wilbur, has been a stern supporter of apparatus safety and seatbelt usage even before he said the issue reached the mainstream consciousness less than five years ago.
"When I first started, I wanted to make this a national issue," he said.
MCFRS Division Chief Richard Bowers said apparatus safety is something that applies to all members of emergency services.
"The issue brings all of us together; fire, rescue and EMS," he said. "We have to be able to get them there safely and give them what they need to get the job done. We need to bring this to the top of peoples' mind and help change the culture of the fire service."
Recognizing Problems
Apparatus crashes make up the number two cause of firefighter deaths. During 2005, 13 out of the 87 firefighter deaths reported by the National Fire Prevention Association were road-vehicle related. Of those fatalities, five of the victims were not wearing seatbelts and four were wearing seatbelts. Seat belt use was not reported in the other four crashes.
Lt. Michael Wetsell of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue was the driver in an apparatus rollover the day before Thanksgiving in 2002. There were four firefighters in the truck, including himself and all escaped serious injury.
He said all of them were wearing their seatbelts.
When asked what he learned from the rollover he kept it simple: "Slow down."
Wetsell said at the time it happened he believed he killed his fellow firefighter who luckily escaped injury.
"It changed my whole attitude about driving after that," he said. "I no longer was in a race to get to the scene. You have to take responsibility of everyone who is on the truck."
MCFRS instructor Jeff Williamson spoke during a session about an apparatus crash which killed a civilian driver.
Master Firefighter Ed Siekierski was at the wheel the morning of June 22, 2000. He was a 32-year veteran of the fire service who never had a violation or crash.
Williamson said at that point the department started focusing on "What could we do differently to avoid that situation or put that driver in a better situation to avoid it?"
Siekierski was driving a tanker that was preceded by an engine. While the engine made it through the light before it turned red, the tanker did not. He yielded for oncoming traffic as cars began to come to a stop, but an elderly man continued to drive. The two vehicles collided.
"If you're a following unit, you have to act like you were there first," Williamson said. "A lot of times the first truck doesn't consider the second."
Changing the Culture
Williamson said it is important to get away from the traditional mindset. "We have officers still today telling drivers to go faster because they don't want to be beat," he said.
MCFRS Battalion Chief John Tippett led a session on Crew Resource Management, a system that first originated with the aviation community more than 30 years ago but has only found its way into fire services over the last decade.
"It raises levels of awareness. It forces everybody to have a vested interest in what is going on and to speak up," he said. "If you see something, if you know something, if you're privy to something, if you think you have some additional knowledge -- even if you're still wet behind your ears -- you have to say something," he said. "As a supervisor you have to create an environment that allows for it."
He recalled one moment in his career in which he felt helpless as a passenger in an engine. Another firefighter was filling in for the usual driver and, according to Tippett, was driving recklessly.
"We were coming up on a traffic circle and he was driving too fast. I told him to take a couple of toes out of the accelerator. He said 'What?' I let off of the siren and said 'Slow down.' He took his foot off of the accelerator and said 'What do you mean?'
"I told him that with the traffic circle coming up, we were going so fast that we would roll over and would be cutting ourselves out of the truck."
Michael Mahler, a 30-year veteran with Fairfax County, Va. Fire and Rescue and his union's president, said the makeup of the average firefighter has seen drastic changes since he began his career.
"The firefighters have changed," he said. "Back when I started a lot of guys came from truck driving kind of jobs. Now a lot of people are coming straight out of college and the largest thing they have driven is a small Honda or something like that."
Despite the unfamiliarity of new firefighters with large vehicles, he said the attitudes have made positive progress.
"I think there is a trend where firefighters are becoming much more thoughtful and progressive," he said. "There used to be a whole different kind of mentality, a different kind of freedom. It was like we ruled the road."
Pushing for Reform
Chief Bowers said one of the problems many departments face is the stark differences between each apparatus it owns. Many departments have multiple models from multiple manufactures, making it difficult for all of its firefighters to adapt to differences in seatbelt configuration among other things.
Wilbur is currently working along with a group comprised of other fire service officials and members of FAMA in order to design a uniform seatbelt that will accommodate the average firefighter.
MCFRS has taken a step to change this by purchasing 37 new apparatus that will be phased in over the span of 24 months starting early next year.
"What we have done is engineer into all of new apparatus with the latest designs in seatbelt safety," he said.
The symposium, first of its kind in focus according to its organizers and many in attendance, showed that there is progress being made in a previously uncharted area by the fire service community.
Ed Hartin, a battalion chief and chief training and safety officer with Gresham, Ore. Fire and Emergency Services and the vice president of the Northwest Association of Fire Trainers, came a long way for the symposium for what he says is a very important reason.
"In the region we've had a number of serious apparatus accidents," he said, noting that he first heard about the event at IAFC's Annual Conference.
"We believe that it's definitely an issue that needs to be addressed," he said. "Our goal is to bring a symposium with a similar focus to the Portland area." Hartin he's aiming to hold the symposium sometime next fall.
The usage of seatbelts also is something Hartin said needs to be discussed. The 32-year verteran said during the first half of his career he didn't wear a seatbelt, but has worn one ever since.
"The key, for me, is that seatbelts only become a factor when you have an accident. It's kind of like a PASS device."
Hartin said that despite the common trend not to wear seatbelts, it's something that is necessary that all firefighters are trained to do.
"25 percent of the time you train on what you do when you in a jam, 75 percent of the time you train to not get into a jam in the first place."
Related Stories
