Fire Chiefs Research Articles

Volunteer Fire Chiefs’ Perceptions of Retention and Recruitment Challenges in Rural Fire Departments: The Case of North Dakota, USA

Many rural volunteer fire departments in the US are contending with decreasing numbers of volunteers. General social change and changes specific to firefighting have created retention and recruitment challenges for rural fire departments across the nation. The present study examines volunteer fire chiefs’ perceptions of these challenges in a state where there has been a long-term decline in the state’s rural population. The study draws on data collected from a statewide survey of volunteer fire department chiefs in North Dakota. This study found that chiefs did not see turnover as a major problem, but chiefs did report the need for many more volunteer firefighters and much more training to improve their departments. Consistent with national studies, chiefs identified age, time demands, government mandates, and personality conflicts as turnover triggers. In contrast with national studies, chiefs did not report loss of interest as a significant trigger. Finally, the study examines the sizable gap reported by chiefs between the number of active and inactive volunteers on department rosters and suggests how inactive volunteers might be utilized to recruit.

What does it cost to prevent on-duty firefighter cardiac events? A content valid method for calculating costs.

Cardiac arrest is a leading cause of mortality among firefighters. We sought to develop a valid method for determining the costs of a workplace prevention program for firefighters. In 2012, we developed a draft framework using human resource accounting and in-depth interviews with experts in the firefighting and insurance industries. The interviews produced a draft cost model with 6 components and 26 subcomponents. In 2013, we randomly sampled 100 fire chiefs out of >7,400 affiliated with the International Association of Fire Chiefs. We used the Content Validity Index (CVI) to identify the content valid components of the draft cost model. This was accomplished by having fire chiefs rate the relevancy of cost components using a 4-point Likert scale (highly relevant to not relevant). We received complete survey data from 65 fire chiefs (65% response rate). We retained 5 components and 21 subcomponents based on CVI scores ≥0.70. The five main components include, (1) investment costs, (2) orientation and training costs, (3) medical and pharmaceutical costs, (4) education and continuing education costs, and (5) maintenance costs. Data from a diverse sample of fire chiefs has produced a content valid method for calculating the cost of a prevention program among firefighters.

Health Concerns of the U.S. Fire Service: Perspectives from the Firehouse

Firefighters are expected to respond to any domestic emergency at a moment's notice, and therefore their health and readiness are key to the public safety net. Although emerging research is focusing on understanding firefighters' increased risk for disease and injury, the perspectives of fire service personnel is lacking. This study uses the cross-sectional qualitative data collection techniques of key informant interviews and focus groups. Data collection occurred with a national sample of firefighters from 28 (municipal and federal) career fire departments. Participants were 332 career firefighters (57.2%), company officers (23.4%), fire chiefs (15.4%), and other fire service personnel (3.9%). Focus groups and informant interviews were conducted with firefighters, fire chiefs, health promotion personnel, and medical directors to assess attitudes, opinions, and perceptions about firefighter health. Major themes that developed among fire service personnel included concerns about cancer, risk of cardiovascular disease, the importance of and barriers to physical fitness, the food culture of the firehouse, psychological stress resulting from repeated exposure to trauma, sleep disruptions, injuries, and risk for infectious disease. Health concerns identified by firefighters are juxtaposed with current efforts and trends within the national fire service. The health concerns of firefighters parallel both available epidemiological research and the health priorities of national fire service organizations. Unfortunately, these concerns often are in contrast with efforts by local governments to limit their financial liability for illnesses presumed to be caused by occupational exposures and long-held traditions in the fire service. This study highlights the need for epidemiological surveillance of firefighters and innovative health and organizational policy in the fire service. Future directions for the fire service, the public health community, and researchers are discussed.

The health of women in the US fire service.

BackgroundDespite statements from national fire service organizations, including the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), promoting a diverse work force related to gender within the fire service, rates of women firefighters remain very low. Thus, research into why this extensive gender disparity continues is a high priority. Recent years have seen a number of large scale studies on firefighter health and health risk behaviors however, none have focused on the health of women firefighters and nearly all have eliminated women from the sample due to small sample size. Data from the present report is drawn from all females in a large, randomly selected cohort of firefighters in an epidemiological study designed to assess health outcomes and health risk behaviors identified as most important to the fire service.MethodsData reported for the present study were collected as baseline data for the Firefighter Injury and Risk Evaluation (FIRE) Study, a longitudinal cohort study examining risk factors for injury in both career and volunteer firefighters in the IAFC Missouri Valley Region. Of the departments assessed, only 8 career and 6 volunteer departments had any women firefighters. All the women solicited for participation chose to enroll in the study. The number of women ranged from 1 to 7 in career departments and 1 to 6 in volunteer departments.ResultsWhere possible, comparisons are made between female firefighters and published data on male firefighters as well as comparisons between female firefighters and military members. Compared to male firefighters, females had more favorable body composition among both career and volunteer firefighters. Tobacco use rates were generally higher among females than males and rates among female firefighters were similar to the rates of female military members. While rates of alcohol use were higher than the general population, only one of the participants evidenced responses in the range of concern on the CAGE screening.ConclusionsIn general, the findings offer an interesting glimpse of the health of women in the fire service as a generally healthy occupational workforce with some unique health risk behavior challenges. They also highlight some of the similarities and differences between male and female firefighters and bolster the argument for studying female firefighters as a unique occupational sub-population.

Sprawl and fire department response times across the United States

Fire emergencies demand an immediate response from fire departments so that precious lives may be saved. How those services are distributed in a city will have a tremendous impact on how timely residents will receive a response.Urban sprawl, the pervasive development pattern of the United States, may also have a considerable impact on how agencies respond to everyday emergencies. Urban sprawl creates inefficiencies in service provision and has negative externalities, such as congestion, which also impact public safety. This study investigated and analyzed fire protection as an urban service and the impacts of urban sprawl on fire response. The goal for this study was to examine the impact of the landscape and the characteristics that are associated with sprawl on response times. Data from eight major US cities were collected, including Louisville, KY, Houston, TX, San Francisco, CA, Miami, FL, Seattle,WA, Portland, OR, Charlotte, NC, and St. Paul, MN. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used in the examination of cities and their fire districts. Linear regression was used as the main quantitative technique to regress response times (as the main dependent variable) along with the other variables that were associated with sprawl.Three fire chiefs from Louisville, KY, were also interviewed from an urban, urban/suburban, suburban fire districts to assess the impact of sprawl on their respective fire districts. Results indicate that there is variation of how characteristics of urban sprawl affect response times and that the results vary within cities and between cities. Some of the sprawl variables were found to hinder response times in some cities, whereas the opposite was true for other cities.When designing new urban/suburban communities, some of the general recommendations are that steps should be taken to reduce congestion, commuting, and vehicle ownership allowing for better access. Other authors have suggested that both developers and consumers should face higher costs associated with the risk of living in sprawled areas than people may reconsider their choices on where to live, reducing the demand for sprawled types of developments.

Volunteer Fire Department Perceptions of ICS and NIMS

A mail survey designed to explore perceptions of the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) was sent to volunteer fire fighters and department chiefs in Spring of 2008. The data demonstrated that both ICS and NIMS were not well perceived among responding volunteer fire chiefs and volunteer fire fighters in North Dakota. Rather than indicating issues with the ICS or NIMS systems themselves, respondents’ comments revealed concerns with the systems to be rooted in their status as volunteers and their residence in rural areas.

A response to ‘Fighting the fire’: fire chiefs’ proposal to run England’s ambulance service

In October 2010, JPP published a comment by Prof Malcolm Woollard, titled ‘Fighting the fire: a response to fire chiefs’ proposal to run England’s ambulance service’, expressing his view as to why the proposal by the Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA) is not workable. JPP has received a letter regarding this, which is printed below, along with a response from Prof Woollard that also discusses the latest report published by the CFOA.

VFire: Immersive wildfire simulation and visualization

The destruction caused by wildfires has led to the development of various models that try to predict the effects of this phenomenon. However, as the computational complexity of these models increases, their utility for real-time applications diminishes. Fortunately, the burgeoning processing power of the graphics processing unit can not only mitigate these concerns but also allow for high-fidelity visualization. We present VFire, an immersive wildfire simulation and visualization system. Users are placed in a virtual environment generated from real-world data regarding topology and vegetation. There they can simulate wildfires in real-time under various conditions. They can then experiment with various suppression techniques, such as fire breaks and water drops. The simulation is performed on the graphics card, which then provides visualization of the results. The system is intended to train fire chiefs in planning containment efforts and to educate firefighters, policymakers, and the general public about wildfire behavior and the effects of preventative measures.

The relationship between risk and homeland security financing: a survey of florida city managers and fire chiefs

Survey findings from Florida reveal that larger, higher risk communities perceive greater budgetary trade-offs, a view that supports in part the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recently implemented strategy in distributing its grants. Per expectations, city managers with graduate education saw higher levels of readiness and lower threat risk than fire chiefs. Consistent with prior research, cities were reprogramming and using existing funds rather than new levies for homeland security initiatives. This finding was buttressed by results that recently enacted property tax limits and cuts in federal aid were seen as the greatest challenges to increased funding. Contrary to mainstream public administration writing, our respondents stated that restrained funding rather than intergovernmental coordination was the biggest issue they faced in meeting homeland security needs. Overall, our respondents saw a low risk of terror threat, a perception that may represent an accurate read of the operating environment or an implicit belief that higher levels of government will provide significant assistance in the event of a major terrorist attack or other conflagration.

Designing and Maintaining a Communication Consulting Relationship: A Fire Officer Case Study

This case study describes a 35-year communication consulting relationship with the Illinois Fire Chiefs’ Association. This case explains the fire chiefs’ educational problems, the five-step method for creating an educational curriculum for fire officers, and the five-step procedure for continuous evaluation of the curriculum. Finally, an instructional communication model for the fire service is outlined which guides the teaching of three communication courses for fire officers in the State of Illinois.

Missed Opportunities: Origin, Growth, and Decline of Community College Fire Science Degree Programs in Alabama, 1977 to 2002

There was rapid growth of Alabama community colleges in the late 1960s. At the same time, there was rapid growth nationally of fire science associate degree programs. With these concurrent events, one would expect fire department personnel in Alabama to benefit from new community college opportunities in fire science and fire administration. Instead, participation in fire science degree programs has been disappointing. Almost 40 years later, most of the fire-related community college programs in Alabama have closed due to low enrollment, while the national trend for fire science programs indicates steady or growing enrollment elsewhere. This article looks at the 25-year period of 1977 to 2002. Reasons for the decline in Alabama fire-related community college programs are examined. During this period of decline, fire chiefs and leaders of the statewide fire associations failed to publicly embrace higher education. The inescapable conclusion is that the expected benefits to the people of Alabama resulting from significantly higher levels of professional training and education programs for Alabama fire fighters and officers have not been realized.

Ethical Leadership and Administrative Discretion: The Fire Chief's Hiring Dilemma

Recent efforts to reform government are challenging many of the basic theoretical and managerial assumptions of governance at the federal, state, and local levels. Under the political rubric of reinventing government, reform initiatives have devolved administrative decision making to more local levels. In practice this can result in ethical dilemmas for local government administrators as they attempt to reconcile constitutional governance, legal accountability and political environments with the search for flexibility, innovation, and productivity while mimicking private sector processes and practices. This article describes such an ethical dilemma faced by a local government human resource manager and fire chief who were confronted with the decision to succumb to political pressure from prominent citizens, volunteer fire chiefs and city council members to hire unqualified firefighter candidates, or to discount their input and reject the candidates. The authors describe the ethical dilemma and discuss the importance of practicing ethical leadership to build public trust and accountability in the responsible use of administrative discretion while pursuing the public interest.

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and a Stage Model of Persuasion to Evaluate a Safety Message for Firefighters

A field study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) health and safety message targeted at firefighters and to examine predictors of safety intentions among this group. This project examined: (a) the ability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to predict behavioral intentions for firefighters receiving a NIOSH occupational safety and health message; and (b) the use of a persuasion output matrix to assess message impact. A message about firefighting safety was nationally distributed to 36,000 fire chiefs, from which 781 were randomly selected to complete a survey assessing message impact and behavioral intentions. Results indicate message impact was weakest at the exposure, recall, and action stages of persuasion output. The TPB variables were found to significantly predict safety intentions.

An assessment of regional preparedness of volunteer firefighters for weapons of mass destruction incidents

Study objectives: We assess the training and preparedness of the volunteer fire departments in western New York to deal with incidents involving weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Methods: A survey was developed and mailed to the 238 volunteer fire companies of the 8 counties of western New York (Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Genesee, Orleans, and Wyoming). The surveys were number coded to protect the identity of the responding company and were sent to the attention of the fire company chief. Three separate mailings were sent consecutively at 1-month intervals. The remaining fire chiefs who did not reply were contacted by telephone, at which time they were asked to verbally respond to the survey. The data was entered into a spreadsheet for analysis. A point system was applied to the objective portion of the study to assign a training level score of 0 to 5 points, 5 points signifying that more than 50% of the company took specified New York State Fire Academy courses, performed a general disaster drill, a WMD drill, recently reviewed their disaster plan, or purchased WMD-related equipment. The subjective portion of the study consisted of a scale ranging from 1 to 5 that assessed the company's preparedness as indicated by the fire chief, 1 point being completely unprepared to 5 points equaling complete preparedness. Results: The response rate to the survey was 184 companies of 238, or 77% total response. This number represents 5,784 volunteer firefighters. There was a direct correlation between training level scores to the fire chief's perceived preparedness score. A Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.428 was obtained, with a P value less than .01. Conclusion: Preparedness for weapons of mass destruction incidents is directly related to the amount of training activity performed. Despite receiving training, the companies who achieved the highest training score still only felt moderately prepared, which supports the need for more training opportunities to be provided to volunteer firefighters.

Managerial Perceptions and the Production of Fire Protection

Despite compelling impetus to carefully specify the influences on public performance levels, the role of public managers in public production has not been fully characterized or measured. This article argues that an issue central to the study of local government performance is how public managers perceive their decision-making environments. It examines a key aspect of the relationship between public management and government performance by explicitly incorporating public managers in an economic production framework for public services. Aportion of themodel developed in the article is applied to the case of fire chiefs as the primary managers of the production of fire protection by local fire departments. The Q factor analysis technique is used to typologize fire chiefs’ perceptions of their managerial environments.

Take Your Fire Chief to Lunch

In his column, AWWA Executive Director Jack Hoffbuhr discusses the results of a survey conducted during July 2003 by the Opinion Research Corporation. The survey asked 500 fire chiefs, marshals, and commissioners what their most significant challenges were in trying to improve fire protection. 69% said that difficulty accessing adequate water supplies was one of their chief problems and 46% said that lack of cooperation from local water companies was among their primary problems. Hoffbuhr states that these two survey findings are the result of a lack of communication between fire departments and water utilities.

Observed Divergence in the Attitudes of Incumbents and Supervisors as Subject Matter Experts in Job Analysis: A Study of the Fire Captain Rank

This study compares the attitudes of incumbent Fire Captains and their supervisors regarding critical aspects of a Fire Captain's job. Fire Captains and supervisors (Fire Chief, Deputy Fire Chiefs, and Division Chiefs) were held as separate subject matter expert groups in an analysis of the Captain's job. Data regarding the attitudes held by these SME groups concerning the criticality of Fire Captain job tasks and work required knowledge, skills, abilities and worker characteristics were collected through task inventory and worker attribute surveys. These data were compared to determine the degree to which the SME groups agreed upon the critical aspects of the Fire Captain's job. The data indicate that Fire Captains and their supervisors substantially agree upon the criticality of Fire Captain tasks, and moderately agree upon the criticality of requisite Fire Captain attributes. The findings of this study have applications for current job analysis practice as well as point out areas in need of further examination.

Part 12: From Science to Survival

Part 12: From Science to Survival

Decision Making in Emergency Management: A Survey Study

The emergency director's (ED) decision making is decisive for the outcome of an emergency operation. Particularly in large-scale operations, the cognitive demands on the ED are severe. Ninety fire chiefs were interviewed about their own accounts of factors affecting the difficulty level of decisions. Types of decisions described as especially hard to make concerned giving priorities in lifesaving operations and evacuations and whether to adopt an offensive or a defensive fire fighting strategy. Perceived stressors related to lack of information in the initial phase of an operation. Emergency management, being a control task, can be analyzed within the framework of distributed dynamic decision making. Interview data confirmed some findings of previous laboratory research of distributed dynamic decision making. Information needs differ according to the decision-maker's position in the distributed system. A model for evaluation of information transmitted to the emergency management system is proposed.

Assessing Community Fire Risk: A Decision Analysis Based Approach

A prototype community fire risk assessment study was performed for accreditation under the National Fire Service Accreditation Program, developed by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). The fire risk model used for the study quantifies risk as a function of perceived consequence from a fire and probability of fire at a structure. The consequence from a fire is determined through expert judgment using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The probability of fire at a structure is derived from empirical evidence. A simple additive weighting scheme is employed to combine the consequence and probability factors into a single valued measure of perceived fire risk potential for a structure. A classification scheme is then used to group structures according to risk level. The results of this study provide a model and risk assessment tool for fire science practitioners. Language: en