How about this for thought, the reason those of us who are successful making the transition from the floor to the office and with education to our customers to gain compliance, possibly follow these principles for successful at what we do.

My philosophy is simple. We do our mission solely based off of three principles. The first, make sure the public can escape their Home, a Restaurant, Store, Hotel, Industry or Concert venue if a fire or explosion breaks out. The second, that we the fire service, can manage a fire in any structure with the resources we have available. And lastly, that we all go home at 0730 the next day. Everything I do in this business from investigations, plan review, inspecting, code development and public education and training stems from these three principles. Once people understand the relationship between enforcement or regulation and these principles it’s easier for them to understand the why.

Use these principles and many of the issues with suppression and prevention personnel are taken care of, the public understands why they are regulated, the media gets it right and we all win and stay out of court. Create your partnerships and check the egos.

We also need to be careful because we are going to need to re-establish and mend those working relationships with our partners in the building side (since they control in the “family of codes”) and many are upset at how the sprinkler mandate came about despite and in addition to how the other special interest did it historically. They may not be against sprinklers but the political means in which it entered the last code body to include it.

There is another action that needs to occur in the fire service and it too starts at the top of each fire service organziation to make sure the public is informed about residential fire sprinklers when the public is the most alert and aware, AFTER the Fire IS OUT! or in some cases while the fire is still burning, during news coverage.

The PIO, Battalion Chief or Incident Commander or Fire Chief at structure fires in residential occupancies, when doing their press releases or Media interviews, should be emphasizing at the beginning of their interview that IF this bldg was equipped with Residential Fire sprinklers all of this devastation and emotional strees would not have occured, all of these fine citizens and family members would not have been displaced . Fire Sprinklers work!

Citizens watching the news are mesmerized by fire footage, and listen, but we always miss the mark and do not emphasize the good work that fire sprinklers do. By educating citizens when they are most attentative and do self-reflection during and after news clips, we can be even more succesful in making an impact that will support installation of residential fire sprinklers.

Many people hang on the words of their community Hero’s, our fire fighters, so we need capitalize on the opportunity during press releases and media interview opportunities to inform our viewing public of the benefit of Residential Fire Sprinklers.

This is free and the best advertisement for Residential Fire Sprinklers there is, make it your department mission in media releases to emphasize Residential fire sprinklers and also celebrate the fire saves in bldgs due to fire sprinklers in residential occupancies and single family residences.

Pretty soon every one will be talking fire sprinklers and they will be included in all new residential occupancies, just like granite counter tops or stainless steel appliances, have become the norm!!