Episode 274: Striving to Be 1% Better Every Day with Sirena Allen-de Guzman

Episode notes

A new firefighter’s journey into the fire service:

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:

Why diversity and inclusivity matter in serving diverse communities effectively

How AI and drones are shaping the future of firefighting

Why you should strive to be 1% better every day

Hear from Sirena Allen-de Guzman , a firefighter in Sydney.

Sirena shares her inspiring journey into the fire service. She reflects on the multifaceted nature of the role, from supporting the local community to adapting to diverse challenges on the job. Sirena emphasizes the importance of teamwork, adhering to protocols, and the potential of emerging technologies like AI and drones to make firefighting safer and more efficient.

She talks about the need for greater diversity and inclusivity within the fire service to better understand and serve diverse communities. Sirena also appreciates the role of organizations like the Institution of Fire Engineers in fostering global connections and learning opportunities for firefighters. Guided by her personal motto of striving to be 1% better every day, Sirena’s perspective highlights the value of continuous growth and improvement in the fire service.

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

Episode Resources:

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Chapters

1. 0:00 Intro from the IFE booth at AFAC 2024
2. 0:47 Sirena Allen-de Guzman joins
3. 1:45 Fresh off the training academy
4. 1:52 From a desk job to the fire service
5. 2:56 More than putting water on burning things
6. 3:41 Camaraderie and the calls that stick
7. 4:47 AI, drones and emerging tech
8. 6:22 If you can't see it, you can't be it
9. 8:50 Serving diverse communities
10. 9:36 What the Institution of Fire Engineers does
11. 11:30 1% better every day
12. 12:53 Wrap

Questions answered in this episode

What made Sirena Allen-de Guzman decide to become a firefighter?

She was working in the corporate world and wasn't finding purpose or satisfaction. A friend was applying to join the fire service, and Sirena started helping her prepare for the physical entrance exams. While researching the organization, she realized it could be a special career and decided to apply herself.

Hear it at 1:57

What has she learned about firefighting since joining?

Sirena Allen-de Guzman says being a firefighter is much more than putting water on burning things. It is a lifestyle and multifaceted job based on supporting the local community. She learned it involves a lot of troubleshooting and adapting on the go, rather than following rigid procedures.

Hear it at 3:00

How are drones being used by Fire and Rescue New South Wales?

Sirena Allen-de Guzman says her boss mentioned using drones to identify hot spots within a house. At a hoarding house fire she responded to, the space was hard to navigate because of debris, and drones could help in situations like that.

Hear it at 5:07

Why does she think diversity is important in the fire service?

Sirena Allen-de Guzman says it is important that the fire service is as diverse as the community it serves. That enables firefighters to handle situations with compassion and understanding, especially since they show up at the worst possible time on someone's bad day.

Hear it at 6:49

What personal motto does she follow in her fire career?

She follows the concept of being 1 percent better every day. Sirena Allen-de Guzman came into the job knowing little about firefighting and learns something new every day, and striving to be that 1 percent better is making a big difference in how she develops in her profession.

Hear it at 12:01

Transcript

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

Ep 274 transcript

Striving to Be 1% Better Every Day with Sirena Allen-de Guzman

Speakers: Kevin Sofen, Sirena Allen-de Guzman

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 a mini Smart Firefighting podcast series, recorded live at the Institute of Fire Engineers booth during the 2024 AFAC Show Down Under in Sydney, Australia. Throughout these conversations, we dive into critical issues like fire safety, emerging technologies, diversity in the fire service, and innovative solutions for emergency response. fascinating insights from leaders around the world on how we can build a safer and more resilient future. Sirena Allen-de Guzman, firefighter at Fire and Rescue New South Wales shares her journey to the fire service and emphasizes the importance of teamwork and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and drones. She discusses the need for diversity in the fire service and her personal approach to continuous improvement. Sirena, how you doing?

[0:54] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: I'm well, thank you. How are you?

[0:55] Kevin Sofen: I'm doing very well. I had a wonderful experience the entire week. First on Monday where I was in the panel with Dr. Laurie with you talking about all things fire service, data, recruitment, and retention. But then also today I was with your fellow firefighters actually responding some calls. How was that? Really awesome and eye opening. I mean, both calls were automatic alarms that went off. One of them was a broken pipe. The other one was a smoke alarm that was messed I learned about the dynamic of two trucks responding, how to use the pre-planning system, kind of just going through how they do reporting, kind of just asking questions and kind of thinking like a kid almost and asking why a hundred times. But just being in roll call and experiencing kind of just the dynamic of that brotherhood, sisterhood was, felt very special.

[1:43] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: That's terrific to hear. I'm glad you had a good time.

[1:45] Kevin Sofen: I did. And so you're a recent new firefighter.

[1:49] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: I am. I am fresh off the training academy.

[1:52] Kevin Sofen: How did you find your way into the fire service, particularly here in Sydney?

[1:57] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: So I have lived in Australia for the better part of a decade, despite what my accent implies. And I was working traditionally in corporate world, and I wasn't really finding a lot of purpose in my life. And I was getting a little bit bored, and I had a really big kind of life reevaluation where a few friends were throwing out ideas for what they wanted to do and a maid of mine was actually applying to join the fireys and I actually started out by helping her prepare for the physical to pass the entrance exams and in the process of helping her with that I researched the organization further and realized what a special career trajectory this could be and so I decided to give it a go myself as well.

[2:42] Kevin Sofen: So you're like okay hair down don't care we're going to the fire service.

[2:46] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: Yeah, basically, I was tired of a desk and I needed something different and I wanted to make a positive difference in the world. So what better way to do it than in a big red truck?

[2:56] Kevin Sofen: And what did you learn and what do you love about being a firefighter?

[3:00] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: I have learned that being a firefighter is so much more than putting water on burning things. It's a lifestyle and it's a really multifaceted job that's really based around supporting your local community. And that's been really awesome. Wow, that's probably also what I love about it is no two days are the same, and it's a lot more troubleshooting than I thought. I kind of assumed when I got to the Academy that it would be very black and white. Here's a standard operating procedure for how to do everything, and it's not that at all. It's a lot of changing tasks and reading situations and adapting on the go, and I think that's actually one of the best parts of the job.

[3:41] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And from this morning when that was a roll call to seeing that camaraderie, and then kind of also hearing how I asked a couple of the firefighters, what was something, is there any particular call or experience on a call that sticks out the most, and the one the one firefighter had said, you know, it's not necessarily the biggest or the best call or the worst call, it's just that some of those calls where the team works together perfectly, and we do everything as well as we possibly could, according to our That kind of struck me in the sense that it was more about not necessarily like the, you know, the big fire or just like the mundane call, but it's just sticking to the training and the protocol and then trusting your team was what he remembered most. And I found that to be really fantastic.

[4:29] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: I couldn't agree more. There's nothing more satisfying than when everything comes together. your team works together, you figure out what the solution is, you realize it's not the best solution, you find another solution, and then you come out of the end feeling like you've made positive change or you've achieved a positive outcome that's the best feeling.

[4:49] Kevin Sofen: So early in your fire career, what's, you know, walking around this AFAC show floor, there's no shortage of cool stuff going on. Yeah. What's something that catches your eye of like, wow, that's something that's really intriguing to me as a firefighter, that's something that I could really use or that's something that could really help the fire service as a whole.

[5:07] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: Yeah, I think Dr. Laurie actually mentioned this in her presentation on Monday, but the use of AI and emerging technologies in firefighting, I think is a super fascinating space and something that I've noticed a lot of on the floor today are drones. Oddly enough, on Tuesday, I went to a job that was a house fire and it was still smoldering. We came in for a fire duty, still smoldering when we got there, and my boss was telling me about the use of drones and using them to identify hot spots within a house. The unfortunate situation in this job was that it was a hoarding house, so you couldn't access a lot of the rooms despite the fact that the whole place had burned through because there was so much stuff still kind of on the premises, it was really hard to navigate. and we were talking about the use of emerging technology is in terms of how that would help navigate that kind of situation. So I think things like that, drones, AI, how we make firefighting safer and more effective into the future is something that's really fascinating. And I'm hoping it's something that as a fresh firefighter, I'm gonna see a lot more of over the course of my career.

[6:22] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, well said. Into the conversation the other day, we have Dr. Laurie. I remember one comment that came up, and I've heard it a few times now, and this relates to kind of just continue to bring an inclusive and diverse fire service, but the idea of, if you can't see it, you can't be it. What does that quote mean to you, and why is that so important to make sure we can continue to break barriers and stereotypes to make the fire service the best career that's open and inclusive to everyone?

[6:49] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: Yeah, I think when it comes to firefighting, just like with any state or emergency service, to be honest, I think it's really important that we are made up of a team that is just as diverse as the community that we're serving. And I think that's what enables you to handle situations with compassion and with a level of understanding that ensures that whoever you're serving at the end of the day leaves with the best possible experience. And we, as firefighters, show up at the worst possible time usually on somebody's pretty bad day. And you don't, it's really hard to relate to somebody, I think, under certain circumstances. If you don't have that level of awareness or that level of familiarity, I guess, like there's something about being able to genuinely relate and that's really important, which is a bit of a tangent and I'm sorry.

[7:43] Kevin Sofen: A good tangent.

[7:45] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: In terms of what it is, kind of being that change you want to see, there aren't that many women in this job, But there are, that's changing is the important part. And I did not know many female firefighters before I got into this job. Now that I'm here, I'm meeting them left, right, and center. It's a really beautiful community. I think that if we want to continue to establish a more diverse workforce, we need to do the groundwork of having them in the public eye. And I think coming into this job, even though I didn't know female firefighters, seeing female firefighters on a truck driving by, for me was reassurance that I could do this. And I'm really grateful for that. And I think that we still have a long way to go. We're still a very male dominated, very kind of Caucasian, very Anglo workforce right now, but that's slowly changing. And it's awesome to see that there's new entry pathways for diversity. And I think that's gonna make ultimately better firefighters and a better firefighter service to serve diverse communities.

[8:50] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, well, I will say on the truck I went on today, it was 50% female, 50% male. And of course, that's just a continued ratio we need to continue to strive for. And I just appreciate what you're doing to continue to, I won't say break stereotypes, but just continue to be a very high, valuable producer, contributor to the job, particularly within the fire service and, you know, it doesn't really matter age, race, gender, it's a matter of, you know, who you are, just being able to provide the best possible service to the community at large. And it's really important to make sure that we do have a diverse collection of individuals part of it. So just exciting to see that continue to evolve because, yeah, it's just continue to drive home why the fire service is the best career and best job in the world.

[9:35] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: I couldn't agree more.

[9:36] Kevin Sofen: Yeah. And so we were united kind of through this hut above us, the Institute of Fire Engineers. Yeah. And I've been really interested in terms of seeing the IFE's bridge between fire service, fire engineers, within Australia and around the world, in your words, in your thoughts, what is the Institute of Fire Engineers and why is it an organization that is relevant in the global fire service?

[10:00] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: That's a great question, and I'm so glad I feel like I'm being tested on, like, whether I did my homework, but it's really good.

[10:06] Kevin Sofen: No, I was trying to give you a set.

[10:09] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: Look, I think that organizations like this are really important because they provide this framework for understanding firefighting in a very different professional context. And I think it's really easy to come into being, I didn't know this was a thing until a couple of weeks ago, to be totally honest. I think it's really easy to come in as a junior firey and to get on a truck and to think yep, this is my life now. I get on a truck and I do my job and I contribute to my organization. And organizations like this are so important because it makes you realize that you're not just part of an organization, you're part of a whole community, an international community of firefighters. And with that there are things and opportunities that you can learn from other countries and from related professions. And I think it's really valuable that we extend our knowledge through organizations like this. And I wouldn't necessarily have had an opportunity to have that kind of exposure this early on in my job if we hadn't been connected. And if I hadn't met kind of the crew that I have over the past week. So it's been really eye-opening to the fact that firefighting isn't a job, it's also a community and it's a profession. and it's a lot bigger than I realized.

[11:30] Kevin Sofen: Yeah, and like you were kind of alluding to in that statement of just continue to be curious and searching for knowledge and continue to try and learn to get better and I'm confident that both of us continue to do that in our respective career fields will lead to good things so kudos to you on that and I guess final thing that I'm curious in knowing it's sort of a question I've been asking everyone of within your fire service career or outside of fire service, you know, is there a particular quote or words of wisdom or insight that you live by that you could share with us today?

[12:01] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: The whole concept of 1% better every day, as cheesy as it is. I came into this job knowing absolutely nothing about firefighting, to be honest. I knew what I'd seen on TV and I knew what I had researched, but I knew very little of the actual hard or soft skills of being a firefighter. And I learned something new every day. Some days I get things right and it's awesome. And some days I make very silly rookie mistakes because I'm a rookie, but striving to be that 1% better all the time is making such a big difference in terms of how I feel like I'm developing in my profession. And it's something that I really hope will carry me on to achieve great things within my organization and within my community. Because at the end of the day, I just want to have the best possible impact I can.

[12:53] Kevin Sofen: The ultimate mic drops, Sirena. I love that. And you can only get 1 percent better if you actually are messing up and you are making those mistakes. So keep making mistakes. That's a good thing. Thank you. And I just really enjoyed your presence and comments alongside Dr. Laurie and just learning alongside you in the early stages of your fire career and just confident and excited about what you'll continue to do within the New South Wales Fire and Rescue and heck, who knows what lateral or vertical moves that means within your future career. So just keep up the good work and we'll be in touch.

[13:26] Sirena Allen-de Guzman: Thank you so much for your time and for this opportunity.

[13:28] Kevin Sofen: Of course. Thanks, Sirena. Take care. Thanks for listening to this episode recorded alongside the Institute of Fire Engineers during the AFAC Show. If you found value in the conversation or learned something new, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out, share your thoughts, and let's keep the discussion going on how we can shape the future of smart firefighting.