For 28 years, the U.S. Army has held its annual conference with the International Association of Fire Chiefs. In 1997, the Army, Navy and Air Force joined together at Fire-Rescue International and now rotate project management lead for the conference. This August the Department of Defense Fire & Emergency Services Training Conference & Air Force Full Spectrum Threat Response Symposium will be held in Denver, and for the third time in nine years, Bruce Park will serve as the project manager.

Park's career began as a mechanical engineer for Atlantic Richfield Co. in 1967. He moved to San Francisco in 1968 to work as a public protection engineer for the Insurance Services Organization. Park moved to the federal government in 1973, working as a design fire protection engineer for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Bruno, Calif. He moved to the Army in 1973, assigned in Japan and Germany before becoming the director of Army fire and emergency services in 1980.

It seems that the Department of Defense will have a much stronger presence at Fire-Rescue International this August. Why is that?

We've always felt that the chiefs' conference was the way to go for us. Prior to 1997, the Navy and Air Force attended the Fire Department Instructors' Conference, but in 1997 the DOD conference came together, and it's worked very well to be with other DOD fire chiefs. In fact, every year the assistant deputy under secretary of defense endorses this training opportunity.

This is the only opportunity for defense and community emergency response agencies to coordinate doctrines, standards, procedures, technology and training. DOD activities are integrated with the IAFC program to maximize attendee benefits and to simplify logistical arrangements.

What specifically brings the two groups together to network, or does that just come about with the various seminars and the exhibit floor?

There aren't any scheduled joint sessions, but we expect the DOD chiefs and the IAFC chiefs to take advantage of each other's training sessions and of course visit the … exhibition center.

While the DOD conference is smaller, it's steeped with military ceremonies.

We expect more than 1,200 DOD emergency responders to attend this year's conference, culminated by the DOD F&ES Awards Banquet … where the best of the best of DOD are recognized for their superior performance throughout the previous year.…

Invitees for “DOD Day” include members from the Department of Homeland Security, Congress, the Denver fire chief, incoming president of the IAFC and an inspirational speaker. My goal is to conduct a superior DOD Army training session that will benefit every DOD emergency responder who attends.

What is the highlight of the DOD conference?

The keynote speech by DHS Under Secretary Mike Brown. The theme of the conference is the DOD first responder role in the National Incident Management System/National Response Plan. Also, Denver Chief Larry Trujillo will talk about the new program called “Everybody Goes Home.” I got the idea from an article you wrote in December and I thought it would be an excellent subject to complement DOD's firefighter safety program.

Recently, a chief said, “Too many times we're rewarding heroes — people who run into buildings not wearing the proper safety gear. Don't we ever give out awards for prevention?”

I agree. Each service has its own occupational safety and health program patterned after NFPA 1500. Our Army Occupational Health Safety program requires our firefighters be fully trained and equipped before entering hazardous areas. Our program discourages “foolish” behavior, and we believe prevention is still the best protection. As far as fire prevention is concerned, we are elevating the importance of the fire inspector by proposing a new award next year for the best fire inspector in DOD.

What is your goal for this gathering of public-sector and military fire chiefs?

What 9/11 has taught us is that public and military fire departments must rely on each other to fight the new global war on terrorism. We can't do it alone. Although fire departments have always taken the lead on mutual/reciprocal aid agreements, we can still make improvements.

We've had mock terrorism drills [for] chemical, biological, radiological and explosive incidents, but we have found that no matter how large the fire department, we still needed help

My biggest concern is lack of communication interoperability between responding military and public-sector fire departments. I know there's been a lot of progress in that area, but unless we can talk to each other before, during and after the incident, our consequence management program can't be fully effective.