HARRY R. CARTER, Ph.D., MIFireE

A number of years ago, a fine non-fiction book was written about the fall of the RJR Nabisco Company. Our research indicates that this outstanding work was written by Mr. Bryan Burrough. It is an interesting story about the damage that selfish people did to a major international firm. I would like to now share an incident with you, which has the earmarks of another act of group selfishness. The names here have been deleted to protect the innocent and the spiritually bankrupt.

I have devoted a great deal of my writing to the concept of bringing the fire service together. It has long been my feeling that there are far too many individual fire departments running around loose in America. Rather than coming together in centers of strength, we seek to hide in our individual hometowns and curse the invaders who would storm our fair community.

There are far too many individual fiefdoms and bailiwicks out there across the landscape of America. I think that it is critical to define these two terms before I share their differences with you.

• Fiefdom: An estate, or land holding that is held through terms relating to service, usually of a dangerous or military nature. Usually ruled by a member of royalty.
• Bailiwick: The extent or limit of the holdings of an individual bailiff. The bailiff is a lower level government functionary.

As you can see, both terms relate to an area of land held under the stewardship of some individual, who swears loyalty to a higher form of government. I say that both are problems in that they foster a mentality that is inwardly focused, rather than concerned with the world in general.

I do believe that there is a distinct difference between the bailiwick and the fiefdom. While protective walls surround both of the styles of community, it is my opinion that the construction material is usually different. It is my view that a brick wall surrounds the fiefdom, while the bailiwick is much poorer. It is surrounded with a straw covered wooden wall. That makes the walls of a bailiwick easier to breach when the attackers arrive.

Doesn’t the preceding verbiage describe a number of fire departments that you know about? I know I have seen this insular mentality many times during my career. I can recall the Fire Chief in a major city who told me that he was not really concerned with mutual aid. He stated that because the Mayor was paying him to protect their city, he had no reason to worry about the communities surrounding his.

Of course this attitude didn’t stop him from screaming for help when the fickle finger of fate pointed a major fire-borne finger at his city. He was the type of guy after which many communities name streets. You have problems seen the signs for these people in your town. They have a prominent arrow and the words One Way emblazoned upon them.

This week I want to share the story of a town that couldn’t agree to share. This town is in the process of developing a Rapid Intervention Team for their community that will have members from each one of the five separate fire departments that operate in that place. The teams are coming on line as they each complete the common team task training that is being provided to each. This is a good thing.

The level of cooperation amongst the various agencies is a fairly uneven process. Although all are dispatched by a central dispatch point, and all cooperate to some extent in the daily automatic joint dispatch agreement from 0600-1800 hours every day, they do no all get a long well. Over the years there have been a series of disputes that have threatened to wreck the fabric of the agreement.

Each operates according to a distinctly different philosophical approach. And from time to time, each is known to pull back behind the walls of their district boundaries. One occasion, they have been known to hurl a barrage of brickbats and insults at each other, using the catapult of the rumor mill to insure that facts are always hidden with a veil of innuendo.

Strikingly, this attitude of insularism seems to ebb and flow according to who is elected Chief where, and at what point. Although these departments have come together at large fires over the years, rare is the time that they drill on a joint basis. It is as though they are willing to leave a great deal to chance. You folks out there across the country who have followed my writings over the years know how I feel about this sort of thing.

I was pleased to hear that these disparate groups were coming together on an issue as important as the development of an on-going Rapid Intervention Team. Now that they have worked together, I thought, there must be hope for a closer relationship. Unfortunately, I think I was wrong to think that positive thought. At this critical time, it appears that folks are heading back behind the walls of their respective fiefdoms and bailiwicks.

The joint committee that developed the RIT group for the community felt that in order to deliver an adequate service, they needed a radio frequency dedicated to that critical function. This would allow them a free channel upon which to operate during any critical emergency they might attend. This seemed like a reasonable thought to me.

They applied to the appropriate authorities for a new frequency. Unfortunately, they were informed that the bands are so jammed in their area that nothing was available. They were then informed that there were six licensed frequencies spread out amongst the five member organizations. It was suggested that one of those be used for this function. That too seemed like a reasonable suggestion. Where might my brain have been on that thought? The concept of reasonable people coming together for the common good of everyone did not seem like a bad idea. That sure sounds good in principle, I thought. WRONG!!!

The forces of the ever-popular character NOT ME, from the syndicated cartoon series Family Circus, drawn by Bill Keane, suddenly came to the fore. You want me to do what, was the question heard across the community. You want ME to give up MY radio frequency? NOT ME! "Will you give your frequency up," was the question that races through the town? And from behind the walls of the many local walled forts, the words could be heard: NOT ME!

I really feel sorry for the man that has been given the task of bringing this whole mess together. He did not need to have this morass of personal greed heaped upon his already heavily piled occupational plate.

It has always been my thought that we do all of what we do for the public. I believe that we are supposed to exist for the good of the community in general, and the people who make up that community in particular. Unfortunately, far too many fire departments have become old boy-type clubs, even though we have accepted women into our ranks. They exist for the good of the members, PERIOD! If you leave them alone, they will leave you alone. If you really need our help, they will say, call us. Otherwise, leave us alone. That is their though process.

Ladies and gentlemen of the fire service, what are we to do? How can we come together as a fire service in general if the various constituent parts of this vast equation of ours cannot work together? Face facts gang, there are only so many radio frequencies out there. The bands are only so wide, and only so many frequencies exist for us all to use.

It is my hope that the parties to this matter will wake up and some point and see that the joint use of a common frequency is a critical element in incident safety. At least that is my hope. And as you have read, that is my belief.

The commentary in this column does not necessarily reflect those of Firehouse.Com, Firehouse Magazine, their employees or parent company Cygnus Business Media. Harry R. Carter, Ph.D., MIFireE, is an internationally known municipal fire protection consultant and contributing editor to Firehouse Magazine. He recently retired as a Battalion Commander with the Newark, New Jersey Fire Department. His commentary appears regularly on Firehouse.Com. For more commentary and information, visit Carter's web site at www.harrycarter.com Harry has published several books available for online ordering, including Firefighting Strategy and Tactics and Management in the Fire Service