It seems no matter what I do, about 15% of the students don’t follow the APA format. While this is better than the 33% we were averaging a decade ago, it remains frustrating.

And – yes – I am up to my elbows in APA citation protocols in my academic adventure.

Yesrerday’s article in the Washington Post described adult (over 20 years old) undergraduate students earning a bachelor’s degree within a single eight-week session. I wonder of their papers have to be in APA format?

If your fire department requires college credits … this may work for you.

DayBook

Students are speeding through their online degrees in weeks, alarming educators. 4/19/2026 by Todd Wallack, The Washington Post

It takes most college students at least four years to earn a bachelor’s degree. Christie Williams finished in three months.

The North Carolina human resources executive spent two months racking up credits through web tutorials after work in 2024, then raced through 11 online classes at the University of Maine at Presque Isle in four weeks. Later that year, she went back to earn her master’s — in just five weeks. The two degrees cost a total of just over $4,000.

Since then, she has coached a thousand other students on how to speed through the state college, shaving off years and thousands of dollars from the usual cost of a degree.

“Why wouldn’t you do that?” Williams asked. “It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.”

Many U.S. schools have been experimenting with ways to speed up traditional college programs to reduce the burgeoning cost and help students move into the workforce faster. Some offer three-year bachelor’s programs, reducing the number of credits needed for a diploma by one quarter. Many more allow students to enroll in college classes while still in high school.

But the breakneck pace of the fastest online programs concerns some academics, who say there is a big difference in what students can learn in weeks or months compared with three or more years.

The phenomenon — sometimes referred to as degree hacking, college speed runs or hyper-accelerated degrees — has spawned a cottage industry of influencers making videos about how quickly they earned their degrees and encouraging others to follow suit.
Ryan Swayt delivers tips on how to finish an online degree quickly in a YouTube video. (Courtesy of Ryan Swayt)

Supporters of the approach tout it as an affordable, convenient way for people to earn credentials they need for their careers. Others, including some online students and academic officials, expressed concern about what the super-accelerated students are missing, and whether a quick path devalues degrees.

“We want diplomas that mean something,” said Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, which represents more than 600 liberal arts colleges and universities. “I would prefer to have some of these degrees called something other than a bachelor’s.”

Nationally, it’s hard to know exactly how many students are graduating so quickly. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 44 percent of students finish a bachelor’s degree within four years but doesn’t offer numbers for shorter time periods.

The University of Maine’s Presque Isle campus has more than 3,000 students in its online YourPace program, according to the school. The school’s president said the program is designed to help older, nontraditional students rapidly obtain an affordable degree they may need for a raise, promotion or new job — students who don’t need the traditional longer college experience on campus that many young adults crave.

“They literally just need a certificate” to help their careers, said Raymond Rice, president of the Presque Isle campus. He said the program is open only to students age 20 and older, in part to avoid competing with its traditional four-year program on campus.

Of the nearly 300 students who earned a bachelor’s in the YourPace program in fall 2024, the vast majority finished in less than a year. More than 1 in 4 finished their entire degree course load in a single eight-week session, half the length of a traditional academic semester.

Under a system known as competency-based education, students typically must finish several assignments or pass a test to prove they learned the material, regardless of how long it takes. In a philosophy class Rice oversees, students have to show they learned the online material by completing five five-page essays and one longer paper that’s up to 10 pages.

There are no class meetings. No group discussions. No weekly assignments. Nothing to slow students down.

“The students demonstrate how much they can learn as quickly as they can,” Rice said. “They take as long or as short as they need to get there.”

At some schools, students can sign up for as many classes as they want for a flat price per term.

For instance, the YourPace program in Maine charges $1,800 per eight-week session for undergraduate programs and $2,450 for graduate degrees. That gives students a powerful financial incentive to push through the programs as quickly as possible to limit the cost and avoid taking out significant student loans. And low-income undergraduate students may be eligible for federal Pell grants that help cover the cost.

“That’s what is so dramatic and so impactful,” Rice said.

One reason some working adults can speed through the programs is that many have taken at least some college classes in the past and have credits to transfer. More than 43 million students in the United States started college but never earned a degree, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

The online schools best known for accelerated degrees, such as Maine’s Presque Isle campus and Western Governors University, also let students transfer in as many as three-quarters of the credits from nontraditional sources. That includes giving students credit for past learning on the job; passing tests that show they already know the material; or completing tutorials from online learning platforms such as Study.com, Sophia Learning and StraighterLine, which can often take less time to complete than traditional college courses.

The head of the New England Commission of Higher Education, which oversees the accreditation of the University of Maine system, told The Washington Post that he had never heard of students completing a bachelor’s degree in only a few months — either at the Presque Isle campus or any other accredited university. He said that is something his organization may decide to investigate.

“If students are getting a baccalaureate degree in a few months, the commission could certainly inquire, ‘Is there integrity to the degree to be awarded?’” said Larry Schall, president of the commission. (Shortly after Schall got off the phone with The Post, he said, he called the campus to ask them to look into the issue.)

Serenity James of Atlanta completed 16 courses on an online learning platform in 22 days. That gave her most of the credits she needed for a bachelor’s degree at Western Governors. She finished the remaining 13 classes in two months last year and spent 2½ months earning a master’s of business administration. Altogether, she said, the degrees cost less than $9,000, which was covered by a scholarship, her employer and a federal Pell Grant.

Western Governors, one of the largest colleges in the country with more than 194,000 students, did not respond to requests for interviews or additional data on how fast students finish. The nonprofit school’s website says that students finish their bachelor’s degrees in an average of 2.5 years, but that many “finish significantly faster than that!”

James, who has a 6-year-old daughter and a full-time job, said she never would have been able to attend a traditional college in person. She said she had little contact with her professors or fellow students but was in touch regularly with a mentor assigned to her by the college.

The work has already paid off. After finishing the degrees, she earned a promotion to a new higher-paying job at her employer, a national health insurance company.

“It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me, honestly,” said James, 25. She said no one has questioned how long it took her to earn her degree or the name of the school.

She said she was able to learn the material quickly and proved it by passing tests or completing papers.

“People should do what works for them,” she said. “If people think they need four years, if that’s what you think you need to understand information, then that’s wonderful. There are some people who don’t need that long.”

Some users on a Reddit forum for Western Governors have pleaded with peers to stop bragging that they earned degrees in weeks or months.

“Publicly flaunting speedruns damages WGU’s reputation and devalues every degree, including your own,” one user said. The complaints spurred Reddit moderators to create a separate forum for accelerated students to reduce the conflict.

The head of the accreditor for Western Governors said she is confident that the school complies with its standards. The school just has a different model that allows students to move at their own pace, said Selena Grace, president of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

“Students are demonstrating competency,” Grace said.

Historically, the Department of Education has recommended that students spend at least three hours per week per credit hour for a traditional class, including classroom meetings and homework. So a typical three-credit class might require 135 hours of work over a 15-week semester. But there’s no equivalent time recommendation for competency-based courses.

Some of the ultrafast finishers have also sparked worries about cheating.

In January, Purdue Global stopped students from taking an unlimited amount of classes in a term without permission in its ExcelTrack program, citing concerns about “academic integrity and the value of a Purdue Global degree.” That led one YouTuber to claim that Purdue had just made it impossible to get a bachelor’s in six months at the school.

“ExcelTrack is an accelerated degree program, but it was never intended to be a six-month degree,” Purdue Global spokeswoman Amy Hawkinson said in an email. The school said students finish a bachelor’s degree on average in a little more than two years, half the length of a traditional bachelor’s program, mainly because the school gives credit to many students for past learning.

The growing interest in fast degrees has spawned a mini-industry of coaches offering advice on how to find a school, figure out what classes to take and speed through the programs.

College Hacked offers a 50-minute coaching session for $295. Ryan Swayt, who completed his bachelor’s degree at Western Governors in nine months, offers everything from a $5 how-to book to extensive one-on-one coaching sessions for $1,500, a program he calls Degree Hacking Academy.

Swayt also has recorded hundreds of YouTube videos with tips on how to finish college just as fast as he did or faster. He teased interviews with other fast finishers with titles like “8 week bachelor’s degree,” “62 days” and “3 months.”

Williams, the graduate of Maine’s YourPace program who earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2024, is also selling advice. Early last year, she started helping people create course plans for the program in her spare time. She charges $99 to $199 per student.

Like many of her clients, Williams has never been to the Presque Isle campus in northern Maine.

But that will soon change.

This year, Williams reenrolled at the school for five weeks to earn a third degree — an associate’s degree in liberal studies — mainly so she can update her knowledge of the school and walk in the school’s graduation in May.

Williams said she is looking forward to finally meeting in person with dozens of people she helped online. But she’s especially looking forward to attending graduation with her 22-year-old daughter, Makayla Quackenbush, who earned a bachelor’s degree of her own at the school this past summer.

Like her mother, Quackenbush first spent months amassing credits from online learning platforms.

And just like her mother, she finished her bachelor’s degree in a single eight-week session — summa cum laude — with highest honors.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2026/04/19/accelerated-college-degree-hacking

What started with posting 4-6 curated news items in an early morning hour drifted into 20-30 posts a day, taking two hours in the morning and one to two hours in the afternoon/evening.   It was entertaining and addictive.

There have been persistent efforts to hack into the page. I conducted a major security renovation of the business suite a couple of months ago, during which I found that rogue agents had become strategic partners. April 12 was another hack. FaceBook has been acting weird over the last couple of months, leading me to believe the Company Commander page has been corrupted.

This shutdown is a good thing because I need my early morning time to focus on proposing, developing, and delivering my Public Policy PhD dissertation. I need a new place to track issues and trends in the fire and ems industry that eventually show up in a class presentation or a deep-dive article.

I was a fan and follower of Dr. Jerry Pournelle, always reading his Chaos Manor columns. He was an American scientist in the area of operations research and human factors research, a science fiction writer, essayist, journalist, and one of the first bloggers. In the 1960s and early 1970s, he worked in the aerospace industry, but eventually focused on his writing career.

His blog site included a “DayBook” page where he posted items related to what projects he was working on, correspondence with followers and colleagues, articles of interest, and random pictures. I will try using the same format here.

My mornings will be spent working on my dissertation proposal, the last step to completing my Ph.D. in Public Policy. Later in the day, I will post a DayBook. It will have a few fire/EMS curated news items, as well as articles or media that I plan to use in my classes or projects.

Building a workable research and writing process

Most of this week was focused on a trial-and-error process to develop a dissertation research and writing process that will not drive me crazy. The tools and techniques I used to write the fire officer textbook – Microsoft Word with EndNotes and Grammarly – are not the most effective now. MS Word/EndNote struggled with a 35-page white paper with 55 references that I wrote last year.

My document must be in Google Docs. The first reference management system I tried worked pretty good, but it cannot handle the massive number of references a dissertation requires. The second reference management system can handle the workload, but 10% of the 30-some references in my first document are not properly formatted in APA 7. The online information and YouTube videos have not been helpful. Arrgh!

2026 April 19 DayBook

Yantic fire chief continues to lead shuttered department. 4/18/2026 by Daniel Drainville The Day News

Norwich [CT] — Chief Robert “Bobby” Allen and Deputy Chief Frank Blanchard, in an uncontested vote by members of the Yantic Fire Engine Co. No. 1, were reelected last Sunday to their roles, making them the first fire officers in city history to lead a shuttered fire department.

Allen, 61, was elected to his second term as chief and Blanchard, 57, to his second as deputy chief. The two lifetime members of the department ran unopposed.

Last Tuesday, the two sat at the wooden table in the engine bay where two Yantic fire trucks once were parked.

“There’s not a lot going on right now,” Allen said. “There really isn’t. It’s just keeping everyone engaged.”

It was in early February when the city shut down the 179-year-old Yantic department, cutting off its access to city funds, stopping them from responding to fire and medical calls, and repossessing their five fire trucks that had been purchased by the city.

City Fire Chief Sam Wilson and City Manager John Salomone stated the reason was that Yantic had failed to sign an agreement to comply with Unified Command, the new city-wide fire policy they established last August.

Yantic, along with the Taftville, Occum and Laurel Hill volunteer departments, have sued the city over the policy. The fifth department, East Great Plain, has not.

Fire departments typically do not shut down. And when they do, it is usually because of a lack of members.

But Yantic has 58 active members.

Allen, elected to his first term as chief last April, has become the face of a department at odds with the city. And yet, he has maintained his usual light-hearted disposition.

“I don’t dwell on it,” Allen said. “I think the big thing is just to keep the guys engaged on training. Keep them informed on what’s going on — on the legal aspects. And, just keep driving forward, and keep the positivity here. … I think you have more guys at the station now than we did when we were in service, because they want to keep it together. They want to keep trainings and things like that.”

Leading a shuttered department has also meant speaking at public meetings against the city’s action and rallying public support.

Allen said other departments, like Taftville and Lisbon, have invited his firefighters to attend their drills and use their equipment and trucks for training.

Ashley Nicholas, secretary for the Yantic department, said Allen has done a good job keeping morale up.

Allen said during the last six weeks, the department has polished all of its antique equipment.

“It’s brought a lot of guys together to come down,” Allen said. “And I think in the long run, you’ll see this crew of guys, that when you look back on it, they bonded probably even more now. Because there’s one common goal now, which is to remain positive and get our doors back open.”

Leading the legal charge

Allen’s and Blanchard’s leadership has also involved having to get involved in the legal process.

A few weeks ago, Allen and Blanchard, along with leaders of the other three volunteer departments and their lawyer, Mark Kovack, engaged in a single mediation session with the city in an attempt to resolve the lawsuits short of a court hearing. That mediation was unsuccessful. But Blanchard said they and the city are still in what he called “back channel communications.”

“The ball’s in their court,” he said.

Salomone and Wilson want Yantic to agree to the fundamental principles of Unified Command, which established a single command structure with Wilson at the top, and standardized training, communications and emergency response protocols for both paid and volunteer fire services. But the four departments want to retain their autonomy, continuing to be in charge of emergency calls in their own districts.

Allen said he just laughs when City Manager John Salomone says Yantic will still have its autonomy with Unified Command.

Allen said what Salomone means is “They’ll still be able to do their steak suppers and chicken barbecues.”

“(But) we’re a firehouse that does steaks. Not a steakhouse that goes to fires,” Allen said.

Blanchard said even newer, younger members of the department, in a short time, have grown to like the camaraderie and “family style” of the department.

“I think that’s a huge draw for a lot of people,” Blanchard said. “They want to help the community, but the social aspect. This is a place where you can stop in with your family. Cook some hamburgers and hot dogs on the back patio. Walk your dog out in the field. It can be like a second home.”

Yantic, he said, has prided itself on being a place where members know they can come spend time, and have their efforts go appreciated, while they hone their skills in public safety.

Allen just retired from 42 years as a driver for UPS. He said it’s been a lot easier to lead the department while not going to work at night.

He cracked a joke about his email address, UPSFireman1847: “I’m going to have to get rid of UPS and fireman right now. It’s just going to be 1847.”

Members say Allen’s uncontested reelection shows they are happy with how he’s handled the shutdown.

“Everyone’s behind him,” said Blanchard, who served 20 years as chief. “Not only me. Everyone’s behind him, to make sure that this place succeeds.”

“The passion he has for this department is second to none,” added Blanchard. “Just like everyone that was before him. And he’s leading the fight. He drew the short straw.”

Allen said continuing the department’s lineage of esteemed leadership is important to him.

“One thing that I think is huge for this fire department — since Walt Kane was chief in 1960 — is that Yantic has always strived to do the best at things. Firefighting. Public events. Yantic has set the bar high for themselves. And we constantly strive, you know, to maintain that level of consistency.”

But Allen stressed the most important thing to him is that his department continues the work that began in 1847.

“We’re still doing the job, and doing it well. That’s really the message,” he said.

https://theday.com/news/886431/yantic-fire-chief-continues-to-lead-shuttered-department

‘A job that’s equal for everyone.’ Wu appoints Rodney Marshall as Boston’s first Black fire commissioner. 4/16/2026 by Niki Griswold The Boston Globe

Mayor Michelle Wu on Thursday appointed Rodney Marshall as Boston’s new fire commissioner, making him the first Black man to lead a department that has long struggled to diversify its ranks to reflect the city it serves.

Marshall’s rise to the top of the department marked a historic moment in its nearly 350-year existence. Marshall, 58, has served in the Boston Fire Department for 35 years, most recently as a deputy chief and one of its chiefs of operations.

He will be formally sworn in to the department’s top job later this month, replacing Paul F. Burke, who has led the city’s fire department since 2022. Burke reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 for Massachusetts firefighters this month, according to the mayor’s office.

As recently as two years ago, the department’s effort to recruit more women and people of color was still struggling through fits and smarts: 71 percent of that academy class was white and 93 percent were men. Demographic data the city posts online show that 73 percent of the department’s employees is white, even though 44 percent of the city population is.

“We’re going to make this a job that’s equal for everyone,” Marshall said Thursday. “Men, women, people of color — whoever wants this job is going to have the opportunity.”

He pointed to the department’s efforts to recruit new firefighters from all of the city’s neighborhoods through the cadet program, as well as its Teen Academy — a paid summer job program for 14- to 18 year-olds that introduces youth to fire services.

The mayor’s office did not immediately provide updated demographic data for the department or its most recent fire cadet class.

“It’s important that we reflect who we are in public safety, in our schools, in the cabinet, and wherever there’s positions of power in the city,” said state Senator Lydia Edwards of East Boston, who has previously criticized the department for its handling of reports of racial and gender discrimination.

But while Marshall’s appointment marks a turning point, Edwards said, she is most impressed by the Boston native’s decades of service, which has earned him the deep respect of his peers.

Wu on Thursday thanked Burke for his leadership, calling him “a shining example of what it means to be a public servant.” She said it is an “honor” to appoint Marshall as his successor.

“He served all across our city in East Boston, Back Bay, Brighton, South Boston, and has seen firsthand the needs of our neighborhoods and the people who call them home,” Wu said of Marshall. ”Rodney has earned a reputation as someone who earns trust, and that’s the kind of leadership this department, the oldest and the best, deserves.”

Burke also celebrated Marshall’s promotion, saying he has personally witnessed Marshall’s “steady leadership, sound judgment, and commitment to our mission” over his four years as fire commissioner.

“My title might have been Commissioner, but Chief Marshall and myself were equals,” Burke said. “We did everything together. His instincts were unbelievable when things got tough, … and I’m proud that it’s him. It couldn’t be a better day.”

Marshall first joined the fire department in 1991, before rising through the ranks to become deputy fire chief in 2022. He was recognized by the department in 1998 for saving several lives during a six-alarm fire, and earned another commendation for rescuing people trapped in a bus in 2013, according to Wu’s office.

Marshall also designed and launched the fire department’s cadet program, which aims to recruit young Boston residents.

Marshall is a Grove Hall native and graduate of Boston College.

Joined by his family, friends, and colleagues on Thursday, Marshall emphasized his commitment to prioritizing the health and safety of Boston residents and his fellow firefighters.

“It takes a team to assemble a 50-foot ladder and stand it up; it takes a team to stretch a two-and-a-half hose line down the hallway; and it’s the strength of that team that makes the difference between life and death on this job,” Marshall said. “I take this job very seriously. I love this department, and I love this city.”

Marshall’s appointment comes after Wu has seen the departure of several high-profile Black officials from her administration in recent months. Jessicah Pierre, Wu’s former chief of communications, left the administration last November after Wu resoundingly won a second term. Segun Idowu, the city’s former chief of economic opportunity and inclusion, resigned from his job in January.

Then last month, Wu’s tourism chief, John Borders IV, stepped down for a role with Boston’s new women’s professional soccer team, Boston Legacy FC.

The Boston Fire Department has long faced criticism for its purportedly change-resistant culture, and lack of diversity, as well as reports of racial discrimination, and sexual harassment and assault.

In early February, 12 elected officials of color, including City Councilor Brian Worrell, sent a letter to Wu urging her to name the city’s first Black fire commissioner.

Marshall’s appointment is well-deserved based solely on his resume, Worrell told the Globe, but it’s also “an inspiration, and it continues to show that Boston will not be a city that sets barriers on any of their residents.”

“This is us continuing to take that step in the right direction, making sure that we create a fire department that is reflective of every neighborhood in the city and that every resident could see themselves in,” Worrell said.

The city hosted the announcement of Marshall’s appointment Thursday at the Berkshire Partners Blue Hill Boys & Girls Club in Dorchester, where his two children attend after school programs.

Whenever he picks them up while in uniform, Marshall said it sparks the curiosity of other kids.

“I love these questions because they present an opportunity to have a conversation about this job, this profession, and this department,” Marshall said. “These conversations open kids’ eyes to what’s possible, and to considering a path” they didn’t know existed.

Marshall said that, as a child growing up, he didn’t know what firefighters did, and remembers walking past a fire house on Washington Street that always had its doors closed. This summer, he said he plans to issue a directive for all fire stations to keep their doors open during the warm months.

“I want city kids, kids from every neighborhood, to be able to walk in, see the trucks, talk to the firefighters, and experience the wonder and excitement of seeing this job up close,” Marshall said.

His hope, he said, is that one of those children will grow up and land the department’s top job — like he did.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/16/metro/rodney-marshall-boston-fire-commissioner/?p1=BGSearch_Advanced_Results

It was quarter to one a.m., and I was wide awake in the shift leader’s office. I was the boss of Engine 28 and responsible for the safety of my crew.

The fire suppression books I memorized for the promotion exam were authored by big city chiefs who worked with fire companies staffed with four to six firefighters and supported by a rapid arrival of command officers. There was no way a two-person truck company could perform the initial fireground tasks that a heavily staffed Fire Department of New York (FDNY) truck company could accomplish.

The county was evolving from a coalition of rural/suburban volunteer fire companies to an urban county fire department, which would be accomplished years later.

When I was sleepless in Seven Corners, we had daywork career battalion chiefs, three or two-person fire crews, rudimentary SOPs, and the beginnings of an incident management system. It was a very different environment than FDNY.

As a fire officer candidate, you would respond to an assessment center scenario with everything you remembered. The sequence of factoids was not as important as it was to get every item ticked-off in the assessor’s checklist to get the highest score.

I struggled as a paramedic student. The “nice to know” trivia factoids interfered with what I needed to know to get credentialed, and I was having the same problem now.

As the boss of Engine 28, I needed to do the right things first when arriving at a structure fire with our three-person engine company. Ironically, I recalled something from a retired FDNY Chief of Department that provided focus.

Edward P. McAniff’s book Leadership in the Fire Service, was on our promotional exam reading list. The IAFF local hired McAniff and Associates to deliver a preparation class, as this was our first exam to use an assessment center.

Chief McAniff said: “The goal of the first arriving engine is to advance an attack line and gain control of the interior stairs.”

That worked for me. A couple of weeks later, I applied this concept.

At 8 p.m., we were dispatched to an “Across from …” structure fire. We arrived at a single-level home four blocks south of the fire station. Fire was showing from the roof. A car was in the driveway, and lights were on in the house. After no response to our banging on the door, we forced the door open and advanced the 1.5” attack line.

There was no smoke or heat in the house. The second arriving engine company got to the rear and reported a fire coming from the natural gas regulator that spread to the soffit. When we opened the attic stairs, we found the fire.

The attic was finished with a hardwood floor and jammed with a lifetime of items from international travel. Overhauling the attic took a couple of hours using two engines and a truck company. The occupants were having dinner at a restaurant.

Returning at 1 a.m. for a fire watch check, we watered down the pile of steaming international debris in the front yard. I slept well that night.

Featured image: Shutterstock

These situations provide opportunities and challenges for the front-line emergency service officer.

FIRE DEPARTMENT AS A SOCIAL SERVICES PARTNER

The San Francisco Fire Department Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) is staffed with a community paramedic from SFFD, a behavioral health clinician from HealthRIGHT360, and a peer specialist with lived experience from RAMS, Inc. (Richmond Area Multi-Services) who together have a range of specialty skills to engage on the scene with a person in crisis.

In the first year of operation, November 2020 – November 2021, SCRT took more than 5,000 calls and engaged with nearly 3,000 people in crisis. In early 2022, the seventh team with six additional staff will launch.

The first six months of the program showed that 9% of the SCRT encounters have ended in a 5150, an involuntary mental health hold for those who are a danger to themselves or others. 18% were transported to a hospital and 18% to a program such as residential care or drug treatment. (source)

Demonstrating the program’s success as an alternative to law enforcement, SCRT diverted more than one-third of all 911 calls (38%) for “mentally disturbed persons” from law enforcement cumulatively during its first year of operation. With six teams launched, SCRT is now diverting over half (58%) of calls monthly for “mentally disturbed persons” from law enforcement. Once fully operational, SCRT seeks to divert 100% of calls.

City of San Francisco (2021 November 30) San Francisco Celebrates One-Year Anniversary of Street Crisis Response Team Press Release

RISING PROBLEM OF HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS: FIRES, INFECTIOUS DISEASE, VIOLENCE AGAINST CAREGIVERS, AND EMS WORKLOAD

Lexipol provided a 2019 webinar on “Crisis in the Streets: Fire Department Response to Homeless Individuals” that was eye-opening. Click on this link to see the on-demand webinar.

Homeless encampments experienced a 1,000% increase from 2007 to 2017 and are occurring throughout the United States. Half of the encampments have 11-50 residents, 17% of the encampments have more than 100 residences. (NLCHP 2017) Fire departments are responding to calls for violence, fires and infectious diseases like typhus and tuberculosis (Gorman 2018)

Due to violence against first responders, some fire departments are sending two crews to any EMS event at an encampment, to have one company commander function as the scene safety officer while the others work at the task-level. (Goldfeder, Long & Schaeffer 2019)

Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins reports that from Jan. 1 to April 10 of 2022 the department responded to 478 encampment fires – three to five encampment fires a day. In 2021 during the same time period, it was 327. The year before that, they responded to 168 encampment fires. They are also responding to 30 to 35 medical calls to homeless encampments every day. (source)

Los Angeles Fire Department, a city 6 times larger than Seattle, responded to 24 encampment fires a day in May 2021, many spreading to adjacent businesses and residences creating millions of dollars of property damage. (source) In downtown Los Angeles, fires from homeless encampments account for 80% of the blazes in the summer of 2021. (source)

WE ARE NOT TELLING OUR STORY: FIREFIGHTERS RESCUE A LOT OF CIVILIANS

Stunning results from the Firefighter Rescue Survey. They have been collecting information on rescues made by firefighters as reported in the media or by fire departments. In 2021 they found that 2,173 civilians were rescued by firefighters. They received 757 completed rescue surveys. 

As of April 5, 2022, Firefighter Rescue Survey has received reports of 300 incidents where civilians have been rescued by firefighters in 2022. Statistically, that equates to nearly 3.3 incidents per day where firefighters are making grabs. (source) You can get Chief Brian Brush’s “2021 Rescue Survey & The Culture Shift for 2022: People Before Water“ through this (source).

The goal of the Firefighter Rescue Survey initiative is to reduce civilian home fire deaths to under 2,000 per year. U.S. news media reported 2,264 civilian home fire fatalities for the calendar year 2021. Please visit their website http://www.firefighterrescuesurvey.com/

REFERENCES

Thadani, T. & Cassidy, M. (2021 May 17) S.F. finally has a new mental health team to respond to homeless people in distress. Is it helping. San Francisco Chronicle. accessed April 14, 2022. https://www.sfchronicle.com/local/article/S-F-s-new-street-crisis-team-is-helping-people-16180437.php

NLCHP (2017). Tent City, USA: The Growth of America’s Homeless Encampments and How Communities are Responding. Washington, DC, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. http://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Tent_City_USA_2017.pdf

Gorman, A. and Kaiser Health News (2019 March 8). Medieval Diseases Are Infecting California’s Homeless: Typhus, tuberculosis, and other illnesses are spreading quickly through camps and shelters. The Atlantic. New York, Atlantic Media, Inc.  https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/typhus-tuberculosis-medieval-diseases-spreading-homeless/584380/

Goldfeder, B., A. Long and B. Schaeffer (2019 July 9). Crisis In The Streets: Fire Department Response to Homeless Individuals. Webinar. Irvine, CA, Lexipol.  https://info.lexipol.com/webinar-fire-department-response-to-homeless

Markovich, M. (2020 April 15) Seattle Fire Chief: Responses to daily encampment fires taxing already short staffed fire dept. Fox 13 Seattle. Accessed April 15, 2022. https://www.q13fox.com/news/seattle-fire-chief-reponses-to-daily-encampment-fires-taxing-already-short-staffed-fire-dept

Smith, D., Queally, J., & Molina, G. (2021 May 12) 24 fires a day: Surge in flames at L.A. homeless encampments a growing crisis. Los Angeles Times Accessed April 17, 2022. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-12/surge-in-fires-at-la-homeless-encampments-growing-crisis

(2021 June 14) Homeless Encampment Fires Account For 80% Of Blazes Plaguing DTLA In Recent Weeks: ‘It’s So Sad.’ CBS Los Angeles. Accessed April 17, 2022. https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/rash-of-homeless-encampment-fires-continues-across-southland/

Feature image: Winthrop, C. (05 March 2021) One Dead Following Palms Homeless Encampment Fire in Possible Homicide. westsidetoday.com Accessed April 17, 2022 https://westsidetoday.com/2021/03/05/one-dead-after-palms-homeless-encampment-fire/

(2022 April 6) Year of the Rescue, FIREFIGHTER GRAB VIDEO, Reducing Civilian Fatalities Below 2000. County Fire Tactics. Accessed April 17, 2022. https://countyfiretactics.com/2022/04/06/year-of-the-rescue-firefighter-grab-video-reducing-civilian-fatalities-below-2000/

Brush, B. (2022 February) “2021 Rescue Survey & The Cultural Shift for 2022: People Before Water.” CountyFireTactics.com. Accessed April 17, 2022. https://countyfiretactics.com/2022/02/06/2021-rescue-survey-chief-brush-the-cultural-shift-for-2022-chief-isakson/

I have posed a similar question to hundreds of emergency service providers attending a university course, a fire officer credential program or Just Culture presentation. Very few of them elected to continue to wait for the ambulance. Neither did Major Corey Britt, the Senior Company Officer at Oklahoma City Fire Station 34, when they responded to this Christmas Eve burn incident. (Meyer)

The students are shocked when the correct response from the formal organization’s perspective is to continue to wait for the ambulance. Major Britt was in a disciplinary hearing last Friday for his decision to transport the child and mother to the hospital on fire apparatus. (Yager)

The Just Culture Approach

The “Just Culture” approach can assist high consequence organizations (airlines, healthcare, and 24/7 industries) in holding its system and staff accountable within a supportive environment that provides a non-punitive means of reporting errors, while demonstrating zero tolerance for risky behavior. (Woods and Dekker)

It is a system of justice – using investigatory and disciplinary actions – that reflects what we know of socio-technical system design, human free will, and our inescapable human fallibility. (Nance)

After A Bad Outcome Event Occurs

Professor Sidney Dekker, founder of the Safety Science Innovation Lab, describes two approaches to just culture. Retribution imposes a deserved and proportional punishment while Restoration repairs the trust and relationships that were damaged.

The investigation of the bad outcome event looks at:

• What happened?
• What normally happens?
• What does the procedure require?
• Why did it happen?
• How are we managing it?

During this inquiry, we check to see if there is alignment of the department’s mission and value. Is there a clear understanding of the duty, what is defined as a breach of that duty and what are the consequences of breaching that duty.

The inquiry conducts an analysis to identify failed or absent defenses that takes a hazard or risk and makes it a loss, using the human error concepts developed by Professor James Reason.

Designing A Better System

Analysis of earlier bad outcome events result in four areas where we can design a better system. Emergency services have made such changes based on experience.

Controlling Contributing Factors

Changing the pre-cursors to human error at at-risk behavior. Two examples are requiring responders stop at every red light intersection and wear seat belts.

Adding Barriers

Preventing individual errors. Requiring a spotter when backing up vehicles.

Adding Recovery

Catching errors downstream. An example is checking your colleagues personal protective clothing before entering a hazardous environment.

Adding Redundancy

Establishing parallel elements to ensure safe activity. Using more than one method to confirm proper endotracheal intubation.

Just culture is set up to learn from incidents and identify changes in design, procedure and reward systems to promote better behavioral choices.

Understanding Risk

After understanding “what happened?” and comparing it to “What does the procedure require?” we look at the behavorial choice made and the individual’s understanding of the risk involved. Just culture focuses on three behaviors:

• Human Error is an inadvertent action, slip, lapse or mistake.
• At-Risk Behavior is a choice where the individual did not recognize the risk or believed the choice is justified
• Reckless Behavior is a conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk

Evaluating the behavior includes the impact of Imposers. Imposers are persons or organizations who set the standards and rules, determines the risk threshold and renders judgement. EMS operations are regulated by a state agency, usually the Health Department. They issue a permit to jurisdictions to provide out-of-hospital care. They issue a license to individual caregivers.

Failure to follow state EMS regulations could endanger the jurisdictional permit to perform out-of-hospital care. In jurisdictions that charge for transport services, losing the jurisdictional permit could result in losing the ability to bill for services. Transporting patients on fire trucks endangers the jurisdictional EMS permit. From the organization’s viewpoint, losing the state EMS permit is a high risk.

Meanwhile, In Oklahoma City

The Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA) is struggling with increased call volume, a workforce thinned by the pandemic, long waits to unload patients at the hospital and more time to disinfect ambulances after transport. This results in fewer ambulances on the road and more late arrivals to Priority 1 and 2 calls.

EMSA Chief of Operations John Graham states that with fewer ambulances on the street, more of the responses are coming from the hospitals instead of community posts. This may place the ambulance 15 to 20 miles further away from the incident scene. In December 2020 there were 40 ambulance responses that took longer than one hour for the ambulance to arrive. (Meyer)

An Area With No Pre-planned Guidance

It is not clear if Engine 34 received an accurate estimated time of arrival for the ambulance assigned to the burn incident. (Yager) They had been on the scene for 16 minutes and were told the ambulance was at least 10 minutes away. The Oklahoma City Fire Department regulations may not include guidance on this type of situation.

Dana Libby, a former firefighter/paramedic, police officer and executive with a faith-based international charity organization, observed that the Doctrine of Necessity, along with necessary safeguards, has long been recognized in civil and criminal law. (Christie)

Libby further states:

Every Standard Operating Procedure should start with a statement of policy, principle, or purpose. The enumerated procedures should provide guidance on fulfilling the policy, principle or purpose, under a set of circumstances.

If the circumstances and conditions differ, there is at least guidance concerning what you are supposed to be accomplishing . . . good training, creativity, experience and wisdom will then get you as close as possible to the goal.

Take-Away for All

Many jurisdictions and state medical agencies have made changes in clinical and operational guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The transport of critical patients when no ambulance is available is no longer an obscure “what-if” but now a “what-when” scenario. What is a just procedure for the patient, family, emergency responders, and healthcare staff?

++++++++++++++++++++++=

Christie, George C. (1999 March) The Defense of Necessity Considered From The Legal and Moral Points of View. Duke Law Journal 48 (5), Accessed January 25, 2021 https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=dlj&fbclid=IwAR10x3HC831W5BqI2pNo1pFzsWz17e48gzjw2qYBBt5uGa2kpKY59mI1Zug

Dekker, Sidney (2017) Just Culture: Restoring Trust and Accountability in Your Organization. 3rd edition. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-1-4724-7578-7

Meyer, Ali (2021 Jan 19) EXCLUSIVE: ‘The system failed us’ – Family disappointed in EMSA ambulance delay. Oklahoma News 4. Accessed January 23, 2021 https://kfor.com/news/local/exclusive-the-system-failed-us-family-disappointed-in-emsa-ambulance-delay/

Nance, John J. (2008) Why Hospitals Should Fly: The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care. Bozeman, MT: Second River Healthcare, ISBN 978-1-93640-604-3

Reason, James (1990) Human Error. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-31419-0

Woods, David D., et al (2010) Behind Human Error, Second edition. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-7546-7834-2

Yager, Peyton (2021 Jan 22) Oklahoma City Fire Major faces punishment within the department after driving burn patient to the hospital after ambulance delay. Oklahoma News 4. Accessed January 23, 2021 https://kfor.com/news/local/oklahoma-city-fire-major-faces-punishment-within-the-department-after-driving-burn-patient-to-the-hospital-due-to-ambulance-delay/

Sequencing Concepts and Practices

The 4th edition of Fire Officer: Principles and Practice is a major update that separates Fire Officer I and Fire Officer II material into two separate sections. This moved many topics around and allowed integration of some concepts into larger themes. About 35% of the content is new.

“Crew Resource Management” was the last chapter in the second and third editions, a stand alone section that provided five textbook pages focused on the International Association of Fire Chief’s approach to the practice.

The editors and I worked with the 24-member 4th edition focus group to make sure essential concepts and ideas were appropriately placed under the new format. We placed Crew Resource Management completely within the Fire Officer I section of the book.

Crew Resource Management As A Core Fire Officer Leadership Activity

Chapter 2 “Understanding Leadership and Management Theories” provides an overview of 11 leadership and management concepts. When describing the Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid, crew resource management is used as an example.

Starting on page 56 with “Origins of Crew Resource Management,” Chapter 2 provides an 11-page description of the concept and application of Crew Resource Management, tying CRM activities back to the leadership and management concepts covered in the beginning of the chapter.

The fire officer application of communication skills, teamwork, leadership, mentoring, handling conflict, responsibility, self-assessment are described within the context of CRM.

We added information from task allocation (NASA and flight safety), recognition-primed decision making (RPD), and situation awareness (Dr. Gasaway). Twelve of the 31 references listed for Chapter 2 are related to crew resource management. CRM represents 41% of the content in Chapter 2.

Crew Resource Management came to the fire service through flight safety over 20 years ago. It is time to move it from a “nice to know” topic at the end of the textbook to a core element of fire officer preparation.

This Week’s Take Home: Fire Department Takes Over EMS due to Budget Shortfall

Torrance, California, voted 6-1 on January 12 to end its contract with McCormack Ambulance and bring 9-1-1 ambulance service in-house come July. The revenue from staffing 5 fire department ambulances is intended to offset a $2.4 million budget cut that could lead to the layoff of 10 firefighters and a loss of the ISO Class 1 rating.

For students of local government operations, the city posted a 232 page package of information and presentations leading up to this decision. You can access the 52 MB .pdf file from here: https://torrance.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=8&event_id=7340&meta_id=321316

The current contract with McCormack calls for five 24 hour-a-day ambulances every day of the week. The Fire Department will be staffing two 24-hour-a-day ambulances and three “peak hour” units … along with a “surge” agreement with McCormack

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feature Image: Camp Pendleton firefighters make their way up the Naval Hospital’s stairwell during a high-rise fire training exercise, May 19, 2012. Base and local units came together in a psuedo-scenario drill to test their communication skills with each other, as well as enhancing rapport for further incidents that may require the departments to work together. This Image was released by the United States Marine Corps with the ID 120519-M-6457B-002

Related Company Commander 4th edition post:

Will be back in a couple of months.

Continue to visit our Facebook page for the latest in curated emergency service news.

Mike

RE-IDENTIFICATION

The action items include:

• Activities to support risk reduction as well as medical and injury prevention efforts.
• Messaging strategies for clarifying and supporting the role of first responders in addressing risk reduction, medical and injury prevention and social services support.
• Strategies to reduce the number of 911 calls.

“Overcome By Events” is a military term used when a situation changes so rapidly that previously proposed courses of action are no longer relevant. It also shows up in long-term federal projects when the situation has changed the environment or requirements of a contracted service.

The coronavirus experience will accelerate the need to address Re-Identification as fire and emergency services continue to respond to the impact of the pandemic while in an economic collapse with a reduction of state and local funding along with mis-matched Medicare EMS reimbursement.

CULTURE

The action items include:

• Create a process that allows for goal setting, strategic planning, and periodic feedback by all stakeholders of the community and the members
  of the organization.
•  Adopt a philosophy that promotes seeking out the best industry practices of other professional organizations and establish a process by which organization can evaluate those practices and implement those that are relevant in their own organization to improve performance.
• Establish a process to continually assess the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed by the organizational workforce to meet the changing community demands for service, to meet the external challenges placing pressures on the organization, and to help address the changes and innovation that are occurring or will need to occur in the agency.

The experience of an international health crisis compounded by social justice issues – where emergency service workers have pinged-ponged from hero to enemy – presents an opportunity to evolve our culture that meets both the community and the emergency responder’s needs and expectations.

ROBUST USE OF DATA

The action items include:

• Champion a substantial update to NFIRS to become a more relevant and technologically robust system or replace it with another system capable of integrating with new innovative data systems to provide advance analytics, and support evidence-based decision making, built upon the receipt of quality data for local agencies.
• Employ advanced analytics to assist in making predictive and prescriptive decisions that are focused on the outcomes the agency is trying to achieve.
• Champion legislative changes to allow for sharing of patient data between hospitals and responding agencies and encourage interagency cooperation to promote the evaluation of patient outcomes based upon the entirety of the response to that patient.

An existing weakness in many emergency services agencies is the ability to use data to make smart decisions, define what is “good,” and explain it to our bosses and the public. Data analytics provides powerful decision-making tools.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

The action items include:

• Conduct research on the impacts of current work cycles on the health of the workforce and the impacts of sleep deprivation and sleep hygiene on the longterm health of the individual and their cognitive abilities while on duty.
• Develop on-going mental health assessments for emergency responders to promote early recognition of developing mental health issues aligned with a mental health assistance process if issues are detected.
• Adopt physical performance and annual fitness testing requirements for fire and emergency services employees to ensure the responder can safely do the job without injury or risk to their health.
• Conduct continued research to develop a comprehensive approach to reducing exposures, the best method(s) for decontamination, and periodic testing to help ensure a safer environment for the workforce.

Occupational cancer and suicide are joining sudden cardiac arrest as the leading causes of death for emergency responders. The IAFC If You Don’t Feel Well, Don’t Make It Your Farewell initiative is one way to address this critical issue.

PARTNERSHIPS

The action items include:

• Inventory and leverage the allied services (law enforcement, health, social services, nongovernmental organizations) in the community to provide more effective and efficient services.
• Promote individual and neighborhood self-sufficiency though existing programs (e.g. community emergency response teams, the radio amateur civil emergency service, volunteers in patrol, and senior Medicare patrol volunteers) to create greater resiliency in the community.

Emergency services are the community’s focal point for neighborhood resiliency.

SUSTAINABILITY

The action items include:

• Develop a better understanding of community needs and their changing demands for services so as to modify the service delivery model(s) to meet them.
• Promote collaboration between labor groups, local government, and state government to ensure existing pension financial commitments are met ensuring adequate service levels within the communities being served.
• Adopt the concepts outlined in “Vision 20/20 – National Strategies for Fire Loss Prevention,” and incorporate these recommendations into the daily agency operation to minimize the impacts to the community and emergency responders.

States just have 71% of the assets needed to fund promised retirement benefits, as documented in the latest Pew Charitable Trust analysis.

Because growing pension debt leads to higher costs, states with poorly funded plans have had to increase their pension contributions. And the higher cost of paying for benefits may affect the states’ ability to fund other core government services and crowd out other important public investments.

Many fire departments are dealing with a crisis of underfunded pension liabilities. An October 1, 2018 commentary by Daniel DiSalvo from the Manhattan Institute described the issue:

In 2015, the Federal Reserve estimated that states’ and localities’ pension funds had accumulated $5.52 trillion in liabilities but had set aside only $3.7 trillion in assets.  To ensure that public employees receive the benefits promised by their plans, state and local governments are spending more every year on their pension systems. According to census data, those governments contributed $40.1 billion to their pension systems in 2000; by 2016, that number had skyrocketed to $140.5 billion. In addition, pension funds are making riskier investments in an effort to catch up.

That means more of the annual budget is committed to meeting the pension liability. In some fire departments, this represents up to 17% of a fire department annual budget in states that are mandating full funding of pensions by 2033 (or 2040 or 2050). Today’s pensions (and budgets) are suffering from earlier administrations that “skipped” a payment or raided the pension fund to meet a budget shortfall.

TECHNOLOGY

The action items include:

• Anticipate that artificial intelligence, smart technology, and robotics will shape future service delivery dramatically in the next 30 years and will change response methods requiring a new skill set and strategic processes for fire and emergency services agencies.
• Champion the United States Fire Administration, in concert with other national organizations, to develop a fire advanced research challenge to promote application of technology developments for use in the emergency services through proof of concept and competitive challenges, similar to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) challenge utilized by the Department of Defense.

INCLUSIVENESS

The action items include:

• Create pathways to attract, prepare, and hire underrepresented personnel into the fire and emergency services.
• Promote cultural understanding and humility within the workforce to increase the quality of interactions and the services provided to the community.

The late Honorable John Lewis, U.S. Representative from Georgia, addresses the 2010 IAFF Human Relations Conference (about 20 minutes)

Next Steps

If you have been working in local government during the last decade, you have experienced some of the most dramatic shifts in how it operates. Whether it’s the political dynamic, the elevated threshold for transparency, the lack of civility, or the demands placed on local government to provide more services, it has been a time of real change.

As we look to the future, those dynamics may continue, but other forces of change will emerge, making the leading and managing of tomorrow’s governmental system very exciting, very challenging, and very fast.

This white paper provides an excellent foundation to build the 2050 version of the Fire and Emergency Services leader. We face amazing opportunities and difficult challenges. We also have the talent and ability to build OUR future.

Please download the white paper and plan your path. https://cpse.org/projects/21st-century/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Center for Public Safety Excellence website to view and download white paper: https://cpse.org/projects/21st-century/

IAFC Cardiac Arrest Toolkit. https://www.iafc.org/topics-and-tools/safety-health/cardiac-awareness-toolkit

Vision 20/20 – National Strategies for Fire Loss Prevention. https://strategicfire.org/crr

(2020 June) The State Pension Funding Gap: 2018. Overall debt at historic high after recovery, underscoring need to prepare for a downturn. The Pew Charitable Trusts. https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2020/06/statepensionfundinggap2018.pdf

DiSalvo, D. (2018 October 1) How Public Pension Boards Are Making a Crisis Worse. Because of the way they’re structured, they have incentives to ignore the retirement plans’ going term health. Governing.com

Petrella, D. (2014 June 2014) Rising police, fire pension costs squeezing city budgets. The State Journal-Register. https://www.sj-r.com/article/20140628/News/140619232

Feature Image: Screen shot from this animation of a gyroscopic firefighting vehicle.

A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices. It commonly refers to hot-button topics on which there is general societal disagreement and polarization in societal values is seen. Our current situation is summed up this way:

You’re either a liberal snowflake controlled by big government or a greedy conservative willing to sacrifice Grandma for the economy. It took less than two months for Americans to get here.

Lerer, L. (2020 May 7) The New Culture War (On Politics With Lisa Lerer) The New York Times.

1 – Keep Your Job By Guarding Opinions And Observations

A stunning number of emergency service executives, managers, and supervisors are losing their jobs because of what they post on social media. David Brooks talks about the actions by Social Justice activists:

The Social Justice activists focus on the cultural levers of power. Their most talked about action is canceling people. Some person, usually mildly progressive, will say something politically “problematic” and his or her job will be terminated. In this way new boundaries are established for what has to be said and what cannot be said.

Brooks, D. (2020 June 25) America Is Facing 5 Epic Crises at Once. (Opinion) The New York Times

Emergency responders getting fired over inappropriate or troubling posts on social media is not new. Former volunteer firefighter/medic and radio/TV Reporter Dave Statter coined the term “Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome (SMACSS)” in 2012.

Here are two take-aways from Statter’s recent coverage:

There are no “private” social media sites. Eventually someone will provide access or send screenshots or print-outs to an outsider. An example of a SMACSS MCI occurred last year in Philadelphia where 13 police officers were fired and 56 received formal discipline for making racist or offensive Facebook posts.

You cannot separate your emergency service affiliation with your social media activity. In the past some folks have gotten in trouble for posting while on duty or using images that can identify them as an emergency responder. Recent activities imply that you are always linked to your emergency service affiliation. A Harris County, Texas, firefighter lost 3 firefighter/EMS jobs over a Facebook post on his personal account about hunting immigrants.

Attorney and retired Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Curt Varone provide an analysis of what the First Amendment rights mean for firefighters in Fire Law Blog: NC Facebook Post Results in Two Cybercasualties.

The impact of the current cultural conflict has resulted in more than 30 chiefs and company-level officers losing their jobs because of social media posts.

2 – Follow The Coronavirus Science

This one is difficult to accomplish because of two situations.

Politicization of Science

The politicization of science is the manipulation of science for political gain. It occurs when government, business, or advocacy groups use legal or economic pressure to influence the findings of scientific research or the way it is disseminated, reported or interpreted.

An example of this is the research linking lung disease to cigarette smoking. The debate between opening up businesses before the COVID-19 infections are under control is another.

Yale Senior Research Scientist Anthony Leiserowitz discusses the “Liberate America” protests:

… we’re seeing some of the same actors that have been denying that climate change is a serious problem. … much of this resistance is driven by the political ideology of radical individualism. These people are deeply suspicious of climate change because it’s the ultimate collective action problem. We can’t solve climate change by our own virtuous individual behavior alone … And that’s the same worldview that’s driving these protesters, who are basically saying, “You’re infringing on my individual freedom by telling me to shelter at home.”

Dennehy, K. (2020 April 21) Will Politicization of COVID-19 Crisis Erode National Consensus On Response? Yale School of the Environment.

A Tsunami Of 23,000 Unvetted Scientific Articles

Scientific publishers made life-or-death research available as quickly as possible by dropping paywalls and encouraging researchers to post their submissions on pre-print servers, where anyone can access them before they undergo a peer-review process.

This means that an article submitted to Science was available in days instead of months. Posting initial research findings on pre-print servers allows researchers to quickly share preliminary work and may help the scientific community to collaborate more effectively and efficiently.

The Atlantic science writer Ed Yong describes how peer-review and scientific knowledge works:

It’s less the parade of decisive blockbuster discoveries that the press often portrays, and more a slow, erratic stumble toward ever less uncertainty. “Our understanding oscillates at first, but converges on an answer,” says Natalie Dean, a statistician at the University of Florida. “That’s the normal scientific process, but it looks jarring to people who aren’t used to it.”

With over 23,000 non-peer reviewed scientific papers about the disease flooding the scientific community (Brainard), factoids and tidbits are grasped as “the solution” by news media. This creates contradictory comments and erodes the public’s confidence in scientific information.

3 – Be A Trustworthy Information Source

For weeks “Left Behind USA” was on social media promoting a flag-burning event at the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania.

Dozens showed up, some heavily armed, to prevent the flag burning. There was no flag-burning event.

Officials at Facebook and Twitter shut down the Left Behind USA pages last week after The Post inquired about the accounts, saying the person behind them had manipulated the platform by creating multiple accounts with overlapping content in an effort to amplify their messaging. The officials declined to identify the other accounts.

Boburg, S. and Bennett, D. (2020 July 4) Militias flocked to Gettysburg to foil a supposed antifa flag burning, an apparent hoax created on social media. The Washington Post.

There is a constant drip-drip-drip of conspiracies, catastrophes and calamities that are right around the corner. Some of this is driven by the dozens of talking heads, “experts,” and writers filling-up a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week information beast. They are competing for “time spent watching” their items. More time on their items, more market share and ad revenue.

Others are purposefully creating chaos to meet a political or tactical need. Finally, some just want to have the equivalent excitement of pulling a fire alarm box in the South Bronx to watch the rigs respond.

SIFT Your Information

Mike Caulfield is a digital information literacy expert at Washington State University. His “four moves” SIFT methodology to information sources provide a valuable tool.

• Stop
• Investigate the Source
• Find Better Coverage
• Trace Claims, Quotes and Media to the Original Context

The infodemic.blog webpage will walk you through the procedures.

Why do we like conspiracies?

While some conspiracies are true – President Reagan selling weapons to Iran during an arms embargo and sending that cash to support rebels overthrowing the existing Nicaragua government – Graham Lawton looks at why we gravitate to conspiracy theories:

The human brain did not evolve to process complex information about global politics, economics or science. It evolved to survive on the African savannah where threats and hostile intentions were a daily reality.

Our brains have other cognitive biases that make us susceptible to conspiracy theories. One is proportionality bias, a belief that major events have major causes. Intentionality bias makes us assume that events are planned by somebody or something. Confirmation bias means we seek out evidence that supports our beliefs. And the illusion-of-understanding bias makes us overestimate our knowledge of how things work.

Lawton, G. (2020) Conspiracy theories: Belief in conspiracy theories is the product of normal human psychology, but can be extremely dangerous. New Scientist

Company commanders are trained to impose order on chaos over a wide variety of life-threatening, potentially catastrophic events with inadequate information during a dynamically changing environment. We have the experience, discipline and tools to be trustworthy sources of information to our crews and community. I recommend we start approaching these issues as we would a 55 gallon drum leaking a purple fluid and issuing a light haze.

4 – Be An Active Voter

The vote you cast in a local or national election has more power than a million words on social media or a $10,000 donation to a Political Action Committee. Generally, less than 2/3rds of eligible voters in a community are registered to vote. In the 2016 Presidential election, 58.4% of the registered voters cast a ballot. That mean each person that voted had the power of 2.5 voter-eligible citizens in that community.

The polarization of political discourse – with a widening gap between liberals and conservatives – has become personal and emotionally negative. A review of academic research by journalist Thomas Edsall highlighted the degree to which the political polarization has increasingly taken on an
emotionally negative tone:

“Hostility to the opposition party and its candidates has now reached a level where loathing motivates voters more than loyalty,” and “The building strength of partisan antipathy — ‘negative partisanship’ — has radically altered politics. Anger has become the primary tool for motivating voters.”

Anger and outrage motivates voters on the extremes and have left moderate voters politically homeless, with 40% of voters surveyed in a May 28-June 4 Gallop survey identifying as Independent, 31% as Democrat and 25% Republican.

That same anger fueled the social media posts that lead to the loss of jobs for dozens of our colleagues. Be the knowledgeable and trustworthy commander and participate in our purposefully messy and raucous election process to allow us to continue to serve our communities and country.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ayesh, R. (2020 July 4) Trump casts himself as chief defender of American history in divisive speech at Rushmore. Axios. https://www.axios.com/trump-casts-himself-as-chief-defender-of-american-history-rushmore-65d3d482-9eba-4b0c-9798-f99feeddef20.html

Liasson, M. (2020 June 20) As The Culture Wars Shift, President Trump Struggles To Adapt. National Public Radio https://www.npr.org/2020/06/20/881096897/as-the-culture-wars-shift-president-trump-struggles-to-adapt

Lerer, L. (2020 May 7) The New Culture War (On Politics With Lisa Lerer) The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/politics/liberal-conservative-coronavirus.html

Dennehy, K. (2020 April 21) Will Politicization of COVID-19 Crisis Erode National Consensus On Response? Yale School of the Environment. https://environment.yale.edu/news/article/will-politicization-of-covid19-crisis-erode-national-consensus-on-protecting-public-health/

Tingley, K. (2020 April 21) Coronavirus Is Forcing Medical Research to Speed Up. The New Your Times Magazine. Accessed April 24, 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/magazine/coronavirus-scientific-journals-research.html 

Yong, Ed (2020 April 29) Why the Coronavirus Is So Confusing: A guide to making sense of a problem that is now too big for any one person to fully comprehend. The Atlantic. Accessed April 29, 2020: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/04/pandemic-confusing-uncertainty/610819/  

Brainard, J. (2020 May 13) Scientists are drowning in COVID-19 papers. Can new tools keep them afloat? Science. doi:10.1126/science.abc7839 Accessed June 21, 2020 https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/scientists-are-drowning-covid-19-papers-can-new-tools-keep-them-afloat

Boburg, S. and Bennett, D. (2020 July 4) Militias flocked to Gettysburg to foil a supposed antifa flag burning, an apparent hoax created on social media. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/hundreds-of-armed-men-went-to-gettysburg-to-defend-it-from-a-phantom-antifa-flag-burner-created-on-social-media/2020/07/04/206ee4da-bb05-11ea-86d5-3b9b3863273b_story.html

Brooks, D (2020 June 25) America Is Facing 5 Epic Crises at Once. (Opinion) The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/us-coronavirus-protests.html

Wise, Jenna (2020 July 5) Dozens, some armed, come to Gettysburg to guard against rumors of Antifa violence. Pennsylvania Real-Time News. https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/07/dozens-some-armed-come-to-gettysburg-to-guard-against-rumors-of-antifa-violence.html

Caulfield, M. (2020) Sifting Through The Pandemic: Information Hygiene for the Covid-19 infodemic. infodemic.blog https://infodemic.blog/

Lawton, G. (2020) Conspiracy theories: Belief in conspiracy theories is the product of normal human psychology, but can be extremely dangerous. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/term/conspiracy-theories/#ixzz6RMShYuWK

Statter, D (2020) Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome. STATter911. https://www.statter911.com/tag/social-media-assisted-career-suicide-syndrome/

Palmer, (2019 July 18) Philadelphia Police Department to fire 13 officers over offensive Facebook posts. The Philadelphia Inquirer. https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-officer-firings-facebook-posts-database-20190718.html

Varone, C (2019 July 4) NC Facebook Post Results in Two Cybercasualties. Fire Law Blog. http://www.firelawblog.com/2019/07/04/nc-facebook-post-results-in-two-cybercasualties/

Woodwell, WH (2019 November) Voting Rights Under Fire. New York, NY: Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://production-carnegie.s3.amazonaws.com/filer_public/bc/46/bc469634-87fd-4233-bc93-d9a89bfc9c00/voting-rights-fin.pdf

Smith, H (2016 Nov 16) Turnout in the 2016 Presidential Election. FairVote. https://www.fairvote.org/turnout_in_the_2016_presidential_election

Newport, F (2019 December 5) The Impact of Increased Political Polarization. Gallup https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/268982/impact-increased-political-polarization.aspx

(2020) Party Affiliation (trend since 2004) Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx

Featured image: Jedd Meddaugh, Dallas Morning News (2018 December 4) “Meet the new culture war (not the same as the old culture war): The anti-culture armies realized it was smarter to buy in to pop culture than to howl against its encroachment on everyday life.” https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2016/12/05/meet-the-new-culture-war-not-the-same-as-the-old-culture-war/

1. Compliance with Rules and Regulations

The company commander represents the formal fire department within the fire station when transmitting the rules and regulations as well as assuring firefighter compliance. In large or bureaucratic jurisdictions it may not be possible to assure 100% compliance.

Let’s look at a fictional example. General Order 2020-039 was issued last week that describes complex changes in infection control practices due to shortages in personal protective clothing. It is in conflict with Standard Operating Procedure 2.3.1 that is built upon a federal regulation that carries a penalty for non-compliance.

If this was a question on a promotional exam, the candidate may (1) Describe how to comply with both GO 2020-039 and SOP 231 to the best of the crew’s ability – with emphasis on firefighter health and safety and delivering the maximum possible level of community service, (2) Notify the battalion chief of the conflict in directives, (3) If this is a resource issue, describe an innovative resolution, and (4) Prepare a document for the chief’s review describing the conflict with a recommended solution.

Is the new fire officer “by the book” and believes every single sentence that comes from headquarters as accurate gospel? That officer will believe the downgrading of the quality and level of infectious disease personal protective equipment below the federal minimum is just fine.

If this was real-life, the experienced Lieutenant will have a brief discussion with the battalion chief to look at options. The Lieutenant will then do the tasks that protect the firefighters/public and keep the supervisor out of federal court.

2. Firefighter Satisfaction

When new fire officer is tested by the crew, many stumble at the REQUEST stage. They will be asked to allow or do something that is clearly not allowed in the rules and regulations.

Rookie officers often want the crew members to like them. It is difficult to improve fire company performance once you have given away your formal authority so you can be like “… one of the guys.”

Respect is based on being trustworthy and authentic. Likeability is subjective, people often like people who are similar to themselves, or have a certain charisma. Being likable or popular does not always earn you the respect.

Being a respected supervisor is different than being their buddy. Many of the officers Hugh Caulfield assisted struggled with this.

You cannot manufacture respect. You cannot become something you weren’t or aren’t. Firemen will see through it in a second.

Don’t try to gain respect by doing the things you think will make you look ‘salty’ or bad ass. Gain it by doing your job. Gain it by having strong core values and instilling them in your organization.

Bastinelli, Brian (2017 Winter) #RESPECT. The Art of Firemanship. 02(1) https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5668c7042399a34df12fe70b/t/58c0a0cebf629ab8bacd5a81/1489019112067/AOF+Journal+Winter+2017+Single.pdf

How important is for you to be Beloved … or Respected?

3. Productivity

Fire company productivity includes performance at emergency incidents as well as completion of routine assignments such as hydrant inspections or fire station maintenance.

One of the features of the Blue Card Incident Management certification program is the use of “sets and reps” to hone muscle memory and mental cues when commanding an incident. It is a term used in physical training:

A Rep (repetition) is one complete motion of an exercise. A Set is a group of consecutive repetitions. For example, you can say, “I did two sets of ten reps on the chest press.” This means that you did ten consecutive chest presses, rested, and then did another ten chest presses.

Our goal is to be highly skilled to the point that the evolution (throwing a ground ladder, advancing a 2.5″ smooth bore) appears natural and easy. Firefighters are Unconsciously Competent.

Becoming unconsciously competent requires a lot of sets and reps. Officers will get resistance when increasing the training tasks. In doing Caulfield’s assessment, how important is company productivity to you?

4. Risk

Taking care of your crew is a sacred trust. We are in an environment that requires the company-level supervisor to be a vigilant and consistent advocate for the team.

This becomes a challenge when a chief officer or administrator asks “… how well do you like working here?” The officer may be warned that continuing to advocate for an issue – even those affecting the safety of the crew – may hurt the fire officer’s career.

Some of you may recall the “Career Dissipation Light” phrase from Backdraft

You may be planning to move upon the career ladder to become a command officer or senior administrator. That may be hard to do if you get formal discipline designed to stop or discourage your advocacy. What level of professional risk are you comfortable with?

5. Leader Satisfaction

What is a great work day for you? Is this the rank and assignment you plan to retire at? Where do you see yourself when you retire?

I have a long-gone fellow firefighter/paramedic that said “I do not want to be staring through the windshield of an ambulance when I am 40.” At 40 he was running the EMS side of the Academy.

Winning The Leadership Game

Caulfield said that the company officer wins the leadership game when the fire station runs on the company officer’s terms. The officer is satisfied with

• Firefighter Productivity
• Their Own Feelings About Being a Leader
• How They Are Meeting the Formal Organization’s Expectations of the Company Officer as a Leader

Caulfield provided leadership tools and different point of reference to help FDNY lieutenants and captains get through the War Years and significant economic crisis during a time of great cultural upheaval.

++++++++++++++++++

Caulfield, Hugh J. (1985). Winning the Fire Service Leadership Game. Saddlebrook, NJ: Fire Engineering. ISBN 0-912212-09-8

Blue Card Command Training and Certification: http://www.bshifter.com/about_01.aspx

Curtiss, PR and Warren PW (1973) The Dynamics of Life Skills Coaching: Life Skills Series. Prince Albert, Saskatchewan: Training and Development Station, Department of Manpower and Immigration.

Adams, L. (no date) “Learning a New Skill is Easier Said Than Done“ Gordon Training International. Accessed February 16, 2019, from http://www.gordontraining.com/free-workplace-articles/learning-a-new-skill-is-easier-said-than-done/ 

Ericsson KA, Roring, RW and Nandagopal K. (2007 June) “Giftedness and evidence for reproducibly superior performance: an account based on the expert performance framework.” High Ability Studies. Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 3–56.

Featured image: U Street Firefighters, Washington DC (2018) Facebook

Pictures are to illustrate concepts and DO NOT imply that the personal or organizations pictured are doing improper or unsafe activities