Saving Lives - Changing Lives with the 4 F's

May 2, 2014

The "theme" of the 2014 S. C. Fire-Rescue Conference is "Saving Lives - Changing Lives" with a subtitle of "through Family, Finance, Fitness, & Fire Hose"…I call them the 4 Fs.

I believe these are the core issues the fire service must address to provide true cultural change and lasting strength.  I believe these issues holistically effect the fire service, from recruitment and retention to LODDs.

Fire tactics are important, but the majority of LODDs don't happen because of fire tactics, and I contend that a large number of the coronary events that we attribute as the cause of nearly half of LODDs have underlying contributing factors that don't necessarily have direct ties to physical fitness levels.  I contend that many of our brothers and sisters come to work (on the shift or on the scene, as is may be with volunteers) "pre-loaded" with stress that has nothing to do with the incident or the firehouse.  The top two sources of external (meaning away from the firehouse) stress for most people come from the areas of family and finance. These two issues are personal, therefore they are tough conversations to have.  But if we dug a little deeper I'm willing to bet we would find one or more of these issues as stress-contributing factors in the lives of a surprising number of our coronary-related LODDs.  Fitness is an issue that is always in front of us. We know it's an issue, and we spend a lot of time talking about it; but we seldom put our words into practice.  Much like insurmountable debt, we let our insurmountable fitness issues keep us from doing ANYTHING.  My desire is to help people do SOMETHING - ANYTHING - by teaching them to navigate through their excuses instead of letting their excuses become roadblocks. Then, of course, there is the 4th F - fire hose.  Well you can't have a fire conference without firefighting and fire tactics.  The instructors that will be addressing this "F" are coming from the prospective of creating "breathing room" on the fire ground. When we create an environment where there is no breathing room between the resources we have and the resources we need to employ the tactics that we've implemented, there is no room for error or the unexpected. Everything is better with “Breathing Room”.

I hope that you enjoy YOUR annual conference and take something valuable away from the classes, programs, and events.

Yours to count on,

Jonathan C. Jones

Deputy Chief

Clarendon County Fire Dept.