Saving our Own… An Inside JobThe 2013 International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week will be held June 16-22. This year’s theme focuses on behavioral health. Use this web site to find tools and resources to implement Safety and Health Week in your department and make safety and health a priority all year long!
Register Now for Free Safety and Health Week WebinarsA series of four FREE behavioral health webinars will be held during Safety and health week. Plan to attend as part of your Safety and Health Week activities. Learn more and register on the Planning page of this web site.
International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week is a joint initiative of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council. The event focuses on the critical importance of responders taking care of themselves both on and off the emergency incident scene. An entire week is provided to ensure all shifts and duty crew can participate. Learn more.
– Battalion Chief Matthew Tobia, IAFC's Safety, Health and Survival Section Chair“Firefighters die as a result of heart attacks and emergency incident operations. Safety and Health Week brings together the collective energies of two outstanding programs with a clear focus on reducing preventable line-of-duty deaths and injures.”
– Chief Philip C. Stittleburg, NVFC Chairman“The mental and emotional well-being of our first responders is as important as their physical health. It is time we recognize that these issues have a critical impact on health and safety, and ignoring this puts our personnel at risk.”
– Chief Hank Clemmensen, IAFC President“Addressing behavioral health issues can only be done when we first acknowledge there is a problem, and we’ve been in collective denial as an industry for too long. Our responders are under unprecedented pressure, and it’s time we have some unprecedented conversations about how that impacts our health.”
