The Advocate Outreach Program is a proven success. From personal experience, it was gratifying to sit with strangers in the fire service and create a dialogue they obviously had been waiting for. The time commitment was minimal and the reward was inspirational.

Reducing firefighter injuries and fatalities is a worthwhile, necessary, and noble cause. I am a very motivated and positive person and enjoy setting high goals and expectations for myself, and the organizations I am associated with, but these goals and expectations must be realistic and attainable. Nothing would make me happier than if the last line-of-duty death (LODD) funeral I went to was the last one ever.

As we reflect back on the year 2009, we think of the good, and not so good events that have happened to us during the previous year. Unless we had a tragic or negative significant emotional event, we tend to think of the positive things that have happened to us. For some of us, the positives include getting married, the birth of child and/or grandchild, a fabulous vacation, the purchase of that once-in-a-lifetime item, or a goal met. For others, the loss of a loved one or a great disappoint may be how they remember the year.

The Everyone Goes Home® program can be looked at as a risk management program. If departments and individuals are willing to adopt the "16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives," job risks can be significantly reduced. We will never take all of the risk out of the fire service. We will still have the need to put our lives on the line for SAVABLE LIVES. With the adoption of the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives we can reduce needless firefighter injuries and line-of-duty deaths.

The Courage to Be Safe® program was delivered to the New Jersey fire service in 2005 at FDIC East. This initial class was delivered as a partnership with the New Jersey Society of Fire Service Instructors, and the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety. It was only the second Courage to Be Safe® training delivered following the initial program delivered by Pennsylvania.

Despite considerable and continuous efforts during the last 15 years or so, not much has changed with regard to turnout gear composition and related thermal protective performance. Throughout this period, two fundamental concepts of NFPA 1971: Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting, have shaped and guided the collective efforts of the personal protective equipment (PPE) industry to improve thermal insulation levels while ensuring wearer comfort. These basic - and inherently irreconcilable requirements - are thermal protective performance (TPP) and total heat loss (THL).