From
www.sconfire.comThe Code
Danny Byrne, Beaufort Fire Department
FF Danny Byrne
I remember as a young child in the early 70s anxiously awaiting the return of my father, a Lieutenant with the Boston Fire Department, from his shift at the fire station. No sooner had he walked through the door and set his things down was I jumping on him and asking the same old question “did you fight any big fires today?” Though he constantly smelled of smoke, and soot permeated from every line in his face, I always received the same answer, “no, another boring day.” Whether it was for the sake of my mother’s sanity or to not worry his children, he was keeping to “The Code.”It has long been the tradition or, “The Code,” of the fire service that we do not brag or boast about what it is that we do, except only around the fire station “bean table” and then only to each other. Our life style, our profession, has been for years a secret fraternity that we have let no one other than our own see into or experience. Many times that is because we do not want to worry our loved ones, but more often because we are wrongly convinced that everyday civilians would not, or could not, understand it anyway, so why waste the breath and try to explain it. People call the fire department, we respond, we do our job, it’s that simple. But we all know it is not that simple, it never has been and it never will be, and we need to start making people understand that for the sake of our own budgetary survivability.The fire service is built upon tradition; many good, some bad, some still applicable, some not. “The Code” however, is a long standing tradition whose time has come to pass, and needs to be changed. We can no longer afford to have our very own society in which outsiders are not permitted to experience. We must explain to all those who will listen, grab the attention of those who will not, and make them understand to the best of our ability what it is that we do, and just as importantly, why we are doing it. Everyone needs to understand the importance of doing this, from the Chief down to the tailboard firefighter.Recent national headlines serve to illustrate the importance of this very point. The Boston Globe reported to the world that fire department response to building fires in the United States is “slow,” and that such a response has caused not only property loss, but the loss of life to both innocent victims as well as to firefighters. The Globe story also describes that this shocking revelation is largely due to the fact that many departments across the nation have lost not only manpower, but equipment and even fire stations to the political financial machine. As if adding insult to injury, only days later the headlines tell of how our Government is once again looking to find money by cutting into the Fire Act, SAFER Act and the United States Fire Administration. As firefighters read these articles, I can hear them as they exclaim how our political leaders and communities do not realize the valuable services that we provide. That our citizens do not understand the threat from fire, or appreciate the sacrifices that we must make or understand what it is that we need in order to do our job and to do it safely. However, these are the very same firefighters who, when asked by family, friends or citizens within the community “what happened at that fire the other day” will reply with “oh, it was routine” or “it was no big deal,” or they entirely walk away pretending not to hear. With that being a standard reply to such questions, should we be so shocked when people view our profession so lightly and that we are the first entity politicians look to cut when the funding gets low? I mean why not, according to us many of our calls are routine and no big deal or not worth talking about, so why do we need all this funding?We as firefighters need to get out of this mindset and break “The Code.” We need to brag and to boast, to become story tellers, and tell our story to everyone and anyone who will listen because each time the bell sounds, there is a story to be told. Every incident, regardless of its complexity; requires manpower, equipment and training to bring it to a successful conclusion, and no matter how small it was, it could have been worse. If we do not explain that to people, how can we expect them realize the threat of fire, to know about our valuable service, appreciate our sacrifices, or understand what we need in order to do our job safely? We need to tell that bystander who asked the curious question of “what happened,” (keeping HIPPA in mind) the whole story. They need to understand how that pot on the stove, while appearing to be a small incident that caused little damage, could have been worse. We need to take the time to explain to them how we were able to bring that “routine incident” to a successful conclusion only through the use of R.I.T. teams, ventilation teams, fire attack teams (what they are and why they are important), and how all of these fire trucks were important to bring about such a successful conclusion. Explain to them about the human body and how a brain cannot go without oxygen for more than 6 minutes, or how a person can bleed to death in only 4 minutes and why it is so important that care is delivered immediately and how firefighters are first aid trained and why fire stations are strategically located throughout the community for such a quick response. Each firefighter should be familiar with the basic statistics of their department such as the leading cause of fire, what the highest percentage of calls is for, staffing, etc. They should also be familiar with national statistics as well; how many firefighters are injured and killed in the line of duty and what are the causes, where are most fires occurring both economically and socially and what is causing these fires. Statistics add credibility to any discussion and helps to make the individual doing the educating appear as an expert on the subject, which every firefighter is expected to be. We must always keep in mind that every bystander could be the next council member or a relative of one, and if that’s not the case, then at the very least they are a citizen who votes on issues brought before the community. Every child could be the next Mayor or Governor, and first impressions are lasting impressions. Each answer to the public’s curious, and maybe annoying, question could be a dollar added to the next budget, and we have to approach each citizen’s question as if the answer provided may be the one to tip the scales on the next vote.Breaking “The Code” goes against our very core as firefighters. We did not come into this profession to self promote or boast, we came into this profession to do a job, and it is against that very fiber to “brag and boast” about what it is we do. But brag and boast we must, because if we do not tell the story, no one else will. We must do it not for ourselves, but for each other and for the financial future of our profession and the safety of our communities
