NFPA Journal - May/June 2019 - 35

JESSE ROMAN

NFPACONFERENCE&EXPO
SANANTONIO2019
awards, but most of the real
estate is devoted to old photos
TEACHABLE MOMENTS Hood evaluates a training
session with members of the San Antonio Fire
of fire service colleagues,
Department. SAFD's investment in firefighter safety
friends he worked alongside
includes a training facility named for a firefighter
who died in the line of duty in 2017.
battling blazes and saving
lives as a paramedic and
firefighter in Phoenix for
more than two decades. He
surrounds himself with the
photos, he says, to remember his humble beginnings
as a firefighter, and also as
reminders of his responsibility to the men and women in
the field risking their lives.
"I would define myself as a
servant leader," he tells me. "I
always take care of my folks,
not enabling them, but taking
care of them."
Hood joined the Phoenix
Fire Department in 1984 as
a rank-and-file firefighter,
despite his military father's objections
corporate communications; deputy fire
that the profession was too blue collar
chief at one of the country's busiest
for his son. Hood caught the fireairports; and eventually assistant chief
fighting bug as a kid; the father of a
to legendary Phoenix fire chief Alan
childhood friend was a firefighter, and
Brunacini, Hood's longtime friend and
the two boys would visit the friend's
mentor who was nationally recognized
dad at the fire station. "I always loved
for his tactical innovations and profire trucks, I liked the lifestyle, the
gressive approach to firefighter safety
whole thing," Hood says. He held an
[see "Bruno & Me," page TK.]
array of jobs in the Phoenix departWhen Hood arrived in San Antonio
ment: more than 1,000 flight hours
in April 2007, however, the department
as a helicopter air medic; chief of
bore little resemblance to the culture
he'd left in Phoenix.
According to multiple
SAFD employees I spoke
CONFERENCE SESSIONS
with, as well as longtime
city manager Sheryl SculReducing Stigma: Applying a Human
ley, San Antonio was a
Performance Optimization Model to
department in need of
Maximize Wellness, Performance, and
Recovery
an update; its policies,
Tuesday, June 18, 2:30-3:30 p.m.
equipment, and facilities
Deloria Wilson, Raul Chapa, Yvonne Garcia,
were all antiquated. When
San Antonio Fire Department
Sculley was hired as San
Antonio's city manager
Culture, Cancer, and Firefighting PPE
in 2005, after 16 years as
2019: If You Permit It, You Promote It
Tuesday, June 18, 5-6 p.m.
assistant city manager in
Jim Reidy, San Antonio Fire Department
Phoenix, one of the first
press conferences she
The 10 Year Retirement Rule (for
held was to address the
Firefighting Structural Ensembles):
alarming rate at which
The Science, Philosophy, and Practical
Application
SAFD's self-contained
Wednesday, June 19, 9:15-10:15 a.m.
breathing apparatuses
Jim Reidy, San Antonio Fire Department
were failing-on several occasions, while

firefighters were battling blazes. "There
were some real basics that needed
correcting, best practices that I was
familiar with from my Phoenix experience that just weren't happening,"
Sculley says.
Before Hood arrived, department
morale was low, and city residents
often complained about response times
to the point where residents in one
part of the city told Sculley that they
wanted to secede from San Antonio,
she says. The fire department had no
formal safety or wellness programs
for firefighters, and lacked policies
for responding to many kinds of
low-frequency, high-stakes events, like
mass-casualty shootings, that are crucial for modern urban departments. To
many members, it felt like the department was stuck in a rut.
"I have worked under four fire chiefs
in my career" at SAFD, Horan tells me,
"and the difference is, previously, I
think we were good, but the status quo
was acceptable. There was never discussion, that I was aware, of wanting to
be a national leader in the fire service.
It was never a topic."
When the former chief retired in
2006, Sculley launched a national search
for a new leader with that very objective
in mind. Her previous post in Phoenix
had given her a front-row seat to how a
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NFPA Journal - May/June 2019

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