For the first time since Sept. 11, the call for local fire chiefs to prepare their departments and communities for terrorism seemed matched by a call to reduce firefighter fatalities in daily response across the nation every day. At Fire-Rescue International 2004 in August, IAFC Immediate-Past President Chief Ernest Mitchell embraced the “Everybody Goes Home” battle cry established this year in the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation/U.S. Fire Administration Firefighter Life Safety Initiative summits.

As a further show of the IAFC's commitment, newly installed President Chief Robert DiPoli of Needham, Mass., pledged to continue to aggressively support that initiative as he began his tenure. “It really shouldn't be just my initiative, but should be carried over every year as every [IAFC] president's initiative,” DiPoli said.

DiPoli has volunteered as an honor guard and escorted the grieving families of fallen firefighters for 14 years at the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, Md. “After the fire in Worcester Mass., I had to escort six grieving families for that event,” said DiPoli. “When you stop and think every year we're accepting that we kill a hundred people or so — and some years, it's four or five hundred, as it was the year of the World Trade Center tragedy — it's really time that we stop accepting that as a fact and start to move in a different direction.”

Many projects, initiatives and new products highlighted at FRI were designed to help the fire service achieve the NFFF/USFA goals of reducing firefighter fatalities by 25% in five years and 50% in 10 years. Among the major efforts was a Near-Miss Reporting System that the IAFC announced it would implement with a $750,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security's Assistance to Firefighters Program and a $322,000 grant from the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. “This anonymous reporting system will be crucial in providing the fire service with the information it needs to create change in operations and training to avoid injuries and deaths in the future,” said Mitchell.

The National Fire Protection Association estimates that for every 100 incidents of injury, one million close calls go unreported. While the details of how the system will be implemented are still being worked out, it's likely the reporting will be Internet-based. Similar near-miss reporting systems established by the airline industry 25 years ago have significantly decreased the number of aviation injuries and deaths, said U.S. Fire Administrator Dave Paulison. And positive results have been achieved by tracking close calls in the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Military and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

With funding from DHS, the National Volunteer Fire Council launched an initiative to raise awareness of the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of firefighter fatalities. Free cholesterol screenings at the NVFC booth were provided for many attendees, who waited in nearly constant lines for the two-minute test and took home information on how to improve heart health in their departments and communities.

The second leading cause of death, vehicle collisions, was another prominent focus. Montgomery County (Md.) Fire and Rescue Service and the IAFC announced a three-day forum scheduled Jan. 21-23, 2005, to discuss ideas to reduce emergency vehicle collisions. DiPoli said he would be calling fire chiefs to focus on improving driver education for firefighters and enforcing mandatory seatbelt usage to prevent firefighter deaths.

Look to the October issue of Fire Chief for our full coverage of exhibits and initiatives at Fire-Rescue International, plus profiles of the 2004 Fire Chief of the Year Award recipients.