Conversation with Dr. Lori

Thank you.

Absolutely. Well, thank you for that. The listing, first of all, because sometimes we are moving so quickly that we just keep going to next and we don't take a moment to realize some of the accomplishments that all of the United States Fire Administration has made together.

So, I'm excited about just hearing that list, Teresa, because together with the Nation's Fire Service and our national leaders, we have made some changes. We've made some exciting advancements. And so, I really appreciate that listing. So, in regard to the World Fire Congress, wow, that was just over a year ago, I suppose, a dream that I had after witnessing in another nation that I was visiting a World Police Congress. And I asked a few questions about what that was about and why, and what was the purpose and who was there. And, after having it explained to me, it was an incredible opportunity for law enforcement around the world to collaborate on their own strategies, tactics, tools, just general knowledge and information.

And I thought, why can't we do that? You know, I've been in the fire service a long time and we've never had a global collaboration. Now, there are regional groups and meetings for sure. Everything from, you know, our South American counterparts to our European counterparts to our Asian counterparts. But those regional events, though very powerful have never culminated in a global event or collaboration. And so, as we thought more about this, and as you know, I had asked some of our Fire Service One Voice group, the national leaders of our very large national organizations, to come together, and I floated this idea by them.

And I said, you know, I just feel like this is something that would have value and all of them agreed. And I also said to them, you know, it's not going to be something that we can do as USFA alone. This, too, will need to be a whole of the U.S. fire service event. The U.S. Fire Administration, FEMA, our Department of Homeland Security hosted the event along with the U.S. State Department. Our national organizations and national leaders were very much a part of the collaboration that took place, of all of the planning and the insights around the content of the program and just really the execution of the entire event. So, what did we do?

Well, as you know, you were part of it. You were there to sort of witness what happened after we kicked this off through a lot of planning and preparation.

Well, there's that, there is that. The 10-month factor was excruciatingly painful for a lot of folks, not the least of which was the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation, who was really our contract lead to carry on the logistics and help us with the planning of the venue and some of the overall logistics, AV, that sort of thing.

But also, for inside, you know, FEMA with our chief counsel and our chief financial office and all the people who really contributed to the success and pave the way for this event to happen. A first ever, first ever event. So, you know, thanks again to Secretary Mayorkas for his willingness to say yes, do it, when I brought the idea to him. To FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who also was very supportive.

She said, absolutely, let's create the network. She added it to her annual plan guidance for FEMA to almost ensure that it could happen. So, there were a lot of hands that came together to make this event happen. So, what happened at the event? Well, we had 56 nations. We were hoping for 30, as you know. When we hit 40 registrations, we were very excited. When we hit 50s, we were getting nervous and in fact started to — we turned down a couple of nations because we were out of space. We had not booked a venue that could hold the number of delegates that we were getting. So, it was very unfortunate that — and we stayed connected. No one was excluded. We just said, you know, we can't extend the registration. We're past the deadline.

We're out of room, frankly, but we'll make sure you're in the loop. And so, we did that for the nations. But we could have gone over 60 nations easily with this initial World Fire Congress. And so, it was exciting to see them come together. And every nation was given the opportunity to bring 2 delegates to sit at the table.

And if you haven't seen some of the pictures, please just look up the United States Fire Administration World Fire Congress, and you'll be able to see some of the photos because they tell the story, don't they? With the delegates, with the name of their nation in front of them, with their flag in front of them, their microphones in front of them.

It was very much a United Nations type setup. And we tried to follow that model to make sure that every nation present had a voice and that they could talk about their opportunities, their needs, their vulnerabilities in their nation when it comes to fire and some of the challenges that are facing firefighters around the world.

And so, this collaborative effort really played out, I think, above and beyond what we envisioned. To watch these delegates open up and share information and collaborate and start to see them build relationships with each other and coalesce around ideas.

Yeah, and it was exciting. At the breaks, when they now have faces and names that match nations, and they began to know each other. And now when you see, even with you know, any kind of world news where there's been a devastating fire in Qatar, for example, where we can reach out because I know now the head of the fire service in Qatar. I know now the head of the fire service in Fiji.

That I can reach out and either say, you know, what happened in that event or what did you learn in that event? And I can reach out, you know, to Singapore or I can reach out to the United Arab Emirates or Romania, and I can have that contact in that conversation. And so now when we learn about fires around the world, it's not just news.

It's personal because we now have the relationship with these people. And so that's really what the Congress did was to have us all experience something that had never been done before. And I think the biggest thing, Teresa, that I take away from this is that everybody who was there and witnessed it, you were in the room — it's hard for us to explain this don't you think to other people who weren't there to witness it? It wasn't a conference.

Oh, I love that. That's a really good way to say it because that's exactly what happened.

We did not charge registration. It was an invitation to come, to be a delegate to represent your nation's fire service and to have a conversation with the top leaders of other nations and their fire service. And so, it really did open the door for equality around the table and an understanding of nations who do have resources and those who do not.

And the conversation changes. It also opened the door for understanding of, okay, we're experiencing this phenomenon, and I'll use, you know, lithium-ion battery fires, for example, in the U.S. The micro mobility, we have a few electric vehicle fires, but in Singapore, they are way ahead of what they are experiencing there because they have many more, much higher percentage of, electric vehicles on the road, so they're already putting policies in place that they can't travel through tunnels. Things that are beyond our understanding for policy and regulation because we're still gathering data and conducting research on this particular fire risk. That's just one example that came to light and then you have other nations who have zero lithium-ion batteries in their nation, but they're coming.

So, they need to know what to expect when they come. And these are, you know, it's green technology. It's great technology. We need it. But we have to understand the fire risk and continue our research and understanding. And that knowledge exchange comes from collaborating with other nations in this space.

So, that's just one example of what we experience and what we're going to look at going forward with what you brought up, which was the Communities of Practice.

Yeah. I do think that that was very powerful to learn from each other and, as you say, have a bit of a mental reset on, "Yeah, I've been worrying about this, but that's really in the scope and scale of things, you know, not as high end as what they're experiencing in El Salvador or some of the other nations, Brazil others, you know, Ghana, that we heard from." And so, it was just an eye-opening experience and a learning experience to listen to these nations.

And every delegate spoke up. Every nation. They didn't know quite what to expect from this meeting because, again, it's never been done before. And so, it was important that we in the U.S. set the stage for open conversation, inclusive conversation, everyone having the opportunity to speak, and we literally had to get it started by me calling on one of the nation's cold and then say, "I'm sorry, but — "

"Why are you here? And why is this important? Why did you accept the invitation? And why are you here?" And to hear each of them. So, once one nation began to speak, all of them began to speak. And it was exciting to watch that happen as well. You know, if we talk a little bit about what's next, 'cause I think that's important that we don't see this as a one and done.

Was it an exciting, successful, beyond belief event? Absolutely, yes. It was memorable with those who were in the room almost to, you know, 100 percent of them saying, "I have never in my many years in the fire service, never experienced anything like this before." And that statement I heard over and over and over again, and they're still telling the story.

And that's what we want. I want the experience to be shared. And it's important because it's not a one and done. And we have to make this live. That was the intent from the beginning is that this was the initial meeting, the inaugural meeting. But it was the inauguration of something else much more powerful, and that is our ongoing collaboration.

And so, we're going to be doing that through something called Communities of Practice. And these communities were defined initially by the challenges that were presented. Common challenges that were presented at the World Fire Congress. Now, these challenges really came to light from both our steering committee that involved not only the European nations, but also the UK.

It involved Israel, it involved our Latin nations. So, we had quite a strong steering committee. And out of that we identified 4 main challenges and that's where we were going to start this Congress and that's where we're going to start then and carry on our Communities of Practice.

And that's around climate change. Because climate change impact — it's not just the wildfire, it is the flooding, it's the sea level rise, it's the extreme heat, the extreme cold. All of these things impact our first responders because they are responding in all of their respective nations to those in need based on these events. They're the front line.

They're the — we use tip of the spear. I don't like to use that because it's so overused sometimes, but it's true in this case. So, what's the impact of climate change on the fire service globally? So, that was a big one.

Another one we had emerging technology. So, we did talk a lot about lithium-ion battery type fire risks. We talked about firefighter health and safety and the scope and scale of everything from cancer to mental health to cardiovascular — those things that are affecting our first responders globally and had some really great frank discussion from the delegates around that space, as well. And then of course we've added firefighter training. Here in the U.S. we've got our own local state fire academies where our first responders are trained. In many nations, it's a national academy because they only have a fire service for the entire nation. And so, they don't always have the equipment or the expertise to train as they should. And so how do we share in that space?

And so, I think that's another really big one. So, we have a lot to carry forward in these Communities of Practice. And so, I've asked leaders in the U.S., known leaders, to take the helm for each of these communities. And between now and when we get to 2026, which is the next World Fire Congress that will be hosted in the United Kingdom, likely in London — that's still ongoing planning. But between now and then, these Communities of Practice, which are made up of all the delegates that were present, plus many other nations who've asked to be added because they didn't get to come to the Congress. And we're adding them, right? It is absolutely as inclusive, any nation who wants to participate.

And so, these communities are going to go forward. And I've asked them to, first of all, identify, "What are your priority initiatives? What are the, you know, real things that need to get done? Is it a policy and regulation model that needs to be built, that can be you know, leveraged in every nation, scope, scale adjusted?"

Is it research that needs to be done, that we need to collaborate between nations? And, you know, what is it that needs to be done in each of these subject matter areas? And so, that's what our leaders are going to carry forward. So, those are starting to meet this summer. They will carry on even through and up to the 2026 World Fire Congress meeting where they will deliver then. The U.S., we are responsible for delivering reports from each of these communities in our space and in these subject matters.

So, we'll deliver that to the 2026 World Fire Congress. And then from there, the UK will lead the Congress, and then they will carry on the Communities of Practice from that Congress. So, as we hand off the communities from when we hosted, the UK will then take them up and they will then proceed. The United Arab Emirates have agreed to host in 2028.

We have several nations who are stepping up and say, we want to do it in 2030. So, this is exciting.

We're excited about the real potential here, but I think it really is a responsibility on the United States to make sure that we give this enough momentum.

We have it built. Can we keep it motivated and powered till we get to 26 and beyond? Because as we all know, the U.S. and the U.S. fire service is notable around the world. And I think we need to own that responsibility and make sure that we are fulfilling that, not only domestically, but in our international collaboration as well.

You know, I think what I felt the most weight is, yes, the event happened. It was spectacular. It was so far beyond what we had envisioned. Administrator Criswell from FEMA, of course, she helped me open it on the opening day. Secretary Mayorkas came when we had our closing event at the Library of Congress here in the U.S., which was spectacular.

Yes, which was just a spectacular venue that, you know, many people in the U.S. haven't seen, let alone our international partners. And so, for the secretary to be there and to help us close it and to talk about the importance of the event, what I thought is, yes, the event was incredibly important to begin, but it was only the beginning.

The event closed, but now we've started it here. It was, forgive the pun, the spark that now we must fan to become the flame that will carry forward for this global initiative that is an entity called the World Fire Congress. And that this Congress has power in and of itself to facilitate change around the world and our challenges that confront firefighters and our communities globally.

And so, together, I believe we, as the fire service, have the power to bring change around the world. And so that now is what we face.

Oh, that's a great question. You know, just a little bit of history, the 1974 Fire Prevention and Safety Act or Fire Prevention and Control Act really set the stage for the U.S. Fire Administration is supposed to host an annual conference. And as you noted, as far as we could find historically, I couldn't even find anyone, you know, talking to anybody who ever knew that since 1974 that the Fire Administration had hosted any annual conference. And so, this had to be done.

There was not a question. We placed it purposefully in Fire Prevention Week. Again, part of our One Voice group effort in collaboration with our national leaders. We designed it to be a 1-day powerful event where there is a conversation in the morning and a roundtable of our national fire leaders with our federal leaders who have interest in the fire service.

And I don't just mean interest, I mean actual stake in the fire service. And so, we have some frank conversations around what we're dealing with in America's fire service. And we have some very frank ask of these federal leaders. And so, that's an opportunity to do some face-to-face with secretary cabinet level leadership.

And also, the president. President Biden has been at every one of these. So far, he's joined us virtually, he has spoken live and supported the event. And that's been the first president who stepped up for the fire service like that since President Truman back in 1947. I mean, these are significant events in the fire service history.

And so, this year with the 2024 Summit that will take place on October 8 here on campus at the National Emergency Training Center, our National Fire Academy, it's going to kick it up again. We are going to work to bring 2 cabinet level secretaries to the table. We're going to have, again, our FEMA Administrator present, our Director of the National Security Council, the White House to listen to our national leaders.

We're going to bring forward really the priority challenges that we are facing today that are very relevant. Not just the health and safety issues that always are prominent, but also climate, again. We need to understand the impact on climate. We need to understand how do we as the fire service align and what do we need from decision makers at all levels of government to help promote building codes that we know will make a difference.

We have to have that conversation, again, because we have to keep pushing the science that we know matters. And so, this changes the very baseline risk for our responders. If we can't implement building codes that matter in fire prone lands. Then we have where we're going to talk about not just that impact, but the impact of climate as we've said, and we did it at the World Fire Congress. We're going to do it again here domestically because it's still very, very real. Even today as we're recording this, we've got nearly a hundred wildfires happening in the nation. We've got the park fire that's already burned close to 400,000 acres. And these things are not inconsequential on the nation's fire service.

And as we've had conversation, these aren't federal firefighters that are controlling these in and of themselves. There's not enough of them. These are our municipal, local fire departments. Whether they're responding in their own jurisdiction, or they are under contract, these are our local structural firefighters who are often cross trained either in wildland or these are in communities where they are fighting structure fire, even though it's wildfire and conflagrations in this space.

Because once it becomes structure-to-structure spread, it's a whole new animal. And so, we're going to have these very frank conversations. And then something else that we are adding to the main round table discussion this year is around our homelessness issues and opioids. And why is that important?

Well, I think if you ask any fire chief or any first responder across the nation, they will tell you that their call volume because of these issues, our population migration, our homelessness situations around the nation in every urban suburban city, and also our continued opioid situation in the nation.

We have to address this because this has impact on our first responders. When they are making these homeless encampments, every day, whether it's an EMS call, which usually it is or whether it's a fire incident in these encampments, but these are significant. And we've got to have the conversation because, yes, we're talking about it, but I don't think anyone has had at a national level conversation on the specificity of the impact on those on the front line responding to these encampments every day.

This conversation is going to be had this year. And so, I've asked the work group that is working around particularly the EMS impact of this piece to be prepared. And so, we're going to add that to the round table. And then in the afternoon of the summit, as you know, we have the state of science, and that's when we bring forward the top experts in the nation on specific topics around this.

And so, we're going to again bring forward and talk about structure fire. We've got a stellar panel on structure fire and the impact, the science, the structures, the equity. Who's having fires in their homes. That's going to be a good, really exciting, I think, enlightening conversation. We're going to be talking about data and technology in our space and in particular around wildfire.

What are we looking at from, you know, the NOAA, our National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration? What do they have now in the fire weather lab? What are we hearing from the National Weather Service? What are we hearing from NASA? Who's working the problem? And it's really important that all of us at the federal level not work in silos.

We have to come together and understand how we collaborate to shore each other up and to bring pieces together. Because the synergy that can come from all of these data and technology projects is incredibly powerful. So, I think this summit, we're going to make an attempt to do that.

And then we're going to talk some about our U.S. Fire Administration's evacuation project. One of the things that we've learned around wildfires, even though we have evacuation orders being provided every day particularly right now in all the fires that are happening, they're not done consistently. And so, we need to figure this out.

We've got to understand how do we bring some consistency so people understand the difference between a warning and an order for evacuation. They understand that in particular communities where you only have 1 egress route, that route may be cut off by the fire. So, where is go for you? Don't get in your car and just take off.

Understand the message and we need to do better communication and be specific in those messages.

Exactly, and yet nuanced enough for the landscape that you're in. We have to find where are these, whether it's a temporary refuge area or an area of last resort, it might not be necessarily an area that's safe. But it's an area where you won't die, because the fire has already burned there, or there's no fuel in that area, like a big parking lot with no fuel at all to burn.

So, it's understanding the dynamic of fire movement, it's understanding what the geospatial or the landscape is in our communities, and having every community leader, particularly the fire chiefs and our responders and our law enforcement, really understand what evacuation looks like, as you said, on a consistency basis that is nuanced and specific for their community, so people know where is go. Where is go is not always get in your car and leave the area, you know, and go 2 states away.

That's not it always. Sometimes it's just get to the baseball field or get to the golf course and stay on the, you know, the green. It's going to be different because now we have so many people who are at risk in their communities in fire prone lands with 1 egress route.

This is a problem. And so, we're going to have that conversation at the summit. We're going to bring in the experts. We're going to talk about what we're doing. And then we're going to come together by invitation, I'm going to bring in some experts and our national leaders on the day after the summit.

It's a much smaller group. And we have the conversation about what do we do now? What did we learn from the summit yesterday? How do we update our national fire service strategy based on this information and these new learnings. So, that is really what the summit does.

It keeps the U.S. Fire Administration relevant. It keeps us on our toes. It keeps us connected with the nation's fire service that we are by legislation supposed to be leading. And so, I think that is the important part of the summit. As we bring everybody to the table, we have the conversation and then we prepare the strategy, and we lead ahead.

Exactly, and I love that because we are asking these work groups and they are Communities of Practice, we just call them work groups because it's more U.S.-based understanding. But our work groups are incredible. They have done so much.

And they bring their expertise and they're passionate and they love working together and writing their reports. And so, they will deliver a report to the summit. And that summit report from the work groups will be delivered to that round table. And secretary Mayorkas will have a copy and others at the table.

The president gets a copy that I send to them purposefully to the White House so that they know that this is the nation's fire service working together. Here are our accomplishments. Here are our needs and our recommendations for you. So, it becomes a working document, a dynamic document from summit to summit to summit.

No, I really appreciate the opportunity for these podcasts. You do a great job with them, Teresa. And I think that, you know, it's exciting. We're on the precipice of real change across our nation and it's because the fire service is coming together.

And those relationships are powerful.

The collaboration is powerful, and it really culminates in a vibrant fire service for the United States of America, and that is where we stand. And the United States Fire Administration, I want to make sure that we as a whole, all of our staff, all of our leadership that we carry out our mission and our responsibility to America's firefighters and fire service.