National Fire Academy Honors Florida Fire Fighter

March 18, 2008 – A Cape Coral, FL Local 2424 fire fighter will be one of four fire service personnel to receive the National Fire Academy’s (NFA) 2007 Annual Outstanding Research Award at the U.S. Fire Administration’s 20th Executive Officer Symposium March 28-30, 2008, at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

David Kilbury will be recognized for The Damage assessment process in Cape Coral, Florida following Hurricane Charley, the result of a research project he conducted for an Executive Fire Officers Program (EFOP) class (Executive Analysis of Fire Service Operations in Emergency Management).

The EFOP is an initiative of the United States Fire Administration/National Fire Academy that offers fire fighters in leadership positions four courses over a four-year period designed to encourage leadership, use research to improve emergency response and learn how to minimize areas of public safety risk. Each course requires the student to complete a corresponding research project.

Kilbury, a 23-year veteran fire fighter, chose to base his project on real life experience – emergency response to Hurricane Charley August 2004.

For the City of Cape Coral to enhance its hurricane response, Kilbury found that the City needed a risk-assessment to determine which areas are most at risk for hurricane damage, more disaster plan training and a back-up method of communications in case traditional ones fail.

Kilbury’s research paper will be published and available for review in the National Fire Academy Library.