HISTORIC GATHERING OF U.S. AND U.K. FIRE OFFICIALS
In what was hailed as an historic meeting, fire service professionals from the United Kingdom and the United States met this March to forge a transatlantic partnership and share information that could help contribute to each country`s efforts in enhancing fire safety and response.
Thirteen fire service officials from the United Kingdom and 24 from the United States met in Orlando, Florida, for three days of talks to work through various issues confronting the fire services. These included multiple-role firefighters and vehicles, vehicle design, ventilation at fires, staffing/attendance levels, building codes and self-regulation, building design, emergency medical services, firefighter accountability systems, and matching system capacity to service demands.
The “Anglo-American Fire Symposium Charter,” signed by Chief William Peterson of the Plano (TX) Fire Department, United States Secretary, and Chief Fire Officer Dennis Davis of the Cheshire Fire Brigade, United Kingdom Secretary, states, “The scope of our joint examination and discussions will encompass the full range of influences, such as cultural and social comparisons, legislation and codes structural organizations, governmental and democratic processes, operating practices at strategic and tactical levels, with a particular focus on the areas where our national approaches differentiate so that we can explore those differences and seek improvements in the provision and delivery of our services.”
According to Fire Engineering Editor Bill Manning, who attended the event, participants were pleasantly surprised at the many similar challenges and issues facing both fire services. In both services, for example, downsizing/funding is a big issue. Both services are feeling the crunch to “do more with less”; many agreed with Chief Davis when he said, “We`re being pushed to be broader based, with multirole firefighters….How much absorption can we take, how far can we go?”
How to facilitate a more safely built environment through codes and standards also is a common challenge; members voiced the concern that the fire service must take a proactive approach to the codes instead of waiting for the disasters that inevitably drive the law. Both services are wrestling with the correlation between staffing and safety. On both sides of the ocean, the fire services are dealing with the time and logistical difficulties associated with volunteer firefighter training. Fire department managers in both countries are seriously considering the complexities between firefighting tactics and firefighter safety.
“But the bottom line in these discussions,” says Manning, “was that the participants not only learned what others had to offer but in the process of describing their own experiences and problems learned more about themselves.”
At the conclusion of the three days of energetic give-and-take, Ken Lloyd, chief fire officer of the West Sussex (U.K.) Fire Brigade and international president of the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), officially opened the first American chapter of the IFE. Retired Chief Charles Rule, of the Manteca (CA) Fire Department, will serve as president; and Mark Chubb, fire code coordinator for Southern Building Code Congress International/Southeastern and Southwestern associations of fire chiefs and member of the Fire Engineering editorial advisory board, will serve as secretary of the U.S. chapter.
A follow-up symposium, scheduled for October 1996, will build on the groundwork laid at the Orlando meeting, with an emphasis on identifying solutions for the complex problems facing the fire service. Fire Engineering plans to cover the growing U.S.-U.K. partnership in future feature editorials.
