For most people in your community, public interaction with the members of your fire department will not come from your crews responding to an emergency they are having. The reflection of your department will be from interactions your members have at the grocery store, driving down the street in the fire engine, or through your department’s social media accounts. I hate to be blunt, but if that is all the outreach that you are having in the community, that is not enough.
As a fire service, we must make community outreach a year-round priority. It is easier for our counterparts in the police department to be seen in the paper after a robbery or shooting. A great deal of the work that we do is not in the press. When we work a code, respond to a vehicle accident with injuries, or mitigate any other number of instances, we just simply do not get the press that the police department does. Right, wrong, or indifferent, that is just the facts. This is where social media does come into play, but it can’t be all that we do. Read More…