Earlier this year, I was sitting in “balmy” St. Cloud, Minn., (-33 degrees F; now I know why those old men were so grumpy) eating dinner with a few firefighter friends of mine. As the night wore on, we each shared our fire service equivalent of a Minnesota fisherman’s fishing story—cold, longwinded and filled with exaggeration. At some point, one of the instructors spoke of his experience teaching recruits and the reward he felt when they eventually achieved success in the fire… Continue

As a young, aspiring firefighter, I admittedly avoided the political aspects of the fire service. Call me naïve, but I assumed politics had nothing to do with the more beloved aspects of the job—deploying hose lines, throwing ladders and ventilating roofs—so therefore it wasn’t important.



Today, as a more “seasoned” student of the profession, I understand that nothing could be further from the truth. Our tactics, our safety and the resources we employ in every aspect of our jobs are… Continue