Written by Adam K. Thiel
I recently completed 30 years of service in public safety, most of which was spent in local fire emergency services departments across the United States. I have also visited, learned from, studied and worked alongside many other organizations around the world. Reaching the 30 year mark made me think about the past, present and future From the fire service.
Living in the same “Old Town” area of Philadelphia that Benjamin Franklin called home, I'm surrounded by history, and it's always surreal to think about the progress our fire service has made in the nearly 300 years since he helped form the Union Fire Company in 1736.
As Franklin understood, fire departments exist in the broader public policy sphere that affects every aspect of our mission—at the emergency scene, at the firehouse, in our neighborhoods, and throughout the halls of our governments. In such dynamic organizations, change is a constant; Learning to embrace it, while appreciating our history, is essential to creating a future in which we are relevant, respected, and properly resourced to serve our diverse communities.
technology
For my part, over the past three decades in this business, I've seen a lot of changes and some things that haven't changed much or at all. Continued technological advances have brought us capabilities – and potential threats – that would have been the stuff of science fiction in recent years. Smart watches? Look at your wrist. Drones? Checks. Electric car? Yes. Seeing through the smoke? somewhat. Robots? Heading there. artificial intelligence? Moving fast. Instant video conferencing? Turn the camera on. Self-driving cars? Coming soon to a city near you.
Other technologies that promise to fundamentally change the nature of fire protection have not yet achieved universal adoption, such as automatic fire sprinklers. Some technological “advancements” in modern building materials and consumer products are actually leveling the fire environment more Dangerous for firefighters in the 21st century. Fires causing multiple fatalities continue to occur regularly in cities around the world, while the global climate emergency has made wildfires and extreme weather a year-round problem on several continents.
Meanwhile, we in the fire service continued to do anything and everything we were asked to do. This “can-do” attitude is our greatest strength and our greatest responsibility. We have created an almost universal expectation that we will save lives and protect property under any circumstances and in any environment; Even when the odds of success are incredibly low, the probability of firefighter injury or death is excessively high.
Early in my career, I believed technology would virtually eliminate building fires and perhaps render interior structural firefighting obsolete. On the contrary, the science is clear: fires are burning hotter and faster than ever before, civilian fire deaths are on the rise, and more of our fellow firefighters are being added to the memorial walls every year.
As firefighters, we live – and die – at the intersection of forces we often have no control over. We do our work at the heart of a complex system that for most people is out of sight and out of mind. However, when tragedy strikes, firefighters are seen on the front lines – fighting and often dying to fix fire safety gaps caused by the failure of the unwilling or unaware.
work as one team
Almost every day, I continue to witness firsthand the street-level social and economic impacts of our nation's fire problem along with the courage, courage, skill and compassion of our dedicated firefighters and EMS providers who – working together in high-performance teams – we save lives and protect property 24/7. /365.
Since Franklin's time, teamwork has been the hallmark of the fire service, and I hope it will remain one of our core competencies into the future. Perhaps one day we will add AI-powered robots to help perform key firefighting functions, but I predict that, for many years to come, we will rely on humans to make critical life-saving decisions from within the dynamic environments where we live. a job.
The composition of our teams is changing for the better as EMS departments become more diverse; Continuing progress towards ensuring that we have inclusive, respectful and cohesive teams remains essential to effective firefighting performance and maintaining the trust of those we serve.
trust
Whatever the future holds, we must keep the core principles of our fire service strong, especially the trust that binds us together in service as sisters and brothers, along with the trust that allows us to be so respected in our communities that people literally give up on us. Their children and expect us (rightfully) to “take over.”
It is this level of trust, earned by our ancestors and through the sacrifices of our colleagues in the line of duty, that keeps the fire service consistently high on the 'Most Trusted Professions' list, even as overall trust in government institutions is relatively low. a little.
Trust also creates an opportunity for all of us in the fire service to begin an open, honest and frank public policy dialogue about fire protection in our communities. I'm not just talking about providing fire safety education or justifying operating budgets; This doesn't go far enough. What we must do, if we truly want to shift from reactive to proactive service, is help people understand that they are co-producers of fire safety outcomes in their homes, businesses and neighborhoods.
corporate responsibility
In economic terms, fire protection is usually viewed as a public good – that is, it can be difficult to break down and calculate costs individually, especially in urban areas where people live in close quarters. Although generally accepted as a public good, fire safety is not always viewed as a shared public responsibility.
When discussing the value of public fire protection services and systems, we are often at a disadvantage due to an inability or unwillingness to discuss the true costs and benefits of a properly functioning fire safety system including, and beyond that, the cost of providing firefighting departments. Fires. This results in information asymmetries whereby citizens, policymakers, and sometimes some in the fire service, do not fully understand or do not properly appreciate the complex relationships between various policies, policy actors, and other factors that influence fire protection outcomes in a given community.
When I talk to ordinary citizens around my city, I'm always surprised by how little people know about it they EMS Fire Department – Our capabilities, limitations and the real costs/benefits of the services we provide. It is also my experience that many elected officials and other policymakers are similarly unaware of how public fire protection works, let alone the many complexities of a comprehensive fire safety system in their communities. I don't blame anyone, I call on people to take action.
Fire safety and building design
Besides educating ordinary people in our cities, towns and villages, I also believe we desperately need firefighters to help companies, investors and companies throughout the global supply chain understand how their decisions about design, engineering, production, testing and marketing impact them. -or-death implications for their clients.
From now on, we the fire service can help define fire as a problem that we must all solve proactively by working together and not just something to think about for a few months after another tragedy. We must continue to work to create greater public awareness, support, and understanding that firefighters alone cannot provide fire safety for those we serve.
We need to enlist others — developers, building owners, residents, elected officials — to take action for their safety and not rely on the fire service to fix every problem, especially when the deck is stacked against us.
. . .
When I next pass the site of Ben Franklin's home and the spot in Grindstone Alley where Philadelphia's first (hand-pumped) fire engine was stored, I know he would be proud of how the American fire service has evolved to meet the challenges that he and his fellow members of the Union Fire Company cannot To never dream of it. I also think he would agree that technology, teamwork and trust will continue to help define the future of the fire service, just as it has defined our past 287 years.
Adam K. Thiel He became the 20th Commissioner of the Philadelphia Fire Department (PA) in May 2016 and is responsible for leading its more than 3,000 members in every aspect of protecting the city from fires and all-hazard emergencies. Thiel also served as Director of the Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management from 2019 to 2022. He has more than 30 years of experience working in government, the private sector, and nonprofit organizations in five states.
