A Fire Apparatus Safety Meeting was held as part of FDIC in Indianapolis last week. Anyone interested in apparatus safety was welcome. It was meant to be an informal meeting to discuss firefighter safety issues that are related to the design of fire apparatus. Unfortunately, it didn't quite turn out as expected.

IAFC Safety, Health and Survival Section member Gordon Routley did an excellent job of explaining the Life-Safety Initiatives, with a specific focus on safety and apparatus. He touched on a number of issues and then turned the floor over to Lt. Mike Wilbur, FDNY firefighter and original member of the Life-Safety Initiatives Apparatus Committee.

Wilbur is a passionate fellow who certainly put a lot of preparation into his presentation. He took dozens of photos of FDNY firefighters, outfitted with all their gear — rope bag, light, gloves, SCBA and PASS devices — and photographed them trying to buckle themselves with seatbelts.

"See him fishing for the buckle?" Wilbur asked repeatedly. "Why must they do that?"

Wilbur went on to criticize manufacturers for not making seats wide enough, not making seatbelts a neon color (versus the red required by NFPA 1901), and not having longer stems on the seatbelt's buckle.

Wilbur showed photos of a small firefighter, a big firefighter and others across the country pulling SCBAs out of their apparatus seats and turning around to find the seatbelts or fishing for the buckle-stem.

The boiling point (for me) came when Wilbur contested that firefighters were able to walk away from two recent apparatus rollovers because they were belted in.

"Oh no they weren't!" shouted Wilbur. "They weren't wearing their seatbelts! They just said that they were buckled in to the chief after they got out!"

Did he know that for a fact? How often do unbuckled firefighters escape injury when a rig rolls over? Rarely. Why would they say they were buckled in if they weren't? Wouldn't the truth come out?

Rick Fix of Fire Research Corp. had enough. "I'm sorry, but when I get in my car, my hand knows where to reach for the seatbelt and how far to pull to buckle it because I do it so often.… I don't think those guys [in the photos] wear their seatbelts all the time," he said.

Wilbur said he wanted consistency in seatbelt designs, but Billy Goldfeder maintained, "You can't standardize the fire service." That's an interesting assertion. Military firefighters are pretty standardized from what I've seen over the past few years.

Maybe we should standardize the fire service. Isn't that what NFPA, particularly 1901, is trying to do? Bring some "standardization" to safety and operations?

After the meeting, I ran into Chief Joe McCall from North Little Rock, Ark. I related my frustrations from the apparatus safety meeting and asked him if he had a problem getting his guys to wear seatbelts.

McCall replied that he did not. While we were talking, several of his personnel walked up to us. "Do you guys wear your seatbelts?" I asked.

"Are you kidding? It costs us $600 if we get caught without it!" said one. "He hits us right in the pocketbook," he continued, pointing to his chief.

You could smell the frustration of the manufacturers in the meeting that morning. After investing millions in research, they were getting nipped in the ankles because some firefighters can't be trained to buckle their seatbelts.

Perhaps it's time to stop looking for excuses. We know for a fact that there are plenty of 15- and 20-year-old vehicles out there serving their communities. They operate safely because they're well-maintained and fire chiefs enforce safety procedures, including stopping at red lights and buckling up.

I think I sensed a little push-back from manufacturers in this meeting, and maybe it's about time. Personal responsibility — what a concept.