• The Juvenile Firesetter Database is testing and training is expected to start sometime in March, if not sooner.  It has been a long process, but it is just great to see this worthwhile project really take its place in our lives.  As training begins, we will be anxious to hear your about your input.  We can be pleased that Florida has set the pace as other states are showing interest in databases also.  it's exciting to see how this plays out over the next few years.
• The economy has started to turn around which creates a huge sigh of relief to many budget forecasters.
• The new year means many of us have set new goals for 2010.  This is a good time to reflect, renew, improve old programs and toss out those which are no longer relevant. Re-writing curriculum and getting input from those to whom the programs are delivered to is an important tool to keep you from feeling that your programs are old, stale or boring. 

Important Notice Regarding Student ID's

Good Choices, Bad Choices

I try reading something every day in the hope of becoming more proficient in my responsibilities, both personally and professionally. Sometimes the lessons presented are not directly related to our side of the 'firehouse', but they apply nonetheless.  That being said, please read the story in the hyperlink from the D.C. area.  It really helps one understand the whole decision making process - "Good decisions yield rewards, poor decisions yield consequences".  In DC, there were some poor decisions made.

http://www.ems1.com/ems-management/articles/680533-DC-family-sues-city-medical-director-after-wrong-diagnosis-leads-to-death/

Decisions when made, must be decisions based upon protocol, policy and industry standard.  As the gentlemen from Altamonte Springs continually opines, decisions must pass the "straight-face test".  That apparently was not the case in D.C., nor was it the situation in four other legal cases now decided in court.  The results of those cases levied accountability on the employing agencies - i.e., the government.  I would like to recommend that we all make time to consider such things.  It's all about executing our respective charges professionally, ethically and competently, or to put it another way; it's risk management.  As Mr. Doug Wyseman well notes in his Managing Fire Liability Risks seminars, "Don't allow your next review of your current practices to take place while YOU are sitting in a witness box!"

Recall that most paramedics get into trouble because they forgot to be EMT's as they execute their respective job responsibilities, hence the expression, "paramedics save lives, EMT's save paramedics".  Returning to the basics and employing those basics is what saves medics AND inspectors if we apply them.  In all four cases cited in the NFPA research report, the outcomes and oversights were all too preventable because they required nothing more than attention to the basics. 

How difficult is it to come back and actually write your report; or how simple the task of delivering the report once it's written?  For more years than I can probably recall, some 20 to be sure though, both NFPA and the IFSTA manuals addressing life safety/fire prevention inspections, have set out a basic idea and that is, it is better to have never known than to have known and done nothing about it.  On the very heels of that precept, how would you like to explain why you or your staff didn't return to ensure that code compliance has been met?  Simply by returning for the compliance inspection; that's all it will take to keep us all out of such an embarrassing and compromising position.

In November of 2006, I wrote a short piece for this newsletter entitled "Return To The Basics" which dovetailed our 58^th annual conference themed, "Your Keys For Prevention".  Within that article, I spoke to the basics and invited all of our peers to please give basics the attention it requires.  My late father always said that in this life there are "no absolutes", and than he said "absolutely".  Well perhaps Dad didn't know anything about our business; for you see there is at least one absolute in this: We absolutely can never, never overlook the basics!  Refer to the cases formerly cited for the results of ignoring basics.

So, while there is no 'silver bullet' here, there is a silver idea. What idea?  The idea that we can't be too careful or diligent as we execute our responsibilities protecting the public.  Paying close attention to professional journals, making adjustments as necessary, acquiring additional training, education and certification beyond what is minimally required, will go a long way towards preventing the negative consequences of poor decision making, or that is to say, ignoring the basics.  Dr. Wayne Dyer drew attention to this concept when he penned this; "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change."  

So how about we all do just that, change the way we've looked at things in the past and see whether or not those same things indeed change.

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Asera Health Care Donates for Smoke Alarms

The HomeSAFE program targets privately owned households within the city of St. Petersburg. All households are encouraged to have a Smoke Alarms in their home.

Smoke alarms play a vital role in reducing deaths and injuries from fire and have contributed to the almost 50% decrease in fire deaths since the late 1970s. Sixty-five percent of reported home fire deaths occurred in homes with no smoke alarms or no working smoke alarms. Properly installed and maintained smoke alarms save lives and protect against injury and loss due to fire.

St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue installs on the average 50 smoke alarms a month.

Those present at the check presentation ceremony included Barbara Adams, Alison Reeder, Melissa Dix, Margi Rabidoux, Fire Chief James Large, Katie Brew and Mayor Rick Baker.