Remember when I wrote about the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation's Line-Of-Duty-Death Summit follow-up meeting last April in Phoenix? Hopefully, you remember two important conclusions reached at that meeting of minds to develop concrete initiatives to stop preventable firefighter line-of-duty deaths and injuries:

• Leadership must change the culture of each fire department so that death is seen as a failure of the system; and
• Each individual must be responsible for his or her own healthy and safety.
  

In the last several months, the momentum started at the April LODD meeting has been growing, particularly within the International Association of Fire Chiefs. At Fire-Rescue International last August, more than 600 IAFC members signed a petition supporting a bid by the IAFC Health and Safety Committee to become a new IAFC section, far surpassing the required 150 signatures required to begin the process. More than enough of those signatures have been validated by the IAFC to support moving to the next step, which is to see if there are at least 150 IAFC members willing to sign up as members and pay the extra $25 section dues.

Members of the Health and Safety Committee held a meeting last weekend in Santa Rosa, Calif., to discuss the future of their proposed new section and made two significant decisions. First, if the new section is approved, the committee decided, it should be called the Safety, Health and Survival Section. Including "Survival" in the name is a powerful move. It evokes a mental linkage that reinforces what health and safety are ultimately all about.

The committee members also worked on the new section's constitution and bylaws, which must be presented to the IAFC executive board along with the required 150 signed members. The most important action by the committee, however, was the fact that they did not waste time trying to figure out what they needed to do. They didn't push their own personal agendas and stroke their own egos by deciding to create a new list of health and safety initiatives, nor did they decide to publish a "White Paper." Instead, the committee voted to devote this new section to promoting the 16 Firefighter Life-Safety Initiatives developed by the NFFF and U.S. Fire Administration Line-of-Duty Death Summit.

The Health and Safety Committee deserves to be applauded. They demonstrated a perfect example of how leadership can support the cultural shift needed to change the way the fire service and each firefighter thinks about line-of-duty deaths. Personal accountability applies to organization leaders as well as individual leaders. A new section, a new name and unified support for the strategies developed under a consensus of bright minds brought together by the NFFF and the USFA is the way to go. What a great new beginning.

If you'd like to sign up for the proposed new IAFC Safety, Health and Survival Section, contact the IAFC's membership services by calling 703-273-0911 or by e-mailing membership@iafc.org.

Janet Wilmoth, Editor