All Blog Posts Tagged 'firefighter' (202)

Working in the fire service gives a sense of nobility; a purpose that goes beyond just “clocking in.” It is an established honorable profession. Its members are a tight family, a brotherhood that unites when called upon. However, being a member of this family comes at a price. It is not an easy road, nor is it always appealing. Images of the shining fire apparatus and polished uniforms are replaced with images of destroyed homes, patients with horrific burns,…

Hello, everyone! My name is Lauren Wintle. I am a 21 year old student in my last year of college at Rogers State University. I have conducted a survey on occupational identity, coping mechanisms, and stress among firefighters. My dad is the Deputy Chief in Owasso, OK and my grandfather was a Tulsa firefighter, so I wanted to conduct this survey for them! It is short & sweet -- shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes to complete. 

Thank you so much! The survey is…

In the 17 years that have passed since the horrible events of September 11^th, 2001, nearly 10,000 heroic firefighters, police officers, EMTs and others who rushed to Ground Zero in the hours, days, and weeks after the attacks have been diagnosed with cancer. More than 2,000 deaths have been connected to a range of 9/11-related illnesses and cancers caused by…

“Only one quarter (27 percent) of fire departments have a basic firefighter fitness and health program, slightly down from 30 percent in 2010.” 

-NFPA Needs Assessment, 2015

27 percent

“…slightly down from 30 percent in 2010”

Really?

While it is doubtful that every single department in the country participated in this assessment…

The inventor, thinker, genius, mathematician and smart guy, Albert Einstein once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” We worked the same way for a long time (282 years or so) and our injuries and LODD’s became part of life. However, it seems we’re on our way to better days. Changing the way 1 million firefighters think and behave is not an easy task. What most of us who have been around for a few minutes talk about,…

When someone says the word hero, we automatically start thinking about things like courage, nobility, and over-the-top achievements. Heroes go above and beyond the call of duty to help people without giving it a second thought.  They don’t give up no matter how afraid they may be. They’re the kind of people who inspire us to achieve great things in our own lives.

It’s this image that we have of heroes that…

 By: Jordan Ponder

How does fire travel? Path of least resistance! Why? Because it does have the ability to think! How do firefighters move when we are focused on tasks at hand? Path of least resistance or in whatever way is easiest. Firefighters continue to experience…

-        Knee…

Sleep Tips and Strategies For Firefighters

By: Jordan Ponder

BE SUCCESSFUL: Improving Your Sleep

Everyone can agree that sleep is important to your health.…

Young children read many stories about the important work of firefighters. Most people probably have a fond memory of taking a field trip to the fire station during their elementary school years. If they were lucky, they got to climb up into the fire truck or put on a fire hat. Which of us didn’t anxiously await the appearance of sparkling red fire trucks with sirens blazing at the start of every parade? Kids in every city and town dream about one day becoming a heroic firefighter. While…

By: John Spera

Being trusted that you can do your job when it counts is more important than being liked.

As firefighters, the responsibility before us is great, as we are given automatic trust the day we take the oath. It’s a trust…

by Brian Benedict

Karla has a way about her that instantly connects with people.  Her knowledge of the fire service, a previous career with State Farm Insurance and add her son a Lincoln Firefighter, She has many commonalities to connecting with others.

Her approach is simple. She’s genuinely interested in protecting and caring…

Faced with one of the most demanding jobs around, firefighters are trained to act in dangerous and volatile situations. Entering unfamiliar structures that are actively on fire with a ton of heavy gear giving limited mobility, is the number one dangerous situation that comes to mind when thinking about firefighters. But on a daily basis we are presented with a multitude of dangerous encounters. Car wrecks on busy highways, power lines struck down in the crash, taking care of medical patients…

The number one step is to forgive yourself. You are not a defective piece of equipment. You are never a failure for your feelings. There is no dishonor in what you have experienced. In fact, many of the strongest, kindest, noblest firefighters I ever met had come through some terrible darkness and lived to see the other side. Suicide attempts, opiate addiction, alcoholism, poverty, and crime. To come to terms with the dark parts of your history requires great integrity and courage.…

Heart attack and strokes are more likely to kill firefighters than an actual fire.  A recent research article just confirmed one of the major reasons why.   The research confirms that the physical demands of firefighting may trigger the formation of blood clots and impair blood vessel function -- two factors associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke.  (You can read more about that research…

“You can do everything right on this job and still get killed.”

~Captain Paddy Brown, FDNY

He’s right.

But would you ever stop learning, studying, training…being a student of our craft, because you can still get killed no matter what you do?  I certainly hope not.

So if asked you: Is it ok to avoid maintaining your health and wellness because you may suffer a tragic health event anyway?…

By: John Spera

"The mind is the battleground. It is here that the future is told." 

Goals are destined to be lost if the mindset to reach them is not built first. Our lives are a reflection of our mindset and have been built through our beliefs and perspectives of the world, to include ourselves in it. We have complete control over the mindset we choose to have on any given day—it’s up to us to create the…

It’s 0400, and the alarm goes off. The synapses crackle to life. Adrenaline, rushing through your brain. The amygdala fires off and muscle memory takes over. It’s a blur as you rise to wakefulness and body your way through the hall to the ready room and from there, the crew carrier, the engine, or the ambulance. This is the life of the first responder. One moment, dead asleep, exhausted. The next, firing on all cylinders, your mind racing, reviewing your SOP’s internally. The teeth clench,…

Over $2,500 in cash and prizes will be given away to Firefighters, EMTs and Medics! 

YOU can Win and more importantly Motivate Others!  

Don't wait, get your program and get started today!

The purpose of the contest is to motivate Firefighters, EMTs and Medics to change the…

I want to talk about…. what is brotherhood?  Plain and simple. Brotherhood is treating others like family. In a family, sometimes you're there to prepare people and make them better. Sometimes you've got to be hard on them. Sometimes you just need to be there for them. I think a lot of that gets lost. Sometimes people think it's not their job. We're just co-workers and I think that's the wrong attitude because not everyone grows up the same.

Some of you…