On a quiet Tuesday afternoon at the fire station there was a knock at the door. The dispatcher looked to find a teenager who was walking her dog. The teenager asked if she could use the phone to call her dad because she was locked out of the house. The dispatcher handed her the phone, she made the call, and her dad left work to meet her at home. As the girl was leaving, the dispatcher asked her why she walked three blocks from her home to the fire station instead of stopping at a house along the way and asking to use the phone. The girl answered that she knew it would be safe and she knew she would get help.

This story is not unusual. It's assumed that the fire service can solve any problem quickly. Just look at this issue's articles on EMS and elevator and swiftwater operations. In this light should we call ourselves firefighters? For that matter should we even be called a fire department? I don't expect to be able to buy a hammer in a bakery. All of the emergency services mentioned in this paragraph can be considered “rescue.” If we ask ourselves what the goal is of a fire department — or whatever we want to call ourselves because “fire” is not all we do — we might say that it's to protect life and property. Does that then mean we should respond to calls of animals in trouble? That's protecting life. Should we direct traffic when the signals go out? That's protecting property. Can we, and more importantly should we, do it all?

I'm curious to know how many functions local fire departments have taken on that aren't at all related to fire or rescue but are a stretch on the life-and-property concept — there's an interesting book that can be written about that subject. Think about your call volume and how many calls are true emergencies. We may rationalize and justify these as being somehow related to saving life and property. Maybe we never even thought of a rationale, we just do them either because we always have or because we don't know how to say no.

All of these calls are adding to personnel demands and draining the life out of resources. These calls are a financial drain, and in our current economy we need to take a serious look at why we roll out the door. These calls take time, a volunteer fire department's biggest hurdle to recruitment and retention and a career or combination department's biggest contributor to burnout.

We need to take a fresh look at what we're doing and how and why we're doing it. Do we provide the services that the community needs, or do we provide the services that we think the community needs and expects? What determines these services?

The simple answer to what determines the services we provide is resources, both personnel and financial. That's the easy answer. The authority having jurisdiction certainly has a great deal of say in the matter. Another factor that enters into the decision is a community-needs analysis to determine the citizens expected level of protection. These studies will clearly identify the risks and hazards in a given community. They will also identify the roles and responsibilities of the department. This community-needs analysis must be intensely studied so that the elected officials, the community and the department are on the same page.

Other important considerations are internal department issues such as morale, policies, structure, standard operating procedures or guidelines, and personnel expectations. There also are external driving forces to factor in, including OSHA regulations and NFPA standards, as well as the required training to perform various services.

All the stakeholders in the community must be involved in the determination of services. These stakeholders are firefighters, fire officers, citizens, and elected and appointed local leaders. At the same time it's the obligation of the fire chief to inform the AHJ and the community about the ability and wherewithal of the department to perform such services, keeping in mind the training and time demands required to deliver these services. This analysis helps make communities safer, increases firefighter safety, reduces liability and allows more efficient use of resources. It aids the department in establishing a practical and workable vision, mission, values, goals and objectives. Operational planning also helps with the efficient day-to-day running of the fire department while effectively using the resources of the department to provide a comfortable and acceptable level of service.

We can no longer run our fire departments on a day-to-day basis. We must have plans for the future and clear policies and procedures in place that are fiscally responsible and stress-reducing. Departments can no longer think that they are isolated islands; they must look at themselves as part of a system of overall governmental protection. For example, a typical behavior is for each department in a region to have its own high-angle, swiftwater and confined-space rescue teams, as well as vehicle extrication teams and an EMS services unit. It's time to regionalize or consolidate these activities, or even eliminate such activities or others that a department has traditionally provided.

Another thought that could stem from this analysis is that the department may feel that as a result of this analysis process it feels that it should share some tasks with another department in the region or simply delegate that responsibility to a department that has also done a complete analysis and feels it can provide the service without straining its own resources.

Education is necessary to give the community a clear understanding of what exactly is an emergency that your department will mitigate. It's also important to inform the public where they can receive non-emergency services. A non-emergency number should be set up. Through this education the fire department, or what can be better named the fire and emergency services department, can maintain the community's great respect and sometimes awe without being viewed as the wizard who can solve anything and everything. Your role will be clearly defined.

This won't stop citizens from dropping by or calling the station when they need assistance. It will, however, enable firefighters or emergency medical technicians to know exactly how to render assistance by helping a citizen directly or referring them to the proper agency. This also will result in the lowering of the number of times the apparatus rolls to non-emergency situations, which will in turn reduce line-of-duty injuries and deaths and perhaps make it possible for more fire prevention tasks to be accomplished.

Chief Mike Chiaramonte is a 35-year member of the Lynbrook (N.Y.) Fire Department and a past chief of the department. He's currently the chief fire inspector, where he's responsible for code enforcement and prevention education. Chiaramonte was a past chairman and board member of the IAFC Volunteer and Combination Officers Section Board and New York State Director to the IAFC Eastern Division. He's also a National Fire Academy Instructor and an advisor to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. Chiaramonte is a state EMT-CC and an instructor at the Nassau County EMS Academy. He has as a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston and a master's degree from Hofstra University, both in communications education.