El
Paso Fire Department
L-280
Followership to Leadership
Train-the-Trainer
 |
Pictured Above
(not in any particular order):
El Paso Fire Department personnel: Vincent E. Frausto, James A. Younger, Rafael
Reyes, Dennis A. Huff, Larry A. Hernandez, Carlos A Peidra. Gilberto Ramirez, Michael
S. Bell, Troy V. Reister, Marcelo R. Morales, Jorge A. Rodriguez, Jorge V.
Cortez, Jonathan P. Killings, David Valero, David W. Zeiger, Ricci J. Carson, Efrain
Jr. Robles, Mathew S. Hiett, Richard Carpio, Jose Ortiz, Samuel Pena, and Kenneth
C. Persinger. NWCG Leadership Sub-Committee Support Cadre: Heath Cota,
Shane Olpin, Rob Morrow, and Randy Skelton
Story submitted by Randy Skelton, Deputy Fire Staff, Payette NF, USFS NWCG Leadership Subcommittee Agency Representative (interim) |
El Paso Fire Department is on the path of the ultimate
leadership challenge. Similar to several
other emergency response agencies, El Paso Fire Department is aggressively taking
steps towards providing their personnel with a suite of leadership classes in
order to promote cultural change within their fire department. They began this endeavor by bringing in
Mission-Centered Solutions (MCS) who provided Five (5) – Point of the Spear: Fire Service Leadership (NWCG L-380) courses since September 2009 to 106
individuals with cross-agency participation for El Paso Police Department, Fort Bliss Fire Department, Las Cruces Fire Department, Horizon City Volunteer Fire Department, West Valley Volunteer Fire Department and the Round Rock Fire Department.
El Paso is a city in, and county seat of, El Paso County,
Texas. Encompassing 260 square miles and boasting a population of more than
650,000, El Paso is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 22nd largest in the
United States. Located along the Rio Grande and just across the border from
Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, it lies at the intersection of three states
(Texas, New Mexico, and Chihuahua) and two countries (United States and Mexico).
The varied terrain features the Franklin Mountains which extend into the city
from the north and nearly divide it in two sections.
US-Mexico Border
Perspective
El Paso County was established in March 1850. The town of
El Paso was developed later by pioneer Anson Mills and incorporated in 1873.
The town’s population began to grow after World War I. Various industries
developed in the area and major business development emerged in the 1920s
and 1930s. The population declined in the Depression era, followed by rapid
economic expansion post World War II. Expansion slowed again in the 1960s
though the city has continued to see growth through increased trade with
Mexico.
The City is proud to be home to the University of Texas
at El Paso, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, and Fort Bliss, the
military complex located just east/northeast of the city.
Today, the El Paso Fire Department has 844 career
firefighters and 41 civilian employees. EPFD is the primary city agency
responsible for responding to and mitigating incidents involving fire, aircraft
accidents, medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, building
explosions, search and rescue events, and water rescues. All these services are
delivered by fire service professionals, apparatus and equipment from
thirty four neighborhood fire stations, one airport fire station at the El
Paso International Airport, and six support facilities. Support facilities
include the administrative offices, maintenance, fire prevention, training academy,
communications, and reserve center.
The “leadership movement” began at the El Paso Fire
Department in 2007 through a grass roots effort. When Chief Otto Drozd came to the El Paso
Fire Department in April 2009, he soon became a staunch supporter of this effort
and approved the first pilot L-380 course for the department which was
delivered in August of 2009. Chief Drodz
understood the department needed something significant to affect the culture
and was courageous enough to take a chance.
In February of 2010, the vision and mechanics for the Leadership
Enhancement and Development (LEAD) program was laid out and began with
informational sessions at the training academy.
During the summer of 2010, they delivered their first L-80 (with a
train-the-trainer assistance from Nick Zambito of Mission-Centered
Solutions).
Chief Drodz approved five L-380 courses for the department
over the last two years. For all five
classes, the Chief has been the keynote speaker and shows his support by
sitting in the L-180 and the most recent L-380 in April 2011. He has given El Paso firefighters ownership
of the program and has let them guide it from a genuine bottom-up, grass root
effort and they are uncertain as to where they would be without his
support.
Jorge Rodriguez, a Captain with the El Paso Fire
Department, soon realized their efforts were missing two key components of
their leadership movement, L-180 Human Factors on the Fireline and L-280
Followership to Leadership. The
department took on the L-180 curriculum by “tweaking” it slightly to meet the
structural environment and then proceeded in delivering it to the entire 800+
member department to include the Fire Chief, Assistant and Deputy Chiefs. During this L-180 implementation, Captain
Rodriguez was requesting a “train-the trainer” session through the NWCG
Leadership Sub-Committee for the L-280 Followership to Leadership package.
The NWCG Leadership Sub-Committee recruited a four person
cadre to travel to El Paso, TX and deliver this “train-the trainer”
session. This effort was completely
funded by the El Paso Fire Department illustrating their commitment towards
cultural change within their department.
The NWCG “train-the trainer” cadre consisted of Shane Olpin – Fire
Management Officer from the West Fork R.D. of the Bitterroot N.F., Rob Morrow – Assistant
Fire Management Officer from the McCall R.D. of the Payette N.F., Heath Cota –
Superintendent of the Sawtooth Interagency Hotshot Crew and Randy Skelton –
Deputy Fire Staff Officer from the Payette N.F.
The El Paso Fire Department now has a full complement of
instructors, approximately 27 individuals who completed the “train-the-trainer”
course, for “A” Shift, “B” Shift, and “C” Shift providing them the ability to
offer the L-280 package in the most efficient manner across the entire
department. They plan to deliver L-280
the spring of 2012 through three courses in order to train 120 fire personnel
consisting of a mix of new Drivers (FST’s), Firefighter-Paramedics, and
Firefighters on FST promotional lists.
Meanwhile, Captain Rodriguez is actively pursuing adding
the next step towards their goal by bringing in the Incident Leadership curriculum,
an NWCG L-381 equivalency, within the next couple of years. One key product they have developed out of
this to date is an internal publication titled, “Leading in the El Paso Fire Department
– Leadership Doctrine”, a key component of their Leadership Enhancement and
Development Program (LEAD).
Captain Rodriguez was inspired to bring leadership
training to the department after reading an article written by Brian Fennessy,
an Assistant Chief with the San Diego Fire Department titled, “In Search of
Cultural Change” (Fire Rescue Magazine, April 2010)”. In this article, Chief Fennessy writes about
the challenges SDFD faced as well as the fruits of their efforts to bring about
cultural change and the effect those efforts have had on the nation with regard
to developing first-line fire leaders as well as the impacts of the
L-curriculum has had on local fire departments and what potential exists to a
national cultural change in fire service leadership.
It was an honor and pleasure working with such a fine
group of professionals who truly care about each other, the citizens and
community they serve and protect.
Captain Rodriguez is young and talented visionary who is motivating
members within the department to take on these leadership challenges. He should be commended for this extraordinary
effort!
Jorge’s vision:
“To build a coalition of leaders, with a sound foundation
in values/principle based decision-making, with a high bias for action to
influence our culture and take EPFD to a new level of excellence and national
prestige”.
This is an amazing post. Thanks for sharing.
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