In the past couple of days we have discussed a court case in KY where the fire department is being sued by a homeowner who states that the fire department was not prepared or negligent in fighting a fire on their property. They now want to hold the department responsible for the property damage. We have also read about another court case in Canada where a ff driving his POV, struck & killed a civilian at the scene of an MVA. The litigation says that the fire department should have used… Continue

I have spent the last hour or so on FFN checking on the discussions I am interested in & looking through my groups for topics of interest. One of my favorite groups is Command Safety where Christopher J. Naum, SFPE posts some very good information & references. One of his topics of conversation was Leadership. There is a very well written piece with some "tips" on Leadership & how to become a better leader. Very good reading for anyone particularly those in officer positions. He… Continue

Its the end of October & at my station that means its time to make applebutter. It is a tradition now but we still sell as much as we can make and it is one of our biggest fund raisers. Some things have changed but some things about making "butter" never will.



The making/sales of applebutter started back in the 60s when the dept was first formed as a way to make money. Of course back then there were orchards all over the township & the apples were grown locally & much of… Continue

I don't understand people sometimes. For some reason it seems that several of the discussions I have been following have gotten a bit personal & testy. I don't know why we feel in necessary to call each other names.



We've fussed about grammar & spelling. Although there have been studies that prove that a person can read words that are misspelled & we are used to using the spelling & grammer check on our computers so we don't paty attention to type Os becaue it fixes… Continue

Today I read two posts on FFN that made me think about CISM - Critical Incident Stress MANAGEMENT.



One was the death of a Chief which is often devestating for the members. My 1st Chief was my uncle when he passed in 1988 it killed me in more ways than one. After that MY CHIEF was a man I had known since I was a child playing @ the fire station with his kids. He taught me a lot about being a PERSON as well as an abundance of things they don't teach you in class about fire fighting. He… Continue

I've tried writing this blog a couple of times & something always happens. In one of the groups I am subscribed to: Female Firefightrs a couple young ladies are having some issues with anti-female sentiment and discrimination. I know too that new fire fighters get picked on even if they are not women. It the nature of the "brotherhood". I read a blog titled Men are from Mars & women are from the continental US that made me giggle & think.



When I wanted to join the FD as a… Continue