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By Jamie Thompson
FireRescue1 Editor
 Photo Jamie Thompson Chief Nasta, left, hosts the session with Chief Avillo. |
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INDIANAPOLIS — Confronting poor safety practices when they happen on the fireground is key to reducing firefighter line-of-duty deaths, a session at FDIC was told Wednesday.
Deputy Chief Mike Nasta, of the Newark, N.J., Fire Department told attendees the culture of accepting unsafe and reckless behavior needs to come to an end.
“It all depends on how often you accept something,” he said. “The longer you go on accepting these types of practices … eventually they become accepted practices,” he said.
Chief Nasta held a joint presentation with Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo, of North Hudson, N.J., Regional Fire and Rescue, on the dangers of common fireground operations.
“Everything we are going to say you have heard,” Chief Avillo said. “But the problem we are running into is we are not paying attention to this stuff.”
He went on to identify four key areas that are contributing to the deaths of many firefighters each year:
- Failure to size up
- Failure to recognize conditions
- Failure to communicate
- Failure to pay attention
One of the major hurdles in overcoming dangers of common fireground operations, according to Chief Nasta, is the fact the fire service is often reluctant to reflect and learn from close calls and even LODDs.
“We have a hard time doing one thing in the fire service and that’s looking in the mirror,” he said.
Many in fire service are fearful of analyzing LODDs too closely because they feel it’s disrespectful to the fallen brothers, he added.
“But we honor them better by learning from them,” Chief Nasta said. “If we can save someone’s life by taking a hard critical look, that’s what we need to do.”