There is a lot to report this month about the state of the fire service. First, we feature our Firehouse® Magazine Heroism Awards Program in this month’s issue. We congratulate those whose names were submitted for consideration this year. We thank Firehouse® Managing Editor Elizabeth Neroulas and Contributing Editor Paul Hashagen for administering the program, along with our judges: Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder of the Loveland-Symmes, OH, Fire Department and Firehouse® contributing editor; Chief Charles Hood of the San Antonio, TX, Fire Department; and Chief Edward “Loy” Senter of Chesterfield Fire & EMS in Chesterfield County, VA. The program would not be possible without the generosity and support of our subscribers and the program’s corporate sponsors, who are listed on pages 62 and 63.
Also in this issue we present part one of our multi-part National Run Survey, which begins on page 64. We thank the departments that provided these important statistics to share with the fire service.
In his Fire Politics column, Chief Dennis Compton reports from the 26th National Fire & Emergency Services Dinner in Washington, DC. Several friends of Firehouse® were honored this year, including the Memphis, TN, Fire Department and our EMS columnist, Gary Ludwig, and Chief William Goddard of the Howard County, MD, Department of Fire & Rescue Services, a member of our Chiefs Panel during Firehouse Expo 2013, who accepted awards in recognition of their EMS delivery.
We also give a tip of the helmet to Dennis Compton, who has been the master of ceremonies at the CFSI dinner since our Hal Bruno passed away in 2011. He and the CFSI staff and a select committee create the program and award recipients. Congratulations to all involved. With so many new faces on Capitol Hill, it is imperative to get your members in the House and Senate to join the Congressional Fire Services Caucus and support the fire service. This way, they can back the issues that are important to all of us.
A fire chief in Arizona forwarded a picture of his former engine company whose apparatus accidently fell into a sinkhole while members were on a food-shopping errand. A newspaper reader commented about the photo, noting that with today’s budget cuts, it is a luxury to drive a city or state vehicle to go food shopping, and suggesting that perhaps the members could bring their meals from home instead of using apparatus to shop for groceries. Obviously, the reader is unaware that fire companies do this so that they can respond instantly to emergency calls that may come in while they are making preparations for their meals, which are frequently interrupted by calls for help.
This month, we pay tribute to the individuals and departments who performed above and beyond as recognized by the CFSI, the members being honored in our heroism program for performing rescues in a variety of emergencies, including some who were critically injured attempting to rescue brother firefighters. Given the high volume of work the top career fire departments do each and every day, as reported in our National Run Survey, I am sure other newspaper readers would have different comments to make, especially if they need the fire department’s services immediately.
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37
2014 firefighter line-of-duty deaths at press time.
1,151
2014 residential fire fatalities at press time.
