Friday’s general session at FRI recognized two esteemed groups for their exceptional contributions to the fire service. The first award, the Fire Service Award for Excellence, cosponsored by the IAFC and U.S. Safety Fire Technologies, recognizes innovations and achievements in managing resources to reduce the loss of life and property from fire and other emergencies.

The seven finalists called to the stage were:
1.    Allen (Tex.) Fire Department: SimLab – The Allen Fire Department has worked with a computer software company to create a multiple-participant simulated environment where firefighters can practice suppression, communication and incident-command decision-making skills without risk to personal safety or company equipment. This virtual world allows training staff to immerse personnel in a highly realistic simulated environment that responds to the actions of those entering it. Used in combination with effective training curriculum, SimLab has proven to enhance the skills of incident commanders.

2.    Fairfax County (Va.) Fire & Rescue Department: Fire Alarm & Sprinkler System Training Lab – The Lab provides hands-on training with all types of fire-protection systems and simulations for real-life scenarios. The variety of fire protection systems in the FASST Lab enhances the training available not only to fire service and fire-protection industry personnel, but also to building engineers and property managers and owners.

3.    Kansas City (Mo.) Fire Department: Citizen Assist Program – The Citizen Assist Program is an innovative community partnership that allows firefighters to marshal community resources needed to address citizen problems encountered in the field. Social workers and nurses provide assessment, intervention planning and system advocacy to make needed services work effectively for those unable to adequately access and use them without assistance and support. Its unique structure allows access to and use of nontax funding sources not ordinarily available to fire departments.

4.    The Salina Fire Department: Performance Analysis – The Performance Analysis process requires fire-station captains to present performance data relating to emergency fire and medical calls, fire-prevention activities, target hazard preplanning and risk analysis and projections of growth or alarm loading to the department’s chief officers, the city manager and the county administrator. The formal presentation by the captains is followed by a Q&A session where the captains respond to questions on performance and efficiency. The process is patterned after the Compstat process started in New York and Boston with one important exception: the analysis takes place at the execution level involving captains and isn’t targeted at chief officers.

5.    North East Fire Collaborative – The North East Fire Collaborative was formed by four fire chiefs representing five suburbs of Cincinnati in southwest Ohio. This Collaborative is unique as it brings together fire personnel from municipal, township and private fire departments. Imagine, in this economy, being able to provide safer and better-managed firegrounds while improving overall department efficiency through jointly contracted services, common specifications, purchasing and training and policy standardization. This answers the demands from the community for more fiscal responsibility while increasing the ability to more efficiently meet NFPA 1710, saving taxpayer dollars.

6.    San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District: Information-Led Management – Information-Led Management (ILM) is a district-pioneered framework that defines the organizational processes necessary to ensure statistics in key organizational areas are collected, compiled and made available to managers and supervisors in time for effective use. ILM emphasizes high accountability at all organizational levels; reinforces a culture of quality through an accountability system that provides relevant, accurate and timely work product information; educates managers and others on how to effectively use compiled statistics; and establishes performance benchmarks that translate into organizational improvement. ILM also incorporates union leadership in a way that engages and motivates the membership to create a culture of sustainable quality and outstanding service delivery.

7.    Wilson (N.C.) Fire/Rescue Services: Fire & Life Safety Adventure House – The Fire & Life Safety Adventure House (F&LSAH) is an educational center devoted to addressing everyday living situations where there may be an existing hazard or fire- and life-safety threat typically found in residential settings. F&LSAH has been implemented to facilitate, capture and validate specific, measurable knowledge-based change in the visitors who come through educational life-safety programs. The targeted educational emphasis throughout the house, coupled with the ability to adjust programs and develop new ones that address changing issues, significantly aids the safety interest of the Wilson-area community.

The award went to Smokey Dyer and the Kansas City (Mo.) Fire Department’s Citizen Assist Program. Under this program, not only does the fire department identify problems or individuals needing assistance in the community, they also follow up to make sure the people in need receive the proper assistance/resources.

A second award, the President’s Award of Recognition, was also given out during the session. Chief Jeff Johnson present the award to five individuals for their contributions to the fire service, particularly their support of fire service leaders. The award recipients were:
·    Jim Shannon, president of the NFPA;
·    Jeff Griffin, executive director of the Western Fire Chief’s Association;
·    Janet Wilmouth, editorial director for Fire Chief magazine;
·    Kim Zagaris, state fire and rescue chief for the office of the governor; and
·    Tim Donahue, vice president of Industry Solutions for Sprint/Nextel.

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