Craig Carruth: OFCA 1st Vice President’s Report

Greetings Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well!

By the time you are reading this, summer will be wrapping up soon and we will be transitioning into the fall season.

This summer has been one of the wettest in memory and has provided much-needed rain to the majority of our state, which is a blessing.

Unfortunately, this amount of rain also provided for a substantial growth in vegetation, which could prove to make an active end of summer and start of fall wildfire season.

We should take this time to assure our apparatus and members are prepared to meet the potential increase in wildland and wildland urban interface calls for service.

In addition to the expected transition in seasons is also the start of a new school year, football season, hunting season, and, of course, fire prevention month.

If you haven’t recently taken the opportunity to visit the senior living areas within your community and share the message of fire prevention, I encourage you to do so.

Most of the time we focus all of our attention on the school age during the month of October, but let’s not forget the message applies to all age groups.

If you don’t believe me, comb through your CRR data and you will probably find several calls for service due to “food on the stove.”

I hope all departments will take the opportunity to cast a broader net and educate as many people as possible on fire risks to help reduce the number of fire-related deaths within our state.

As the Legislative Committee Chair, I would like to let everyone know all of OFCA resolutions that were passed at the conference in April have all been added, and the updated version of the OFCA Constitution and By-Laws is now online.

The documents can be viewed through the OSFA website under the OFCA tab. A big shout out goes to Raegan Layne, OFCA Administrative Assistant, who worked extremely hard to get the updates made and the documents published online.

One last thing I would like to mention is the upcoming Southwestern Division of the International Association of Fire Chiefs Educational Conference.

This year, the conference will be held Oct. 17-20 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and will feature guest speakers Chief Frank Leeb (FDNY), Chief Scott Thompson (The Colony, TX), and Jason Hoevelmann (Florissant Fire Protection District, MO), just to name a few.

For more information and to get registered, please visit the SWD-IAFC website. Until next time, Stay Safe!

I hope everyone had an epic summer!

My favorite time of the year is the week around the 4th of July, and this year I was able to take my family to Colorado to get a break from the heat and breathe some fresh mountain air in Creede, Colorado.

We all had a great time (mostly) creating memories and focusing on being present and in the moment. I hope that you all purposely take some time to create great memories with your friends, family members and the brothers and sisters that you work with.

I want to touch on a subject that is near and dear to me, and also something that I struggle with.

We are wired to take care of everyone around us, and somehow we forget how important it is to take care of ourselves along the way. For some reason it almost feels selfish to dedicate specific time to work out and relax.

But the reality is, if we don’t take care of ourselves, then at some point we will no longer be as effective as we could be or even suffer a major health crisis. So I hope that we can reframe the topic and see just how important it is to spend time taking care of our mental, physical, and emotional health.

As fire chiefs and fire officers, we are leaders in our departments and serve as role models for our firefighters. We should set an example for others to follow, and our fitness and health levels heavily influence the culture and behavior within our departments. By prioritizing our own well-being, we encourage a culture of wellness and fitness among our personnel, promoting better overall health and job performance.

When we place a high priority on our overall health, it helps create a department culture that reduces the risk of injuries and accidents. Also, fitness plays a large role in how we mentally and emotionally deal with stresses on and off the job.

Physical fitness plays a vital role in our ability to think clearly and make sound judgments under pressure. It also enables us to communicate clearly and maintain composure, ensuring that instructions are understood and executed efficiently. We all know that the demands of our profession take a toll on the body over time. Staying fit and healthy will help mitigate the risks associated with the job and promote long-term well-being.

Regular exercise, proper nutrition, proper sleep, and stress management techniques can reduce the likelihood of chronic health conditions such as heart disease, obesity, and high blood pressure.

By taking care of our own health, fire chiefs and fire officers can continue to serve their communities effectively and enjoy a fulfilling career -- not to mention being able to enjoy a fulfilling retirement!

Overall, the importance of fitness and health for fire chiefs and fire officers extends beyond personal well-being. It impacts job performance, safety, leadership, and the overall culture within our fire departments, ultimately benefiting both our firefighters and the people they serve.

Tulsa FD

As I get older, the statement, “where has (insert current month) gone” becomes more frequent.

We are already mid-way through the summer, and I was already hit with a back-toschool advertisement this week.

June was memorable for the Tulsa Fire Department and the entire city due to the Father’s Day Derecho that literally blew the city away. This was a hidden disaster for several days as we attempted to handle what used to be considered once-in-a-career level firefighting.

With 117 mph straight winds hitting a large portion of the city, we were hit with over a thousand requests for service in the first 24 hours. Early on, these calls were for power lines downs, damaged natural gas meters and structure fires (59 over the first few hours of the event).

With 220,000 residents without power, this quickly became a humanitarian disaster. Power-dependent breathing machines and oxygen equipment obviously became useless, and this pushed everyone to the hospital.

The weather reminded us of who is boss as the heat descended over the city causing a shortage of ice and heat-related emergencies. Tree branches quickly dried, and we shifted into fire prevention mode as the risk of debris fires expanded.

As someone who worked the 2007 Ice Storm, I thought situations like these would be a once-in-a-career event.

Unfortunately, these complex weather events are becoming standard for Oklahoma and no community is immune.

The hardest workers in this situation were the members of the Tulsa Fire Department who did the best they could to clear holding requests for service and simply do their job.

We were very fortunate to have no significant injures even though we were walking in the dark with power lines at every turn. We learned many lessons from this event, and it is always good to work through a situation where you are without power, even if you have an emergency generator.

How will you communicate when mobile devices are without service? How do you take care of the firefighters’ families while they are on duty and their family home is without power?

Take a moment to review your department’s internal disaster plan. Clearly, we didn’t expect to have to use it so frequently.

Not everything in June and July was a disaster.

On July 8, Tulsa was honored to remain the host city for the annual International Fire Service Journal of Leadership and Management (IFSJLM)(ifsjlm.org) Research Symposium.

This one-day event brought many distinguished fire service leaders and researchers together to share their perspectives on the current state of the global fire program.

A few highlighted speakers for the day were Dr. Steve Kerber from UL who gave an update on their new perspective on fire dynamics and lithium-ion battery fires. Dr. Sara Jahnke spoke on her team’s research on bullying in the fire service.

And the audience heard an update from the U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell on the transition of fire service data away from NFIRS and the new NERIS system. Dr. Moore-Merrell and several of the day’s speakers took some time to visit Tulsa Fire Station No. 4 and hear from the on-duty firefighters about what they are experiencing at the neighborhood level. Keep your eye out for the event next year. The cost is free, and it is a great way to spend the day updating your craft.

The weekend of July 8 was also the start of the IFSTA Validation Conference. Congratulations to IFSTA which celebrates 90 years of service this year. We are blessed to have such several high-quality fire service academic organizations in our state.

The OFCA Education Committee has been selected and we will gather quickly to begin planning the Winter Workshop. At this rate, January will be here quickly, and we want to ensure that this year’s workshop is a great experience. Keep your eye out for additional information.

Enjoy your summer with friends and family and make sure you are staying hydrated as the Oklahoma heat is upon us!

Frederick FD