Not sure it ever worked in the first place

We are in a fascinating period of time for the fire service.  Never before have the resources (financial, physical and mental) been greater.  We are finally looking at fires, how they burn, how conditions change.  We are looking a fuel packages, flow paths.  We are discussing heat release rates and polar…

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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…

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"Quid est veritas?"

 

 

 

In this classic scene from ‘A Few Good Men’, Danny Kaffee is questioning Lt. Col Nathan Jessop about the use of a ‘Code Red’ that resulted in the death of a Marine. Colonel Jessop’s…

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Video bites, Facebook morsels continually shape our education

 

 

As we look at the evolution of training in the fire service, we must realize that we are at a time like never before experienced. Today there is the availability of information at a moment’s notice. Fires occur and are on YouTube before the companies finish making up. There are…

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From by blog at FireGroundWorks.

While recently attending the Fire Rescue International Conference in Denver, I took some time one evening and toured the Da Vinci Machines Exhibition at the Denver Pavilions. On loan from the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence, Italy the exhibit featured more than 60…

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Just a very short post to promote an under-used and vitally important asset that is available to all of you- the National Fire Academy. I'm here for year four of my Executive Fire Officer journey and getting to network with people from all over the world- there's even a mate from Australia in my class. I get to learn from world-class instructors and I get to sleep in a government-regulation bed (maybe that's not so great) and I get to hang at at the… Continue

We’ve had an exceptionally busy month and it’s only half over. The capper to that is this is the Pennsylvania State Laurel Festival Celebration in our town. A week of runs. bikes, parades, carnivals, car races, and yes firemen. We get 50 or 60 thousand extra tourists in our first due and a concurrent increase in calls to boot. The nice thing is that we staff the station for visitor tours and have extra folks rotating in for stand bys and relief. I’ve met and compared notes with safety officers… Continue

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear- period.



I tire of hearing of newbies and probies being ridiculed, questioned, demoralised and many other forms of "harassment" and "punishment" by the older generation in the emergency services.



There's simply no need for it. Resepct should be given from day one that the newbie walks into the firehouse.



I'd suggest that if the older generation firefighters (and other emergency service personnel) want… Continue