Ethical Leadership

Ethical Leadership

Talk about a game changer.   I have only been on the EPFD for 3 years but I have learned a lot…..about strategy & tactics for fire suppression, providing emergency medicals services, rescue, public education, etc……  the list goes on and on….I have learned that we are very fortunate to have such an incredible training program within Eden Prairie which includes the leadership, the curriculum, the equipment and safety as well as the opportunities.  But I was very surprised when I attended last weeks session on Ethical Leadership which was conducted by Chad Weinstein, a….(click to read his profile and to get a sense of his experience and passion.)    Chad has been working with the officers for the last few years but this was the first time they brought this level personal leadership training down to every fire fighter.   

I expect this type of investment from my professional career where I manage people; customers, resources and there is a high expectation for performance but from a volunteer organization?   Well, when you think about it the fire ground requires the same level of investment….managing a squad of people, interacting with the community, using public resources and think about the expectations that are put upon the fire service (life, safety and the preservation of property).  

Anyway, ethical leadership training was one of the better ‘classroom’ training session’s.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take practicing fire suppression or auto-extraction any day over sitting in a class room but this type of professional development training…..being offered by the fire service….for a volunteer organization…..is pretty cool.

CO Alarm Saves Lives

For as many CO alarms we go to that are false (alarms) because the owner does not know they need to change battery’s, clean the unit or replace it every 7 years, we do come across a few that are legitimate. It is amazing how deadly CO can be. This evening was the third incident for me in last 6 months where a properly function CO alarm saved a life or two. Tonight’s call pointed to a faulty furnace pushing out nearly 10,000 PPM of deadly CO (we go on air at 35ppm). It is pretty simple, if the couple did not have an alarm or worse yet, had one with dead batteries they too would likely be dead by tomorrow morning.

Fire Statistics

Interesting read from "Firesafety.gov for Citizens". The number of residential fires hit an all time low in 2009 (good) but when looking at the trending over the last 10 years I would have expected the results to be much better than they are. In fact, the difference between 2000 and 2009 is less than a .6% improvement. Injury & death as a percent of fires is even better with a 16% improvement.

Year Fires Inj & death as % of Fire
2000 379,500 4.93%
2001 396,500 4.72%
2002 401,000 4.17%
2003 402,000 4.29%
2004 410,500 4.24%
2005 396,000 4.26%
2006 412,500 3.77%
2007 414,000 4.07%
2008 403,000 4.05%
2009 377,000 4.14%
Source: National Fire Protection Association Fire Loss in the U.S. During 2009
Not sure what my point is but we know fire safety is much stronger today then it ever has been. But fires still happen. Every Day. 1032 per day to be exact. 43 per hour. Almost one residential house fire every minute.
Test your smoke alarms and be fire safe.

Prevention.....better than suppression!

It took nearly a year but our new logo'd fire wear has incorporated Prevention along with Fire & Rescue.

Slowly, prevention is coming part of our daily culture.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning came with a call at 7am with “visible flames, unknown occupants”. A thoughtful neighbor saw flames within a home across her backyard so she dialed 911. Christmas morning, just as many of the kids are awaking new gifts, a dozen or so EPFD were paged. We dashed through the morning snow to hop our fire engines in tow….Engine 41, Tower 21, Engine 12 and Engine 31. Chief 2 arrived on scene to determine the call was due to a Yule log…burning brightly through a 42” Plasma TV. Yes, our thoughtful neighbor was witnessing the television channel of the holiday Yule Log.

I am not sure what is worse, the nosy neighbor looking through her windows or the family watching a fire on TV?

Another Mutual Aid

The page went off shortly after 1am this morning for an engine to a house fire in Edina. I've been up ever since (currently 12:15pm sitting at Dunn's having a cup of coffee). E41 ended up being the 3rd engine to go into service after a second alarm call. We went directly to Edina station 1 to cover the city.
Kare 11 coverage can be seen here

Temps dropped well below zero for during this effort. Everyone said we were better off covering the city from the comforts of station 1 vs. being on scene....maybe, at least I know that whether we are on scene or at the station we are serving a purpose.

OSHA

Last night was three hours of OSHA training. At least it was a bit interactive as the class took the form of a game of jeopardy
Categories included:
PPE
Back problems
Roadway safety
Lock out/tag out
Blood born pathogens





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone