The Challenges of a Local Firefighter:

An Interview With Euclid Fire Chief Michael Dworning

Aired January 4, 2002

Chief Michael Dworning has been head of the Euclid Fire Department for seven years, but his career in Euclid stretches back to 1974, when he was sworn in to serve. The densely populated streets of this bustling, inner ring suburb, are about as challenging for firefighters as anyplace gets - outside of the City of Cleveland. Chief Dworning oversees four firehouses, and a minimum staff of 19 per day. He spoke with 90.3 WCPN®'s April Baer about the challenges and changes of 27 years on the force.

Chief Michael Dworning: Euclid's a unique department and it's something that I'm proud of. We've got a real rich tradition here, and I find that we have no problem recruiting or finding employees for this department. It's a great fire department, and I think one of the reasons is it is the type of department that's too big to be small, and we're too small to be big. But we do offer a lot of alarms. Most of the firefighters you see today who are looking for a change, they're looking for a department that is busier, a more diverse city. We have all kinds of different emergencies we respond to, with a major highway running through Euclid, railroad tracks running through Euclid, a senior citizen population base that's very high, lot of industrial, commercial, and very dense residential population. So we offer a lot to new employees here, and we have only-in the course of the history of this department far as I go back-only two employees have left the department, and they were for personal reasons. We have not lost a firefighter to another community, just for the sake of switching fire department careers.

April Baer: Many of these guys have background in public service. What other qualities attract people to this line of work?

MD: It's really diverse, April. I don't know that there's any one particular quality or group of qualities. There's been national studies done - what makes the model firefighter? What qualities that individual possesses? I believe you hit the nail right on the head - somebody who has a desire for public service. However I have seen individuals who've come from a field in electronics who chose midstream to become a firefighter. A four-year college degree in accounting - they change their course, decide to become firefighters. So I don't really know what causes an individual - draws them to this line of work, other than a willingness to help people. We want to provide a public service.

As far as the type of individual that Euclid's been hiring, we've been fortunate here in that five years or so ago, we made a change in our hiring practices. It was very prevalent, years back, that employees of the fire department came up through the military. Fire departments were designed and structured-their organizational structure is built very similar to the military: a "hierarchy" chain of command. Back five, six years ago, the emphasis was on extra credit points being given [in the Euclid firefighters' test] for being in the military. Well, back in the 70s as the draft went away, and you see less and less people involved in the military, I had noticed that an awful lot of individuals-young guys-were taking it upon themselves to pursue a career in firefighting. They were going out, financing themselves, their education, to become paramedics. They were also taking it upon themselves to become 240-hour certified firefighters. And with that in mind, I gave it some thought, and I worked it through with the civil service commission, and I felt that if an individual had that much desire, to educate himself prior to even entering the field - back when I became a firefighter, there was absolutely no education needed to come into the field.

We started here in Euclid giving extra credit points to the entry-level firefighter written examination stage. What that did for us, it took the firefighters that were out there looking for this type of career, and it replaced the military extra credit points. And what we're seeing now is at the top of our entry level examinations, we're seeing firefighters that have experience, that have worked in other communities, that have worked as paramedics either in the private ambulance industry or in other communities working on ambulances as paramedics.

It does a couple things: It saves the city a LOT of money in training. Putting somebody through paramedic school is a very big expense. It saves us the time of educating and putting someone through the state's 240 hour fire certification course. But aside from the money, we can put these individuals to work, who come in more or less trained. They have the initiative, they understand the fire service. They understand the organization. And what we're seeing is a very, very high quality group of individuals. And I don't know whether I'm lucky or I'm smart: the employees I've hired since I've been fire chief-approximately twenty-five to thirty employees-of those employees, I've only had to send two to fire school. The employees we're hiring are very educated, very motivated. They're young. They want to go to work, and I'm very proud of the young people that we've hired.

AB: Tell about what it was like when you started: how you got into it, what the training structure was like.

MD: Well there was no training structure actually. My first day on the job as a rookie firefighter, back in 1976, was: I showed up up here at fire station Number One, and I was assigned another fire fighter, and basically I was told, "You stay with him. Where he goes, you go." Actually I was in a unique situation. I never went to fire school until I'd had the job approximately eleven months. So it was all on the job training. It was the experience you gained here and then you go through school. And that has changed so much. Qualifications have changed. Just what it takes to become a firefighter nowadays. Right now there are approximately fourteen different steps, or phases, that an individual has to go through.

What got me into the business? I really don't know. I actually wanted to be a police officer. And it must be that desire… to serve the public. I was mechanically inclined, I liked working with my hands, I liked working outside. I was being considered for employment in Mayfield Heights as a police officer, when the Euclid Fire Department called and I had a decision to make, and I chose the fire service. And apparently I made the right decision. I'm certainly not sorry I did.

AB: You said the number of runs is high here. Could you throw some numbers at us?

MD: Sure. Right now, we've answering approximately 6,000 alarms a year. Which is typical in the fire service. 80% of our alarms are emergency medical services. So how that breaks down is… out of approximately 4,000 emergency medical alarms, 80% of THOSE calls are for advanced life support. We do provide advanced life support when necessary. We are staffed with 56 paramedics. 63% of our members are paramedics. And the other 2,000 runs are comprised of emergency fire protection runs.

AB: Has the number of EMS runs risen in your years here?

MD: Most definitely. Back in the early 70s, approximately 1973, '74-the fire service started providing emergency medical services. It's probably one of the best things that ever happened to the fire service throughout the country.

AB: Why do you say that?

MD: Today tax dollars being what they are, and the cost to provide public service, the service that fire departments provide-even given that 80% of it is EMS right now, it would be very difficult to justify the manpower and expenses to just man a fire department, protect a community of this size when you're only answering two thousand fire calls a year. Now, the potential is extreme in this community for-at any given time-the need to have many more firefighters than we have on duty every day. We have mechanisms in place to draw on additional resources. But by virtue of us providing EMS, and in that is it 80% of our job, we can justify our existence as safety forces in a dual capacity role.

AB: How is the department funded-local versus outside dollars.

MD: It has just been recent -just in this past year-that the federal government has started providing grants for the fire service. Up until this year, just about all of your [safety] grant money was for crime, police protection. And we're seeing more and more efforts being made at the federal level to provide fire service, EMS services with the much needed funding we do need. On the local level, naturally our services are provided by tax dollars, generated with income from the community. It is a very small percentage that comes in the form of federal dollars, over the past five years. We receive some money for EMS equipment. It hasn't been a lot of money but every little bit helps.

AB: What kind of changes have happened in Euclid's tax base in the time you've been here?

MD: Well the demographics of Euclid certainly have changed. The numbers in the fire department have changed in 27 years. Euclid's population has dropped somewhat. It was in the upper 70,000's, years back. Now we're at approximately 54,000. Industry has changed. Although I would say that for the most part, it has been pretty stable. It's just like any other community anywhere else. It's cyclic. There's high times, and there's low times. When it's high times, you enjoy them. When it's low times, you tighten up your budgets and you do what you need to do. But all in all I've been very blessed with a city administration and a city council that values their safety forces. I've operated in what I consider to be a Utopian environment in terms of the support I've received from the city. There has never been a layoff of firefighters or police in the city of Euclid over the 27 years I've been here so we have been very fortunate, not only in the form of manpower, but equipment and all the other needs for a department of this size.

AB: It's got to be scary looking at what's happened in Lorain [the recent layoff of about a dozen safety personnel due to budget cuts], seeing the regional economy go through a rough period.

MD: Again, it's difficult and it's cyclic. In my career, it seems like every eight years we go through the economic highs and lows. I don't anticipate the city of Euclid being put in a position to where they would look to decrease police and fire. And I believe it's because of the service we do provide that the citizens are behind us.

AB: Do you think more federal money will be coming in the next few years because of September 11th?

MD: I really do think so. I think adminsitrators at the federal level have realized -not that the fire service has been neglected -but there are needs. And 9-11 certainly reinforced and emphasized those needs. To deal with these types of emergency do take training, equipment, manpower, and all those are driven by dollars. I don't forsee this going away any time in the near future. We have to be prepared, and to be prepared we need the level of funding the federal government can provide us.

AB: Since 9-11, a lot of the firefighters I've talked to say the level of public awareness of their presence has been amazingly high. I wonder how you feel about the fact that suddenly it seems like the public became very suddenly aware of how much it needs fire service.

MD: I don't know if it was surprise so much. I think it generated a public perception of the extreme need for fire service and fire protection. I think it brought out more compassion and the caring, the generosity people in general across the country for the fallen firefighters and police officers and other workers in New York. I happened to be part of the fundraising effort here in Euclid. The outpouring of emotion in Euclid, the comments that were made, it was just so emotional - for myself, at times, after 27 years, and maybe not even that long, you start to take your job for granted and I don't think any firefighter goes around looking for a pat on the back. But what it did for the fire service around the country, it really made firefighters know just how much the American public does appreciate them and the jobs that they do.

AB: If you could think back to your best and worst experiences on the job for us…

MD: I'm very happy to say that's a very difficult question to answer in that I've had so many best days, starting with the day I took my oath of office and firefighter for the city of Euclid in 1076. And each step I took up through the ranks, my career was somewhat of a blur. Lieutenant, captain, platoon chief, assistant chief, chief: those could all be considered best days on the job. I don't know that I could answer that question!

AB: And the most challenging?

MD: Well I would have to say September 11th was challenging. As far as worst day on the job… typically, some of the questions we're asked, to me, that's a negative. A fire is a breakdown in the system. Our job actually is to put ourselves out of business. By that I mean pro-actively, in the form of fire prevention and public education, we should try to see to it that a fire never occurs. That's never going to happen, and we know that but… I've had good days, I've had days that were bad… I still like to think it was not that long ago that I was sitting down in the kitchen with these guys, and of the same opinion they are today, that the two guys down at the end of the hall didn't know what the heck they were doing - the chief and the assistant chief!

I've been fortunate in my career. Firefighters' duties have changed SO much. They're very, very busy. We're very pro-active in fire prevention program that our firefighters are required to go out and inspect businesses, public assemblies, industrial agencies throughout the city. They have daily chores here at the fire station, their equipment to maintain. They have their own training. These guys are busy! The old perception that firefighters play cards in their down time-maybe years back… And again, before EMS [became part of the job], I suppose that was a stigma that the fire service had to suffer, but today, our firefighters, I can honestly say are busy from the time they get here until finally, in the evening time, when they do get time to eat their dinner, sit down and catch their breath, when they're not answering alarms. Or, there's many time as with these guys that they're out all night long.

AB: How has the techonology and procedure of actually fighting fires changed?

MD: We've gotten smarter, April. It's the old, "you don't want to work harder, you want to work smarter". The technology has changed. It's something that I find very, very interesting. It wasn't that many years ago that firefighters - and statistics will prove it - in the fire service we killed more of our employees than any other occupation in the United States. Year in and year out. Now I can honestly tell you, as a young firefighter - I don't know if it's the macho thing - we would go around beating on our chests, saying, "You know what? I have the most dangerous occupation in the world, and we kill more people every year than any other occupation out there!" So this made us the most important occupation out there. Somewhere along the line, somebody - I don't know whoever it was - realized this is crazy! Not the way to approach this! Having that type of honor is definitely not where you want to be.

I would say maybe 15 years ago, things started changing. We saw GREAT strides, great advances in the type of protective clothing we wear. The different materials that protect firefighters: their turnout gear, the specifications, the requirements. The National Firefighter Protection Association has taken an active role in seeing that the technology has changed. We can vent out smoke and heat and gas, and go in and put a fire out, without putting firemen in harm's way, and eliminating backdraft situations. The technology just in our vehicles, and our equipment-everything has changed, and statistically, our [casualty] numbers have started to decline, and we are no long the chest thumpers of the occupational world! We do not kill more people in our line of work than other occupations. And THAT is something to be very, very proud of.

AB: What do you say to guys when they're first coming on the job?

MD: As firefighters come into the city of Euclid, I try to give them just a little bit of advice. The advice pretty much that I try to impart on new employees is that we're here to provide a service. We're not here to generate a revenue. We don't make parts, we have nothing for sale. What we sell is ourselves. We sell ourselves in the form of a service. And we're here to provide a service that the city council affords us in the form of funding, and that the citizens have grown accustomed to expect. I ask nothing more than they do their job.

Our jobs have changed much over the years. In the '70s EMS came into the fire service. In the '80s, hazardous materials became an issue, and now today we're dealing with bioterrorism and things we've never had to deal with in the past. Probably most important - and it's a speech I tend to use on every new employee, whether they like it or not - I try to impress upon a young firefighter that we in Euclid, as firefighters do not define what an emergency is. The person on the other end of the telephone defines what an emergency is. That person's having a bad day. That person is having a bad time, and for whatever reason, he feels that the fire department is the department he needs to come and do whatever it is do what needs to be done at the time, to obey whatever emergency or whatever problem they're having. I ask that they approach each one of these situations with compassion, expertise and professionalism, and take care whatever that problem is. Whether it's helping an individual back into bed at three o'clock in the morning, or actually putting out a major structural fire. It's very important that WE don't define what the emergency is-the citizen defines it. And that's what we're here for.