Peter Matthews talks with Daniel DeYear, a recently retired deputy chief from Dallas Fire-Rescue, about his work involving LODD investigations in Texas and how it relates to the often contentious discussions on firefighter safety and fire service culture.

DeYear outlines a 144-day period in which his team investigated nearly 20 firefighter deaths – all from fireground operations – including the West, TX, explosion and Houston’s Southwest Inn fire. During his career in Dallas, he lost almost two dozen colleagues in the line of duty, including his rookie school partner and one of his academy instructors, all of which has led DeYear to connect the dots and champion efforts to ensure those patterns are reduced.

DeYear discusses why firefighters tend to focus on being aggressive on the fireground, without being aggressive with education and knowledge building to lead you to make the right decisions.

Resources

• Hidden Dangers, Hidden Secrets

• Daniel DeYear’s Firehouse bio and contributions

• ChiefDeYear.com

• Connect with Daniel DeYear on LinkedIn

• FireFusion

• Station Design Conference

Peter Matthews talks with Gilt Edge, TN, Fire Chief Brandon Fletcher about the challenges facing today’s volunteer fire service, plus an innovative program to help retain existing members.

Fletcher outlines some of the top factors that are impacting the rolls and operations of departments today, including a dive into volunteer-focused leadership, politics and personalities and how to keep members engaged, whether on calls or training. He digs into several challenges that he’s seen firsthand and has learned from others. He goes on to share a program he implemented that allows for grant funding to bring members to national training conferences that not only improves their knowledge and networking but serves as a reward for their dedication to the department.

Fletcher also talks about his experiences as a family escort for the annual Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend in Emmitsburg, MD. He has had the honor of escorting the families of the fallen throughout the memorial weekend events for three years, and he explains how that has impacted him as a fire chief, ensuring that his members do all they can to stay safe.

Resources

• Volunteer View: Alternative Funding Sources to Enhance Department Operations

• Volunteer View: Retention Through Leadership

• Brandon Fletcher’s Firehouse contributor page

• Connect with Brandon Fletcher on LinkedIn

• FireFusion

• Station Design Conference

• National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend

Peter Matthews talks with Daniel Byrne, Laura Konor and Ben Shearer about new approaches to Community Risk Reduction (CRR) and fire prevention in 2024, and what has changed with public outreach since COVID-19. Byrne is an assistant chief with the Burton, SC, Fire District, Kondor is fire safety coordinator for the North Charleston, SC, Fire Department and Shearer is community risk reduction specialist with the Pasco, WA, Fire Department.

They discuss how COVID-19 impacted the fire service’s reach in-person reach, whether through in-school visits, open houses, or community events and how that created a shift to digital learning. Since then, some departments have had more requests than ever from the community, forcing them to select the groups they meet with to talk about life safety.

The group shares advice for Fire Prevention Week success and year-round outreach concept that help fire departments connect with their communities at multiple levels. The three talk about how they have partnered with organizations and used fire department data to target education to certain groups, and close out the show with CRR wins and losses from their views.

Ben Shearer

Laura Kondor

Daniel Byrne

Resources

Fire Prevention Week