NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 33

VIEWPOINTS ON FIRE
AND LIFE SAFETY
As these CRR programs have
expanded, so have the places where
firefighters now spend their time. Many
firefighters are at schools talking to students
about fire safety, drunk driving, or
the need to wear bicycle helmets; others
go door to door to distribute new smoke
alarms or hand out literature about
senior falls. As firefighters' daily tasks
have evolved, in many ways, so have the
required skillsets. Firefighters aren't just
expected to be masters of backdraft and
hose stream patterns; they are called
upon to be agile communicators, able to
teach and relate to people of all walks of
life and cultural backgrounds.
In this new paradigm, where social
skills and cultural awareness can be as
invaluable as teamwork and bravery,
some fire service leaders are coming
to realize that the traditional training
may not be enough to set up firefighters
for success. " We train on so many
things-how to deliver community risk
reduction programs, what information
should be delivered, how to respond
to EMS calls and to fires-but we don't
train on the emotional intelligence
aspect of dealing with people or the
bias aspect of being fair with them, "
said Gary Menard, the prevention
and wellness captain with the City of
Decatur Fire Rescue in Georgia. Issues
like inherent bias might seem minor,
he said, but they can have a profound
impact on the effectiveness of fire
department outreach and CRR.
Menard recently launched a program
at his department to provide firefighters
with better knowledge of how to more
effectively interact with their community,
and to learn to recognize some of
the hidden bias that can creep into these
interactions. Building on that, in June,
Menard gave a presentation at the NFPA
Conference & Expo in Orlando called
" Bias and Other Obstacles to Successful
Prevention Programs. " His talk highlighted
some of the human issues-some
more obvious than others-that he
says can derail even the best-laid prevention
initiatives.
NFPA Journal caught up with Menard
shortly after his packed presentation in
Orlando to chat about these oftenoverlooked
challenges to fire prevention
and CRR work, and how the fire service
is beginning to tackle them.
First off, your " prevention and wellness
captain " title is a bit unique.
Can you describe your role at
Decatur Fire Rescue?
We created this position. Typically, a
prevention department focuses mainly
on fire prevention, but we added " wellness "
to that because, in reality, most
of the incidents we respond to now are
wellness related. We run more EMS than
we do fires. The fires are still there, and
they're burning hotter and faster than
ever, but there are fewer of them. So we
decided that if we're actually going to do
prevention, we also need to focus on the
overall holistic wellness in the community,
not just fire.
In your presentation, you said that
one of the main hurdles to effective
community risk reduction is
the firefighters' reluctance to do
this type of work. Why are some
resistant to it?
I think a lot of people go into the fire
service thinking they want to help
people by doing something heroic.
And in a lot of ways, the fire service
itself glorifies that type of thing-in
recruit school, everything is " fire, fire,
fire! " And many firefighters really
don't feel like they're accomplishing
anything unless they're running out
the door with three babies in their
arms and flames blowing over their
heads. But that's not where the real
magic happens.
Where's the magic?
It's really in our interactions with the
community. That's what really makes
a difference. To be sure, there are companies
that run all the time and have
fires constantly. But that's not the case
in most communities. More commonly,
the majority of the time you're running
EMS calls, elevator entrapments,
false alarms, automobile accidents, lift
assists, and things like that. The fires
are just a small portion. Somebody told
me once that if all you're worried about
are fires, you're only focusing on 2 percent
of your job. That's not really taking
your position very seriously.
And if you got in this position to
help people, community risk reduction
is where that's actually happening.
Because once you've responded to the
fire, the damage is done. You haven't
done everything you could. It's very
self-serving to think " I'm so excited to
go to this fire, " instead of, " I'm so sorry
this fire happened, I wish we could
have prevented it. "
Obviously, motivation is a key
factor in any CRR program's
success, but you also mentioned
bias as a hurdle that can derail
things. How does bias factor into
community risk reduction and the
fire service?
The funny thing is, unless you're aware
of it, you wouldn't think it is an obstacle
at all, because it's so implicit. We're
not saying that anyone is intentionally
avoiding one person or a community
or anything. It's something that's wired
into all of our brains and it can affect
you in many ways, and it particularly
affects firefighters because bias occurs
a lot when we're in System 1 thinking.
Do you know about System 1 versus
System 2 thinking?
I don't. Please explain.
Our brains use a tremendous amount
of energy: it's 2 percent of your body,
but it uses something like 20 percent of
your energy. Your brain is always trying
to create shortcuts to use less energy,
so it will form patterns and make
assumptions so that it doesn't have to
work as hard. For instance, when you're
driving home on the same route that
you've driven for many years, you may
get home and you don't even remember
turning the steering wheel, accelerating,
or braking. The whole thing was
on autopilot, because you're so familiar
that your brain shut down for a while.
That's System 1 thinking. Now, if you're
driving home and suddenly there's a
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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