Firefighting Organizational Culture

Unit 5 Writing Assignment

We all know that organizational culture is one of the most influential aspects of firefighting; especially relating to our safety and prevention culture, which is—in my opinion, the part of firefighting that deserves the most of our attention, for it directly involves how we keep the community and ourselves safer. However, despite the fact that our organizational culture is so impactful on our safety and prevention practices; as well as influences the occurrences of LODDs, we do not put nearly enough effort and resources into fixing our currently broken organizational culture.

Furthermore, because of the unfortunate fact that leaders in the fire service either do not see that our current organizational culture is toxic

According to an article written about organizational culture within the fire service, it has been noted by many experts that the fire service must focus on its organizational culture in order to lessen the rising number of firefighter LODDs in the United States. Furthermore, the author identified the certain problem areas where cultural practices are failing; these include firefighting, building entrance tactics, vehicle procedure, and fitness and wellness (Breuer, 2016).

In addition to the previously mentioned areas where experts have found there to be much room for improvement, our cultural priorities need to be revised as well. For example, when most people think of firefighting, they think of action, danger and excitement—and this is reflected in what firefighters choose to keep and display as their “trophies”; such as melted helmets and “souvenirs” like nearly destroyed items from fire scenes. While there is nothing wrong with wanting to remember a fire victory involving subduing a difficult blaze, it does show what we value in the fire service—facing the danger, instead of working to prevent it (Byrne,

R. (2016, August). The Fire and Emergency Services Culture: Can It Be Changed? Fire Engineering. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.faytechcc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2b8607d9-35a8-4fed-97f4-aeb80df84115@sessionmgr4008&vid=1&hid=4211

Byrne, D. (2009, October). Changing a Culture, One Firefighter and One Fire Department at a Time. Firehouse. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.faytechcc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e58d8566-c113-49ab-ab2c-2cc06ca0ea2e@sessionmgr4006&vid=1&hid=4211

Mahler, J. (2016, August 30). Influences of Organizational Culture on Learning in Public Agencies. Oxford Journals. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from https://uncfsu.instructure.com/courses/12391/discussion_topics/92358

Sargent, C. (2016, August). Culture That Kills: "We Always Did it This Way!". Fire Engineering. Retrieved September 19, 2016, from