President's Message!

Safety, Professionalism, and Situational Awareness
 
How many times have we seen something done incorrectly or unsafely on an incident or in the station and then not said anything about it, joined in or encouraged the known incorrect behaviors or actions, or simply shrugged our shoulders and decided that it's another supervisor's crew, issue, or problem to solve?  How many times have you sat in an incident review or read an account of an incident in which you participated and then wondered if you were at the same event being discussed?  How many of you have sat back and looked at a crew or an individual and wondered "where the heck did they learn to do that?!?"  The linchpin item, of course, is what did you then do in response to your observations....in any of the above items?
 
Retired Chief Alan Brunacini recently wrote an article in Fire Engineering titled "Showtime."  If you haven't read it, you should.  It speaks to the unwavering requirement that we execute the basic components of our jobs flawlessly when the time comes to perform them.  Whether it is advancing a hoseline to the seat of a fire, administering medications to a patient in cardiac arrest, shoring the walls of a collapsed trench to extract a trapped worker, or steering a swift water boat up challenging rapids to reach a hapless victim in raging river waters, if you lack an appreciation for safety, if you cannot manage your crew and resources with utmost professionalism, and if you get tunnel vision and lose your situational awareness....you will fail.  You will fail yourself. You will fail your crew, and you will fail the citizen that is paying you to be there for them.  It's that simple.
 
Being an Officer in the Fire & Rescue Department is not easy.  The gold badge did not come with a promise that every day will be easier than the day before, and it certainly did not come with a free pass on continued learning or an expectation of decreased professionalism and performance standards.  Every one of these (continuing education, enhanced professionalism, and higher performance standards) is rightfully expected of us by the agency, our co-workers and subordinates, and the citizens we serve.  Complacency is, and should be, your personal and professional enemy.  "The great menace to the life of an industry is industrial self-complacency."  (Joyce Carol Oates, American author and two-time Nobel Prize nominee)
 
Although NIOSH reports often lag by six months or more from the time of a firefighter LODD, a recent grouping of them was released, and in reading through them, a very common theme emerges: lack of an appreciation of the safety considerations of the actions taken/tactics employed and a complete loss of situational awareness.  As paid professional Fire & Rescue Officers, these are and should be regarded as unacceptable behaviors.  We know better.  We know that we know better.  So, why are we so reluctant to call out complacency, error, and dangerous or inappropriate behaviors whether on the incident scene, in the office or station setting, or even in public?  It's a slippery slope, and when something bad happens we all tend to shake our heads and say "yep, saw that one coming."  Well, if you "saw it coming," then it was preventable.  If you didn't act to prevent what you foresaw, then are you really exhibiting true professionalism?
 
I came across this speech given by the current Federal Aviation Administrator at a recent industry group luncheon.  If you substitute "fire & rescue service" for "aviation industry," and substitute "Fire & Rescue Officer" for "pilot" or "Captain and first officer," I think you will find an eerie carryover of applicability to what we do.  The "bumps" referenced by the Administrator are happening here, every day.  If you think they are not, you are fooling yourself.  They are happening all around us...all around the US and throughout the fire & rescue service.  It's how we smooth out the ride, and minimize our "bump" encounters, that will make the difference between someone living and dying.

I hope you enjoy the brief read as much as I did.  I find Administrator Babbitt's candor, especially in addressing many of his former peers, inspiring.

Please stay safe and focused.  Be "in the game" at all times.  Continue to take care of yourselves and those entrusted to your supervision.

Chuck

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FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, a former head of the Air Line Pilots Association, recently weighed in on the subject of pilot professionalism in a speech at the International Aviation Club in Washington entitled "Bumps in the Road."  Stated the veteran airline pilot now charged with U.S. air safety:

Lately, aviation has had quite a few bumps in the road, and if we're candid with ourselves, many of these bumps are indeed self-inflicted.

When you look at today's headlines, you see that aviation has been hit with a wave of bumps we can label quite appropriately as an extreme need to refocus on professionalism. And perhaps we even need to develop a better understanding of professionalism.

The overshoot of Minneapolis is a very sad example. As a pilot, it doesn't matter much whether they were using their laptops, or re-enacting the Lincoln-Douglas debates -- what they did was wrong and they lost total situational awareness and that's why their Airman's Certificates have been revoked. There is no substitute for situational awareness. They knew a lot better and they were trained a lot better. And they ignored it. But especially in the context of our push for professionalism, this whole incident is extremely disappointing.

The passengers aboard that airplane sat comfortably because they assumed that the people up front were paying attention. Being distracted by compound problems is always a risk in the cockpit, which is why the captain and the first officer are trained and professional paid positions. You get paid to be a professional. That's actually the definition of the difference between being a professional and an amateur.

But I think that this is a sign of a much bigger problem. I can't regulate professionalism. With everything we know about human factors, there are still those who just ignore the common sense rules of safety. At the top of the list is something every pilot has heard over the years from their flight instructors: Remember to first always fly the airplane.

I wish this were the only instance of a loss of focus, but it's not. Listen to the cockpit tapes from the (Colgan Air) accident in Buffalo. Same problem, the one thing those two were supposed to do is the one thing they didn't: pay attention. Juxtapose that with (hero of the Hudson USAirways) Captain Sullenberger. There was not one second of less than total concentration. That crew was the epitome of professionalism and a textbook case of focus by everyone, including the controllers. That is an example of being in the game especially when the stakes are so high.

2009 Seminar An Unqualified Success!!!