[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
in June of 2017 in this town in Malaysia
a fire started in a building containing
two rice milling shops and three retail
stores and the fire department arrived
four hours later there was nothing left
to save the fire made the news when the
local town councilor announced he was
asking for funding for a volunteer fire
department in the city
flashback a hundred years to 1909 in
Cherryville North Carolina where sparks
from a passing freight trend caused a
fire that burned nine buildings in the
center of the town to the ground there
was no fire department to respond as a
result of that fire the Town Council
created the town’s first fire department
100 years after the town’s establishment
this same slow rate of growth of first
responder capacity in the United States
is repeating itself in the developing
world
they’re only major cities have Fire
Rescue capacity only when there’s a
major disaster to surrounding towns and
communities demand for change what would
happen if you were in a fire at your
house and the fire department didn’t
show up or if you were in a car accident
and the ambulance never arrived and you
were seriously injured did you know that
90% of all fatalities and injuries on
the road occur the developing world but
only 48% of cars drive there the fact is
in the developing world the Fire Rescue
Service is underfunded under equipped
and under trend there the fire
department does not show up to your
house and the ambulance does not arrive
to your crash scene there simply is a
limited capacity to respond to every day
to let disasters let alone large-scale
natural disasters
occurring even more frequently if we
rely on the organic growth of
fire-rescue capacity in the developing
world there will still be fires like the
one in long-dead in Malaysia 100 years
from now they’re disastrous for the
community the good news is that global
development organizations now realise
that having strong fire rescue capacity
is really a foundation of economic and
social stability in the developing world
the World Bank has begun the first-ever
global country-by-country study of fire
rescue capacity they hope to complete in
the next two years we are experts in the
subject why because we have a history of
volunteerism and we have a history of
organizing creating volunteer fire
departments in our country many people
realize that Benjamin Franklin started
the first fire rescue department in
Philadelphia in 1736 but few people
realize that some of our most important
founding fathers were also volunteer
firefighters such as Alexander Hamilton
George Washington and John Hancock that
same sense of civic duty that led them
to be volunteer firefighters is why they
became leaders of our independence
movement today 80% of the fire rescue
personnel in our country are volunteers
that’s over 800,000 people contributing
over a hundred and twenty billion
dollars a year in their labor but
volunteerism has other very important
qualities to it higher rates of
volunteerism have been demonstrated to
also create higher rates of civic
engagement and voting and of course
social engagement as epitomized by the
volunteer fire rescue barbecue that
probably many people in this room
have been – it also has been shown to
result in lower rates of crime in
communities the fact is that
volunteering is a tremendous resource we
have in the United States we should be
exporting what Alexis de Tocqueville
described over 100 years ago is one of
America’s most unique and enduring
qualities but the fact is there is no
organized well-funded agency to
accelerate the growth of fire-rescue
capacity in the developing world despite
the fact that we have many of the
important ingredients ready
we have passionate and committed first
responders in North America and Europe
who want to share their knowledge and
experience to help make the rest of the
world a safer place
we have heroes and waiting citizens in
small communities in developing world
that want to see their communities safe
and have a long-term future and we have
a tremendous amount of used fire rescue
gear from North America and Europe that
is doing nothing right now but piling up
in our landfills imagine that each year
in the United States alone a pile 30
feet high in this auditorium from this
side of the auditorium all the way over
to the other wall is created each year
and for instance protective gear for
firefighters never loses its flame
resistance so I for one would much
rather be fighting a fire in use
protective gear with a hose and nozzle
than running to a fire in my pajamas and
a garden hose but the question is what
are some existing models that we could
use some operating models that we can
use to create this agency that would
export the spirit of volunteerism and
our knowledge at Curry
and sustaining volunteer Fire Rescue
departments John F Kennedy and a
campaign speech in 1960 proposed a
radical idea to provide technical
assistance and community building
support to developing countries around
the world as soon as he was elected in
1961 he signed into existence the United
States Peace Corps to do exactly that
since that time over 220,000 Americans
have served in over a hundred and forty
countries on 2-year missions to provide
that technical assistance and community
building support I think what we need to
do is create a new organization I call
first responder Corps based on the
operating principles of the Peace Corps
that would accelerate the growth of fire
rescue capacity in the developing world
it would do it by sending trained first
responders to organize set up and
sustain new Fire Rescue departments in
the developing world using refurbished
gear and equipment to help get them
started so what would have happened in
long bed in that town in Malaysia that
had the fire in June of 2017 had first
responder corps been in existence and
been sent on a mission there two first
responder Corps advisors one fire and
one EMS would have come to the town
along with a container of refurbished
equipment and a water tank fire hose
pumper system that can be mounted on the
back of any pickup truck that’s found
everywhere in the developing world they
would immediately begin to train the
volunteers in the town on basic fire and
emergency medical skills along with one
or two other skills that relate to the
rig
in the communities such as swift water
rescue for flooding situations or urban
search-and-rescue if the area is quake
prone
they would also teach the volunteers how
to go into the community and meet with
their fellow citizens and help them
become their own first responders in
their homes and in their businesses by
doing this they would create a long-term
more safe community as well as create a
sustainable volunteer Fire Rescue
Department for the community so when
that fire occurred last June in 2017 a
citizen the town would know what to do
they would use their smartphone or they
would ring the fire bell and the first
responder core advisors at the fire
station would bring the pickup truck the
volunteers would meet there and just
like what happens in every town in
America today particularly the rural
ones the fire would be extinguished and
contained and the disaster would be
averted as news of this event spread
other towns and communities would want
to have a first responder Corps team
visit them and set up a new volunteer
fire department in their community and
organically and quickly the capacity of
the region would become greater to deal
with larger scale everyday disasters as
well as well as larger scale disasters
imagine for a moment what members of
that community would feel knowing that
they were now protected and the
confidence that they would have in the
future of their town knowing that their
town was protected First Responder Corps
taps into an existing powerful movement
a Fire Rescue personnel who want to use
their skill and experience to make the
entire world a safer place for all of us
it taps into a universal urge that we
all have to want to protect our family
friends and neighbors from then
that’s an idea we can all rally around
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
in June of 2017 in this town in Malaysia
a fire started in a building containing
two rice milling shops and three retail
stores and the fire department arrived
four hours later there was nothing left
to save the fire made the news when the
local town councilor announced he was
asking for funding for a volunteer fire
department in the city
flashback a hundred years to 1909 in
Cherryville North Carolina where sparks
from a passing freight trend caused a
fire that burned nine buildings in the
center of the town to the ground there
was no fire department to respond as a
result of that fire the Town Council
created the town’s first fire department
100 years after the town’s establishment
this same slow rate of growth of first
responder capacity in the United States
is repeating itself in the developing
world
they’re only major cities have Fire
Rescue capacity only when there’s a
major disaster to surrounding towns and
communities demand for change what would
happen if you were in a fire at your
house and the fire department didn’t
show up or if you were in a car accident
and the ambulance never arrived and you
were seriously injured did you know that
90% of all fatalities and injuries on
the road occur the developing world but
only 48% of cars drive there the fact is
in the developing world the Fire Rescue
Service is underfunded under equipped
and under trend there the fire
department does not show up to your
house and the ambulance does not arrive
to your crash scene there simply is a
limited capacity to respond to every day
to let disasters let alone large-scale
natural disasters
occurring even more frequently if we
rely on the organic growth of
fire-rescue capacity in the developing
world there will still be fires like the
one in long-dead in Malaysia 100 years
from now they’re disastrous for the
community the good news is that global
development organizations now realise
that having strong fire rescue capacity
is really a foundation of economic and
social stability in the developing world
the World Bank has begun the first-ever
global country-by-country study of fire
rescue capacity they hope to complete in
the next two years we are experts in the
subject why because we have a history of
volunteerism and we have a history of
organizing creating volunteer fire
departments in our country many people
realize that Benjamin Franklin started
the first fire rescue department in
Philadelphia in 1736 but few people
realize that some of our most important
founding fathers were also volunteer
firefighters such as Alexander Hamilton
George Washington and John Hancock that
same sense of civic duty that led them
to be volunteer firefighters is why they
became leaders of our independence
movement today 80% of the fire rescue
personnel in our country are volunteers
that’s over 800,000 people contributing
over a hundred and twenty billion
dollars a year in their labor but
volunteerism has other very important
qualities to it higher rates of
volunteerism have been demonstrated to
also create higher rates of civic
engagement and voting and of course
social engagement as epitomized by the
volunteer fire rescue barbecue that
probably many people in this room
have been – it also has been shown to
result in lower rates of crime in
communities the fact is that
volunteering is a tremendous resource we
have in the United States we should be
exporting what Alexis de Tocqueville
described over 100 years ago is one of
America’s most unique and enduring
qualities but the fact is there is no
organized well-funded agency to
accelerate the growth of fire-rescue
capacity in the developing world despite
the fact that we have many of the
important ingredients ready
we have passionate and committed first
responders in North America and Europe
who want to share their knowledge and
experience to help make the rest of the
world a safer place
we have heroes and waiting citizens in
small communities in developing world
that want to see their communities safe
and have a long-term future and we have
a tremendous amount of used fire rescue
gear from North America and Europe that
is doing nothing right now but piling up
in our landfills imagine that each year
in the United States alone a pile 30
feet high in this auditorium from this
side of the auditorium all the way over
to the other wall is created each year
and for instance protective gear for
firefighters never loses its flame
resistance so I for one would much
rather be fighting a fire in use
protective gear with a hose and nozzle
than running to a fire in my pajamas and
a garden hose but the question is what
are some existing models that we could
use some operating models that we can
use to create this agency that would
export the spirit of volunteerism and
our knowledge at Curry
and sustaining volunteer Fire Rescue
departments John F Kennedy and a
campaign speech in 1960 proposed a
radical idea to provide technical
assistance and community building
support to developing countries around
the world as soon as he was elected in
1961 he signed into existence the United
States Peace Corps to do exactly that
since that time over 220,000 Americans
have served in over a hundred and forty
countries on 2-year missions to provide
that technical assistance and community
building support I think what we need to
do is create a new organization I call
first responder Corps based on the
operating principles of the Peace Corps
that would accelerate the growth of fire
rescue capacity in the developing world
it would do it by sending trained first
responders to organize set up and
sustain new Fire Rescue departments in
the developing world using refurbished
gear and equipment to help get them
started so what would have happened in
long bed in that town in Malaysia that
had the fire in June of 2017 had first
responder corps been in existence and
been sent on a mission there two first
responder Corps advisors one fire and
one EMS would have come to the town
along with a container of refurbished
equipment and a water tank fire hose
pumper system that can be mounted on the
back of any pickup truck that’s found
everywhere in the developing world they
would immediately begin to train the
volunteers in the town on basic fire and
emergency medical skills along with one
or two other skills that relate to the
rig
in the communities such as swift water
rescue for flooding situations or urban
search-and-rescue if the area is quake
prone
they would also teach the volunteers how
to go into the community and meet with
their fellow citizens and help them
become their own first responders in
their homes and in their businesses by
doing this they would create a long-term
more safe community as well as create a
sustainable volunteer Fire Rescue
Department for the community so when
that fire occurred last June in 2017 a
citizen the town would know what to do
they would use their smartphone or they
would ring the fire bell and the first
responder core advisors at the fire
station would bring the pickup truck the
volunteers would meet there and just
like what happens in every town in
America today particularly the rural
ones the fire would be extinguished and
contained and the disaster would be
averted as news of this event spread
other towns and communities would want
to have a first responder Corps team
visit them and set up a new volunteer
fire department in their community and
organically and quickly the capacity of
the region would become greater to deal
with larger scale everyday disasters as
well as well as larger scale disasters
imagine for a moment what members of
that community would feel knowing that
they were now protected and the
confidence that they would have in the
future of their town knowing that their
town was protected First Responder Corps
taps into an existing powerful movement
a Fire Rescue personnel who want to use
their skill and experience to make the
entire world a safer place for all of us
it taps into a universal urge that we
all have to want to protect our family
friends and neighbors from then
that’s an idea we can all rally around
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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