Why Your Company Level Inspection Program Is Failing [SPECIAL REPORT]

There are three primary reasons that a fire department’s company level inspection program may fail.

1. Unmet expectations.
2. Lack of support.
3. Inadequate training.

Unmet expectations.
When I hear the term “company level inspection program”, I envision a program that exists to support fire prevention functions, specifically to assist in the completion of fire and life safety inspections. However, this is not the generally accepted definition. “Company level inspection program” is also the title given to programs that are intended to educate firefighters on a communities structures and properties, create fire pre-plans, and improve community relations and outreach. Each of these is a worthy endeavor, however, each of these possess very different goals and objectives, personnel training requirements, and crew time commitment.

If the expectation of the program is to support fire prevention and assist with inspections, then a training focus on fire and life safety codes, application, and enforcement would need to be delivered.  These inspections require a larger time commitment and more thorough walk-through of a property. If personnel are examining a structure for code deficiencies, it is difficult to also be thinking about or creating the fire incident pre-plan.   

Pre-incident planning is typically a more general overview of a property, its access, protection features, and operational hazards. Firefighters are trained, or conditioned, from the academy days on items to look for.  They are already thinking about what actions they may take in a given fire scenario at a property. The only additional training that may be needed is that related to fire protection systems, special hazards, or documentation.

Firefighter awareness or community relations and outreach, could simply be showing up to a facility, meeting the key personnel, and touring the property. This level of involvement would require no training, time commitment could be as long or short as the company officer deems appropriate, and could require little to no documentation.

Lack of support.

Company level inspection programs that lack support of the community leadership and fire department administration are doomed to failure.  There has been more than one ambitious fire marshal who has set out to institute a program that has been widely accepted by line level personnel, but has failed. A successful program takes more than ambition by personnel, and vocal encouragement from leadership.  A successful company level inspection program will require real support by means of time, resources, and perhaps operational changes.

The most effective company level inspection programs are owned by departments that have a culture of fire prevention. Fire prevention, life safety, community risk reduction are made a priority from the top leadership all the way down through the organization. Without this culture of fire prevention the company level inspection program may struggle. Initially, time and efforts may be best spent on building a department with a cultural foundation of fire prevention and life safety.

Inadequate training.

The survey results revealed a wide range of training applications, methods, and length. On-the-job training and in-house programs were the top training methods for company level inspection programs. As a component of a training program on-the-job training (OJT) is a great idea. However, to be effective the OJT must be formulaic and structured. Often times, when fire departments refer to “OJT”, what they are actually talking about is experiential or legacy knowledge.  This is training where the twenty year veteran tells the younger department member how he does things or how things have always been done. There are multiple obvious problems with this. Different people have different perspectives and passions, and will share knowledge accordingly, additionally the information presented or methods used may be incorrect or obsolete. This level of “OJT” can result in lack of uniform training, or neglect of correct knowledge and best practice engagement.

Like OJT, in-house training should be an essential component of company level inspection program. The issue with this is that it varies from “house” to “house”. Survey results show that the time allotted to “in-house” training programs varied from 1, 4, 6, 8, 12 hours to half-,full-, or multi- day programs.  To be effective, in-house training programs must be structured and standardized based on departmental needs and objectives.

Training requirements go hand-in-hand with the two topics mentioned above, expectations and support. The goals and expectations of the company level inspection program must be clearly defined so that a proper training program can be created and implemented.  A single, initial training is not enough, on-going and continuing education and work review is necessary. Additionally, company personnel must have support from more knowledgeable and certified fire prevention and inspection personnel.

Learn how to build a successful company level inspection program with this special report.

Fire Prevention Blueprint

Attention, Fire Prevention Professionals!

Build an Effective and Efficient Fire Prevention Organization!

Create an effective fire prevention organization by:

• Identifying essential fire prevention and life safety functions
• Understanding how to utilize effective systems and processes
• Creating a plan of action for building or restructuring a fire prevention organization

Are you a fire protection professional - inspector, engineer, safety director, fire marshal, or AHJ - that is faced with the challenge of doing more with less? Are you tired of being reactive instead of proactive in your prevention efforts? Do you feel overwhelmed by the tasks that can never seem to get accomplished? Do you wonder if your team is focusing on the right functions and activities? Is your vision for your department unfulfilled? You need a clear plan of action. This is your action plan!

Identify the seven disciplines for effectiveness and efficiency.

    Based on historical context, current needs, best practices, published standards, and successful fire prevention programs, the Fire Prevention Blueprint identifies seven disciplines critical to the effectiveness of any fire prevention organization.

1. Know your community.
2. Have a plan.
3. Enforce the code.
4. Conduct plan review and field inspections.
5. Investigate fire incidents.
6. Educate the public.
7. Be adequately staffed.

Describe the key functions, features, and components of these disciplines.

    The Fire Prevention Blueprint  addresses the most important questions and highlights the major features of these seven disciplines.

• What are the key elements you must know and understand about your community?. 
• What is a strategy? How can you create one for your community and fire prevention organization?
• How often should you be inspecting the various structures within your community?
• Do you have a clear understanding of  the functions and benefits of plan review? Are you fully aware of your role on the building commissioning team?
• Do you know how to maximize the data gathered from origin and cause investigations?
• Are you providing the most needed, in-demand, and valuable public education programs? 
• Why do people want to work for your organization? How can you attract them? How can you keep them?

Apply practical guidance to implement each discipline. 

    Application of the Fire Prevention Blueprint will enable you to effectively establish, organize, and manage, the fire prevention functions of your organization.  You will be empowered to implement these seven disciplines by:

• Understanding where to get data from, and how to use it.
• Learning how to structure a fire protection and life safety strategy for your community, and form a long-range plan for your fire prevention organization.
• Properly categorizing facility inspections based on hazard risk, operations, and construction features.
• Building an integrated testing plan.
• Following a simple 6-step process for fire scene investigation.
• Knowing the 10-step process for selecting public education programs
• Learning the basic skills for public speaking and teaching.
• Applying Peter Drucker’s 3-step process for time management to your fire prevention organization.
• Following the NFPA recommended 5-step process to determine and justify staffing needs.

Utilize multiple tools, resources, and references for further study and application.

    The goal of  Fire Prevention Blueprint is to provide a basic framework on which to build your organization.  There is an abundance of resources available on each of these seven disciplines and their subtopics. The best tools and resources are referenced in this guide:

• Via footnotes in the text.
• A bonus annex section. 
• A website with direct links to all referenced tools and documents. 

It has taken me more than a decade in this industry to clarify this system for fire prevention organization operation. When I sat down to write this book, I simply wrote down the information I wish I would have had over ten years ago, when I started out on this fire prevention quest!

Buy now on Amazon!

Kindle - $1.99

Print - $6.99

Still not sure if this is right for you? Learn more and subscribe to the mailing list at, www.FPOblueprint.com

How to Build an Effective Fire Prevention Organization

The fire service is an organization that has become known for doing more with less. Less tools, less equipment, less personnel, and less money. Many fire prevention organizations have too few dedicated fire prevention personnel to cover the many square feet of space or miles of geography within their communities. Fire prevention organizations are responsible for the tasks of life safety inspections, fire protection system inspections and testing, plan reviews, investigations, public education, and myriad administrative tasks. All this while also being expected to stay abreast of new technologies, code developments, legislative changes, and planning for the future of the fire prevention organization and its role within the community.   

This workload creates a reactive environment.  One in which fire prevention organization and personnel are functioning only to respond to the most emergent issue, “what needs to be done now”.  These organizations run the risk of being able to only accomplish the minimum required tasks, or less. These conditions can lead to critical fire protection and life safety issues that are allowed to develop until they become a major incident, which results in loss of property or worse, loss of life.

Fire protection professionals - inspectors, investigators, engineers, building safety directors,  the Fire Marshal - did not get into this field to barely get by, or to race to the bottom, or to just work to meet “minimum” standards, or “try their best”, or to do things “the way they’ve always been done”, to simply maintain the status quo. You entered the field because you had a vision to change your world or community by protecting property and saving lives from fire loss.

With the many tasks, responsibilities, and requirements of the fire prevention organization how can this vision be realized? How can the fire prevention organization and its personnel be best utilized to  ensure that they are functioning at optimal effectiveness? Can they know that they are focusing on the right tasks and activities? The solution is a clear plan of action that identifies and provides for the most effective and efficient methods for performing essential fire prevention functions.

With the right plan of action and a laser-like focus on essential tasks your vision for your community and organization can be realized. Your organization can be transformed from just getting by, doing the bare minimum, trying to stay “afloat”,  into a purpose driven, forward advancing, progress making, community changing, organization!

The Fire Prevention Blueprint is your action plan! This book reveals the seven disciplines of effective and efficient fire prevent organizations, and provides practical guidance and resources for their implementation. Fire Prevention Blueprint: Seven Disciplines for Building Effective Fire Prevention Organizations accomplishes this by identifying essential fire prevention and life safety functions, understanding how to utilize effective systems and processes, and providing the framework for creating a structured and organized plan of action.

Don’t let your community become the next mass fire casualty or large fire loss headline. Buy the Fire Prevention Blueprint and transform your fire prevention organization into your vision of what you know it can be!

For more information, resources, and to order the book, visit:

www.FPOblueprint.com

Effectiveness of Company Level Inspection Programs [SURVEY]

I am conducting research for a white paper to be published regarding the effectiveness of company level inspection programs.  This research primarily deals with fire department size and company level inspection function, duties, and training. 

If you have 10 minutes to spare please take the survey below.  The survey is composed of 14  multiple choice or fill-in questions.  All responses are optional.

Company Level Inspections Survey:

https://goo.gl/forms/PCJvAKxNEPaFTWkp2

Thank you for assisting with this.  If you would like more information on this study, would like to discuss further, or are interested in receiving the survey results, please contact me at, thecodecoach@gmail.com.

Home Fire Extinguisher FAQ

An important component of many Community Risk Reduction programs are home visits, conducted by fire department line personnel. NFPA 1452 serves as a guide for how fire departments should conduct these CRR home visits. Part of this guide refers to the presence of home fire extinguishing methods such as fire extinguishers. Many homeowners may not be aware of the value or use of these tools. It is important that firefighters know the answers to common questions regarding household fire extinguishers.

1. What type, rating, and how many extinguishers are needed?
2. How much will an extinguisher cost?
3. Where should fire extinguishers be located and mounted?
4. How are fire extinguishers operated and maintained?

NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers provides the answers to these questions.

What type, rating and how many are needed?

NFPA 10, chapter 5 outlines the requirements for the “selection of portable fire extinguishers”.   Selection should be based on the following:

• Type of fire most likely to occur (based on classifications, below)
• Size of fire most likely to occur
• Hazards in the area where the fire may occur
• Energized electrical equipment in the vicinity of the fire
• Ambient temperature conditions

Type of fire most likely to occur will determine the classification of extinguisher that is needed.

How much will it cost?

Homeowners can expect to pay $20 - $50 for a suitable fire extinguisher.  These can be purchased at retail stores or online at sites like, Home Depot, Walmart, or Amazon.

Where should fire extinguishers be located?

Extinguishers should be located in areas that have the greatest potential for fire, such as the kitchen, garage, and laundry room.  Extinguishers are to be mounted on the provided bracket at least 4” from the floor, but no higher than 5’ to the top of the handle.  Extinguishers should accessible, visible, and within the normal path of travel to an exit.

How are extinguishers operated and maintained?

Extinguishers should be visually inspected, at least monthly, to determine that the unit is in its appropriate location, is accessible, and the gauge is within operational limits.  The manufacturers inspection/testing/maintenance recommendations should be followed.

Extinguishers can be operated using the P.A.S.S. method.

Related Posts:

• Engaging Firefighters in Community Risk Reduction
• Conducting Home Visits
• Developing Public Education Programs

Fire Prevention Week 2017

The week of October 8-14 will be nationally recognized as Fire PreventionWeek. The theme this year is “Every Second Counts: Plan 2 Ways Out”. Having an escape plan can spare lives when seconds count.  This years theme reinforces the need for families to have, know, and practice a fire escape plan.

Fire Prevention Week has been observed every October (always the week of the 9th) since 1922. The NFPA established this week to commemorate the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. This fire, rumored to have been started by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow, claimed more than 250 lives, left 100,000 homeless, destroyed more than 17,400 structures and burned more than 2,000 acres. 

Public education plays a critical role in a communities fire prevention plan.  Here are some resources to utilize with this weeks focus on fire prevention.

Developing Public Education Programs

Our public education efforts should focus on programs that are interactive, engaging and provide maximum benefit to the community. Interpreting the data and identifying the risks will focus your attention on the programs that are most needed. Here’s how it’s done.

Engaging Firefighters in Community Risk Reduction

A key component for effective risk reduction is face-to-face interaction with community members. This can be achieved through public events, fire station visits, and, most effectively, home visits. Community risk reduction programs, and fire crews involvement in them, produces three distinct benefits.

Conducting Home Visits

The most important component of community risk reduction (CRR) is strategic contact with the public. A strategic contact consists or much more than handing out stickers or plastic hats at the mall.  The strategic contact is a contact made that meets the objectives of the communities CRR plan, and is immediately beneficial to the person contacted.  This can most effectively happen in fire department home visits. 

Braidwood's Fire Prevention Principles

In the year 1824, Edinburgh, Scotland was faced with a fire crises. Major fires were occurring throughout the city, the insurance company fire brigades were less than effective as they lacked discipline and failed to work together. The municipal leaders, not happy with the situation, set out to take control of their fire problem.  So it was that, one of fire service history’s most influential and progressive thinking officers, James Braidwood was selected to become the first Master of Engines for the Edinburgh Fire-Engine Establishment (EFEE).

In 1830, Braidwood wrote, “Not having been able to find any work on fire engines in the English language, I have been led to publish the following remarks, in the hope of inducing others to give further information on the subject.” These “remarks” became the 138-page book, On the Construction of Fire Engines and Apparatus: The Training of Firemen, and the Method of Proceeding in Cases of Fire.

Braidwood's book covers much more than how to build a fire engine. It is a guide to building a fire service. He details fire engine use, maintenance, equipment, and water supply, he discusses hiring practices, firefighter training, and self-escape.  Most importantly, Braidwood's book provides one of the earliest guides "on the causes of fires, and the means of preventing them".

His fire prevention plan can be broken down into the following seven principles:

1. Know your community.
2. Have a plan.
3. Enforce the code.
4. Conduct plan review and field inspections.
5. Investigate fire incidents.
6. Educate the public.
7. Ensure adequate staffing.

#1 Know your community --

“...every exertion should be used to keep the firemen on good terms with the populace.”

“He should also make himself well acquainted with the different parts of the town in which he may be appointed to act, and notice the declivities of the different streets, etc. He will find this knowledge of great advantage.”

“...[in examining the Table, 1824-1829] serious fires decrease as the number of alarms increase...the cause of so many alarms...arise from foul chimneys...the number of houses, shops, and assessable places...is 29,000...average of fires for...five years is about 105...cases of foul chimneys...being one fire to each 276 houses.”

#2 Have a Plan --

“The person having the principal charge of the engines should frequently turn over in his mind what might be the best plan, in such and such circumstances, supposing a fire to take place.  By frequently ruminating on the subject, he will find himself, when suddenly turned our of bed at night, much more fit for his task than if he had never considered the matter at all.”

#3 Enforce the code --

“As almost all fires arise from carelessness in one shape or another, it is of the utmost importance that every master of a family should persevere in rigidly enjoining, and enforcing on those under him, the necessity of observing the utmost possible care, in preventing such calamities, which, in nineteen cases out of twenty, are the result of remissness or inattention.”

#4 Conduct Plan Review and Field Inspections --

“Great carelessness is frequently exhibited by builders, when erecting at one time two or three houses connected by mutual gables, by not carrying up the gables or party-walls with a skew on the outside, so as to divide the roofs.”

“It is not uncommon thing, too, to find houses divided only by lath and standard partitions, without a single brick in them.”

“In theatres, that part of the house which includes the stage and scenery should be carefully divided from that where the audience assembles.”

“The subject of fire-proof buildings might occupy a considerable space...To make a building fire-proof, the stairs must be of stone, and the doors of iron…”

“...the next thing to be considered is a supply of water.”

#5 Investigate Fire Incidents --

“The most immense hazard is frequently incurred for the most trifling indulgences, and much property is annually destroyed, and valuable lives often lost, because a few thoughtless individuals cannot deny themselves the gratification of reading in bed with a candle beside them.”

“...leaving their houses to the care of children.”

“Intoxication is also a disgraceful and frequent cause of fire.”

“...approaching with lighted candles too near a bed or window curtains.”

“...going under a bed with a lighted candle, and placing a screen full of clothes too near the fire.”

“...cinders falling between the joints of the outer and inner hearths.”

“...foul chimneys.”

#6 Educate the public --

"When a fire actually takes place, every one should endeavor to be as cool and collected as possible…”

“The moment it is ascertained that fire has actually taken place, notice should be sent to the nearest station where there is a fire-engine.”

“...shut all the doors and windows as close as possible, which greatly retards the progress of the flames…”

#7 Ensure Adequate Staffing --

“...however complete in its apparatus and equipments, must depend for its efficiency on the state of training and discipline of the firemen.  Wherever there is inexperience, want of co-operation, or confusion amongst them, the utmost danger is to be apprehended in the event of fire.”

“The description of men from whom I have been in the habit of selecting firemen are slaters, house-carpenters, masons, plumbers, and smiths.”

“In each company there is one captain, one sergeant, four pioneers, and six or eight firemen.”

James Braidwood would eventually leave Edinburgh for London where he became  

Superintendent of the London Fire Engine Establishment. At the age of 62 the "Father of the British Fire Serivce", James Braidwood, was killed in a building collapse, while fighting a large warehouse fire.

In recent years standards such as NFPA 1730, NFPA 1452, NFPA 1300 have been created to discuss and present the "new" concept of community risk reduction or CRR.  I share the story of James Braidwood from 1830 to demonstrate that the principles of fire prevention, and effective fire prevention organizations have been around for a long time. Though the terminology may change, new buzz word may come and go, these seven tenants for effective community fire prevention remain the same.