The International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), through their Safety, Health and Survival Section and in cooperation with the Emergency Responder Safety Institute, are urging all fire chiefs and officers to immediately issue a safety and survival alert in their departments.
During an emergency safety and survival alert, personnel are urged to postpone non-emergency tasks to focus on critical safety and survival training. During this period, we are hoping to remember the many brothers and sisters whose lives have been lost working on our roadways due to multiple incidents of personnel and apparatus being struck. Responders being struck on our roadways has become an almost daily occurrence.
“Operations on roadways are high-risk, high-frequency events,” said Chief Dan Eggleston, IAFC president and chairman of the board. “With distracted driving, drivers under the influence, along with road and weather conditions and related traffic, firefighters are more at risk now than ever before, and unfortunately, numerous recent crashes back that up.”