Your thoughts,your safety and your life matters to us!

Hi folks;

Figured it was time to introduce myself to our readers/followers/friends. My name is Ken Willette and I am the newly appointed Manager for the Public Fire Protection Division at NFPA, following Curt Varone who has moved on to some new adventures. I have to thank Curt for his total commitment to and advocacy for the fire service, it will be big shoes to fill.

Since taking my seat in the corner office,(yes, Curt and I really had/have a corner office), my first three weeks were like taking a drink from the open butt of a three inch hose being pumped full throttle. What I have quickly come to realize is the PFP staff is a team of true professionals who have taken the time to introduce me to the NFPA and the Standards making process with patience,(thankfully, because I have been asking the same questions over and over until I got it).

I recently retired from the Massachusetts fire service after 35 years of service. In my early days, I was an on call firefighter and then a Department of Defense firefighter at a Air Force base. In 1977, I joined a suburban fire department as a firefighter/emt  and served for 26 years, four years as shift commander and six years as chief of department/emergency management director.Still yearning for some new challenges, in 2003 I accepted a position as fire chief/emergency management director in a slightly larger community, serving there for 6 years until my retirement in 2009.

During my fire service career, I was active in both labor organizations and then as chief, regional and state fire chiefs associations. A highlight of my career was serving as the President of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts and representing my brother and sister chiefs before the Governor, state legislature, and partnering with the State Fire Marshal to improve life safety through code enhancement and firefighter safety through firefighter equipment grants. This experience allowed me to observe the value of my membership in the International Association of Fire Chiefs, as I reached out to them several times for guidance and support when confronting fiscal and regulatory challenges within the state.

Along the way, I earned my Associates and Bachelor's degree, completed the Executive Fire Officer Program, and achieved Pro Board Certification as  Fire Officer I and Fire Instructor I .

There are many responsibilities placed upon the PFP Division Manager. Along with managing the operations of the Division, I already am participating on several working groups and several Boards of national organizations that serve the fire service. Within NFPA, I along with my staff, are recognized as the fire service advocates, and provide comment to many projects. I regard this as one of the, if not the, most important role I perform. I pledge to maintain and strengthen  the  relationship between NFPA and the fire service.

Along that line, the PFP staff is developing a revised schedule for our blog. You can expect to read about that next week, along with my own observations about a recent vehicle fire that showed the value of full ppe during fire attack operations.

Quincy,MA. is some distance from many of you, but the NFPA is not that far. My email is kwillette@nfpa.org and my office phone 617-984-7299. Let me know what your thinking, I will respond. Because your thoughts, your safety and your life matters to us!

Ken Willette

Comments

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Just one question: how to add your blog into my rrs reader, thanks so much.

[aion kinah]

Je considère cela comme un des, sinon le rôle le plus important-je effectuer. Je m'engage à maintenir et à renforcer la relation entre la NFPA et le service d'incendie.