Memorial Day: The impact of their sacrifice on fire and EMS

” … the purpose of Memorial Day is to memorialize the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We spend time remembering those who lost their lives and could not come home, reflecting on their service and why we have the luxury and freedom that we enjoy today. We might consider how we can support and safeguard their grieving families and loved ones who are left behind.”

Public Safety has a close affiliation with our Armed Services colleagues. We share the same values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. Many of our practices came from the lessons learned after the sacrifice of our colleagues in combat.

It was a West Point-trained general that organized the fire department into battalions and divisions in 1865 when the State of New York established the Metropolitan Fire Department. The City if New York was defined as Manhattan south of 87th Street, north of that was the suburbs. The adoption of battalions and divisions reflects the harsh lessons learned during the Civil War.

The city went from 52 engine companies, 54 hose companies, and 17 hook-and-ladder companies operating as individual entities to 34 steam fire engine companies and 12 hook-and-ladder companies under the direct command of an assistant engineer, organized into three battalions. Each engine company is commanded by a foreman, assistant foreman, engineer, driver, stoker, and 7 privates. Each hook-and-ladder company is commanded by a foreman, assistant foreman, driver, and 9 privates.

In 2004 FDNY established the Center for Terrorism and Disaster Preparedness. Command staff receives training at the United States Military Academy Counterterrorism Leadership Program and participates in the Executive Leadership program at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Tactical Combat Casualty Care

Trauma care techniques accelerate with every war. Consider the Thomas traction splint. Introduced in 1915, within two years mortality from the military femur fractures declined from 80% to 7%.

The 21st Century war on terror has refined front-line military trauma care, including

• combat application tourniquet – that reduced mortality due to extreme exanguination by 85% from 2005 to 2016
• The implementation of aggressive bleeding control with the Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC) reduced the mortality from extremity hemorrhage to drop from 7.8% to 2.6%. After action reports of special forces activity, when all team members were TCCC trained, showed no preventable deaths.

These results have guided the Tactical Emergency Casualty Care (TECC) program as well as the techniques with Rescue Task Forces confronting active shooters.

Spend time today reflecting on their sacrifice. See if there is something you can do to support and safeguard those who were left behind.

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MLDC (2009 December) “Department of Defense Core Values: Issue Paper #6, Definition of DIversity”. Arlington, VA: Military Leadership Diversity Commission.

(1865, November 3) THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.; Completion of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade of New-
York. Difficulties in the Work of Reorganization. Catalogue of the City and Suburban
 Companies. Thirty-five Steam and Five Hand Engine Companies, and Fifteen Hook
and Ladder Companies. THEIR ORGANIZATION AND LOCATION Present
 Condition of the Paid Fire Department. The Fire Telegraph System-The Board of Engineers. THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. SUBURBAN ORGANIZATION.
MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS. NO MORE BELLS. STATUS OF VOLUNTEER
FIREMEN. VOLUNTEER COMPANIES DISCHARGED. The New York Times.

Griffiths, James S. (2017, April) Fire Department of New York – an Operational Reference, 11th edition. Little Silver, NJ: James S. Griffiths

Butler, F. K. (2017) Two Decades of Saving Lives on the Battlefield:
Tactical Combat Casualty Care Turns 20. Military Medicine 182, 3/4:e1563