By FireRescue1 Staff

PHOTO GLEN ELLMAN Brian O'Malley discusses his Mt. Everest expedition at the FireRescue Expo on Thursday.

The 2006 FireRescue Conference & Expo kicked off officially on Thursday with an opening keynote from Brian O’Malley, a retired firefighter/paramedic and general renaissance man with the unique distinction of having climbed Mt. Everest.

Following welcoming remarks from Clark County Fire Chief Steve Smith and Chief of the Nevada Fire Chiefs Association Alan Gillespie, O’Malley took the stage at the Las Vegas Convention Center in front of a glowing orange backdrop and panoramic pictures of Mt. Everest.

His speech made use of personal anecdotes – mainly culled from his Everest expedition – to drive home his message about the importance of setting goals and striving to achieve them. He implored attendees to consider how they would finish the sentence, “If I had more courage, I would….”

O’Malley ran through a series of photographs from Kathmandu and Everest, giving a vivid running narrative of his expedition, the people he encountered along the way, and the struggles he overcame to climb the mountain.

Chief among the struggles was a bout with a “viral meningitis-like” infection that left him barely able to move for a lengthy period of time and forced him to fly back to his home in Denver. Unwilling to accept his failure to complete the climb, he quickly flew back to Tibet to rejoin the Everest expedition, which was by that point already making its way up the mountain. After climbing on his own for a while, he eventually caught up with the group and went on to reach the summit with them.

O’Malley said the he learned a number of lessons from the experience that apply to everyday life, and life in the fire service in particular. One of the primary lessons, he said, is the importance of working well with others to achieve your – and your organization’s – goals.

“None of us reach our summits without standing on the shoulders of a whole bunch of people,” he said.

One specific example involved his experience with the sherpas, the native mountain-dwelling group in Tibet. He praised their giving nature and strong philosophy of “customer service,” pointing out the elements of their approach that can be adapted for the fire service. He reminded the audience that customer service is a primary duty for firefighters, and it should be at the forefront of their minds as they’re interacting with the public at incidents.

O’Malley closed with a broad reflection on his Everest experience.

“Climbing Mt. Everest is very much like life,” he said. “An expedition is a series of extremes.”

O’Malley will speak again about his Everest expedition at the 2007 EMS Today Conference & Expo, to be held in Baltimore from March 6-10.