The most recent U.K./U.S. Fire Service Symposium convened in Northern Ireland to finalize a document that will help guide fire departments into the new century.

When the United Kingdom/United States Fire Service Symposium met for the sixth time in five years, some things were the same and some were different.

The meeting, held at the end of July in Belfast and hosted by the Northern Ireland Fire Brigade, focused on the role of the chief fire officer in 2010.

Convened immediately following the Institution of Fire Engineers annual general meeting, the symposium for the first time invited a small group of African delegates who had attended the agm. (See page 10 for the report on the ife meeting.)

There was even more new to the invitation-only symposium than that, though, because the now-customary two-day format aimed higher than simply candid and freewheeling discussion on the fire service's present and future. Instead, the symposium's current goal is to publish a short, useful guide for change-seeking chief fire officers on both sides of the Atlantic.

This document, first conceived at last year's Chicago-area meeting, will focus on the 10 areas of greatest importance to the fire service's future (in alphabetical order):

- change, - community,

- fairness, - funding,

- leadership, - politics,

- role, - technology,

- vision and - work force.

Once "Vision 2010: Communique for Change," as it's tentatively titled, has been finalized by the symposium's members, it will appear in both Fire Chief and Fire, the United Kingdom's leading fire magazine, possibly before the end of the year.

(For reports on earlier conferences, see "Great lake, great debates," January 2000; "Common ground, an ocean apart," January 1999; "Deep in the heart of Texas," January 1998; "All the learned and authentic fellows," December 1996; and "Hands across the water," May 1996, all available at .)

Though the focus was on the Communique for Change, there was plenty of good debate along the way. In the discussion on change, Paul Woods, chief fire officer of the Nottinghamshire (U.K.) Fire and Rescue Service, suggested that a good way to encourage constructive change is to link customers' expectations with employees' aspirations.

On the opposite side of the same coin, Geoff Goddard, chief fire officer of the Buckinghamshire (U.K.) Fire and Rescue Service, noted that threats (of such actions as reductions in force or budget cuts), though relatively common, are often counterproductive in getting the work force to buy into change.

During the community session, Woods proposed that "true partnership" might mean giving up turf or even resources to other agencies or other partners that can do a job better, if that's in the best interests of the public. Doing so, he cautioned, however, would go up against "the fortress mentality of the fire station."

One way to help those kinds of partnerships develop, said Chief Bruce Varner of the Carrollton (Texas) Fire Department, is to get fire officers out to community meetings on a regular basis. Greg Cade, chief of the Virginia Beach (Va.) Fire Department, noted that he sends district chiefs to monthly community-policing meetings.

Paul Young, chief fire officer of the Devon (U.K.) Fire & Rescue Service, raised the important, and often rhetorical, question "Does the community know enough about you?" Citizen fire academies, to cite one example, can be a tool to create "intelligent customers" who are knowledgeable about their local fire department.

"If we wait for the customer to tell us what they want," opined Diane Breedlove, former chief of the Sugar Land (Texas) Fire Department, "we'll always be behind the curve." Michael Freeman, chief fire officer of the Bedfordshire and Luton (U.K.) Fire & Rescue Service, suggested a "leadership with consultation" approach, that is, leadership by the fire department but combined with ongoing consultation with the community.

Gary Morris, deputy chief with the Phoenix Fire Department, emphasized the importance of customizing services to different parts of the community, and Steve McGuirk, chief fire officer of the Cheshire (U.K.) Fire Authority, made a related point when he said, "There is no generic `community.'"

As the foundation underlying the expanding spectrum of fire department services, said George Almond, county fire officer of the Greater Manchester (U.K.) County Fire Service, "Our ultimate vision is that we have a fire-safe society." He also discussed the high proportion of fires that are tied to crime (See his article "Fire and crime," August 1999, available at .)

Bill Peterson, chief of the Plano (Texas) Fire Department and one of the symposium's co-founders, concluded the session by saying, "The best way to predict the future is to create it."

Regarding fairness, John Bonney, deputy chief fire officer of the Gloucestershire (U.K.) Fire & Rescue Service, pointed out that the public sector has a difficult task, because it's generally held to a higher standard of perceived fairness than the private sector is.

On the implementation of fairness and diversity, Chief Phil Stittleburg of the La Farge (Wis.) Fire Department said, "You can legislate action, but you can't legislate attitude." The result of trying to regulate employees' attitudes, he said, is too often "required fairness delivered grudgingly."

In the discussion on funding, Geoff Wilkins, assistant chief fire officer of the Devon Fire & Rescue Service, noted that the fire service generally assumes that the funding situation will be the same in 10 years as it is now. He questioned whether in fact the fire service should be assuming that, as opposed to thinking more creatively about future funding sources.

"You will never have adequate funding to do all the things you want to do," noted McGuirk, and Varner asked, "What services are you funding, to what standard?"

Fidelis Ogbogoh, comptroller general of the Nigerian Federal Fire Service, commented, "The fire service should be looked on as a national insurance - and funded accordingly."

"We talk about the costs of fire," said Freeman, "but we really don't talk about the savings," such as a one-room fire that, if not for the fire department's response, would have taken down the whole house.

Concluded Bonney, "You cannot detach funding from politics."

During a digression on professional development, Ogbogoh commented that the organization's development can't run parallel to the individual's development, but is instead the culmination of it.

His observation segued into one of the next points when, in the discussion on leadership, Freeman commented that the fire service needs "leaders in the ranks, all the way through."

Although elected officials come in for more than their share of criticism within the fire service, John Herrick, county fire and emergency planning officer of the Lincolnshire (U.K.) Fire Brigade, observed that "politicians have their role to play in leadership, too."

Why assume that future fire service leaders will come from the fire service, asked Simon Hoffman, the editor of Fire magazine. Peterson agreed: "We tend to only look at ourselves for solutions for the future," and that's a mistake.

Dennis Davis, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services for Scotland and the symposium's other co-founder, mentioned that each of Australia's eight state fire services is now run by a ceo who's not from a fire service background. Some came out of the military, while others have a corporate background.

In a discussion about the expansion of emergency response roles, Almond noted that his brigade has the money to put aeds on the rigs, but he knows that if they did so and the public were to find out, aed calls would soon cramp the brigade's ability to answer fire calls.

Morris countered with the observation that fire departments which have avoided adding extra services have done worse over time (in terms of total staffing, firefighter salaries and so forth) than those that did add them.

As the technology session opened, Young recalled the comment at the 1999 Chicago symposium by a Motorola representative that technology is often fully usable only when the organization (and/or the work) is restructured to take best advantage of it.

"You shouldn't be talking about `technology,' you should be talking about `applications,'" said Jeremy Azis, managing director of Vector Command Ltd., which makes a fireground simulation training system. In other words, don't simply search for technology, but start from what you need.

Morris seconded that point, asking why the fire service isn't going to manufacturers and r&d folks and asking for better tools.

Varner raised the question of how many fire chiefs are getting younger firefighters to conferences and shows to see the latest technologies.

In the work force discussions, Goddard noted that typically 3% of the employees take up 90% of the fire chief's time (with complaints, disciplinary matters and so forth) and skew the chief's perception of how good the work force really is overall. The same 3% also keep the fire chief from spending more, and more-constructive, time with the rest of the work force, added Bob Docherty, Ph.D., assistant firemaster, Strathclyde (U.K.) Fire Brigade.

Despite widespread complaints in both countries' fire services about the quality of younger firefighters, Goddard contended that many of them don't present the problems (in areas like tolerance for diversity, attitudes toward technology and communications skills) that the veterans do, even though they might initially lack some of the mechanical skills.

Almond and Davis both hit on the point that part of the work force issue is how to help people keep their good attitudes and not get demoralized by other firefighters.

Finally, asked Peterson, is the fire service trying to hire people with a certain skill set, or are fire departments trying to hire the same types of people they've always hired?

The next symposium is tentatively scheduled for the Washington, D.C., area in mid-October of 2001. In the meantime, the "Communique for Change" will be disseminated as widely as possible. Look for it in Fire Chief.