Tim Sendelbach: Company Officer Development

Coming in as an outsider is always a challenge, as Tim Sendelbach can attest from when he joined the Savannah Fire Department as training chief. In his Company Officer Development class, Sendelbach shared his recipe for success in Savannah: Apply the “21 irrefutable laws of leadership” developed by John Maxwell. These include:

• Law of the lid: A company officer’s leadership ability determines the company’s effectiveness. Lead by example. Keep them motivated. Don’t dump problems on subordinates. Engage people with your attitude and your passion.
• Law of process: Leadership develops daily. It’s about the long haul. Seek to get a little better every day.
• Law of navigation: It takes a leader to chart the course. Good company officers have a vision.
• Law of connection: Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. Learn to connect with your crew. Firefighters aren’t really good at the “warm and fuzzy” stuff. But company officers must be personable.
• Law of the inner circle: Leaders’ potential is determined by those closest to them. If you don’t have the right people, it’s your job to find greatness within and to compensate as a team for the weaknesses.

Martha Ellis: Fitness & the Company Officer

FireRescue Fitness Editor Martha Ellis spoke about the important role company officers play in firefighter fitness and physical readiness. Many attendees were surprised to learn that NFPA 1500: Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program requires members to be annually qualified for physical operations. The problem: many firefighters and union leaders are resistant to the idea of an annual physical ability test (PAT). Ellis provided tips for moving in the right direction, acknowledging that change is often slow.

• Work with administration, human resources, fire service leaders, the city risk manager, the insurance company, the city attorney and your local union to drive the change needed to raise the fitness standard and implement an annual test.
• Ensure your fitness program has the following components: an entry-level physical ability test and medical exam; equipment and training programs; time to train and a commitment to train off-duty; an annual fitness assessment and medical exam; an annual physical ability test and medical exam; and a return-to-duty physical ability test and medical exam.

• Keep PAT scores confidential.
• Allow crews time to work out on duty but don’t take them out of service.
• Conduct the fitness assessment in spring and the PAT in fall.

Alan Saulsbury: Minimum vs. Optimal Apparatus Options

With more than 45 years of experience in the fire apparatus industry, Alan Saulsbury, now head of Plastisol North America, discussed with attendees NFPA standards past, present and in the works, as well as basic rules of thumb for apparatus design. Some highlights:

• NFPA 1912: Standard for Fire Apparatus Refurbishing will require that trucks be refurbished after 15 years of service.
• Annex D of NFPA 1912 provides substantiation for putting trucks out of service. This can be handy when requesting funds. Too many in-service apparatus today present a liability due to their age. 
• NFPA standards will require that apparatus greater than 50,000 lbs. not exceed 60 mph. Those less than 50,000 lbs. cannot exceed 68 mph. Saulsbury predicts that very soon most new apparatus will be equipped with “black boxes” that monitor vehicle stats.
• Consider carefully where you purchase apparatus: In 40 years, 86 manufacturers have gone out of business.
• Ladders for accessing hosebeds are better than folding steps.
• Apparatus rears must be 50 percent covered in reflective, chevron-pattern striping. Require the manufacturer to do this, not the dealer, and seriously consider color-coding discharges.
• Place preconnects low on the apparatus.
• Put fuel ports on both sides of the truck for refueling in a hurry or pinch.
• Aluminum tread plate doesn’t last 20 years—spec aggressive tread.
• When speccing apparatus, request a pump panel blueprint. Make your panels easily removable.
• Remember: NFPA standards are a liability baseline.  

Fred LaFemina: Locating & Rescuing Trapped Firefighters

As a 22-year FDNY veteran, Fred LaFemina has encountered his share of trapped firefighters … and his share of firefighter fatalities. “We’ve gotten good at technical rescue and WMD and so on, and every year we lose guys to fire,” LaFemina says. “We need to remember our basics.”

            So what kills firefighters?

• Poor size-up and search techniques;

• Disorientation;
• Poor communications (“Radios are for listening, not so much for talking.”);
• Inability to recognize dangerous or deteriorating conditions;
• Fear of calling a mayday;
• Trucks arriving ahead of engines; 
• Legally or illegally altered buildings;
• Tight stairs, small landings and too many firefighters working in these areas; and
• Young firefighters—60 percent of firefighters have less than 5 years of experience.

      “There’s a lot of downtime in the firehouse,” LaFemina says. “Take this time to get to know your district. Problems occur during changes of tours. Be completely ready to go at your shift change.”

Greg Jakubowski: Developing & Enhancing a Preplan Program

Firefighters are engaged in a profession where they are generally unfamiliar with the work environment. They race into atmospheres that may be immediately dangerous to life and health, with minimal knowledge about the structure’s layout or potential hazards. With this in mind, Greg Jakubowski provided firefighters a foundation for developing pre-incident information about the structures to which they respond.

            First, where can you get information to help you preplan?

• The structure’s design team;
• The local fire marshal or building officials;
• “Old-timers” at the department who know about area structures; and
• The “other shift” (one shift may have done some preplanning but failed to share it with all shifts).

It’s vital to capture this information, as there are myriad features of any structure that may pose a hazard. Some examples: combustible interior finishes; a facade that’s susceptible to early collapse; openings in the roofs or floors; heavy items on the roof; dangerous animals; swimming pools, pits or other “traps”; and flammable liquids or gases.

            Next, you must prioritize the buildings to be preplanned and develop a format for what the preplan will look like when it’s finished; this should be standardized for the department. You’ll need to reach out to the community for assistance in the project. Finally, once you’ve collected all the necessary information, you must document it, communicate it to others, make it available to anyone who may need to see it and keep it updated.

Opening & Closing Ceremonies

Sponsored by Masimo, the opening and closing ceremonies at the FireRescue Expo featured some legends in the fire service.

      Chase Sargent, a significant agent of change and a consummate advocate for company officers, gave the opening ceremony keynote on “tipping point events” in the fire service. Sargent noted that such events can be good or bad, but they’re always contagious and they require sudden change. He identified three types of people associated with tipping points:

• Connectors—people who collect social contacts (e.g., Chief Billy Goldfeder);
• Mavens—people who collect information (e.g., the IAFC’s John Tippett); and
• Salesmen—people who sell the new ways of doing things (e.g., Alan Brunacini, former Phoenix fire chief).

      Sargent ended by outlining the four tipping points he feels are most needed in the fire service:

• An agreement on staffing—four people on every rig.
• The establishment of a true accountability system that includes GPS 3D tracking.
• Leadership valued, taught and mandatory for all officers.
• Political correctness abolished.

      In the closing ceremony, Gordon Graham, a California Highway Patrol veteran, risk management specialist and a frequent presenter to public safety audiences, shared “Seven Rules for Success.” Culled from Admiral Hyman Rickover’s guiding principles of risk management, these seven rules are directly applicable to company officers seeking to limit risk and improve safety on the fireground. Long known for keeping audiences laughing, Graham didn’t disappoint.

      Also in the closing ceremony, FireRescue’s Company Officer of the Year Award was presented to Richard Kellogg, captain with the Virginia Beach (Va.) Fire Department. David Dalrymple, a career EMS provider for the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital/St. Peter’s University Hospital Emergency Medical Services in New Brunswick, N.J., and an extrication educator with Roadway Rescue, was awarded the Harvey Grant Excellence in Rescue Award, sponsored by Holmatro and FireRescue.