NEAFC 32nd Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEw ENGLAND ASSOCIATIOIXl OF FIRE CHIEFS
times. _And, each time, we have to have enough men to take care o£ the situation,
and I think that in most cases, in order to get shorter hours, we had to reduce
the number o£ men on hand. So that we have faced that problem, ~too. But,
I have been fortunate that way, for I have secured extra men, and haven’t had
to reduce the man-power on the apparatus.
There is one thing that I would like to add. It is. a pretty tough thing
to add anything to what Henry Thomas. had to say. But, I thought that in
this training program, it may be in order for the National Board, or Mr. Charhock
to recognize the efficiency that training provides for the men, the mechanics
and all other workers are increasing their efficiency by new equipment and one
thing and another, and there has. certainly been a great deal o£ new equipment
in the Fire Service during the last few years.
So that that, together with the training of how to use it, should eliminate
some of the weakness in the manpower.
MODERATOR. WOOLLE¥: Thank you very much, Chief; that is fine.
We are beginning to see a trend here, and I believe it is well to point it out.
Since we have gone in xCor organization in the operating forces, particularly
o£ the Fire Service, we have begun to more or less industrialize fire fighting.
Fire fighting today, as we have urged many times, is very, very big business; yes,
it is Big Business, with capital B’s! And as such, we have got to begin to think
of what. we call efficiency. We have got to think of the industry and how
industry uses efficiency.
We have the problem of administration on the one hand, and operation
on the other, and, today, in the bigger cities, we find that the Chief is pretty
well occupied with administrative policies. He has. all he can do to stick to
his l lth floor at Fire Headquarters, and allow his deputies., to go out and do
the fighting. We have seen it more and more. The Chief’s time is very valuable,
and it is getting to be so with the men, too.
And, fire is more critical.
I want to bring this thought out. We have to think o£ administration, as
well. And this leads, me to ask the next speaker if he will, in about a minute,
try to give us a beat-the-hand-around-the-clock on this.
John Gerletti can, perhaps, give us a little viewpoint o£ the Pacific Coast,
and how they are meeting the problem out there. John, do you want to say
a word on administration, and the effect of man-power, or do you wish 5o
duck it? I don’t want to put you on the SpOt at all.
MR. JOH~ G~RL~.TTI: I think that this discussion as well as other
discussions, has pointed up the changing jobs that the Fire Chief has. had over
the past twenty years or so. Today, he is not a man on the end of the hose,
or a man fighting ~ fire; he is now a Ma’nagement man, an administrative man,
a man administering a budget; he is working with the budget, buying equipment
at a cost which’almost scares the city fathers, to death. It puts .the responsibility
on the Chief far beyond what it was. even fifteen or twenty years
ago. ¯
As a result of all o£ this, I think that we need, or one ox¢ the things, that
we need the most in the United States at the present time is a better training
program, a more efficient training program for the Chief’s iob,’ tdaching the
Chief the kind o~ thing that he ’has to do, other than fire-fighting.
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