The Pennsylvania State Fire Commissioner's Office, in coordination with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, has created a new no-holds-barred course to reduce firefighter fatalities that is touring the state.

“The Courage to be Safe: Everyone Goes Home” is a three-and-a-half-hour course focusing specifically on what is killing firefighters in Pennsylvania and across the nation, according to State Fire Commissioner Edward Mann.

Pennsylvania is the first state to commit to a statewide program to implement the 16 “Everyone Goes Home” life-safety initiatives set forth by the NFFF and the U.S. Fire Administration to reduce firefighter fatalities by 25% in five years and by 50% in 10 years.

And with good reason. In 2004, with 18 firefighter deaths, the state had the highest number of line-of-duty deaths in the nation.

Mann said the new class takes off the gloves. The course drives home the personal responsibility of firefighters for their safety in a way standard safety messages that have been included in many training classes never have before.

Mann personally introduces the course to warn firefighters “we may get a little loud with you” and that instructors are going to make the message very personal: “If you don’t want to pay attention to the numbers, that’s fine. If you don’t want to pay attention to the statistics, that’s OK. But understand something: If you die, you’re creating a problem for your family. So if you don’t want to do it for yourself, you need to think about your 10-year-old son.”

Initially, Mann said, some worried that the approach would receive criticism from students in course feedback, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

Before the end of the class, each student is put into groups with their own fire companies. Each group puts in writing one change they can institute in their company to reduce firefighter fatalities and injuries – and commits to instituting it in the next 60 to 90 days. “It might be something as simple as ‘We’re going to institute a seatbelt policy’ or ‘We’re going to make an effort to get physicals for our firefighters,’” said Mann.

At the end of 90 days, Mann said, the fire marshal's office will check in with each company to see how it's doing with the objective and if any assistance is needed to achieve it.

The program is already having impact, Mann said: “I had one fire chief e-mail me a copy of his new seatbelt policy the day after taking the program. It was pretty straightforward: ‘You will wear your seatbelt any time you are in any vehicle owned by this fire company, or you will be suspended.’ Period.”

But the ultimate measure of the program’s impact will not be known until the end of the year, when firefighter LODDs in Pennsylvania are counted, said Mann, adding, “At some point while I’m fire commissioner, I want a zero.”

For more information on the program or to schedule the course, call 800-670-3473 (in Pennsylvania only), 717-651-2201 or e-mail emann@state.pa.us.