Q&A WITH DISTRICT CHIEF MICHAEL MARINO
Please briefly describe your tenure with the city:
Chief Michael Marino: I have been with the Houston Fire Department since November of 2001, when I started as a cadet at the Val Jahnke Training Facility.
What is your job title and how long have you been in your current role with HFD?
Chief Michael Marino: I hold the rank of District Chief, and I am the inaugural Health and Safety Chief for the Department. I have served in this position since September of 2021.
How were you introduced to safety? How did you become interested in it?
Chief Michael Marino: Safety is an integral component of nearly every aspect of fire and emergency services. However, I was recruited into my current position by the Assistant Chief of Emergency Response. It was not until I assumed my position in this newly created office that I fully appreciated the significance of the various, interrelated health and safety dimensions.
What key message do you want COH employees to understand about the importance of safety?
Chief Michael Marino: Safety is more than the absence of an accident or injury. Often, employees will violate safety rules and not experience any negative outcomes. This erroneously invalidates the need for the safety rule in the mind of the employee. It must be recognized that safety is rooted in the analysis of outcomes over time, with many intervening variables. Thus, the same rule may be violated several times without a negative consequence. However, when the wrong combination of variables aligns and a safety rule is disregarded, the consequences can be disastrous – even fatal.
In your newly created Health and Safety position with HFD; What projects are you and your team currently working on?
Chief Michael Marino: In my new role as the HFD Health and Safety Chief, I have worked diligently to consolidate and coordinate the various decentralized health and safety efforts in the Houston Fire Department. The amelioration of health and safety concerns relies upon the effective collection and analysis of accurate data. This has included a considerable amount of time and effort to collect and compile data from several disparate sources, both internal and external to the HFD.
Additional projects include an ongoing effort to provide job-specific physicals and medical evaluations for all HFD members. I have also established a Health and Fitness Committee that has collaborated to provide $225,000 worth of fitness equipment to the fire stations, while serving as health and fitness ambassadors to the Department.
My office is currently working with the Rice Data to Knowledge Lab on a Fall ’22 semester project to perform an in-depth analysis of motor vehicle accidents within the HFD. The intent is to predict the frequency of various accident types through the identification of causality. This information shall serve as a foundation to the provision of more concise training measures, while also informing future administrative and engineering control efforts.
Does HFD have a safety committee? If so, how often does the safety committee meet?
Chief Michael Marino: When I came into this office, one my first projects was to identify the existence of a departmental safety committee. What I found was that the HFD Safety Committee existed as a joint labor and management committee. Unfortunately, due to the politically strained relationship between labor and management within the department, this committee had not functioned as intended for several years. I have worked with HFD labor and management to create a new Joint Labor and Management Safety Committee Guideline that is in the final stages of being codified. Whereas the HFD is a large department, composed of several specialized divisions, the organization of this new committee contains five sub-committees. Each sub-committee shall meet quarterly and will provide one voting member to the HFD Joint Labor and Management Committee, which also meets quarterly in the month following the sub-committees’ meetings.
Are you familiar with the COH (Risk Management) ZIP (Zero is Possible) safety initiative? If so, how will ZIP work towards workplace safety for HFD?
Chief Michael Marino: The City of Houston’s Zero is Possible safety initiative is an interesting program for the HFD. The members of the Houston Fire Department serve a vital role in the public safety paradigm. In serving their community, these courageous men and women recognize a measure of personal risk typically beyond that of other professions. This regular exposure to risk in the fire service industry typically confounds the development of an appropriate health and safety perspective. What the COH’s ZIP safety initiative does is provide a framework wherein even members of an ultra-hazardous profession such as firefighting can recognize and aspire toward a safety culture that is commensurate to the unique challenges of their profession.
Can you list a specific example of improvement in workplace safety?
Chief Michael Marino: A few months ago, District Chief Timothy Vatuna of HFD Station 5 contacted me regarding a serious traffic concern in front of his fire station. The flow of traffic and unique street layout presented a problematic situation every time the fire apparatus was forced to back into the bays at the station. Over the past year, there had been several accidents between HFD apparatus and the public, as they have attempted to speed behind the backing apparatus to make it through a traffic light. After a station visit that included the HFD HR Safety Advisor, a representative from Houston Public Works, and me; several engineering and administrative control measures were identified.
First, I had a detailed discussion with Chief Vatuna regarding a backing procedure that included using the apparatus to block traffic with its emergency lights, while placing one firefighter on the apron of the station to serve as a deterrent to reckless driving. This single act greatly reduces the willingness of drivers to impulsively attempt to circumvent the backing apparatus in an effort to beat the traffic signal ahead.
Additionally, Houston Public Works installed advance warning signs along Hammerly and along Holister to warn drivers of the pending road concern. The Opticom device in front of the station was tested and found to be in good working condition. There is also a pending request for a traffic hazard identification beacon to accompany the recently installed warning signs.
In this example, the combined efforts of HR Risk Management, Houston Public Works, and the HFD Health and Safety Office worked effectively to address the acute recognition of a workplace safety concern.
Are you optimistic that you and your colleagues’ efforts are working?
Chief Michael Marino: With the support of the Fire Chief, Samuel Peña, the HFD Health and Safety Office has received considerable emphasis and consideration in both the operational and administrative paradigms. I have had the opportunity to significantly contribute to emerging departmental policies and projects that place the health and safety of our members at the forefront of the decision-making process. I am quite optimistic that my continued efforts in this role will serve to institutionalize a culture of health and safety within the Houston Fire Department. This has been a very rewarding opportunity for me, as I have been able to positively affect the welfare of the Department’s nearly 4,000 members.