| Frank C. Schaper |
Cyber Chief
| Frank C. Schaper is a Deputy Fire Chief for the St. Louis Fire Department. With 27 years experience at St. Louis Fire, Schaper developed and implemented the department's training programs. He is also an adjunct instructor with the National Fire Academy. |
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This article can be found on
page 56 of the Jan/Feb 1998
issue of 9-1-1 Magazine.
Chief Morgan cleared his desk to begin his work. His in-basket was full and he wanted it emptied before leaving his office to make his speech. He was scheduled to address the local industrial safety group that morning at 9:00 am. His topic was firefighter fatalities and injuries. If he worked fast enough, he would have time to look over his speech a couple times before heading downtown.
He wrote a note on a memorandum and placed it in Battalion Three's mailbox. That was the last of it. Now for a cup of coffee and speech review. He poured the coffee and returned to his desk. That was when he realized he left his briefcase, with the speech in it, at his home. "That's just great," he thought. "Now what do I do?" The Chief checked his watch. Forty-five minutes till show time. There was no time to go back home to get it. "Don't panic," he thought as he fired up his computer. He remembered the speech was on his hard drive here at the office - at least part of it was. He would be cutting it close but he had no choice. He would print out what he had and try to do the rest by memory.
The printer spit out the speech and he quickly read it over. Everything was there except the statistics covering the number of firefighter fatalities from 1990 to 1996. He could work around the stats but preferred not to. They added too much to his speech. He tried to recall the numbers but to no avail. The Chief figured the numbers came from one of two places - either the U.S. Fire Administration or the National Fire Protection Association(NFPA). The latest NFPA Journal was in his in-basket. He grabbed the magazine and quickly began turning pages. "Ah! Here it is," he said, turning toward his computer again.
It was time to go online.
Just a few clicks and Chief Morgan was on his was through cyber space to the NFPA. Click, click, fill-in-the-box - http://www.nfpa.org - click, he had arrived. His screen lit up. Welcome to the National Fire Protection Association.
The Chief scanned the list of information covering everything from portable fire extinguishers to the National Electric Code. Then he hit his mother lode - Firefighter Fatalities in the United States. The executive summary for 1996 was three pages by itself.
Chief Morgan checked his watch. He had 35 minutes to get his information and get to the hotel. The Chief worked quickly. Click, click, then hit print. The statistical data he needed as soon in hand. The Chief was out the door prepared for his speech. The World Wide Web had saved the day.
Today, more and more Fire Chiefs are going online, tapping into the wealth of information found on the World Wide Wed. This marvel of technology puts the user on the "information superhighway." You can do this too. All you need is a computer, a modem, and access to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). For a few thousand dollars, your department can be up and running. It's a whole new world of "at your finger tips" information and communications, crossing oceans, seas, and continents.
There are some technological things you need to know, however, like which Internet provider to use, how to log on, and of course, how to send and retrieve e-mail. But help abounds, and all your questions can be answered.
Go to a high school computer science lab or your local library with your questions. Try your community college or university for help. Other city agencies can help you or else look up your department's computer guru. You've certainly got one somewhere. Whatever it takes - it's worth it and it will make your job easier and more effective. I hope to see you on the Web soon.
[The article on firefighter fatalities is available on NFPA's web site's
`NFPA Media Access' section, under the heading `News Release Archives.']
