Firefighter POV Response - We Can Do Better

The news today reads of 19 year old firefighter from Pennsylvania who died yesterday while responding to an emergency call in his POV (personally owned vehicle). Firefighter Brandon Little, of the United Hook and Ladder in New Oxford, PA died when his POV left the roadway and struck a house. The article linked here stated that Firefighter Little was not wearing his seatbelt and was ejected from the vehicle.

First let me say that my heart goes out to the family of Firefighter Little. My heart also goes out to his fire department family. This is a big loss for both of them. While I'm saddened for the loss of life, I also find myself a little angered. My anger stems from the fact that this incident could easily have been prevented. This is not the first time that the life of a volunteer firefighter has been claimed during a POV response.

Before I go any further, let me first state what this blog post is not. This post is not meant as an attack on the person or character of Firefighter Little. I use his story because it brings back to the forefront the cause that led to his tragic departure from this earth. This post is also not a call to end POV responses in the volunteer side of firefighting. Far from it. Getting my start in a department that serviced a fairly rural county in South Carolina, I know first hand that if you don't allow POV responses in many areas you could quickly find yourself dangerously short of manpower. Some will argue that you can use volunteer staffing at a station, but for many areas (for a myriad of reasons) it is just not possible. That being said, like anything that carries inherent risks, we can mitigate those risks through education, training, mentoring and leadership.

One of my biggest issues with this incident, and those like it is that I'm quite positive that this was not the first time Firefighter Little responded in such a manner. Some would say I'm assuming. I like to think that I'm making an educated guess. I make my educated guess based on my experience. While I'm fairly new to the fire service with only 5 years under my belt, I have nearly 13 years in the United States Air Force. All but 4 of those years have been spent as a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) responsible for the health, safety, mentoring and overall well-being of my subordinates and Airmen in general. When dealing with subordinate issues, I've learned that often what I thought was an isolated act was actually a habit that had been developed over time. Another item that really irks me is that this firefighter was not wearing his seatbelt. As much as we respond to vehicle wrecks where lives are lost owing to a lack of seatbelt use, you would think that we would make it our top priority to wear our seatbelts. In this day and age it should be a no-brainer. When things like this happen, I look to the leadership of the departments. Not to point fingers and lay blame. I look to leadership of volunteer fire departments to take responsibility for doing all they can to prevent these from happening.

I like to use my former department in South Carolina as a good example. The Sumter Fire Department is a combined department with 5 career stations in the City of Sumter and 15 volunteer stations in Sumter County. Most of the volunteer stations were in very rural areas. POV response was a vital necessity. To that end, the volunteer side of the department took the safety during such responses with absolutely seriousness. The department had very little tolerance for those who liked to drive like bats out of hell in their POVs. If someone was found to be driving in such a manner (besides observation by department personnel, residents of the county were always keen to report such driving) they were given one warning. The second offense could lead to a write-up or even a temporary suspension. If it happened again after that it pretty much meant adios muchachos.

Station officers in that department made it a personal responsibility to mentor younger firefighters on their response habits and further set the example in their own driving habits. In the almost 5 years I was with the department I don't think I can recall of a single POV accident while responding. I think that is a testament to the efforts that the department took in training and developing its volunteers. Outside of the Sumter County though I had observed many departments that did not take that responsibility quite so seriously and it's only through luck or the grace of God that no one was seriously hurt or killed.

Now I'm a realist. Can we eliminate these types of accidents 100%? We cannot. It is like DUIs in the military. As much as we preach about not driving under the influence, at any given point someone can make the wrong decision that leads to a DUI. Despite our best efforts, people are still going to make their own decisions at the end of the day. We must do all that we can as leaders though to help our firefighters make the right decisions. I say we because you don't need rank or position to be a leader. You can lead simply by setting a positive example for others to follow.

So what can be done? I offer up the following few suggestions for the leadership of volunteer fire departments.

1. Have established guidelines for POV response and make sure that ALL personnel are aware of it. Make it part of new firefighter orientation and provide period refresher training for all personnel

2. Hold violators accountable and make it understood that failure to comply is unacceptable.

3. Set the example! This sounds like it should be a no-brainer yet often leaders or senior members are the worst violators. I lose credibility if I tell someone to do something that I myself am not doing.

4. Probably one of the most important things you can do in my opinion is pay attention to what your people are doing. Know your people and their habits. Real leadership is not a fire and forget mission. It is a constant and continuous process. Leaders of all levels need to be on the lookout for potential issues and work to mitigate them before they turn into something serious. This can be done by keeping up with what your people are doing and mentoring them, providing positive reinforcement for things done well and providing that correction when things aren't up to par.

This is by no means a complete list, but they are certainly some ways that we can work to prevent these things from happening.

The bottom line for me folks: Whether career or volunteer, this is a dangerous job we do. We as firefighters though do not need to make it more dangerous than it already is. Leaders, take care of your people. Firefighters, take care of each other. Let's all arrive alive and all make it back home. Take care and stay safe.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.