Do We Make a Difference?
Do you think we make a difference? If so, prove it.
The American fire service has historically been terrible at data collection of tangible data that can show our impact on the community. It’s tough to show how many lives are impacted by fire response, EMS calls, and fire prevention efforts. The national reporting software requires us to log dollar amount losses and estimated amount saved. But how accurate are these? I never went to a cost estimating training for reports so how accurate are they? In addition, the loss of a multi-million dollar structure can drastically inflate the numbers for a single year, or if our training provides us the necessary skills to stop the fire before it causes drastic damage, does that hurt us when we are looking for staffing increases.
One glaring missing opportunity is tracking and recording of victims saved. Brian Brush is out to change that and gather more data through Firefighter Rescue Survey (FRS)with fellow colleagues Nick Ledin, Grant, and others. This is the impactful data we need to show, rather than just dollar loss, and make the data relevant to the citizens but also to our operations. Seeing the data the FRS has gathered, we can accurately guess where the victims will be located depending on the time and date. This is paramount for tactical assignments.
The fire service needs to understand data and be in a place to utilize the newfound information to increase the effectiveness of our operations and tactical deployment of our resources. As the quote goes, “ We are drowning in information but starving for wisdom”. There is more information surrounding the fire service than ever before and this trend will continue. If we don't understand the data or fail to use it, we become negligent and apart of the problem.
To improve the fire service, we must gather data and have a greater understanding of fire dynamics, building construction, tactics, and also must gather information and data and implement the information to assist us in our mission.
p.s. If you haven't checked out Firefighter Rescue Survey, I would highly encourage it. Their pursuit is pure by some great fire service leaders. https://www.firefighterrescuesurvey.com/