News Article - Chief Rich Marinucci Speaks His Mind on the ResponderSafety.com Podcast

Chief Rich Marinucci Speaks His Mind on the ResponderSafety.com Podcast

"One of the things I've learned in my travels over the years across this country is that any fire chief that suffers a line of duty death of one of their members is devastated by that. And then it weighs on their mind until the day they die. And if you want to be a leader, your goal should be to make sure that everybody leaves this job as healthy as they possibly can. And so once we know that there's a risk in part of this job, and we know there are things that we can do to minimize those risks, it's up to the leadership to take the initiative and make sure that becomes part of their department culture." —Chief Rich Marinucci, on the ResponderSafety.com podcast

Chief Rich Marinucci, Executive Director of the Fire Department Safety Officers Association, is the guest on episode 3 of the ResponderSafety.com podcast. Chief Marinucci's 30 years in fire service leadership spans departments, professional organizations as president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the federal government as acting chief operating officer of the US Fire Administration, and nonprofits as national program manager for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Everyone Goes Home program. On the podcast, Chief Marinucci talks about how institutions must support firefighters so they have long and healthy careers with a rewarding retirement, professional development for safety officers, how firefighters build competence as the job responsibilities and hazards change, and how the concept of "continuous improvement" can be applied to emergency response.

The podcast spotlights how the fire service is changing. Statistics demonstrate that firefighters respond to approximately 3 times as many incidents on roadway properties as structure fire calls. No longer are vehicle fires all gasoline-powered vehicles. Today, firefighters have to understand electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, LPG vehicles, and LNG and CNG vehicles and how to suppress the fire in each of these types, and what hazards to look for during the response. Firefighters are seeing more and more calls for natural disaster assistance that require special skills — technical rescue, swift water, trench rescue, high voltage electric, and more. Structure fires burn hotter and develop differently due to modern construction methods, materials, and furnishings. All these factors require the fire service to continually assess their community's needs and the hazards they are exposed to at the types of runs they make then reconfigure their training to address those needs and hazards.

Chief Marinucci particularly emphasizes the hazards of working roadway incident scenes because there are so many factors outside the fire department's control, including oncoming traffic, "D" drivers, and multi-agency response over long periods of time. He discusses creating a safe working environment on the roadway, the safety officer's role in that effort, the responsibilities of every responder to act in safety-conscious ways, and the training and tools necessary to support safer roadway incident responses. You'll also learn about the new Certified Traffic Incident Management Person credential available from the FDSOA, tested to NFPA 1091: Standard for Traffic Incident Management Personnel Professional Qualifications.

ResponderSafety.com podcast episode 3 is now available on the Responder Safety Learning Network and on all major podcast services. Subscribe to be notified when new episodes drop.

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48 Available Training Programs View All

Advance Warning

This module discusses the concept of advance warning, its benefits, and how to implement a range of advance warning devices.

Autonomous Vehicles

In this program, you will learn the basics of autonomous vehicle technology, the challenges and opportunities it presents to emergency responders, the current state of technology development, and how to begin to prepare for the presence of these vehicles on the roadways you serve.

Blocking Procedures at Roadway Incidents

This module discusses the concept of blocking, why it is important, how to determine whether linear positioning or block positioning is appropriate at a given incident.

Connected Vehicles

In this program, you will learn the basics of connected vehicle technologies, the challenges and opportunities they present to emergency responders, the current state of technology development.

Fire Department-Based Vehicles for Traffic Control

This program raises awareness on how fire department-based vehicles can be outfitted for temporary traffic control at incident scenes, including special purpose vehicles and modifications to vehicles used for fire suppression.

Fire Service Collaboration with Towing & Recovery Operations

This self-paced program discusses how the fire service and towing personnel can communicate and collaborate effectively to safely and efficiently handle roadway incidents.

The First 15 Minutes at Roadway Incidents

The first 15 minutes of a roadway incident response are critical. What the first responding units do, and do not do, will impact the response in many ways, including safety, traffic control, secondary incidents, and clearance time.

Helmets and Head Protection for Roadway Incidents

This module discusses the importance of helmets and head protection, head protection concerns specific to struck-by incidents, the advantages and disadvantages of available helmet types, and how to evaluate helmet choices for the roadway incident response context.

High Visibility Innovations

It is widely known that the visibility of responders is a key factor in safe emergency operation on the roadways.

Innovative Temporary Traffic Control Devices & Methods

This program raises awareness about these new devices, technologies, and methods so departments can evaluate whether these options can be adopted in their communities.

Integrating Roadway Safety into Community Risk Reduction Programs

This module introduces roadway safety and safe driving practices that fire and life safety educators and all emergency services members who participate in public events can use to reduce the risk of roadway incidents in their communities.

Intro to Fire Service Traffic Incident Management Professional

The responsibilities, qualifications standards, qualities, and preparedness needs for fire service traffic incident management professionals.

Law Enforcement and High Visibility PPE

This program summarizes the federal regulations with regard to high visibility safety apparel, examines the objections of law enforcement officers to wearing this apparel.

LODDs on the Roadway: Safety Lessons Learned

In this program, we look at four NIOSH reports on firefighter line-of-duty deaths that occurred while operating at a roadway incident.

Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD)

This module highlights and explains in plain language the portions of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) that apply to first responders working roadway incidents.

Manual Traffic Control

This program lays the foundation for successful manual traffic control and offers recommended procedures for manually directing traffic safely and effectively.

Move It or Work It

The module relates the Move It Work It decision to safe, quick clearance and the National Unified Goal.

National Unified Goal for Traffic Incident Management

This module presents the National Unified Goal as the road map for implementing cross-department cooperation and communication.

New Technologies in Emergency Vehicle Lighting

This program examines the history of emergency lighting technology, current trends vs. research, problems with current lighting technologies, and potential solutions to address these problems.

Personal Protective Equipment for Roadway Incident Response

This module discusses PPE requirements and how to select, and correctly and consistently wear PPE from head to toe, including high visibility apparel and head protection, to mitigate the hazards of working roadway incidents.

Planning for the Long-Term Event

This self-paced program provides guidance for jurisdictions and Traffic Incident Management (TIM) teams to plan for long term events.

Professionalism and Leadership in Roadway Incident Response

This program delves into the topic of professionalism at the organizational and personal level to give both leadership and boots-on-the-ground responders.

The Public Safety Telecommunicator's Role in Roadway Safety

This module presents ways to better integrate public safety telecommunicators into the roadway incident response team.

Recommended Practices for TIM SOPs

For years, the fire departments have worked to standardize their operating procedures across jurisdictions within geographic areas.

Roadway Incident Operational Safety for EMS Providers

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) vehicles respond to a wide variety of roadway incidents, such as crashes, pedestrians struck by vehicles, other medical emergencies, natural disasters, and weather events.

Roadway Incident Safety Training Guidance for Fire Officers

This self-paced program will assist fire officers with integrating roadway incident safety training into their department, including (but not limited to) self-paced programs and resources available through RSLN and ResponderSafety.com.

Safe Fire Service Traffic Control Practices

This module provides a basic understanding of the framework of traffic control at emergency scenes.

The Safety Officer’s Role in Roadway Incident Response

This program prepares safety officers to be advocates in their departments by reviewing recommended traffic incident management and roadway incident safety practices with recommendations for how to implement them.

Safety Service Patrols: An Underutilized Partner

This self-paced program will provide both an introduction to Safety Service Patrols at the awareness level and recommend vehicle outfitting and roadway operating procedures for SSPs.

Scene Control

This self-paced program discusses the issues created when persons other than responders and victims are present at a roadway incident scene.

See and Be Seen: Emergency Lighting Awareness

This module presents best practices in deploying emergency optical warning devices, called here "emergency lighting."

Setting Up a Traffic Incident Management Unit

This self–paced program uses existing Fire Police units as examples for demonstrating how an agency can set up a dedicated traffic incident management unit.

Sobriety Checkpoint Safety

This module presents practical steps law enforcement officers can take to maximize their safety while working sobriety checkpoints.

Special Circumstances: Safe Operations for Vehicle Fires

This module discusses the safety and traffic incident management challenges of vehicle fires and options for responding to these challenges.

Special Hazards

This self-paced program discusses the traffic incident management impacts of several special circumstances: HAZMAT, medical helicopters, vehicle extrication, and crash investigation.

Starting and Sustaining a TIM Committee

This self-paced program provides guidance on how to start and sustain a TIM Team, offering a framework, proven models, and tips for success.

Termination

This self-paced program begins with a review of foundational knowledge about the definition of the termination phase and quick clearance strategies. Then, the program covers best practices for typical tasks in the termination phase.

TIM For The Next Generation

This self-paced program is specifically for first responders who are newer to the profession, typically in their teens and twenties.

TIM Techniques for Weather Events

This module spotlights how weather impacts emergency scenes on roadways and provides guidance for how to plan and respond when weather conditions significantly affect the incident.

Traffic Incident Management on Rural Roads

This self-paced program presents information on how to tailor some roadway response best practices to the characteristics of rural roads.

Traffic Incident Management Requirements in NFPA 1500

This module highlights the new traffic incident management and responder safety requirements in NFPA 1500: Standard on Fire Department Occupational Safety, Health, and Wellness Program and point departments to resources that will help them meet the requirements of the standard.

Traffic Incident Management: Incident Command & Management

This module discusses the use of the Incident Command System (ICS) to manage the response to a roadway incident, both in the context of the Traffic Incident Management (TIM) Team and implementation at the incident scene.

Traffic Incident Management: Model Practices & Procedures

This module presents model policies, practices and procedures for key topics in the traffic incident response and management process, from pre-planning to incident response and through to investigation and post-incident analysis.

Traffic Incident Management: Strategies for Public Outreach

This module sets forth a series of vetted best practices for drivers to follow when encountering emergency scenes on the roadway.

Traffic Incident Management: TIM Training & Resources

This module provides a framework for TIM training and guidance on the techniques and methods used in TIM training.

Understanding NFPA 1091

This self-paced program explores both uses of NFPA 1091, explaining it in "plain language" for emergency responders and discussing how it can be used as a training objectives blueprint.

Who’s In Charge at Roadway Incident Scenes?

This self-paced program examines the question, "Who's In Charge at Roadway Incidents?"

Wildland Fires and Traffic Management

This program teaches traffic incident management considerations for roadways affected by wildland fires, firefighting operations, and safety procedures to follow when wildland firefighting vehicles are operating in close proximity to responders on foot.

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ResponderSafety.com and The Responder Safety Learning Network (RSLN) are a project of the Emergency Responder Safety Institute (ERSI), a Committee of the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Fireman's Association. The RSLN is an online training network delivering critical safety training for roadway incident responders. All training is free and delivered 24/7/365 on demand. The self-paced modules include critical components of roadway operations safety in an emergency situation, including: Advance Warning, Blocking, High Visibility, Traffic Control, Public Outreach, Incident Command, and more. Register online to get started.