Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and turnout gear properly is a fundamental skill that is often overlooked in many fire departments around the country. This constant routine of complacent actions ultimately leads the firefighter to believe that how he or she wears their gear is perfectly acceptable. Then, as these individuals move through the ranks, […]
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Auto Extrication: School Bus Anatomy
School Buses exist throughout every community in the United States and even more I suburban areas where students use the transportation to get to their schools. According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2011) there were over 370,000 fatal motor vehicle traffic crashes and of those, over 1,200 were classified as school […]
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The Fire Ground Size Up
It’s 1500 hours on a bright sunny day. You are dispatched for a residential smoke detector activation. You and you crew respond and like most days, this should just be another routine call, right? While approaching the scene you see a column of smoke, you realize this is a working job. When you arrive on […]
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The BEST Exercise for Firefighters
The best, single exercise for firefighters has been a long debated subject among many in the fitness world. Not as bad as smooth bore and TFT nozzles, but close. Many trainers tell you body weight exercises, or calisthenics, while others proclaim certain weighted exercises are the most beneficial for our jobs. This has not only […]
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No one told me…….
I remember sitting in our living room and telling my wife I wanted to join the Fire Department. I’d seen the look she gave me before. Married guys know exactly what I’m talking about. I told her “I like helping people, and it sounds like fun.” She had reservations, but after a few days and […]
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The Fire Chief and the Union, why can’t we just get along!
I’m sure we have all seen the headlines at some time. The city names have been left out but you might find one to put your city’s name in. Here are just a few; fire department and union spar over station closures fire chief states weekend sick use is ‘disturbing, costly’ Judge sides with firefighters […]
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Changes – Time may change me, But I can’t change time (David Bowie)
There are those who say that people never change. And if you are talking strictly about personalities, that might be true, but I don’t think so. Everyone changes with time. Environments that we work in change so we change or alter our behaviors to match the changing environment. Most of us get married at some […]
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The Driver Engineer – What Drives Them
From the minute I completed my probation I wanted to be a driver engineer. I began shadowing the driver at the station I was at and asked questions, a lot of questions. I was fortunate enough to be at a station with one of the best drivers the department had at the time. Cliff took […]
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Forcible Entry
Without gaining entry into a structure where a suspected or confirmed fire is, the fire cannot be located and extinguished, searches cannot be made, and extension of fire cannot be checked. There may be one or more firefighters assigned to forcing entry (commercial property), or the first firefighter to the door (residence) is expected to […]
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Big City Thinking for Small Town USA
I have spent the last eleven years on a small combination department consisting of fourteen full time firefighters and ten volunteers. We seem to run into the same problems firefighters across the nation run into every day. We fight fires with less resources but are expected to more than what we are capable of doing. […]
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