Let it be known that in the year 2012, the popular fire-service adage “200 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress” is officially dead. Why now? First, the U.S. fire service is more than 300 years old. Second, while there still are many fire-service traditions, the past 50 years of the fire service have been all about (selective) progress.
While paging through the August 1993 issue of FIRE CHIEF, I found an article entitled, “Time to Change Our Attitudes About Change.” In it, Chief Rand-Scott Coggan included a list of 25 changes he predicted the fire service would experience in the next 10 years. The list included: the introduction of safety officers; downsizing, right-sizing and privatization; consolidation, both internal and external; physical-fitness requirements; environmental protection; emergency preparedness; and terrorism.
Coggan also wrote about the periods of time in which mankind’s knowledge doubled: from 1500 to 1800, from 1800 to 1900, from 1900 to 1960, and from 1960 to 1990. “Do you begin to realize how rapidly our learning curve has accelerated?” he asked.
Coggan was right on target with many of his predictions, but he could not have anticipated the effect that the Internet and smart devices would have on the fire service and its learning curve. Such technologies offer increased efficiency. Google has replaced encyclopedias for research, and texts are replacing e-mails, which replaced snail mail.
Today, fire departments from around the world are able to share a host of training and public-education videos. These include videos on response to hybrid-vehicle accidents and gas explosions; others are geared to public education and CERT training. (FIRE CHIEF has a collection of pub-ed videos here.) Recently, the Chicago Fire Department posted an educational video on the use of seatbelts. Within three weeks, more than 80,000 viewers watched the 40-minute video.
Moreover, the proliferation of smartphones has given both firefighters and those they protect instant access to news reports of incidents, injuries and fatalities.
And then there’s social media. YouTube has 490 million worldwide unique visitors per month. In less than six years since Facebook went public, it has garnered more than 650 million users, and continues to grow by 10 million users a month — one in every 13 people on earth is on Facebook. Forty-eight percent of young Americans said that they find their news through Facebook, according to a Nielsen report.
But some of these connections come at a cost. Social media can cause serious breaches of public trust if misused by firefighters and other first responders. It is imperative that fire departments have strict guidelines for use of the Internet for its personnel.
I’m sure we’ll continue to hear of fire departments that will hold true to traditions, but hopefully it’s the traditions that are ceremonial and not the ones that are unsafe or needlessly put firefighters at risk due to a lack of training or education.
The Internet can be an amazing tool for the emergency services if harnessed properly. Progress? Absolutely.
Note: This month, FIRE CHIEF welcomes three new members to our editorial advisory board: Chief Michael R. Duyck of Tualatin Valley (Ore.) Fire & Rescue; Chief Timothy Holman of German Township Fire & EMS in Springfield, Ohio; and Chief William Jenaway of the King of Prussia (Pa.) Volunteer Fire Department.
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