FHWorld20: Starting a Department—Strong Leadership is Job 1

The questions that were posed by attendees of the "Engine Company Essentials" preconference roundtable at Firehouse World 2020 in Las Vegas were numerous, but none was more provocative than the one that was asked by a member of a fledgling department. The attendee explained that he was in the throes of constructing a new organization following the demise of a county department’s service to his area.

“If you were starting from scratch, what would top the list of most important aspect for creating a new fire department?” he inquired. The three panelists agreed: strong leadership.

Curt Isakson, who is a battalion chief for Escambia County, FL, Fire Rescue and a Firehouse contributor, said strong leadership is vital for a variety of reasons. From telling firefighters to mask up at a fire or to wear earplugs when they operate a chain saw, to annually requiring that a flow meter be used to check pump discharge, to requiring his crew to stretch three lines as first due every time they respond to a call (no matter whether one line could extinguish a kitchen fire in 30 seconds), a strong leader’s importance is unsurpassed. Regarding the latter, while crew practice stretching lines, Isakson practices giving the orders.

Isakson warned that the options to strong leadership at either end of the spectrum—leaders who are on “power trips” or those who “want to be friends”—each are problematic. He urges the premise of “10 pounds of pressure 100 percent of the time,” nothing more, nothing less.

St. Paul, MN, Fire Department Capt. Jonathan Hall, who also is a Firehouse contributor, considers the communication of “clear expectations” to be part and parcel of strong leadership.

Capt. Anthony Rowett of the Mobile, AL, Fire Rescue Department believes that strong leadership must involve dedication to the training component, perhaps chief among the various disciplines being the estimating of the stretch.

Isakson told the roundtable attendees that they can learn a lot about leadership from “The Functional Fire Company: Position Small Groups for Success and Survival.” The author, Scott Thompson, is the chief of the Colony, TX, Fire Department.