According to Fire Chief Thomas Carr and County Executive Douglas Duncan, the Montgomery County (Md.) Department of Fire Rescue Services has committed to fully implement “Everyone Goes Home” and to serve as a model for other fire departments around the country. It will be the first department in the Washington metropolitan area to implement the program.

According to National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Director Ron Siarnicki, the NFFF is currently working with other departments on implementing the program, and the entire state of Pennsylvania is officially working on it under Fire Commissioner Ed Mann.

Montgomery County is a combination fire department that serves about 1 million people in a suburb of Washington with about 2,000 members, about half career and half volunteer.

Carr detailed specific actions his department is taking to implement each of the 16 initiatives. For example, to “enhance the personal and organizational accountability for health and safety throughout the fire service,” as of July 1 all volunteer members will join career members in the requirement to take annual physicals. The department also is instituting a risk-management program with a private contractor, budgeting for safety officers in the upcoming fiscal year and developing peer fitness trainers. The department also underwent a major reorganization to provide consistency and accountability from one county fire chief.

To “define and advocate the need for a cultural change within the fire service relating to safety,” the department will support and participate in the Near-Miss Reporting System that the International Association of Fire Chiefs is developing with a FIRE Grant.

The department is already a step ahead of many departments in using “available technology wherever it can produce higher levels of health and safety.” Montgomery County recently enacted a law requiring all newly constructed single-family homes to have sprinkler systems. On the heels of a fatal high-rise fire, the department is pushing for legislation calling for retrofitting all residential high-rise structures with sprinklers. Currently about 100 of the 1,500 high-rises in its jurisdiction lack sprinklers.

For a list of all actions Montgomery County Fire and Rescue is currently taking in support of the 16 initiatives, e-mail PeterPiringer @montgomerycountymd.gov with “Everyone Goes Home” in the subject line.