My very first encounter with Chief Alan Brunacini was not what I would have hoped for. I was attending my first FDIC and was sitting through a presentation on how to submit articles to become a Fire Engineering author. Being the introvert that I am, I naturally sat in the back row while taking notes. Chief Lasky had already set the fire under my tuchas two days earlier to…

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I'm back after a long absence, just had no real time as I was helping others and I even had an absence from the other group I blog on. Just retired from being a NY State Fire Instuctor. Have been doing some traveling and now going to start doing some Military hops. But hey you need to keep busy when you retire otherwise you will go crazy just sitting around. Hope all of you have been safe and doing some training and driving to and from safe.

I preach driving safe a lot. We just had a…

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NEW Fire/Rescue Magazine October editorial cartoon: Scary Things!

The topic of health and wellness in the fire service has been growing over the years. This can be attributed to a number of factors: workers compensation, absenteeism,, injury reduction, and or improved fitness to decrease adverse health risks/events to help our firefighters.. All of these things are positives in helping our greatest resource - the firefighter.…

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When I entered the fire service twenty years ago things were much different than they are today. We must ask ourselves, why are things different? We have to stop our backward slide or the fire service, as we know it, will die. When I began my fire service career, I had a lot of people that were willing to help me and wanted me to succeed. I've worked with some really great… Continue

The great dichotomy within today’s fire service is all about perceived culture. The improvement of our culture as a whole within the emergency services is relative to our specific paradigms. Much can be done as has been implemented already but there is so much more work to do. It's the whole…

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Coming up in the next few weeks on our podcast, "5-Alarm Task Force: News & Issues for Today's First Responders:"

1. We talk with Jeff Dill from the Firefighters Behavioral Health Alliance to discuss the difficulties some of our brothers and sisters go through on the job; some facing such troubling issues that they take their own lives.

2. We'll be at the Great Florida Fire School it Ft. Myers FL to catch mini-interviews and sound bytes from some of the top fire instructors in…

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