The Effects of Inbred Training

            When we picture the word inbreeding we imagine movies such as, “Wrong Turn” with mutated and deformed humans that are cannibals. Thoughts of some mountain shack with a family that has never seen the outside world speaking in an unknown dialect that only they can understand. Inbreeding can lead to mental and physical mutations that limit a person’s ability to grow properly…

The top priority of most Fire Service Organizations is the satisfaction of the public and professional image. Let me ask you today,  how does one attain that? When the public calls for our assistance from the most minor medical call, to a residential lockout, to a fire in a building we are expected to operate in a efficient and professional manner.  The public expects us to run into that burning building, the public expects us to render aid to that person, they expect us to help them in any…

The word, “leadership,” especially in the ranks of first responders, is bandied about by many. And for all those that participate in this conversation, there are probably at least, twice or three times the number of definitions of what leadership is in emergency services. In this podcast, our guest, Asst. Chief John Luca of Boca Raton Fire-Rescue Services, provides us with a new and deeper definition of the term and strongly encourages us to look inward first, before we even think of leading…

    While shiny new pumpers, ladders and rescues grab most of the headlines, the Shift Commander's Buggy, looks almost like another SUV. However, the person driving this vehicle has paid his/her "dues" and has been promoted to the position of Shift Commander.

    This interview with Deputy Chief (ret) Kevin Burns of the City of Framingham MA, is special to me, because I grew up in Framingham. And it was my exposure to the wonderful firefighters in my community as a child that planted…

    While shiny new pumpers, ladders and rescues grab most of the headlines, the Shift Commander's Buggy, looks almost like another SUV. However, the person driving this vehicle has paid his/her "dues" and has been promoted to the position of Shift Commander.

    This interview with Deputy Chief (ret) Kevin Burns of the City of Framingham MA, is special to me, because I grew up in Framingham. And it was my exposure to the wonderful firefighters in my community as a child that planted…

I just completed reading the book Relentless Optimism: How a Commitment to Positive Thinking Changes Everything by: Darrin Donnelly. The book is a motivational book that provides a million and one ways that positive thinking can better not only your life, but those around you as well. It uses the story of a major league baseball player that is bumped back down to the minors and his struggle to make it back to the big leagues. The book had two very memorable quotes…

It may be an unsolvable mystery.

NEW November Fire Rescue magazine editorial: Take Us To Your Leadership.

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Start, Stop, Continue is a well-known method for feedback that many organizations and teams use to gauge effectiveness. You simply ask:

• What can we start doing that will make us more effective?
• What can we stop doing that makes us less effective?
• What can we continue to do that’s providing value to…

By Billy Schmidt

Are you building your fire department administration strategically? How do you find and position the cornerstone members who will ignite interest, introduce new ideas and development, and achieve a dynamically talented team? Can they hit the target?

Your fire department’s administrative team is just as important, if not more, as…

Officers: YOU are what you make your company to be, good AND bad

One thing about the fire service, the implications of us not being prepared are much more significant than the average worker.  Nothing against landscapers, or painters, but if they are not 100 percent on a given day; well usually only their work suffers.

Firefighters are different however.  Almost everything we do has implications for the…

From my blog at FireGroundWorks.

We often talk of the challenges we face in the field; the ambiguous, complex, and confusing incidents that attack our senses and tax our ability to beat them. Instead of all the talk about “what” we face, why not focus on “how” we can successfully win against it.…

If you could go back 5, 10, or 20 years in your fire service career, what's the one important thing you would tell yourself?

I believe the one thing that really counts is, "knowing that everyone is watching." Throughout our careers, beginning on day one, everyone is watching what…

All vacants are empty….

Fire through the roof means no entry….

We have 20 minutes interior before collapse happens…..

Victims can’t survive in burning buildings……

It is concerning that the fire service…

From my blog at FireGroundWorks.

Recently, I listened, with great concern, to two different questions about the same subject, a failure to communicate. On one occasion, I was part of a management meeting where the attendees were asking, “Why don’t they understand what we are doing?” Another time, while talking to people I supervise, they asked, “What is going on?” This roadblock, or maybe wall, in communication is a…

I think I finally put it all together….I understand it now.  Call it an epiphany or a moment of clarity, but suddenly it all made sense.  During a recent class the instructor made several references to the standard EGH ethos, “We come first” and “Risk a lot to save a lot”.  As I listened though, I understood that while he spoke of these things, his perspective was different. …

The Company Officer: Going for it and Belief

Christopher J. Naum,SPFE

TheCompanyOfficer.com

As a Company Officer, at some point in your career, you will come to that one pivotal point, when the clarity of a situation becomes all so apparent and clear.

Sometime you just have to believe and have the resilience, fortitude and that deep in the gut feeling that you know what and how something needs to…