By Gina Duwe
The Janesville Gazette, Wis.
JANESVILLE, Wis. — Janesville Fire Chief Larry Grorud is taking lessons from a half world away.
The “phenomenal” security measures needed in Israel to deal with suicide bombers caught Grorud’s attention during a trip last month where he led a delegation of 18 fire chiefs from across the country.
Entrances at shopping malls in Jerusalem, for example, have metal detectors and security screening like airports, he said.
“It’s just become a way of life for them because of the threat of suicide bombers,” he said.
The trip was just one of several that Grorud has taken since being named president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, an honor only two other Wisconsin fire chiefs have achieved since the organization’s establishment in 1873. Grorud leads the 18-member board of directors for the association, which has a membership of about 13,000 fire chiefs.
Grorud’s two deputy chiefs run the department when he’s traveling.
The association pays for his travels, which include regular board and executive meetings usually in Washington, D.C., and a trip in October to a conference in the Cayman Islands. Next week he heads to Phoenix for a conference bringing together the chief’s association and the International Association of Firefighters to discuss ways to work collaboratively.
Grorud said he anticipates more traveling to Washington to meet with President-elect Barack Obama’s administration because the fire chief association works with Capitol Hill on legislation to help fire service.
Grorud’s term as president is one year, then he serves a year as past president to be available to counsel the new president.
“The insight you get is meeting with other people and seeing how they do things, different ways to do things,” he said. “Many times what I’m learning is the things we are doing are very economical and very efficient.”
Grorud led the delegation of fire chiefs on the trip to Jerusalem, sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, which picked chiefs from across the country to learn about how Israel deals with homeland security.
“It gives us a chance to look at how they deliver public services and also how they deal with the daily threat of attacks,” he said. “It was very valuable.”
The delegation was scheduled to meet with local police and fire chiefs, but it was cancelled because officials learned of possible rocket attacks. The group changed its itinerary, and the rockets landed about 90 minutes after the group left.
“I learned much more than I expected,” Grorud said of the insight he received on Israel’s homeland security. “It brings up things that we hope will never come to the United States.”
The Central Station Alarm Association’s annual meeting--held this year in the Cayman Islands--provided Grorud a chance to talk with that association’s leaders on ways they can better work together on public safety issues. The top issue the groups are working on now is establishing a national broadband safety spectrum, he said.
“One of the most rewarding things is to see things that validate what we’re doing here,” he said.
Copyright 2008 The Janesville Gazette