CFP News

The aftermath of a natural disaster is a nightmare situation for any community. At that point, when you're facing destroyed homes and businesses, power outages, and scarcity of resources, the only focus is recovery or fixing those emergency concerns.

The foundation of an effective fire department is knowledge–an attribute that firefighters display every day in communities across the United States. But other components of successful fire protection can vary by community, including adequate water supply, training, and equipment.

For 17 years, the Truman Little White House in Key West, Florida, has honored President Harry S. Truman with an annual symposium. This year’s event (May 5 and 6) was hosted by the Key West Little White House, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA), and many corporate sponsors.

Walking the blackened earth where a wildfire has passed through, there’s much to learn. We can see the growing scope of the hazard, how a brush fire explodes into a catastrophe, the challenges firefighters face, and the choices people make that can save or threaten lives and property.

Part of the Florida Forest Service’s mission is “to protect Florida and its people from the dangers of wildland fire,” and that guides many of our outreach objectives. One of the highest priorities of those objectives is the preparedness and education of residents regarding wildfire in the wildland-urban interface (WUI).

Dr. Jeff DeGraffenreid serves as the fire chief and director of emergency management for the City of Olathe, Kansas. He’s a frequent conference speaker and has authored many articles and textbook chapters on varied emergency service topics. Dr. DeGraffenreid currently sits on the editorial board of the International Fire Service Journal of Leadership and Management, and he has traveled the world working on some of the most significant disasters.

ISO Community Hazard Mitigation has an ongoing program in place to actively work with fire departments on Public Protection Classification (PPC®) and Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS) education. As part of this effort, representatives from ISO have been conducting presentations on Tuesday evenings during the “Additional Learning Opportunity” available to students attending the National Fire Academy (NFA) in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

ISO has released the 2019 National Building Code Assessment Report, which details the status of the nation’s building codes, including individual assessments of each participating state. The report provides a detailed state-level examination of building codes and their enforcement. This edition is an update of ISO’s groundbreaking 2015 report.

Changes in the built environment and the contents of structures are creating new challenges on the front lines of firefighting. That’s the reality that firefighters and emergency services personnel are facing. It’s a story that municipal officials, residents, and insurers need to know and understand to help build safer communities and reduce fire loss.

A career in the fire/emergency service is one of the most rewarding a person can have. The feeling you get when you make a positive impact on someone’s life—perhaps even saving that life—is hard to beat. Those experiences are why many of us become firefighters and why we stay in the service both as professionals and volunteers. Of course, firefighting is also an extremely dangerous career, and those dangers go beyond the obvious perils of responding to fires and other emergencies.