Over the last few years, especially since the advent of various Web sites devoted to the fire service and the growth of Internet news services, many fire services stories that aren't so good for our reputation have made it into the wider world. Many things happen in firehouses that we would prefer not to see in the headlines because they contradict the longtime image of the fire service. I am talking, of course, about those incidents that occur in a fire station or within a fire department that result in criticism of either the individuals involved or the organization as a whole. They're usually the result of someone getting into trouble.

If none of these incidents has happened to you or your department, congratulations! If one has affected you, I hope you were able to deal with it effectively and that you learned some valuable lessons from the experience. If you think one never will happen to you, I hope that you shake off the denial in the very near future and prepare to address such an event.

Every fire chief in this country is just one shift away from an incident that can impair a career or deal a blow to the department's credibility. Every fire station is only a few minutes away from an incident that could explode into front-page headlines. If you take the issue seriously, I hope you plan to conduct an assessment and pursue some initiatives to prevent negative firehouse events from occurring in the future.

But where should you start? A controversy often tarnishes both the guilty and the innocent when they wear the same uniform. We can't ignore that there is a culture in the firehouse that can be either a positive or negative influence. There is a culture in every firehouse that can be encouraging or discouraging to the individual firefighters who are placed there. There is a culture in every firehouse that can create or destroy the reputation of an organization in a matter of moments. Which environment exists in your fire station?

After collecting about 200 news articles about flare-ups in firehouses, I observed that in almost all cases the behavior that's criticized isn't something that just appears out of specific circumstances; it has built up over a period of being sanctioned in some form or another by the organization. Some call it the “culture of the firehouse.” Others have characterized it as the culture of the fire department, a more general concept. And on the largest scale possible, it has been referred to as the culture of the fire service. Which one is it? Could it be all three?

“Culture” is a 15th-century word derived from the Latin cultura, which described the tilling of land. Used as a noun culture generally means the following: the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties, especially by education; expert care and training; enlightenment and excellence of taste acquired by intellectual and aesthetic training; integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that depends on the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations; or the customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of racial, religious or social groups. Culture also is described as the characteristic features of everyday existence shared by people in a place or time — the set of attitudes, values, conventions or social practices associated with a particular field, activity or social characteristic.

If you want to know what a firehouse culture is, just add the word “firehouse” in front of most of those definitions. But you also must be willing to live with this particular restriction: It all depends upon which level of the fire service, the fire department or the individual subcomponent you're discussing.

Just for the heck of it I went on Yahoo.com and typed in “firehouse culture” and received quite a few hits. The list was divided between both positive and negative stories, so I guess there's little reason to debate the existence of a culture in this business. The real question is what do all of those hits mean to us, and more importantly to you? It was revealing to see the terrific price imposed on organizations that have experienced negative events and to learn how little the positive events seem to make up for the negative. The “attaboys” don't seem to make up for the “A-you-know-whats.”

The fire service has been characterized as a brotherhood and later as a family, which has resulted in both positive and negative connotation. Some of the acts being committed within firehouse culture are nothing less than brutal and anything but familial. We have a very positive image in the minds of the public that can be marred by failing to live up to it. As a profession we have to admit to having a culture. It's our legacy. It is the past of the profession that has given rise to both positive and negative phenomena. As a profession, the only question that remains is: What is an acceptable culture?

What is the image of our profession? Many would answer with positive descriptions that somehow wraps themselves around the “hero” concept. Currier and Ives started it, but it has been influenced along the way by everything from the adventures of Squad 51 to the antics of Denis Leary on the TV series Rescue Me. Toss in Steve McQueen from the Towering Inferno, Kurt Russell from Backdraft and John Travolta from Ladder 49, then mix in John Wayne's portrayal of a character inspired by Red Adair in Hellfighters, and you have the makings for a new rock sculpture in the Black Hills alongside the presidents. Does anyone remember the names of the stars of Third Watch? Perhaps they can join the others on Mount Firefighter.

The fire service has done a fairly good job of trying to tell our story as the epitome of heroism. Look at all the books we've written, ranging from real-world accounts of firefighters operating under the stress of combat to fictionalized stories that lionize the behavior of characters who wear uniforms and badges. Several books in my collection are based on story-telling about pranks and antics that once were prized as examples of firehouse humor. As a book collector, I add several to my collection every month. I bet you have one or more on your bookshelf, too. However, these stories chronicle the acts of individuals, not organizations, and many of these books herald a past that doesn't exist today.

The question of the fire service's overall image is easier to tackle than the different levels of fire service culture. We all benefit from the association with the hero. Let's dispense with the obvious and suggest that our overall culture is value-driven and based on the idea that those who are willing to put themselves into harm's way to protect life and property share a culture of courage, commitment and competency that demands a fairly high level of personal knowledge, skill and ability. We have the trust of the American public; we are America's heroes. There may be a lot more to it than that, but that's a good start.

The next level is harder, much harder. What is the culture of your department? Want to get more difficult? What is the culture of your platoon? How about your battalion or your individual fire company? Acceptable and unacceptable behavior at these levels are an order of magnitude more important than crafting the fire service's image. I would say that it's possible to believe in the culture of the fire service overall while still committing absolutely heinous acts at the lowest possible department level.

There's proof of this thesis in the many stories I read on the Internet. One headline stated it succinctly: “Firefighters' Halos of 9/11 Tarnished.” As I reviewed these articles, I started to formulate a series of questions that you might find useful to assess the potential for a cultural bomb going off on your watch.

If you're feeling some butterflies in your stomach at this point because you think I'm going to bash what others in the fire service might have done, forget it. This isn't some self-righteous way to lead or manage a department. It's about the reality of working with human beings in the context of a high-responsibility/high-stress work environment. I'm not making any judgments. I only want to draw attention to the potential for getting into a situation that could compromise an organization.

However, there is a process gaining momentum in the fire service that may apply to this discussion: the focus being placed on ethics. These are not parallel issues; they are concurrent and at some point will intersect with either positive or negative consequences. Again, I'm not suggesting any individual course of behavior. I merely want to recognize that, at any time, there but for the grace of God, go many of you. If you have thought about this topic, maybe it will turn out one way. If you haven't thought about it, it may turn out differently.

The following series of questions will help chief fire officers assess the culture that exists in their firehouses.

• What are the distinguishing characteristics of a lifestyle in our fire stations?
• How is camaraderie developed and sustained? Positively or negatively?
• How is teamwork created at the lowest possible common denominator, the fire company?
• Does familiarity ever breed contempt?
• Is it really true that captains are neither fish nor fowl and won't address disciplinary issues?
• What has gone wrong in fire station culture in the past?
• Is there any difference in a firehouse when individuals eat together as opposed to one where they don't share meals?
• Is there any difference in a firehouse when individuals sleep in common dorms as opposed to individual rooms?
• What is the level of tolerance for “hazing”?
• What is the level of tolerance for humor?
• What happens when an individual has a breach of confidence with other team members?
• What sort of behavior constitutes sexual harassment?
• What does the term “zero tolerance” really mean in an organization?
• How is a person initially accepted into your firehouse culture?
• How is membership in that culture sustained?
• What rites of passage are expected in your department?
• Would the average person in your community be offended by these rites?
• How much are recruit firefighters taught about acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in the fire station?
• How does a person get rejected by a firehouse culture? What are the consequences of that rejection?
• Who is responsible for discipline at the fire company level? The battalion level? The platoon level? The departmental level?
• If a serious incident occurs at a station, what is the level of tolerance for covering it up?
• What is the net effect of the “code of silence” on the organization's credibility?
• If an incident in a fire station results in disciplinary action, what is the punishment for the person who reported it?
• What is the punishment for someone who observed the incident but took no action?
• What behaviors are tolerated in the firehouse?
• What behaviors absolutely aren't tolerated?
• Would the conversation around the dinner table or in the apparatus room be accepted by other members of society?
• What does the term “crossing the line” really mean?
• What components of firehouse culture have negative consequences when viewed through the prisms of gender, religion, race and sexual orientation?
• What happens when political debates occur in the firehouse? Are people who aren't in the room more likely to be criticized than those in the room?
• What are the most positive aspects of firehouse culture in your department?
• Has your department's firehouse culture changed in the last five years?
• Has regional fire service culture changed in the last 10 years?
• Has the culture of the fire service changed in the last 20 years?
• Does working in a busy station affect the culture versus working in a slow station?
• Does the operation of an ambulance or paramedic system affect the culture?
• Do educational levels affect the culture?
• What are the primary factors as to whether an individual has high morale?
• What are the determining factors as to whether a fire company has high morale?
• What are the primary factors as to whether an entire department has high morale?
• What are the signs to the public that there is bad morale in a firehouse?
• How would you characterize the reputation of your department in the community?

If you thought about these questions as you read them, you may have had some of the same thoughts that I experienced while writing them. Did you pause when you remembered some of the things you did as a firefighter? I know I did. Did you recall anything that you or a member of your department did during your last recruit academy that could be misinterpreted? Did you regret doing something in the past? I certainly had that feeling. Were there some questions where you started to defend your personal position on the topic before you answered them? If you're normal, you probably did.

There also are some serious consequences associated with these questions. Careers have ended from these events. Families have been disrupted by these events. Assessing the consequences that have emerged from these events is both complex and threatening. All fire service leaders should be concerned about the trend and pattern that these problems suggest.

I wasn't able to tally up the costs of the numerous lawsuits described in my Internet search, but the judgments ran into the millions and millions of dollars. The costs of the associated lawsuits weren't even tallied. Those are taxpayers' dollars. They are the same dollars we're trying to have allocated to provide staffing and program activity for our agencies. The dollars may be transparent to the budget, but they're real dollars.

Today we present our fire stations as safe havens in many communities. Many departments have opened their doors to battered women. Some states have made the firehouse the preferred location to drop off an unwanted infant so that he or she can be placed into care. Many people drive past the firehouse every night, never really thinking about what's going on. They rest on the knowledge that if they have to call on that station, a crew of people are going to show up shortly and do something to get their day back on track. We have the public confidence.

I once wrote that the symbols of the fire service, such as the Maltese Cross and our gold badges with their bugles, contain an unspoken contract with the society that recognizes them. There's an implied set of behaviors that go along with that concept. The culture of an organization that places a high priority on respect, dignity, discipline and sense of duty will go a long way toward sustaining the credibility of those symbols. The opposite results in their erosion.

We can lose credibility in a matter of moments when some type of behavior violates what the community thinks is appropriate. If we want to retain the public confidence, the entire rank and file of the fire service — from the newest probie up to the veteran firefighter who's about to leave the service for a well-deserved retirement — needs to ask the basic question: Am I doing the right thing?

I don't believe that the fire service is doomed to become a sterile and hostile workplace because we have squeezed the adventure and excitement out of it by becoming a humorless, and perhaps characterless, profession. To the contrary, I think that we need to create a culture that gives ample consideration to grace and courage in the line of duty as background for our interaction around the dining room table.

We have the obligation to create a workplace free of violence and animosity. The public may not tell us that this expectation is there, but it is. The community is likely to serve as judge and jury and vote with its support or denial of the fire service programs in the future.

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With more than 40 years in the fire service, Ronny J. Coleman has served as fire chief in Fullerton and San Clemente, Calif., and was the fire marshal of the State of California from 1992 to 1999. He is a certified fire chief and a master instructor in the California Fire Service Training and Education System. A Fellow of the Institution of Fire Engineers, he has an associate's degree in fire science, a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in vocational education.