Visit us at WWW.FFCA.ORG 31 remains a challenge. The type of behavior and scene violence continues to grow and our exposure to these types of incidents and its effect on us mentally, as well as physically, is an issue. All forms of wellness, whether cancer prevention, exposures, fitness for duty and mental health, cannot be ignored and just talked about any longer. Action is required from top to bottom. How have current economic times impacted your department? There is always a level of uncertainty with today’s economy and we learned some valuable lessons during the downturn a few years ago. The downturn brought us a decrease in revenue and during that period our area was struck by one of the worst environmental disasters to hit our coast, the Deep Water Horizon/BP oil spill. Our primary economic engine is tourism. As result of these impacts we reduced our staff and modified our service delivery to maintain core emergency services. Explain how you are doing things differently today because of the economy? The difficult times were not easy and some of the decisions required were not popular. You learn from those experiences and grow personally and as an organization. Our level of awareness to include planning and how we deliver our services is measured carefully and with greater transparency to the community and our members. The professionalism, resolve, and integrity of our members has remained our primary strength and our community knows it. What do you look for in a new recruit? What you are willing to accept becomes the standard! Recruits are abundant. The privilege and opportunity to do this as a career is a real honor that can’t be taken for granted. We look for eager, teachable, humble, physically and mentally fit candidates. We feel our process to be part of SWFD is hard. The results of this approach have paid dividends for our department and our community. How do you view training? Critical. An educated and well-trained trained department like ours separates us from the average. Being well trained never stops, and we promote a strong commitment to train at every level. We provide opportunities for our members to attend advanced training programs and seminars to expand their knowledge and capabilities, that benefit all of us when they return home. Do you have a close working relationship with your neighboring departments? We have up-to-date mutual aid agreements with our neighbors and always extend ourselves in those relations to be considered a resource partner for whatever is needed. To insure a coordinated and effective response, it is important that we train together more frequently to address the many instances that a joint response is required. What’s the future for the fire service as you see it? We will continue to see some of the most experienced and trained members in the history of our service retire, and as a result create a gap in the experience level in our departments. Succession planning and positioning our members to grow will more seamlessly help fill that gap. The demands and changes in our nation’s healthcare system is already forcing us to look at our respective communities and our role in community healthcare, prevention, and paramedicine. There may not be a one-size-fits- all approach for all of us, but our service and responsiveness, especially in a non-emergency role, will be part of the solutions. July 2017 FFS.QXD 6/29/17 9:30 AM Page 31