No Time for Playing Cards: Higher Reliability Organizing for the Fire Service

Why do we continue to see similar firefighter injuries and line-of-duty deaths (LODDs) repeated each year? We often respond with technical solutions, such as more SOGs, safety lists, and studying more strategies and tactics. But are there greater depths of technical knowledge in our profession that can make firefighting significantly safer? Does it also help to look at the human side of our profession? Other high-risk, high-consequence industries have reduced injuries and LODDs by 60%–80% just by focusing on human factors and performance. Turning your department into a higher reliability organization starts with building a learning culture and teaching firefighters to ask “why?”

Authors Dane Carley and Craig Nelson have a passion for helping people and departments in the fire and emergency services become successful. The techniques, methods, and processes in this book are based their own research and data as well as studies from many other professions and industries interested in being the best.

Readers will learn how to:

• Measure for and demonstrate leadership
• Focus solutions on human performance
• Build resilient departments
• Most importantly, reduce firefighter injuries and LODDs

Dane Carley has been a fire service member since 1989 and in 2013 was promoted to battalion chief for the Fargo (ND) Fire Department. He holds a bachelor's degree in fire protection engineering and administration from the University of Cincinnati, a master's degree in public safety executive leadership from St. Cloud State University, is a graduate of the NFA Executive Fire Officer program, and is a CPSE-accredited chief fire officer. He is a member of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Arson Investigators.

Craig Nelson has been a fire service member since 2001, serving as a volunteer, paid on-call, and full-time firefighter. In 2014 he was promoted to battalion chief for the Fargo (ND) Fire Department. He has been a fire instructor for Minnesota State Community and Technical College and has worked seasonally for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as a wildland firefighter in northwest Minnesota. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and a master's degree in executive fire service leadership.

Carley and Nelson are partners in Tailboard Consulting, LLC, which provides innovative classes in emergency services management. They have coauthored articles for Fire Engineering magazine, taught classes at FDIC, and produce a monthly radio podcast, Tailboard Talk, for Fire Engineering Talk Radio.