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Whistlestop Tour for Firefighter Safety
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation just wrapped up a five-week tour of the nation to commemorate fallen heroes, promote firefighter safety issues and bring attention to the Foundation's "Everyone Goes Home" program. Made possible thanks to a grant from The Dunkin' Brands Community Foundation, the Whistlestop Tour for Firefighter Safety made 20 official visits (and many unofficial ones) across the nation to promote public and firefighter safety. Fireman's Fund employees from across the country were proud to participate at these events.
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The Firefighter Life Safety Tour bus in front of
the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
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Congress created the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation to remember America's fallen firefighters, but the Foundation is also strongly committed to reducing firefighter fatalities. In 2005, it launched "Everyone Goes Home," a major initiative to reduce firefighter deaths with the support of other fire and life safety organizations. This program seeks to promote safety in fire service culture and to help the National Fire Safety Administration in its stated goal of reducing the number of line-of-duty deaths among fire service personnel by 50 percent within 10 years. Fireman's Fund was proud to provide the entire matching grant of $329,000 to help launch the program.
Safety Hits the Road
A motorbus emblazoned with the message "Everyone Goes Home" pulled into the San Francisco Fire Department's Mission District training facility on Thursday, April 5th, officially kicking off the Whistlestop Tour for Fire Safety with the first of 20 scheduled events. The motorbus also carried the names of 3,147 firefighters who died in the line of duty since 1981.
The Whistlestop Tour was the brainchild of Richard Anderson, program director of the Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives and unified commander of the tour. He based the idea for the Whistlestop Tour on the campaigns of presidential candidates who travel the country to get their message out to the public.
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A Fireman's Fund representative shares information about the Fireman's Fund Heritage program with tour event attendees.
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A major message of this tour was that the fire service should not look at the current annual rate LODDs as something to be accepted. Instead, the fire service should use the lessons learned from fallen firefighters to help prevent similar losses in the future. To underscore this message, family members left behind by fallen firefighters were part of the tour, telling stories of their loved ones and their lives without them.
Programs offered to firefighters along the route centered on the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, as well as other Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives programs, including the nationally-recognized curriculum, Courage to Be Safe ... So Everyone Goes HomeTM. This presentation was conceived and developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program Team with assistance from Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder of the Loveland-Symmes, Ohio Fire Department and FDNY Battalion Chief John Salka. In addition, the tour promoted steps as simple and easy as taking Dr. Burton Clark's seatbelt pledge to save lives.
The tour's motorbus pulled into Framingham, Mass. on May 12th for its final stop. Nationwide, over 300 firefighters had gone through the "Courage to Be Safe" curriculum. Leaders at National Fallen Firefighters Foundation felt the tour was successful in its goals. According to Chairman Hal Bruno, "This tour … captured the essence of what the Foundation stands for, honoring those who have died in the line of duty and learning from the lessons they left behind."
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