We’ve always done it this way. The fires have always gone out. I don’t need to learn anything new. This isn’t Prince George’s County that won’t work here.

Unfortunately these phrases can be heard in firehouses all over the country. When this type of culture takes hold of your station forward progress is almost impossible.

For example how many people still use horses to pull their apparatus? I’m sure somewhere in this world they’re still used but for the most part they’ve been phased out.

Why have we switched to motorized vehicles? We switched because the technology has improved and it helps us perform our jobs faster and more effectively. In another 20 years we might be running all electric Engines & Ladders.

The point is that we need to constantly evaluate our operations and improve them on an ongoing basis. I don’t advocate switching your operations or equipment just because something “New” came out.

I do believe that you need to evaluate new equipment and tactics and decide if they work for your department in your first due.

Changing the culture of a firehouse is a daunting task but it only takes one person to get the ball rolling. If you’re up for the challenge you need to be prepared, educated & willing to take a lot of negative feedback along the way.

The first step is to collect as much information as you can. Having factual information and examples will be needed to back up your request for changes in equipment or operations.

With the plethora of fire service blogs, webpages, YouTube and Facebook we can easily find copious amounts of information. Once you have found what you’re looking for try to speak with firemen that are using the equipment you have researched or operate in the way you are looking to emulate.

As we all know firemen love to talk about the fire service so this step is both fun and fairly easy.

The next step is where things tend to get a bit harder. In my experience any changes specifically ones that come from outside your department are not met with open arms.

Don’t get discouraged. If you believe in what you’re doing you can persevere. There are many ways to slowly introduce new ideas and adding them into training has worked well at my department. Have all of the information you collected ready but I wouldn’t say this hose load or tool is used at fire department x.

You can provide the background if asked but if someone doesn’t like the department you are referring to they may not look clearly at what you are trying to show them.

After training ask around and see what people thought of what you trained on.

There will be people that thought it would work, hate it and a bunch in the middle.

Sit down with the people that had positive feedback and provide your reason for proposing change and the information that you collected.

If there is a department that you can visit that is currently using / operating with your proposed changes take a trip with a few people so they can see it in action and speak with the firemen.

If you can get a group of people that are informed and want to make changes for the better it will be easier to bring it up to the leadership of your department.

Even after doing research, training and informing your brothers the leadership
still might not budge. Each department is different and sometimes it can take months or years to get even the smallest change approved.

It’s not going to be easy but if you truly believe in what you’re doing keep pushing.