Page 32 - InCommand Volume 31

What do you consider the most challenging issue or issues facing your department today?
Kahan - Keeping up with the growing demands of our community (i.e. increase call volume, transports, community paramedicine, etc.)
Morris - Complacency and fatigue. Lack of appropriate training.
Szafarowicz - Funding, and keeping up with the technology and increased needs of the department such as the additional items needed to combat the current pandemic.
What do you consider the most challenging issue facing the U.S. fire service?
Kahan - Recruitment and retention & Finding recruits that believe the fire service is a career and not “just a job”.
Szafarowizc - Funding. With the changing times and increased threats of pandemics, the funding always falls short. It is difficult to educate the public on the needs of the department when we are levy dependent
If you could look into a crystal ball and see 5 or 10 years into the future, what do you think the fire service of the future will look like?
Morris - I think you will continue to see advancements in technology such
as heads up displays and you will see a reduction in aggressive interior firefighting due to new construction concerns as well as better tools to assist in victim location and risk analysis. The fire service will
also continue to move towards a business model as our involvement in prehospital care will continue to grow. Higher education will become common place.
Szafarowicz - In the future I would see every department needing “Specialty Response” vehicles/crews.
To what extent do you think
that training, specifically a good continuing education program within a department, affects quality service delivery? Can you tell us a little about the structure and requirements of your department’s training program?
Morris - Training in my opinion
needs to be mentally stimulating and physically challenging to gain the
closest representation of a real scenario
as possible. I have seen way too much complacency with this Facebook learning generation. Increased run volume provides a strong excuse for a lack of commitment to hands on training. While our department looks good on paper,
the training program needs assistance with better exercise design and instructor presentation.
Hiring good people is only half the battle. Specifically, what do you look for in hiring a new recruit, and once hired, how do you motivate your firefighters to perform effectively on a consistent basis?
Szafarowicz - We need to find dedicated people who show good interpersonal skills and people who can deal with the ever- changing climate in the fire service.
How would you describe your management style? Along these same lines, what do you consider to be some of the greatest challenges facing a fire chief in the management of a contemporary fire department?
Szafarowicz - My management style tends to be very straight forward and direct. I feel that is the only way to be fair to the employees. They need to know expectations.
Do you have a close working relationship with neighboring fire departments?
Kahan - We have close working relationships with many of our neighboring communities including auto aid and mutual aid agreements. We have also participated in multiple joint training programs and large-scale training events.
We have shared SOG’s with neighboring departments and follow similar county wide medical protocols.
Szafarowicz – Yes, we do. We have auto-aid responses with neighboring departments as well as mutual agreements with all of the FDs in the County. We set up training with neighboring jurisdictions as well as utilize a County Wide radio system.
There has always been talk
about joint interagency emergency response efforts and cooperation in addressing common problems. This issue, in recent years, has become
an even more pressing one. How
do you interact with other agencies within your own government (administration, police, public works, etc.)? How do you interact with other emergency response agencies outside your local government (EMA, OSP, sheriff, other emergency responders)?
Szafarowicz - With local government communication is key. It is tough sometimes, FD needs to know what PD expects of them on a PD incident, and PD needs to know what’s expected of them on a FD incident.
Do you, or have you participated in joint training exercises, operational planning, and the like with these agencies? Is there an ongoing effort at cooperation and improvement
in joint training, planning and emergency response?
Szafarowicz - We have had numerous table top scenario based training with multiple agencies which has been very beneficial. We also do hand on scenarios with agencies such as active shooter situations.
32 InCommand JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020 • www.ohiofirechiefs.org