Dr Burton Clark has been an involved member of the fire service for 55 years.
He joined in 1970 at the Kentland Volunteer Fire Department in Landover, Maryland before becoming a career firefighter in 1972 in Washington DC.
Alongside his firefighting career, Burton has an impressive academic background, gaining a doctorate in adult education in 1990. He held a full-time faculty position at the National Fire Academy (NFA), working on smoke alarms, public fire safety education, management science, executive development, firefighter mayday and seatbelts.
In this interview with Assistant Editor, Isabelle Crow, Burton looks back at his career and how retiring in 2019 has not halted his involvement within the fire safety community.
Burton summarises the fire service as being his calling, emphasizing how he wouldn’t want it any other way.
I’ve lived it and experienced it, so it has basically become my modus operandi.
As I was going through my own career, I always had a lot of questions. Why do I behave in certain ways? Why do I think the way or feel the way I do?
Dr Burton Clark
This led me to going back and trying to understand why I saw the world in a different way. Firstly, I am dyslexic, in the beginning, I saw this is a disability, but I have come to realise this is my superpower because it has enabled me to ask questions that nobody else asks.
Alongside my dyslexia, I also grew up in the water safety environment. I was a swim instructor and lifeguard and something that is important to note about this that is culturally, when a lifeguard dies trying to save someone it is not considered heroic.
Socially, we respond by agreeing that something has gone wrong for someone to be fatally injured in the water.
This is a philosophical, psychological and cultural tenant of the water safety environment- the belief that death in service is a tragedy.
However, when I joined the fire service I was struck by how it was almost the exactly opposite for firefighters when they died. Instead, death in action was considered to be heroic and a sacrifice. This never really sat well with me- it just felt wrong.
Culturally, I was in the minority as it was still seen as a red badge of courage when someone passed away in the field.
Whereas every time I was hurt, I knew it was because I had made a mistake because injury should never be a given with the job.
Similarly, I always drove the fire truck the slowest of anybody in my department, because I didn’t want to push the envelope. I’ve always been aware of my mortality, another factor that has impacted by response to the culture of being a fire and safety professional.
I finally understood the significant of the Association after evolving my own understand of the fire service.
What I have come to realize is that the fire service is an applied discipline, in other words, we take theories, research and science from elsewhere and then try to apply it to us.
Dr Burton Clark
However, what I have come to realize is that just because something has worked in the business world, military or police, does not mean it is going to be directly transferred into the fire service.
When I met Dr Wheldon, she informed me of her realisation that the fire service was an entirely unique entity. Whereas most research with first responders focused on police offers and soldiers, very little was known about the psychology of the fire service specifically. Firefighters are not cops or soldiers.
When we met, we just hit it off and so I encouraged her to continue to try and bridge the gap between psychology and fire, which is what the Association tries to do. It brings psychologist and therapist together with people from the fire service.
I was unfamiliar with the concept of a firefighter physical autopsy until Dr Kristen Wheldon shared it with me.
I was struck with the realization that despite all the work we are doing to try and understand suicide, we haven’t introduced this tool which has such a proven track record of success within other disciplines.
For example, a psychological autopsy is completed anytime an intimate in prison dies of suicide, because authorities realize the penal system is in charge of that individuals behavior.
It is understood that there is a responsibility not to let a suicide happen in prison- yet we don’t have procedures like psychological autopsy in place for firefighters?
Dr Burton Clark
For a long time, I was the only firefighter that had heard of the phrase, before I began talking about it.
Psychological autopsies could help to remove the stigma around mental health by getting to the root of it. It’s a bit like putting your seatbelt on, which we all mutually agree is a good idea. Well, a psychological autopsy would be a good idea too.
I also think we need to encourage greater collaboration between the fire service and psychology; with psychologists doing their dissertations on fire service subjects and firefighters gaining PhDs in psychology. We need to continue to bridge the gap between the two.
It has been a great honor and I think it serves as a representation of fundamental change in the fire service. Human beings need recognition, something I feel is lacking in the industry.
It’s why we have Nobel Prizes, Pulitzer Prizes and Olympic gold medals, because they are what push us.
Dr Burton Clark
When the Heritage Center gave me the recognition I was so proud, especially because of the company of individuals I was now amongst. When you picked me to be one of 20 influencers I was blown away. To be on that list with 19 other folk, that’s what we need, to recognize the thinkers out there and all their great ideas.
Celebrating the work of someone else helps to encourage personal growth because it gives us something to aspire to.
I think we all need to tell each other how much of a good job we are doing, because it simply makes your day to receive a compliment. Something so small can make such a difference.
