Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, Assistant to the General President of the International Association of Firefighters, was the Keynote Speaker in the Wednesday morning general session for the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE) 2010 Excellence Conference.  Dr. Moore-Merrell reported on the progress of a critical firefighter safety and deployment study to all the attendees of the conference being held this week in Orlando, Florida. 

 

Dr. Moore-Merrell reported that the primary motivation for the study was driven by the CPSE response to stakeholder debate over NFPA 1710 and 1720 since adoption of those standards in 2000.  CPSE President, Chief Randy Bruegman, approached the IAFC, IAFF, NIST, WPI and other related scientists or industry experts to reach out to all stakeholders and conduct appropriate analysis to determine industry best practices for firefighter safety and deployment.  Multi-year funding through DHS grants allowed this collaborative effort to begin.  Dr. Moore-Merrell indicated that the research and field testing are complete leaving two final stages of work to be done.  The study of the field test is anticipated to be released in April 2010.

 

The CPSE 2010 Conference is designed to help agencies and individual leaders achieve excellence in services and professional development.  CPSE President Chief Randy Bruegman stated, “It is our belief that this research will ultimately assist Fire Chief’s, City Managers and Elected Officials to make better and more informed decisions on matters that involve or impact firefighter safety and emergency deployment.   The day’s conference activities involved 12 education sessions on all matters related to organizational self-assessment for continuous quality improvement; Chief Ronny Coleman continued his teachings on the “Compleat” Fire Officer Series. A new class on using Excel and advanced analytic skills to measure Fire Department Performance began today.