ESSAY:
IMPROVING FIRE SERVICES IMAGE IN THE THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES: THE NEED FOR CHANGE

(By VIRGILUS. AKAMA.ONYEKA)

There has always been something peculiar about the Fire Services in the so called third worls countries. Those of us who are older in the profession know about developments which have taken place in the past 10 years in these countries. It is very clear that generally, the image is far from good. Clichés abound. After troubling era underdevelopment of the fire service and the accompanying years of change that hurled the professional cultural furniture around and turned much of it to junk, we today are apt to think longingly of continuous changes.

The purpose of this essay is not to run down the fire service of these countries. But I intend to advocate the type of commitment to change that saw the civilised world through its journey to (if you like) “professional paradise”. The consistency of the unfanciful image of the fire service today raises two related questions. Why is the situation so reminiscent in these countries? How accurate is it, that the image is at the lowest ebb? And if so, how could this be redeemed? It is my intension in this essay to try and answer some of these questions.

Before answering these questions, it is pertinent to enunciate some of the reasons for prolonged underdevelopment of the fire services of the third world. This is not to undermine the changes that are taking place today in some brigades, notably in India and Nigeria. Afterall, the Fire Services in these countries also symbolise the common effort of saving lives and protecting property from fire damage. That symbolism is no cheap thing. It represents an ethical climate that help reassure everyone that firefighters all over the world care. At least it still enjoys moral legitimacy.

However, these tales of the poor image of the fire service of the third world provide the most sensational, but not necessarily the most telling illustrations of why the Fire Services have continued to “fall under”. The Fire Services are often used as a dumping ground for the never-do-wells in society, the educationally backward. Recruitments follow a pattern that berates the service, giving no attraction whatsoever to the elite. But less gossipy flaws have been as damaging to its image. These are poor leadership with concomitant poor management, confusion, duplication of roles, wasteful spending and lack of coordination.

The paradigm shift in most brigades stem from one single cause - poor management. For the well managed brigades the benefits of development is easy to count. Once it had sunk in, there was a general agreement that the old ways were not good enough, that something more active and radical had to be done. As a result, most well managed brigades are now noticeably improved. One telling example is the shifting nature of their relationship with the rest of the civilised fire service world.

For the third world fire services to improve and success in its cause, they will have to become more proactive, completely cut the shackles of the past failures, meet up with technological trends, set new mission goals and put the mechineries in motion for the new ways of doing things. The present situation calls for a journey through the new reordering of priorities which would enable us to explore the dynamics of improved technology; and institute commitment to change that will shape its 21st Century.

The circumstances of some fire services of the third world today offend the conscience of many of us in the field and pose a formidable moral challenge to the fire service family. Under-equipped, and groping for a fresh start, the fire services of the third world countries seems to slouch towards the millennium like a limping panhandler. With the consciousness to change, a reckoning for progress seems at hand. However, it seems that decades of underdevelopment and of truckering with the fire service system are at a dead end. Resistance to change with a proliferation of less qualified leadership has buried in paper nearly every major effort to improve the image of the Fire Service.

A growing view is that the Fire Service of the third world countries must be reinvented - pardon the expression - in a basic way if it is to move forward. The question that must be asked is whether these Fire Services are not headed towards some kind of disaster. The answer is probably yes. The mishmash of unkempt fire stations spread around in some municipal cities and in local governments appear to be a swamp into which good intentions can sink with barely a trace. Attempts to redeem this image have proved as futile as a stop sign in a demolition site.

What is really the problems of the Fire Services of the third world countries? The problem of leadership has had a strong influence in development of the Fire Service. Others include, lack of training and professional development, poor planning, concession of the running of the Fire Service to civilian non-fire service personnel; non-recognition of the Fire Service as a truly essential service worthy of investment, and the failure of the Fire Services to sell themselves creditably to their employers and society.

How then could the image of the third world Fire Services be redeemed. The most appealing seem to be:-
(a) the restructuring of the Fire Service to provide more proactive service,
(b) Improvement in leadership style.
(c) Raise competency levels of the firefighting force through sound professional training.
(d) Be current with the goings-on in the fire service world; and cooperate with other fire services

These Fire services should now begin a rigorous management training and performance evaluation systems for its employees from the top downwards, which could be the first step toward creating a true professional Fire Service in place of what now amount to “eltoro Kaka”. Much may depend on the Fire Chiefs or managers of the Fire Services for such efforts to develop beyond bare beginnings. Agreed, the Fire Service can only do what they are allowed to do, but this is a defeatist attitude. Conceding the defeat is not an efficient practice. Even within these parameters, however, change is still possible.

The question is, how could the fire service of the third world countries manage the changes that have taken her by surprise. According to (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988, four areas in which change occurs can throw light on this; - knowledge, attitudes, individual behaviour and group behaviour. New knowledge renders old attitudes obsolete. Changes in attitudes are more difficult and take longer to bring about. If a person acquires new knowledge but does not accept it, change at the next levels - individual and group behaviour will not occur, for attitude is the difference in the rate of change. This has proven to be true.

Individual behaviour is the outward expression of acceptance, meaning a change in the way a person acts. Group behaviour is the most difficult to change and at this level takes a relatively long time. Change in group behaviour depends on change in knowledge, attitude, and individual behaviour. The emerging concept of strategic planning has done much to aid leadership and management in the fire service for the changing conditions. Fire services that have developed such planning mechanisms have tended to be successful in spite of changes in local conditions and those that have ignored this need have had to face unforeseen problems.

New vocabularies relating to management of change have found a place in today’s public life. Information half-life, technological obsolescence, technological transfer, deviation amplification, synergy, and synthesis are among the new words and phrases in use today. By simple definition, information half-life is the time it takes for approximately 50 percent of a particular knowledge base to become obsolete. This can be observed in the field of computers. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

Technology obsolescence is exactly what is sounds like, a gradual outdating of technology so that a technique or piece of equipment no longer serves the purpose for which its was originally intended. The space race introduced the term “technology transfer into the vocabulary of change”. This is the application of a technology designed in one frame of reference for use in another. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

Management of change is not that simple, particularly with the wrong persons effecting the changes. The tendency of a fire service to go more and more off course in another direction if it once deviated from its accepted plan is referred to as Deviation Amplification. The services need to constantly monitor the path chosen and make corrections as needed, but not compensate by going off courses in another direction. Synthesis and synergy are both related to the combination of elements to create a new entity, and the combination of elements that are greater in their total effect than the sum of their parts. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

Dealing with new areas of knowledge will be one of the challenges for the fire service. Breaking out of its own paradigm and challenging the status quo of existing technologies, methods and attitudes will create both stress and conflict, and of course it will bring about the evolution of a new fire service. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

In the contemporary fire service setting, change is frequently limited by artificial time frames. Even when change is going on, people need defined time frames or horizons for achieving and measuring change. Thus, it is the responsibility of the fire service to set goals and deadlines which are some distance in the future, but close enough to allow them measure outcomes of individual performances and decisions. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

A tactical horizon is the limit to which one can reasonably predict the effects of change while a strategic horizon is the limit to which one can anticipate the impact of new goals. The tactical horizon are often shaped by economic constraint whilst strategic horizons are often shaped by philosophical orientation. (Ronny J.Coleman & John.A.Granito) 1988

In conclusion, the third world fire services must ensure that maximum improvement is achieved in the management of change, that the original professional objective is kept in tact, that those in charge of programmes are both responsive and responsible and that in addition to performing well, they are expanding their capacity to implement change.

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