There is a debate that rages, on a daily basis; aggressive versus safe – interior versus exterior – searching versus waiting.  Depending on where you work and what your experience is, you no doubt have an opinion about these topics.  Some hold a very strong opinion, that the safety sallies (you know, those that advocate safety above everything) are ruining the fire service and that there is no room for their thinking.  There are others that…

As I sat in the recliner last night watching the NBC Nightly News special coverage about Hurricane Sandy last night, I have to admit…tears came to my eyes. Seeing the fires at Breezy Point, the mass destruction on the coast line, and hearing the tales of heroism by the first hand accounts of all those who were there. Little did I know that when this happened one year ago, this destruction would also change my life forever even being 10 hours away.

In mid-October of last year, a…

An accelerating increase in the number of new police and fire department training centers being planned and constructed provide another strong indicator that the constrained budget environment in public safety of the past few years (starting around late 2008) may be easing. Other indicators that the tide may be turning are the increased jobs, hiring trends and uptick in new police and fire recruit academies. Past reports about hiring were outlined in…

Officers: YOU are what you make your company to be, good AND bad

One thing about the fire service, the implications of us not being prepared are much more significant than the average worker.  Nothing against landscapers, or painters, but if they are not 100 percent on a given day; well usually only their work suffers.

Firefighters are different however.  Almost everything we do has implications for the…

This is an excerpt from the current post at pipenozzle.com, reprinted here with permission:

Alan Ackley is angry. He’s not getting his way, and he’s going to kick and scream and hold his breath until he turns blue. He and the Ackleyites asked the voters for $3.5 million to run the Poquonnock Bridge Dire District into the ground by the end of 2013, but it turns out the mill rate the district board set was actually for $4.1 million. There’s more. The district has another…

To date, my department has lost FOUR of our own in the Line of Duty/ On-Duty. All of these were killed/died prior to me joining the department. I did have the opportunity to meet the four families of our fallen during our Fallen Firefighter Memorial Service that was held at the end of August. I wrote a short piece on the article…

It was a dark and stormy night, really it was. The heavens had opened up in Colorado once again; the streets were running with hot stinky water, funky water that smelled of petroleum and death. I was on duty at firehouse number four when the alarm hit. Rollover T/A at Lake Avenue and highway 115 with people trapped.…

I have had a bad case of writers block and just haven’t been able to settle on a topic for a new post and the then rains came. Man did it rain here in Colorado for the last couple of days; it has rained on a biblical level. One area south of Colorado Springs received 9 inches of rain in four hours.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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

Hello everyone! I am mortified that I haven't updated my blog in probably a year. I hope all my friends on FFN are well.

I am doing well. I am still a volunteer FF although at my age I am delegated to the Accountability board most of the time and truly happy with that! I even designed my own and last drill got to use one our department received for large structure fire/incidents. I also manage our Facebook page and email campaigns so although I'm not out there so to speak I'm…

Excerpt from post at pipenozzle.com on Ackley Argle Bargle and the Ecology of Fire.  Reprinted here with permission.  

"But the hazard load won’t go away no matter who runs the department or runs it into the ground. Firefighters see the world as a collection of hazards so the rest of us don’t have to look at them, and the total of hazards in a protection jurisdiction is the hazard load. It’s all part of the ecology of fire, of all things that burn. Firefighters know…

Not long ago, I read an article suggesting firefighters should slow down during training sessions to increase duplication of the skills presented.  This seems like a valid argument to ensure basic and advanced skills are learned and mastered.  We can look at this type of training as practice, where more time is needed to focus on the subject.  While I agree we must take more time when learning new skills and reinforcing important information, our training must also include high intensity and…

by: Lou Angeli



During my career, I’ve covered a number of wildland fire campaigns as a video and photojournalist.  One thing I’ve learned is that when Mother Nature whips a firestorm, she does so with a vengeance. 

Excerpt posted here with permission of pipenozzle dot com.  For the full post, visit the site. 

For alcoholics to seek a cure, they have to hit bottom first.

Before serious leadership emerges to cure the fire protection mess in the Town of Groton, Connecticut, Alan Ackley will take the Poquonnock Bridge Fire District, which provides fire protection for half of the town, to the bottom first.…