Tackling violence against fire fighters

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Title – Tackling violence against fire fighters
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 11th February 2008

When we discuss issues of conflict management and resolution with potential employees and freelance instructors on interview, one of the responses we hear regularly is the desire to help vulnerable sectors of our community and to help them make their place of work safer. Ask the average person to describe a fire fighter and the word 'vulnerable' will never be mentioned.

When we discuss conflict management with members of the public or with new clients and they ask what areas this training is appropriate for, most are amazed when you list doctors, nurses, religious leaders (of all denominations) and fire fighters among the list of most susceptible to facing workplace violence.

It is a tragedy for our society that any of these groups even have to consider their own safety past what their roles inherently have to face. Is it not enough that the dedicated people who work within the healthcare sector have to worry about infection on every level, that fire fighters have to consider the many dangers faced by fire itself, without them having to additionally worry about cowards and thugs. Thugs who are so depraved and have such contempt for the rules of society and who fear no consequence to their actions that they attack and harass these servants of our communities, who already put their own safety on the line every day to protect people they have never before met, for 'fun'.

These are problem for our society and government to deal with on a greater scale and the time has clearly come with these latest statistics for strong short term measures and longer term solutions to be provided, to ensure the situation does not get worse.

Our concern is the fire fighters themselves, we don’t want them to be looking over their shoulders and we don’t want them to be concerned with anything other than tackling the fires they are called to, saving lives and protecting property. Until our society rolls back the years to a time when ‘respect’ was a word which structured society and not street slang that devalued its meaning, we have to provide solutions to allow them to fulfil the duties they are so highly dedicated to, in relative safety and confidence.
The fire service is embracing conflict management and resolution training and this offers a first layer of protection, while the authorities and government procrastinate on how to really deal with the problems they face. Beyond The Blue are one such supplier of Conflict Management and Resolution training and our courses can be tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients. The differences between religious leaders and the fire brigade could not be more defined, but some of the problems they face in their places of work are very similar.
Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk