More than 200 fire-service personnel participated in the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s annual Everyone Goes Home Safety Summit last weekend at the National Fire Academy. The theme of the three-day summit was “Firefighter Safety: Get Fully Involved,” and attendees included the program’s 10 regional and 75 state advocates.

NFFF Chairman Dennis Compton opened the summit with “Lessons in Safety Leadership,” in which he talked about the impact of leadership on the NFFF’s 16 Life-Safety Initiatives and suggested five areas for chiefs to focus on: heart attacks and strokes, vehicles, strategy, crew Integrity and training.  For crew integrity, Compton emphasized the need for crews inside a burning structure to “stay together by voice or vision or touch.”

U.S. Fire Administrator Kelvin Cochran gave the keynote address, “Becoming Fully Involved in Firefighter Safety.”  Using a fully involved fire as an analogy, Cochran explained that every member of every department should become fully involved in firefighter safety. “It requires that we have leaders at every level to take an active role in firefighter safety,” he said. 

Breakout sessions included “NIOSH Investigations, Procedures and Recommendations to Prevent Motor Vehicle–Related LODD and Injuries,” by Virginia Lutz of NIOSH and “Serious Gaming for Incident Management & First Responder Training,” by Michael Pack, the director of the CATT Lab at the University of Maryland.

One of the breakout sessions “IAFC New Rules of Engagement for Firefighter Safety & Risk Management – Best Practices,” was repeated twice during the three-day summit, Gary Morris, chair of the IAFC’s rules of engagement project, explained the proposed firefighter rules for survival and incident commander rules for structural firefighting.  Both sets of rules require that unsafe practices or conditions be reported and mandate the supervisor or incident commander address the reported infraction to ensure safe operations.

On the proposed rule for declaring a mayday, Morris said, “If you are already thinking ‘I’m in trouble,’ it means you’re thinking about it and you should get on the radio. Don’t delay in declaring a mayday.”

Over the three days, regional advocates met with state advocates to review efforts to deliver Everyone Goes Home firefighter safety workshops in fire departments across the United States. 

For more information about the free training workshops, visit www.EveryoneGoesHome.com.