I never met Jamie Middlebrook but I knew him.  I knew his heart and soul,  for it is the heart and soul that unites every man and woman into the brotherhood and sisterhood of the fire service.  It is the desire to serve,  the urge to help,  The compassion one had for his fellow man. 

Jamie paid the ultimate sacrifice of any firefighter,  giving up his life while serving the community and because of this the entire fire service feels his loss.

Today I had the honor of attending…

I get a lot of emails asking for good workout options for the firehouse when on-shift.  

Working out on-shift is a major concern, you want to make sure you keep your body in good "fit for duty" condition but also want to make sure you have enough "left in the tank" to respond and perform in an actual response.  Over the last couple of years I have…

Someone said this to me the other day. Again, a few days later, the same thing was said with slightly different verbiage, but the message was the same.

I'm not cut out for EMS. I'm not the right "caliber" of person to do this job. I get "wonky" after bad calls. I'm not the one for the job.

Wait a second? Then what was up with that baby in 2009 who stopped breathing? Why was I able to walk into that house, take that small, precious child into my arms and without…

This is something that my fire department has to deal with every year and we do have a plan for response to the festival but I am curious how other people would respond to it.

Shambhala Music Festival is about 10 minutes outside of the Village of Salmo but response can be up to a half an hour depending on traffic. The route is paved highway up to the turn off to the music festival then it is a dirt road for about 5 km (about 3 miles), about half of the road is only single…

 There is no better example of a society's failure to protect its members than a fire that could have been prevented. This tragic loss in Philadelphia is such an example.  While the community attacks the fire department, so many other issues are not realized, most importantly the opportunity for changes supporting prevention is lost.

The stage for this fire and the opportunity to prevent it from happening was set long before that early morning of July 5th.

 While finding a…

I have always felt that if I take care of myself first, I am better able to help others.  If I am successful at my career or my life in general, I can share this with other young people who are trying to find their way in life.  It is not easy but success is possible when you have a plan and have self discipline.  In the fire service, mentoring programs can really benefit the new, the old and the department.  As always, take care of yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally.  The job…

On Friday, 35 firetrucks gathered in the parking lot at Triangle Center Mall in Raleigh, NC and waited as kids from across North Carolina rolled up and registered to participate in Camp Celebrate, a special camp just for pediatric burn victims in North Carolina.

The University of North Carolina Burn Center and others have been offering Camp Celebrate since…

Start, Stop, Continue is a well-known method for feedback that many organizations and teams use to gauge effectiveness. You simply ask:

• What can we start doing that will make us more effective?
• What can we stop doing that makes us less effective?
• What can we continue to do that’s providing value to…

At about a quarter past eleven in the evening on Saturday night, April 12th, Wake Forest Fire Department and Rolesville Fire Department were called to 417 Cottesbrook Drive in Wake Forest. Units dispatched included Rolesville Pumper 153, Roseville Engine 151, Rolesville Rescue 15, Wake Forest Engine 1, Wake Forest Engine 3, Wake Forest Engine 5, Wake Forest Ladder 1, Wake Forest Battalion 1.

When units arrived the front of the house was engulfed in fire. The fire began in the garage.…

… Not your fire trucks, fire houses, not your service. It’s your people. Often we forget this.

Photo by Artie…

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…

Suicide is a major, preventable public health problem. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2010 it was the tenth leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for 38,364 deaths. Based on data about suicides in sixteen National Violent Death…

The Model City Firefighter is headed to the Motor City to provide mutual aid!

A couple months back, the Detroit Mutual Aid Project was launched to raise much needed funds to purchase equipment for our brothers and sisters in Detroit, MI. As a Board Member of the National Firefighters Endowment, I have been involved with the project since…

ModelCityFirefighter.com’s newest article of Blowin’ Smoke features Kevin Shea, a retired firefighter from FDNY. We are very excited about this Blowin’ Smoke article and grateful for the opportunity to interview Shea on the site. I had the pleasure of meeting him earlier this year in Chicago at Fire Rescue International. He is about as humble as they come and is a wealth of knowledge. We hope you enjoy the interview.

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After several years of dormant or non-existent hiring in public safety is there a recovery underway? Are cities, counties, state and federal agencies moving back to pre-recession staff levels? In past reports we highlighted that we saw as a slow but steady increase in the new recruit academies. Reports that departments were holding off…

Does anyone have a policy and/or training material on maps and communications for new employees. This is a concern of mine as the chief. I want to make sure that we offer our responders the best and most up to date training available. What I would really like to have is a classroom presentation that has been put together and used with success. We have people within our agency that teach, but every class seems to be different and we need a program that is consistent. I'd love to see what…

Never before have we had the information we do now

FACE 2011-31 On December 23, 2011, a 42-year-old male career fire fighter died during fire-fighting operations on the 2nd floor of a three-story apartment building. The victim was assigned to Engine 5 (E5) with a lieutenant and driver/pump operator. E5 was the first-due engine company at this fire. The Incident Commander ordered E5 to take a 1¾"…

The holiday season has begun for some of us it is colder than the look you see in a black Friday shopper's eye when they are told the products they wanted are sold out. It is also the weekend leading up to the fire dept's Christmas dinner. A time food, family, and awards. This has been a long standing tradition with good awards and not so good awards. Last year I hit a deer with our light rescue needless to say I got a couple. This year I am handing some out for the first time. I will admit…

Excerpt post with permission of pipenozzle.com

Yes, Collinwood (1908) and Our Lady of Angels (1958) happened a long time ago, but in May 2012, three teenage boys mimicked a youtube.com video and set fire to hand sanitizer on a desktop in a Woodburn High Schoolcomputer room and tried to put it out with paper…