by: Lou Angeli

TORONTO, ONT (August 29, 2013) -- Earlier this week, Toronto Fire Chief Jim Sales announced that 2 city firefighters had been suspended indefinitely for sexist remarks made about colleagues on Twitter. Believe me, these firefighters made some very nasty comments. 

Toronto's top firefighter said,  'In the public domain it's…

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I will be speaking on the Continuing Challenge in Sacramento next week.

Click here for a link to the conference website

 

Wednesday  1:30-3:15 Keeping Your People Trained

This is a review of the training requirements in the HAZWOPER standard and how my agency provides refresher training to over 600 responders.

 

Thursday 3:45-5:30 I Just Got an OSHA Citation: What Do I Do Now?

Fire…

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OK lets get back to the basics of journal reading. When reading industry material for learning, the article must be read multiple times. The first read gives us an overall idea of the piece while subsequent reads help us break down the material. Most articles are broken down into segments separated by paragraph breaks or bold face headings. 



The second read should be to determine the main idea of each segment. In fire service…

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What is the consensus on an ex-con, who has turned there life around, stopped drinking 10+ years ago & at 50 something finally grown up, becomming a volunteer firefighter. The way I understand it he was convicted on non-violent mostly drinking related charges. I feel like give the guy a second chance. He sure has the spirit of the FD & is well liked by everybody at the hall.... except for one Chief in the E. M. S. who is still holding a grudge because of something he did some 35…

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Hello,

I was a firefighter for 32 years; approximately one year with the United States Forest Service, 4 years crash/rescue as a civilian firefighter with the United States Air Force and 27 years with the City of Tucson, Arizona. I am now retired from the fire service with a Bachelors of Fine Arts Degree in sculpture. I am currently creating Bronze Firefighter Statues and Memorials.



I was selected to be featured in “Good Company” a…

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Blowin' Smoke is a series of articles published on ModelCityFirefighter.com that consist of a Q&A session with veterans in the fire service. These individuals are asked a series of questions about their career and experiences they have witnessed. This edition is with an 18 year veteran of DFD that is currently assigned to Detroit's…

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Our profession is dangerous. Oddly some often need to remind themselves of this. Many of us are not only HazMat professionals but also EMTs, Paramedics, Firefighters, Company Commanders, Law Enforcement Officers, EH&S Specialists, Lab Safety Specialists, Risk Managers, Confined Space Technicians, USAR Technicians, WMD Specialists, Apparatus Operators, Grief Counselors, Supervisors, Parents, Spouses…. and we are expected to be proficient in many of these duties at the same… Continue

Professionalism means acting appropriately and in a manner that is acceptable and careful. Applied to the fire service, a professional is not whether or not you are paid or volunteer. That is a topic that often brings out the most heated of discussions, but there is a division nationwide between volunteers and career firefighters.

I recently had a conversation with a…

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Excerpt from current post at pipenozzle.com printed here with permission:

 

Deborah Straszheim’s update on Alan Ackley’s inane, insidious antics in today’s New London paper is old news. Ackley continues to act the mad fool navigating—if you can call it that—the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District right toward the shoals of financial and public safety disaster.

Straszheim reported that Ackley…

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No policy or procedure will ever be effective if it is written, placed in a book and never looked at again.

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