Editor’s note: Chief Adam K. Thiel commends the Texas statewide safety stand down as a fitting tribute to their fallen firefighters and urges us all to follow their lead.
Like many of you I’m sure, I spent part of today viewing photos and videos from today’s memorial service for our fallen Houston brothers and sister. It seems like it’s much too soon to be seeing images like this again, since it wasn’t that long ago we watched another multiple line-of-duty-death funeral for the 10 firefighters who perished in the tragic West, Texas explosion.
Kudos to the organizers of, and all those fire departments participating in, this Friday’s statewide safety stand down across Texas.
For those not familiar with the concept of a safety stand down, the idea is to suspend all nonessential activities and take an entire day, or days, to focus on learning safety lessons, potentially interrupting any negative trends affecting members’ health and safety. As I understand it, the original idea for a stand down came from the aviation community and was a key factor in helping both military and commercial aviation make great gains in improving their respective safety records.
Perhaps we can all take a cue from our colleagues in Texas and consider what we can do to help honor their lost firefighters by planning our own safety stand-downs — perhaps in conjunction with International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week from June 16-22.
It doesn’t have to be a big production and is something you can even do with a single crew, unit, station, shift or department — or even as an individual firefighter.
Stay safe!
