You made it here. YOU are the one that has the knowledge in your firehouse or on your shift about physical fitness, diet, and how to make them work to benefit yourself as a better firefighter and to support a better lifestyle. You’ve noticed a few others taking interest in what you are doing every […]
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Turnout Gear and Radio Straps
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 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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Key points for scene size ups
Emergency scene size up can be defined as “A rapid mental evaluation of various factors related to an emergency incident”, or “An initial on-scene report by the first arriving unit that is clear, concise and relevant”. The fire service loves acronyms and of course we have some for scene size-up. Some of these acronyms are long […]
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Radio Straps Part 2
It’s been about two years since we published our article about radio straps and turnout gear. It has been shared throughout various magazines and training pages. A few readers asked about our ideas and pointed out that we didn’t address enough when firefighters are wearing the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). We took that point and […]
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The Door Chock
This article started off as a What’s In Your Pockets Wednesday? Facebook post but there was just too much good advice to cut it down so we turned it into a full article! Thanks to Chris Puzzanghero and Clint Cardinale for their input and advice. The article covers both a truck company firefighter’s and an engine company […]
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The On Scene Size Up
Size up begins after a call is dispatched. On the ride to the scene, all members should start to think about all potential impacts that the location will have on the type of incident. Upon arrival of the first due officer in charge he or she should give a detailed description of the incident over […]
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