Fire departments across the country participated in a national stand down for firefighter safety beginning June 21.

The International Association of Fire Chiefs is continuing to gather information on the national stand down's penetration to fire departments through surveys to its members, state fire training directors, state fire marshals' offices and the other 19 partnering organizations that supported the stand down.

Very initial estimates from the IAFC indicated about 5,000 fire departments took part in the national stand down, according to Executive Director Garry Briese. The number could rise to 7,000 or 8,000 if all the shifts that took part in the stand down are counted.

That's a far cry from the more than 33,000 fire departments in the nation, but Briese considered it “wildly successful.” Not since the first anniversary of Sept. 11 have so many fire departments paused to reflect on firefighter deaths and focused on what was killing them.

The stand down asked department's to cease non-emergency activities to focus on firefighter safety. The idea was to reach every firefighter, every shift, volunteer or career.

Led by IAFC President Bob DiPoli, the campaign was designed to put the brakes on an alarming number of firefighter deaths this year. Midway through the year, 58 firefighters had died on duty, seven more than had died by the same point last year.

In addition to the blitz of information flowing through the partnering organizations, a full-page ad sponsored by Jeep and Daimler Chrysler Corp. ran in USA Today, putting the stand down in front of 5.2 million readers. The ad depicted a fire station with the flag flying at half-staff and said, “Help us to raise this flag.” It encouraged firefighters to post the ad in fire stations to drive home the safety message to fellow firefighters.

Reports of fire department stand downs surfaced in the media in many communities the week of the stand down. A service for the IAFC monitoring broadcast media coverage of the stand down reported 386 mentions of the stand down from Monday to Wednesday, according to Jennifer Ashley, IAFC communications director. Nearly 600 articles were printed in newspapers from Monday to Thursday morning., covering events in metro departments, small volunteer departments and department of every size in between, from Pittsburgh to Sacramento.

Briese said he wasn't disappointed that many departments didn't participate. “Nothing has ever happened in the fire service that all did anything. I'm just absolutely delighted with the numbers we have,” he said.

Briese said Dipoli, the IAFC board, partnering organizations and the thousands of fire departments that took part in the stand down deserve praise for “an outstanding effort to address firefighter fatalities.”

There has been some talk about making the stand down an annual event, but that's still not decided. “It wasn't done initially as a repeatable thing, it was done to impact the trend line that we saw here, but it's being discussed,” Briese said.

As for the ultimate impact of the stand down — its goal to reduce the number of firefighter fatalities — the true measure will be reckoned at the end of the year.