Who gives a hoot? Do you give a hoot? What is a hoot, anyway? Well, unless we're talking about owls, the phrase more or less means that unless you speak up about something, nobody knows whether you care about it. Giving a hoot means caring enough about something to be vocal about it.

So who gives a hoot about fire and life-safety in your community? Who should give a hoot?

We in the fire service believe that it is obvious that we care about our citizens or we wouldn't be in this business. Providing for fire and life safety is, at its highest level, a game of caring and compassion. Those individuals who suffer a loss from a fire are both anonymous and very personal to us.

Every customer is someone's family member, friend and neighbor. And few of our customers question whether we will provide to them fire and life-safety services — the fire service is an equity service, rich man, poor man, beggar man and thief. That's our goal and it is admirable. But it is not a guarantee.

Recently I had a very interesting conversation about this concept, prompted by fire officials who spoke out against the installation of residential sprinklers and a code hearing. I asked one of the sprinkler opponents what his reasons were. He answered that he had a hard time forcing a homeowner to take an action that was not based on the homeowner's concern over his own safety. In short, where is the outcry from the people we are trying to protect? Where is the public support for this concept? Why aren't more homeowners at these hearings? Where are the angry wives and upset husbands? If a man's home is his castle, why doesn't he give a hoot about its protection?

Good question.

One of the things our adversaries from the National Association of Home Builders often mention is that the fire service's priorities aren't the public's priorities. Do our residents think that because they have a fire station down the street and access to 911 systems that they don't need residential sprinkler? As those who oppose residential sprinklers often point out, very few people are demanding that such devices be installed. It can seem like the public would rather trade in residential sprinklers for a carpet upgrade or a better tile. This is one of the most significant issues in residential fire sprinkler advocacy — does the public really care about residential fire safety?

It might not seem so, until you talk to someone who has lost a loved one. They care — a lot! Several of our staunchest supporters fall into that category. They have suffered serious losses and are doing everything they can to prevent future losses. But very few in the public get to hear their message.

There have been some tremendous efforts to raise the level of consciousness on the part of the consuming public. Life Alert's “I've fallen and I can't get up” ads resulted in demand for a mechanism the elderly could use to notify emergency services. ADT Security urges you to protect “your family's investment.” But it would be difficult for me to write that residential sprinklers are a widespread concern in personal households.

Or are they? Most everybody realizes that fire and life safety are an important consideration for their families. Recently, I was at the scene of a grass fire in the Sacramento, Calif., area. A group of houses were in the path of rapidly moving fire. The owners of those homes, suddenly became personally aware of just how important a fire break could be. I found out later that a neighborhood group had opposed the cutting of a firebreak in the area. They had opposed the project because it was ugly. I call that foxhole religion. The corollary to foxhole religion is what I call fire-front conversions. The higher the flame heights, the more the people in the path of a fire get concerned about their future.

One might think that garnering public support is part of public education. You can argue that sometimes people don't know what is good for them until they have been told what the medicine is. You also could argue that garnering public support is part of the political process, because only those communities that have a sense of consequence do the right thing in terms of adopting codes and ordinances. In almost all cases in a representative government the actions taken by those in an elected position are considered to be part of community awareness. Therefore, those areas that have taken action to adopt things such as sprinkler ordinances and other modern fire-protection measures are a direct reflection of public concern.

The phrase “we never saw it coming” is almost always an admission that something has happened without a warning. Unfortunately, warnings often go unheeded. It sure sounds like a double-edged sword to me. And that places a premium on the concept of public education. No one in your community should be able to use that last phrase as an excuse.

As the debate continues to occur over the desirability and the use of residential-sprinkler technology, the consuming public needs to be brought deeper into this discussion. But how can we do that?

The answer is found in the fundamentals of almost all advocacy groups. It is in the commitment of those who have the most to lose. Take for example Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Did law enforcement create that organization? No. It was created by a much more powerful force — angry mothers. Their campaign to eliminate drunk driving has four elements that they stick to with a vengeance: high-visibility law enforcement, ignition interlock, advanced vehicle technologies and public support.

According to MADD's Web site, the number of deaths from drunk driving-related traffic crashes in 2008 was an estimated 11,773. Three out of every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetimes. Moreover, someone is killed, on average, every 45 seconds by a drunk driver. Those numbers can be translated into workload for EMS personnel.

I wonder how many lives are lost every year to alcohol-related fires. I have been on more than a half-dozen fires where drinking and smoking have contributed to deaths. I only can hope that someday mothers will get MADD about fire deaths.

The fire service needs many more public-interest and/or advocacy groups to tell the story of fire safety. These lobby groups, pressure groups and special-interest groups can be a powerful influence on political decisions.

The general theory is that individuals must be enticed with some type of benefit to join a special-interest group. Most join because they are upset about something. When individuals do not need to be a member of a particular interest group to reap the benefits of that group, there is apathy. In the public's mind, they don't need to help the fire service do its job. They expect response. This is especially true if the fire service is only being measured by its response to emergencies. So there is no real incentive to join an interest group if they will receive that benefit anyway. We have to change that perception

That is where we in the fire service need to provide leadership and advocacy. That's our job. If we don't care about public education, then no one else will either. If we don't work hard to get supporters for the concept of public education, it will not happen. We need to do everything we can to get the citizens to join in the chorus of concern about fire and life safety.

In the movie Network, one of the characters shouted out, “I'm mad as hell, and I am not going to take this anymore!” When we have neighborhood associations saying they are concerned about residential fire losses, then we will have community support. When we have survivors sending that message to their legislators without us being the ones that take them to the hearing, we will have community support.

Only then will we know that they give a hoot.

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.

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For More Info

American Fire Sprinkler Association
12750 Merit Dr., Suite 350
Dallas, Texas 75251
www.firesprinkler.org

American Society of Sanitary Engineers
901 Canterbury Rd.
Westlake, Ohio 44145-1480
www.qsse.plumbing.org

Center for Campus Fire Safety
10 State St.
Newburyport, Mass. 01950
www.campusfiresafety.org

Home Safety Council
1250 Eye St., NW
Suite 100
Washington D.C. 20005
www.homesafetycoucil.org
www.mysafehome.org

International Residential Code Fire Sprinkler Coalition
8207 Asmara Dr.
Austin, Texas 78750
www.ircfiresprinler.org

Institution of Fire Engineers U.S. Branch
PO Box 22505
Alexandria, Va. 22304
www.ifeusa.org

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services
101 Monroe St., 12th Floor
Rockville, Md. 20850
www.mcfrs.org

National Fire Sprinkler Association
P.O. Box 810
Warrenton, Va. 20188
www.nfsa.org

NFPA
1 Batterymarch Park
Quincy, MA 02169
www.nfpa.org
www.firesprinkleriniutitative.org

PARADE
3400 John Carroll Drive
Olney, Md. 20832

Phoenix Society of Burn Survivors
1835 RW Berends Dr., SW
Grand Rapids, Mich. 49519
www.phoenix-society.org