This week the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation and the U.S. Fire Administration released their "Initial Report" on last month's Firefighter Life Safety Summit held in Tampa, Fla. But there's more to come: The NFFF held a follow-up meeting to begin formulating an implementation plan to dramatically reduce firefighter line-of-duty deaths this week at the Phoenix Fire Department headquarters.

Now that 16 specific initiatives have been developed, the NFFF is working with fire service leaders to identify specific directives to stop firefighters from dying needlessly.

If you've been in the fire service for any length of time, you've heard of Phoenix Chief Alan Brunacini, the Phoenix Fire Department and its customer "Mrs. Smith." The culture in this department is definitely different for a large, career department. PFD is often called the Nordstrom of the fire service. Service is why they exist. Don't get me wrong, no fire department or company is perfect, but members of this fire department have the motto "Be Nice" embroidered on the back of their hats.

Perhaps it's fitting that the NFFF hold its follow-up meeting at a fire department where unbuckled seatbelts are not tolerated, where firefighters don't don SCBAs until they exit the apparatus on scene and where crews don't run "hot" (lights and sirens) on every call. According to Chief Brunacini, "We never lost a station door on a 'difficulty breathing' call."

As of Feb. 29, 2004, 18 firefighters had died in confirmed line-of-duty deaths. Six weeks later, the count is 31 confirmed with seven fatalities pending confirmation as official LODDs. The count could be 38 by the end of April.

According to Jerry Scanlon, vice chairman of the NFFF board, "The trend line on firefighters' deaths over the past five years was going up. Four or five years is definitely a trend, and you have to do something radical or it won't change. If we drag our feet, we'll get criticized, and we can all contribute to it because it's just carnage."

USFA's Deputy Administrator Charlie Dickinson stated, "If you're going to be in this business -- the fire business -- I don't know anybody that would say we could get to zero [firefighter fatalities], but as USFA Administrator Dave Paulison and I have discussed, if you're going to die in this business, make it because you're trying to get your hands on someone."

How will we get the attention of thousands of firefighters across the country, Dickinson wondered, "because they don't think it's going to happen to them."

Many discussions on firefighter safety involved the world "culture." What does that mean? Rookies, fresh out of the training academy, want to fit into their new department. They watch and listen to the seasoned firefighters. Habits form, rules are slackened, and traditions are learned around the kitchen table. Before you know it, attitudes meld into the culture of the department.

From what we've seen and heard, two things will help stop the line-of-duty deaths in this country: Leadership must change the culture of each fire department so that deaths are seen as a failure of the system, and each individual must be responsible for his or her own health and safety.

Each firefighter LODD is a failure, Dickinson emphasized. "The system failed. Someone failed in their job, even if it was absence of information, the absence of an SOP or the enforcement of safe driving procedures or not operating a personal vehicle as if it were a fire truck."

A firefighter death is often the final tragic results of a chain of events, set in motion at some point by a failure in the system.

What can you do to make changes in your fire department's system so that awful chain of events never becomes a reality in your department?

Stay tuned. There's more to come from the NFFF's continuing effort to provide an action plan for each one of us to stop preventable firefighter deaths.

Janet Wilmoth, Editor