https://youtu.be/F7r4B5sgeDg
Fire & Culture Icons Review Clark’s Book
Edgar Schein and Dennis Smith Review Book for Special 114th U.S. Congressional Edition
This is a profound analysis not just of firefighting but of how all of us deal with safety, with rules, and with managing our daily lives. Preventable deaths in high hazard industries illustrate at the extreme the issues that all of us face every day when we drive and do other things that are more dangerous than we realize. By showing us the cultural and personal side of safety behavior this book can be an important guide to leaders, managers and ordinary citizens. It is not only a vivid account of fire fighting but is much more in making us aware of our own thinking under crisis conditions and making us understand what those who deal with crisis face.
Edgar H. Schein
Professor Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management
Author of Humble Inquiry (2013) and Humble Consulting (2016).
Dr. Burton Clark has been writing and lecturing in the American fire service for many years, and is a very respected voice within every campaign to make firefighters safer and to reduce line of duty deaths. He speaks forcefully on life issues in firefighting and advocates reform of many age old cultural assumptions, the most fundamental one being that firefighters are hurt and killed in fires because something went wrong, may not have been addressed properly, and responsibility should be acknowledged. Since I was trained by FDNY in aggressive interior firefighting techniques, which puts life preservation as its number one mission, I can see clearly that many of the actions and behaviors that guided us in our work certainly can be made subjects of analysis. This very complicated political, social, and psychological idea becomes widely controversial as it applies to firefighter safety. And so sides are often drawn, and when they are I am usually on the side against the “Everybody Goes Home” approach to firefighting which advances safety first. Still, when reading Dr. Clark’s fine collection of articles in this book I am reminded of many situations that occurred when New York before Washington DC had the busiest engine company in the world, and I was attached to it. And Dr. Clark’s is to be applauded for bringing those situations home for the unsafe situation they might have been. But, I never thought of myself as lazy or thoughtless in acting out the cold reality of doing what is necessary in the process of attempting to save a life in a dangerous environment. I was not committed to the idea that we would all go home after a job where life survival was in question. I, and I know I speak for all of the men I worked with, were primarily committed to ensuring that the life was protected, even in situations where our success was very questionable. It is because I believe that statement I am sure that as many people as possible should read “The American Fire Culture,” to remind themselves of what they do wrong, and the when and the why of it when a life, predictably near expiration, is made safe because of what can be read as unsafe practices. I respect Dr. Clark’s opinions, and I will leave it to you to read his book and determine for yourself those lessons you agree with. Every page is worthy of thought and discussion. Now, that is being safety-minded.
Dennis Smith
Founder, Firehouse Magazine
Best Selling author of Report From Engine Co. 82.
Bookwatch Review
Library Bookwatch: September 2016
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575
I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying: The American Fire Culture challenges the status quo inherent in American culture that is getting both firefighters and civilians killed. Every year, 3,250 people in America die from fires. Changes in attitude and policy are desperately needed to reduce the death toll, but they are too slow in coming. “The NIOSH [National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] line-of-duty death studies report that we [professional firefighters] do not follow our own safety SOPs, national standards, and training doctrine. We do not use our safety equipment. We do not hold firefighters, officers, or chiefs responsible and accountable when it comes to safety.” I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying addresses one example after another, and proposed ways to change fundamentally problematic behaviors. I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying is highly recommended, especially for public library collections, and an absolute “must-read” for every volunteer or professional firefighter.
http://midwestbookreview.com/lbw/sep_16.htm#rc
Book Foreward
Foreword
THE ART OF fighting fires has long been a topic of many accomplished authors. They teach skills needed to do the job, but is that enough? Anyone who has listened to a Burt Clark lecture or read one of his articles will know that IT IS NOT ENOUGH. Burt has made it his life’s work to examine the culture, test the theories, and document ways firefighters die needlessly. Saving lives is not only what he does but who he is and finding ways to keep firefighters safe is his passion.
Burt causes us to take stock of our lives, what we want to do, and how we do it. There is no news coverage of firefighters doing the right thing, nobody give awards for it…so why does it matter? Ask any mother, wife, or child who experienced a line of duty death. To know that their firefighters died
simply because they did not buckle a seat belt, or a chin strap, is beyond devastating.
I will always wonder had this book been published six years ago, would Robin still be alive? We have to make this commitment for our own families. Robin’s girls, Sierra and Courtney, know the cost of not doing so.
—Arlene Zang, FF/P, proud mother of
Captain Robin Broxterman,
Colerain Township, Ohio
LODD 04/04/08
Book Preface & Introduction
“I Can’t Save You, But I’ll Die Trying.”
Preface
AT MY FIRST FIRE I almost killed another firefighter. I was ashamed of myself, sick in the stomach because I didn’t know what I was doing and I was dangerous. Two years later I graduated with the highest academic score from the District of Columbia Fire Department Recruit Class 249, because the fire service is a life-and-death occupation with no room for error.
You believe firefighters will come save you, your children,and your property if there is a fire. Firefighters also believe they can save you and have been getting injured and killed trying to do so from Ben Franklin’s time to today.
In February 1974 Laurel Volunteer Fire Department in Maryland responded to seven civilian fire deaths in three home fires; all the victims were dead before the alarms were received. I felt helpless because all of our equipment, training, skill, and macho could not save them. There had to be a better way, so I became chair of the Fire Prevention Committee.
In 1975 the Laurel Volunteer Fire Department received the Maryland State Firemen’s Association’s Fire Prevention award for its fire safety home inspection and home smoke detector campaign. In 1976 the Washington, D.C., Mayor’s Office asked me, a D.C. firefighter, to help the city address the fire problem. The cities campaign was initiated as a result of several fatal fires in neighborhoods where the closest fire companies had been closed due to rolling brown-outs from budget cuts. Washington, D.C., was the first city to have a mandatory smoke-detector ordinance for all existing and new residential occupancies and a training program for all firefighters on how to educate the public about smoke detectors.
In 1978 I was detailed to the National Fire Academy to develop and conduct the Smoke Detector Training Program. This course was created to help fire departments nationwide implement campaigns to promote the installation of residential smoke detectors. Smoke alarms have helped reduce fire deaths nationwide. Today, when there is a home fire death most of the time there are no working smoke alarms. When I visit my children and grandchildren I check the smoke alarms. Sometimes I have to change the batteries or install new smoke alarms. Our smoke alarm work is not done.
The purpose of the National Fire Academy is to “advance the professional development of fire service personnel and other persons engages in fire prevention and control activities” (PUBLIC LAW 93-498-OCT. 29, 1974). This is a purpose I committed most of my adult career to. The NFA is our Harvard, West Point, and Top Gun schools all rolled into one. When the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial was built
in 1981, the importance of the NFA’s purpose became evident and visceral to me. As I drove onto campuses each morning, most of the time the flags were at half-staff indicating another firefighter had been lost. There are 3,838 (1981 to 2014) names on the memorial. About a hundred names are added each year except for 343 names added as a result of 9/11.
Firefighter Brian Hunton is one of those names. He was a National Fire Academy graduate who fell out of his fire truck in 2005 on the way to a house fire; he did not have his seatbelt on. I cried and felt ashamed. We have a hard time getting firefighters to buckle their seatbelts because they believe seatbelts will slow them down and they will not be able to save civilians. Some states even exempt firefighters from using seat belts.
Captain Robin Broxtermen was scheduled to attend my NFA course. When I leaned of her loss I cried. Her fire department lent me a helmet; Robin attended the class for two weeks posthumously and received her National Fire Academy Certificate.
From the beginning of my career I have rejected the philosophy that firefighter injury and death is part of the job. And I have feared the fact that citizens rely on me to come save them from fire when I know I will fall short of that expectation. We all must do our best when it comes to fire safety and we can all do better.
This book is about the journey to answer my fire-service calling. After forty-five years of learning what to do next and trying to do better, I hope this book helps save the lives of my neighbors and my firefighting family.
–Dr. Burton A. Clark EFO
Introduction
DO YOU KNOW there are 1.1 million firefighters and 32,000 fire departments in the United States of America? About eighty percent are volunteers, and twenty percent are paid. More Americans die from fire then all other natural and man-made disasters combined annually, and firefighting is one of the most hazardous occupations. If you are a civilian reading these statistics you might not know this information; if you are a firefighter you will. Each reader will have a preconceived notion of what firefighters are, what they do, and why they do it. Your perceptions may change after reading this book. The individual articles came out of my experiences with specific incidents that compelled me to look deeper at myself and the fire service discipline that I love.
After forty-five years in the fire service, I have concluded, “I can’t save you, but I will die trying!” I come to this reality as a result of being part of the American Fire Culture for almost five decades. As such I can trace my fire-service roots to Ben Franklin; my father and mother; the Kentland, District
of Columbia, Laurel, and Mt. Airy fire departments; and the National Fire Academy. My journey is reflected in the forty-five essays in this book. Each is the result of some significant emotional event I experienced, what I learned, and my attempt to influence the readers and my fire-service colleagues.
If there is such a thing as destiny, I was destined to be a firefighter before I was born. My father was a fireman in the US Army in 1941, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. One of my first toys (I still have it) was a ladder truck I received at three or four years of age. Today that toy is an antique and considering I just turned sixty-five years old and just retired, I may be in the same category.
Becoming a firefighter was destiny; being a writer was not. Some even thought it would be impossible for a child who initially could not read and write. Today, I would be classified as a learning-disabled student. When I was in school they just told my mother that I was lazy; Mom did not believe them.
I will make sure my schools get a copy of this book for their libraries.
The universities that admitted a below-average student deserve credit for helping me work at being a scholar. Thank you Strayer, Montgomery, Catholic, Nova Southeastern, and John Hopkins; I am grateful to all my professors.
The fire service has been good to me. It has given me all I need according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The fire service has given meaning to my life. Putting this collection of essays together in a book is the continuation of my fire-service journey. It is a tribute and a way for me to say thank you to all the individuals and organizations I have interacted with along the way.
I hope this book helps you think, feel, and learn more about the American Fire Culture from one firefighter’s experiences. Whether you are a firefighter or civilian you are an important part of our fire culture—past, present, and future because lives are at stake.
A Fire Culture Examination
A review of “I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying”
By Bill Carey
Published Monday, March 7, 2016
In a collection of essays focusing on the fire service culture Dr. Burton Clark EFO provokes us in a philosophical way to reconsider the efforts we place on saving the lives of firefighters and civilians alike by understanding the difference one person can make so long as they stand up for what is right.
“I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying” (Premium Press American, 2015) is a collection of over 40 brief but poignant essays on our attitude and efforts towards reducing firefighter line of duty deaths and civilian fire fatalities. Nearly each one is based on an event in Dr. Clark’s service as a volunteer firefighter, career firefighter and member of the National Fire Academy.
By literally judging a book by its cover a reader could easily assume, even with the smallest foreknowledge of Dr. Clark’s work, that this writing focuses on reducing firefighter fatalities. The cover photo of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland is an obvious lead but the subjects inside present so much more.
The writing is broken into four parts focusing on firefighter fatalities on the fireground; fatalities involving the lack of seatbelt use; the culture surrounding mayday training; leadership in the fire service; and the pursuit of higher education. A main theme connecting each of these subjects is the awareness of how individual actions, individual responsibility – doing the right thing all of the time – has an effect that ripples throughout any department.
Having spent a large time writing of my own writing on the subject of line of duty deaths I was instantly drawn to the first part of Dr. Clark’s essays on the same subject. I must admit that while I do not fully agree with his position on our connection to Benjamin Franklin’s DNA (Fast/Close/Wet/Risk/Injury/Death) as a significant cause of our fatalities, I do agree that there is a significant behavioral link from our past that continually intrudes into our education.
Taken as a group of subjects or the individual chapters, Dr. Clark’s writings give the reader enough emotion and critical thought to reconsider if we, as a national organization, fire departments and individuals, are being honest with ourselves about some of the ‘elephants in the room’ that we don’t talk about. Among these are the recognition of valor and line of duty death; negligence and incompetence; culture and a confluence of educational efforts. As Clark asks in one chapter, “What level of lie does the fire service accept, consciously or unconsciously, about firefighter behavioral health or safety doctrine?” we must consider if the efforts to reduce our fatalities in the past, and currently, would be more effective if they were sharper in their focus.
Dr. Clark’s work on the greater use of seatbelts is reviewed with addition of personal accounts from others in the fire service that took a stand and made progress in their own departments. Their example goes far beyond the use of seatbelts and exemplifies how an individual can affect a positive influence among those they serve and work with.
“I Can’t Save You But I’ll Die Trying” is available through Premium Press online and in O’Leary’s Emporium at the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
Bill Carey
Bill Carey is the online news/blog manager for PennWell Public Safety, which publishes FirefighterNation.com and JEMS.com and their respective print publications. He blogs at BackstepFirefighter.com. Read Full Bio
Wilmoth: The Good Doctor Stirs It Up
By Janet Wilmoth – Firehouse Magazine
September is more like the start of a New Year than January. Maybe it’s the back-to-school activities, but it’s time to get back to business after summer’s long days. For the fire service, September brings us back to reality with September 11th anniversaries, the preparation for Fire Prevention Week and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s Memorial Weekend.
Over Labor Day I finished reading Dr. Burton Clark’s book, I Can’t Save You, But I’ll Die Trying. After 45 years in the fire service, the title of the book is also Clark’s conclusion on the American Fire Service culture.
If you have not read one of Burt’s articles or heard one of his lectures, let me give you a warning: Burt Clark does his homework, approaches a topic thoroughly and pointedly tells you what he has learned and why you need to know. Even in his printed word, you can hear Burt’s articulate, confident voice.
I first heard Dr. Clark many years ago at one of the fire conferences. I admit I was a bit intimidated by his tall stature, articulate tone and his pursuit of higher education. Like most of his presentations, Clark questions beloved fire service traditions nor is he afraid to challenge the culture and bravado of the fire service. Even the most seasoned, die-hard leatherhead must admit Clark makes them think.
In a presentation in 2012, Clark stated, “Comparing a firefighter death to soldier’s is an insult to the soldier.” He explained how the purpose of the military is to kill the enemy and defend their country while the fire service is about saving lives. Killed in Action (KIA) and Died of Wounds (DOW) terms refer to death as a result of hostile action in military service. Clark observes that “Using the term LODD (line of duty death) perpetuates the myth that firefighters’ getting killed is part of the job.”
Controversial? You bet and that’s the sort of dialog Clark believes the fire service must continue to do. He supports his arguments with historical data and new research that when a firefighter dies, something went wrong and could have been prevented.
I admit I am a great fan of Burt Clark and will not forget one encounter at the National Fire Academy (NFA). I and another were heading for the path to the log cabin at the NFA. Burt stopped and offered us a ride to the cabin. We got in the backseat. The car didn’t move. We waited. Finally, Burt turned around and said, “Well?” Blank looks… “Buckle your seat belts!” he roared. Oops.
I look forward to his presentations because he challenges traditional thinking and stirs up discussions. He is not afraid to make bold statements such as in 2005 when he wrote, “We Killed Firefighter Brian Hunton,” an unbelted Amarillo, Texas, firefighter who fatally fell out of a fire truck. A man of action, Clark subsequently started the “Seatbelt Pledge” to get one million firefighter’s signatures pledging to wear their seatbelts.
Get a copy of I Can’t Save You, But I’ll Die Trying, The American Fire Culture read it and then leave it on the kitchen table in the firehouse. Let Clark’s words stir some discussions that need to be stirred. September is a good time to talk about prevention, safety and why it’s important that everyone goes home.
Janet A. Wilmoth is a contributing editor to FIREHOUSE Magazine who grew up in a family of firefighters in a suburb of Chicago. Wilmoth, owner of Wilmoth Associates, worked with Fire Chief Magazine for 27 years until it closed in 2013. She is currently a Project Director for Firehouse/Cygnus. Wilmoth currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fire Emergency Manufacturers & Services Association and lives in Lisle, IL.
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