The saying “300 hundred years of tradition unimpeded by progress” haunts the fire service. This industry fears change and rejects new ideas. Organizations, block the efforts of members who try to bring new perspectives and better approaches to old problems. The fire service usually gives no energy to finding new solutions and sometimes works hard to stop innovation.

But this approach isn't working anymore. The world is changing, and the fire service needs to either embrace change or get out of the way. Fire service leaders must ask themselves how they relate to change. Are they status-quo traditionalists or sparkplugs for change?

Change is scary to any well-established administration, regardless of the industry. In the fire service, with its militaristic hierarchy, this is particularly true. The chief's word is law, and officers gain position through strict adherence to his or her directives. Any change from below threatens this power and authority. Great ideas disrupt the status quo. Individuals who present new ideas have a hard time finding a receptive audience. If the chief doesn't like the idea or the person, no progress can take place. Instead, the fire service advances one retirement at a time; only when the chief is replaced can a new set of ideas be implemented. Even when the chief is open to change, the supervising board often is not.

In any organization where new ideas are discouraged, better solutions generally are not incorporated; less-than-optimum solutions are locked into the system and efficiency suffers. Customers don't get the best efforts that an organization can give. Costs are higher than they need to be. Operations take longer than necessary. Property and life losses are higher. Fire-rescue members suffer more injuries and deaths. Everybody loses.

If fire departments don't buy better equipment, manufacturers won't build it. Take the fire helmet. Today's firefighters use the same basic design that their great-grandfathers used. Referring to American-style helmets, a friend from Europe said to me, “You Americans and your cowboy hats. You all think you are John Wayne.” The American fire service seems to be married to the traditional fire helmet. Firefighters burn their ears and these helmets look for any excuse to fall off.

When MSA came out with a safer fire helmet in the 1980s called The Brigade, fire chiefs would not buy them. At least one chief said that while the new design obviously was safer, the helmets looked funny, like they came out of Star Wars. He did not want the helmets even if they were donated because of their appearance. MSA discontinued the line.

The fighter-style helmet is now becoming the standard in Great Britain and Europe, yet the American fire service seems incapable of accepting the superior design. MSA purchased Gallet, the producer of the FireKnight line, and then discontinued sales in the United States. Drager and Rosenbauer helmets aren't available in the United States either. If we don't buy them, they won't build them for us. Excellent protection is available for firefighters, but attitude keeps the American fire service from making the leap. Imagine explaining that in a courtroom. “Can you tell the jury, Chief Smith, why you did not provide modern protection to your firefighters?” Is the answer because it looked funny?

Also consider attitudes toward fire prevention. Firefighters envision themselves bursting into flaming buildings while wearing smoke-discolored turnouts. That vision doesn't include prevention programs, which are far better at reducing losses and saving lives than suppression. It doesn't include fuels mitigation in wildland-urban interface because that is boring. If programs were funded based on efficacy, shiny fire trucks would be at the bottom of the list and media production would be at the top. Even though public communication is the most important task, firefighters are hired first and marketers last, if at all. Does this model seem familiar?

Fear of change can strike anywhere. At a recent meeting of a 13-district fire council, one local fire chief offered to approach the county sheriff and state highway patrol to discuss coordinating incident command procedures to help prevent conflicts at an emergency scene. Firefighters and officers even had been arrested in other parts of the country for such conflicts. However, the response from the chiefs at this meeting was unanimous and emphatic: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They were afraid of rocking the boat. The chiefs didn't know who would be in charge at a scene, but they weren't willing to risk change to work it out.

The fire service needs to change. It can't continue to do business the way it always has. Budgets are tightening, so every dollar must count. Efficiency demands that every alternative be considered and the best choice made, regardless of the changes required. Leaders must make the right decisions and set up organizations for success. Leaders should encourage sparkplugs, reward good ideas and reinforce positive attitudes.

Structure protection with fire trucks during wildland fires is too expensive and can't continue. Wildland protection responsibility is shifting away from suppression systems toward Firewise/Firesafe passive controls. What are fire departments doing to help property owners make this change? Have they adopted the prepare, stay, and defend system yet?

The property owner can be a friend or foe. While law enforcement tends to view all civilians as perpetrators, the fire service needs to see the public as partners. They pay for the response system. They control the environment before an incident starts. They own the problem, even if they don't realize it. Is it not obvious that they need to be involved in the solutions? Talk to them. Share challenges and invest them in the solutions. Create community emergency response teams and build cooperation.

Liability is shifting; fire departments are no longer immune from prosecution for their failures. Like never before, fire agencies and individuals are being held accountable for results. This includes injuries, deaths and property losses. If agencies don't train and perform using the best standards, they will be held accountable. If a traditional method does not give the best possible outcome, change the method.

Many fire service traditions are valuable and should be cherished. Others are counterproductive and actually dangerous. Recently a video of firefighters in New York City in the 1930s showed a wild response through crowded traffic and pedestrians, black coats and leather helmets, ladders and fire streams. A modern video from the same city showed the same wild response, tools, PPE and tactics. After 80 years, so little had changed.

Will future firefighters look back to today and say the same thing? Or will they be amused at how primitive we were in the year 2007? An organization should embrace change, innovation, and improvement It should reward the sparkplugs and create an environment that encourages problem-solving.

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Alan Tresemer is the fire chief of Painted Rocks Fire Rescue Company in southwest Montana. Since 1976, he has been involved in fire, search and rescue, emergency medicine, and law enforcement. Tresemer also is the executive director of the First Responder Institute for Research and Education. He can be reached at fireinst@mac.com.