Episode 238: Addressing Common Fire Service Challenges Around the Globe at the World Fire Congress with Billy Goldfeder

Episode notes

What solutions did the World Fire Congress talk about?

Hello Smart Firefighting Community!

Welcome to another episode of covering real world innovations via interviews with fire service and technology industry experts that empower YOU to develop your very own Smart Firefighting strategy!

In this episode:

How does The World Fire Congress facilitate global collaboration and communication among fire service professionals?

What to do about recruitment, retention, and the rise of lithium-ion batteries and EV fires

Why are young people and compassionate recruitment important in the fire service?

Learn from Billy Goldfeder - the Deputy Fire Chief at the Loveland-Symmes (Ohio) Fire Department, Lexipol's Senior Fire Advisor, and member of the Fire Chief / Rescue Editorial Advisory Board.

The World Fire Congress brings together fire service professionals from around the world to share ideas, best practices, and solutions to common challenges. The event fosters global collaboration and communication, addressing issues such as recruitment, retention, tactical response, and the rise of lithium-ion batteries and EV fires.

The importance of young people in the fire service and the need for compassionate recruitment and retention strategies are highlighted, emphasizing the focus on company officers as a key investment in fire departments.

So take a listen to hear what he has to share!

Head to www.smartfirefighting.com to discover how SFF accelerates innovation for emergency responders, to find out when our next event is, or review our curated resources!

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Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro to the World Fire Congress miniseries
2. 0:37 Billy Goldfeder joins
3. 0:45 What the World Fire Congress is
4. 2:11 What Billy hopes comes from it
5. 3:13 The issues fire services share around the world
6. 5:25 What excites Billy: young people
7. 7:31 Brilliant people in one room
8. 7:56 The hottest issue: people, recruitment and retention
9. 10:06 Advice for new officers
10. 10:23 The most important focus
11. 11:08 Outro

Questions answered in this episode

What is the World Fire Congress and why was it held?

Billy Goldfeder describes it as a groundbreaking event bringing together close to 60 countries to communicate and share ideas, similar to how different regions do within the United States but on a global scale. He says it was organized by Lori Moore-Merrell to address common fire service challenges worldwide.

Hear it at 0:50

What fire service challenges are shared around the world?

Billy Goldfeder says recruiting career and volunteer firefighters is a challenge everywhere, not just the United States. He also mentions lithium-ion battery fires, climate-induced wildfires, and terrorism response as issues many countries face.

Hear it at 0:50

What is Billy Goldfeder's biggest concern about recruitment in the fire service?

He says people need to understand that most time is spent on emergency medical calls, not racing into burning buildings. Due to failing healthcare and social services, firefighters are responding to calls like picking up grandma at three in the morning, so departments need to recruit people with compassion for social service work.

Hear it at 7:56

What does Billy Goldfeder say is the most important focus for fire chiefs?

He says the most important investment is in company officers. Things get fixed or prevented at the company officer level, and if you look at any fire department problem, it could have been dealt with at that level if the department had invested in those officers.

Hear it at 10:24

What excites Billy Goldfeder most about the current state of the fire service?

He says the young people excite him most. These young firefighters are smarter, embrace technology without resistance, and are engaged and involved. He met a 30-year-old chief from South America running a fire brigade, showing there is hope for young people in the profession.

Hear it at 5:42

Transcript

Machine transcript of the published audio. Names may be misspelled and some sections are missing.

Ep 238 transcript

Addressing Common Fire Service Challenges Around the Globe at the World Fire Congress with Billy Goldfeder

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Billy Goldfeder

Source: Whisper medium.en machine transcription of the published Podbean audio (no original transcript found in Drive), lightly cleaned. Speakers were separated by voice clustering and then checked and assigned by hand at every speaker change. Gaps where the model returned no usable text are marked [inaudible m:ss].

[0:00] Kevin Sofen: Welcome to this mini series of the Smart Firefighting podcast. Today, we're exploring the inaugural World Fire Congress hosted by the U.S. Fire Administration on May 7 and 8, 2024 in Washington, D.C. This groundbreaking event unites global fire service leaders to address critical issues such as climate change impacts, emerging technology risk, and firefighter health and safety. Enjoy this three-part series as we hear from multiple stakeholders about the key takeaways and the exciting potential for future collaboration in the Global Fire Service. We're here at the World Fire Congress, sitting alongside the one and only Billy Goldfeder. Billy, how you doing?

[0:42] Billy Goldfeder: I'm good. Thanks for chatting for a little bit here.

[0:45] Kevin Sofen: Of course. So in your words, what is the World Fire Congress?

[0:50] Billy Goldfeder: Well, it's amazing, actually. Didn't know what to expect. As you can see, we've got close to 60 countries here, and it's doing what we try to do within the United States is that communicating with different regions, jurisdictions, only now it's the whole World Fire Service doing it. I mean, it's Lori Moore-Merrell just kicked butt here. It was amazing that she was able to pull this off, but the energy is high. The enthusiasm, I mean, from Brazil to Japan to Germany Israel's all, they're all seeking answers to some of the same problems. I didn't realize today that the challenges of recruiting career and volunteer firefighters is everywhere. It's not just the United States. So it's a big deal, but maybe in Germany, they got this idea, or maybe in Jamaica, they got another idea. And that's what this is gonna be about. No one's done this before, and it's really phenomenal.

[1:48] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I've heard that phrase, we share the exact same problems a few times.

[1:51] Billy Goldfeder: I always say, same circus, different clowns, right? Yeah. But yeah, and it's really, it's just cool to meet. You know, I'm sitting with the fire chief and his staff from Ghana. You know what, they're no different to anybody else. They're like regular firefighters and we're teasing and joking and just having a really good time. Nothing bad can come out of something like this.

[2:11] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, totally agree. And what do you hope comes from the World Fire Congress and what do you think will be the lasting legacy of this event?

[2:18] Billy Goldfeder: Well, solutions. You know, in the United States, If you could have a great idea in one town and a town next to you're not even talking to each other. So it's about communication, right? And certainly through mutual aid and organizations like that, we're getting better. But now we're stepping outside what we traditionally know in the United States as a way to solve problems and we're learning from, again, Germany, from Guatemala, from Australia, and they're going to learn from us. You know, we got some good ideas here too. So the goal is that we have a better understanding and a more world focus on fire service issues, whether it's recruitment, retention, whether it's attack, the issues of, you know, the battery issues, lithium ion, all that stuff. Everybody's facing it, but now we're talking to each other about ideas. It's really no different than when you go to lunch with a chief down the street from another fire department and you realize, wow, he's got a good idea. Only we got 60 nations doing that here, so pretty cool.

[3:13] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, and you touched quickly on some of these high-level issues that we're facing around the world. In particular, it seems like the rise of lithium-ion batteries and EV fires is a big one, as well as kind of some of the challenges with climate-induced wildfires. What are some of these big macro challenges that you see and, you know, maybe even paint a picture on some ideas of solutions that you've seen that might be practical for these?

[3:36] Billy Goldfeder: Well, I mean, the tactical response and all that is one thing. But when you were talking to me, what really stuck in my head just now was terrorism. Some of these countries deal with it every day. OK? Thank God we don't have to deal with it as much, but who knows what's on the horizon. We've certainly had our share, but some of these countries are having attacks every day. Well, how do they deal with it? What can we learn from that? What is the fire response? Does fire respond? So that's really one. Also the wild land issue, the wild land interface, again, it's really starting to take off in our country, but yet you go to other countries, they've been doing it for decades. So maybe what we've come up with is a good idea for them. And maybe what they're doing, again, how do you do it? You go to conferences, you go to FDIC, you go to FRI, all these, and you say, how do you do it in your town? Well, we're doing that here only, how do you do it in your country? And it's just more opportunity to learn. The bottom line is when the bell goes off, whether it's in Ghana, Guatemala, Australia, Brazil, the troops are turning out and responding. So as long as we keep that in mind, right, how we support that, the importance of not forgetting that. At a level like this, these people are so high level, they may sometimes forget that too. But I'm hearing that discussion. What do you send on a first alarm? What's your engine coming? You know, in one country, it's one person. In another country, it's four or five people. So what I hope to come from this is better understanding and better ideas that, you know, we're not reinventing the wheel. Typically, we within the United States keep it within the United States and Canada, right? But here we're going to, again, here's a fire chief from Germany. How do you do it there? He says, well, we have a different idea on how we utilize our volunteers, for example. I never thought of that's kind of what we're talking about here.

[5:25] Kevin Sofen: Besides the idea of sharing best practices and moving forward as a cohesive world fire service, what are one or two things that you're most excited about right now in terms of the current state of the fire service in terms of how we can continue to come together to address some of these challenges?

[5:42] Billy Goldfeder: Well, when I'm asked the question, what makes me excited these days, it's the young people. There's certainly an aura of, you know, the young kids don't know what they're doing. That's ridiculous. These kids are smarter than we are. They embrace technology without problem, without frustration, without resistance, right? So I think that's what excites me the most is the young people. And honestly, as you look around the room today, it's not all 80-year-old people. I mean, you know, it's people who are still engaged, still involved. I met a chief from a South American country. She's 30 years old. She's running a fire brigade. It's a big deal to me that they're showing that, you know, there's hope for the young people in this business because a lot of times we'll hear, you know, what do these young people know and all that? And that's not the case at all. So that excites me. As far as the Congress and being here, What excites me is the idea of sharing information. Again, in a minute conversation over a Coke or a beer, you can learn that in Austria, they're doing this. You're like, I never even thought about that's what this is all about, is just exchanging information, developing relationships, and getting a better understanding. Again, here we go. What can we do to change in this room that impacts that first new engine company going to a fire? Or the fire prevention program that maybe they're using in France, we never even thought about doing that's what this is all about. It's like a blind date that's gone really well.

[7:07] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, and it just keeps getting better.

[7:09] Billy Goldfeder: Yeah, no, it's great. And again, the common denominator, if you've ever visited a fire station outside your station, right, your community, you know, the humor, the joking, the teasing. Well, this is on a global scale here. You know, I'm joking with the fire chief of Ghana about something, who knew I'd be doing that 48 hours ago? And we're laughing about the same thing. So nothing bad can come out of this.

[7:31] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, no, it's amazing once you put a bunch of these brilliant individuals in the same room and you can just kind of feel the energy and the passion, the excitement, and kudos to NFFF and USFA and Dr. Lori Moore and Victor and Gary and John and the entire team. And I guess kind of one or two final questions for you of what are you working on right now? What's something that's taken up your mental bandwidth that Billy's working on?

[7:56] Billy Goldfeder: The hottest issue is everything you and I just talked about, we can't do without people. And the hottest issue right now is in the volunteer community, the career community, is getting people to understand what a great job this is. But being honest about this job, we shouldn't be showing pictures of firefighters racing into burning buildings every day, because that's not what we're doing. Even the busiest metro city is spending most of their time responding to emergency medical calls. And our biggest challenge in our country, due to, and I mean this with due respect, but due to our failing healthcare and our failing social services programs, we are it. We are social services. We are suicide prevention. We are picking up grandma at three o'clock in the morning. So when we hire people, when we recruit people, we need to expect, let them not understand what they should expect. And we need to hire people with compassion, right? You know, at three in the morning, grandma wet her pants, didn't know who to call. She's getting a rash, she dials 911. The response unfortunately is, oh geez, here we go again. But no, grandma's got nobody else. all that's left. So the recruitment, retention is a big deal right now and making sure we're recruiting the right people and that they understand that this is a social service. It's emergency. But you know what? One day you're going to be not going to fire down in a hallway of an apartment building. And that evening you're going to be picking grandma up because grandma's got no family left and there's no one else to call. We got to be enthusiastic about both those incidents.

[9:24] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, well said. Yeah, I mean, it's an evolving fire service and it's, stuff's changed, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not bad or good. It's just a reality. You know what?

[9:34] Billy Goldfeder: I think honestly, from a recruitment standpoint, you bring someone who's interested in for a day or two to hang in a firehouse, they're going to fall in love with this job. We have a great time. We enjoy what we do. We all have the common denominator of service, of caring, of compassion, right? So it's a big deal. But I'm really hoping that we'll learn. You know, again, I didn't realize that other countries were going through the same recruitment issues that we are. and they are, so we're definitely gonna be able to exchange some ideas and see who's doing what, and maybe we can come up with a better way.

[10:06] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, right on. If you could leave us with maybe a favorite quote or any sort of words of wisdom or a challenge or a mic drop of sorts.

[10:16] Billy Goldfeder: So if you're gonna be a new officer, think of the worst officer you ever had, don't be that way. That's my best advice for you.

[10:23] Kevin Sofen: Okay.

[10:24] Billy Goldfeder: All right, and lastly, the most important, if I have to pick one most important focus in the fire service, for every fire chief, I don't care where you're from, Austria, again, France, Germany, Israel, Jamaica, you gotta focus on your company officers. Your investment is your company officers. That's where things get fixed. That's where things get prevented. And if you go back and look at any problem that your fire department has had, you'll look and you'll see it could have either been fixed or dealt with at the company officer level if we invested in that company officer. So that's probably a common denominator for most of the countries here.

[10:58] Kevin Sofen: It probably is a good thing that we're speaking about it and casting the spotlight on it. Yeah, good. Billy, thanks for all that you're doing. Always a pleasure to catch up and take care and keep up the good work.

[11:07] Billy Goldfeder: Thank you so much.

[11:08] Kevin Sofen: See you. Thanks for listening to today's episode. What did you think? What'd you learn? Hopefully something, right? Please reach out on social media with your thoughts on this episode and any other suggestions for future content. We look forward to capturing more important stories across public safety and are here at your service. Thank you.