MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Chief Michael E. Figolah, Mount Prospect Fire Department

From the May 2007 newsletter...
On January 13, 2007 Mary Werderitch (Executive Director) and I attended the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Prevention Mini-Summit in Washington DC. It was a one-day meeting to explore the relationships between fire prevention and the goal of reducing firefighter injuries and fatalities.

Not sure if everyone is aware of the Foundation’s work. While many of us are aware of the near-miss reporting system, they have much more to offer. The Foundation is playing a major role in helping the U.S. Fire Administration meet its stated goal to reduce firefighter fatalities by 25% within 5 years, and by 50% within 10 years. In addition to helping firefighters survive, we know that the 16 Life Safety Initiatives outlined by the Foundation will have a positive affect on our communities’ survivability of our residents and ultimately reduce burn injuries.

As I stated earlier, this Summit was all about prevention. After just 8 hours of looking into the issues there were a couple glaring issues that the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance has taken on in an attempt to remedy. Here are those realizations:

1. In some cases we (department administrations) have created an environment where firefighters don’t feel they have a role in prevention. Let me try to explain using my own department’s experience. Based upon good fortune the department where I work has been able to hire Fire Protection Engineers to perform plan reviews. We now have a Fire Prevention Specialist that is responsible for conducting public education in the schools and community meetings. We have full-time Fire Inspectors that perform our inspections. Our fire companies that used to perform many of the inspections do not do inspections anymore because of the complexity of the inspections and the need to have our shift personnel perform the 2,500 annual pre-plan visits. So what role do our firefighters play in prevention? A BIG ONE! Last year we lost 3 residents in 3 separate house fires. These seniors were not visited by the Fire Prevention Bureau, but they were visited by emergency response personnel because of an EMS or fire incident in their home. Our firefighters are the only members of the department getting into the homes where people are dying everyday. Firefighters have a very important role in prevention and they need to realize that and be properly educated. In terms of the education; where do they receive that education? We send our new firefighters to a Firefighter II academy for 7 weeks; we send them to HazMat School for a week and to EMT-B and Paramedic class for over 9 months. These new recruits may not be receiving any prevention education.

Action Step: The Illinois Fire Safety Alliance will be informing all of the fire academies in Illinois that prevention is a very important topic to teach in their academies. To support these academies, we, in conjunction with the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association will provide an instructor and curriculum free of charge.

2. We as veteran firefighters, officers and fire chiefs have little contact with fire/burn prevention education. Most of our seminars and conferences deal with everything except prevention.

Action Step: The Illinois Fire Safety Alliance will expand its’ grant program to provide financial support to organizations that bring in speakers to talk about prevention. Hopefully we can provide an incentive to increase fire/burn prevention education.

The information above is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to developing more effective fire/burn prevention programs, but we feel these are some important steps to take to reduce fires and the subsequent injuries to our firefighters and our residents. Please contact me or the IFSA office if you would like additional information about these new programs.

Mike Figolah
President, Illinois Fire Safety Alliance