“An organization’s culture is made up of its folklore, its rituals, its group norms, and its meeting protocols. All of these cultural ingredients influence the organization’s adaptability. The culture of an organization is not usually written down or formally documented, but it still powerfully determines what is considered acceptable and unacceptable behavior” (Heifetz, Grashow, & Linsky, 2009). With fire service culture, you have two choices; you…
ContinueAdded by Chris Langlois on September 22, 2019 at 2:00pm — No Comments
Anyone who has seen the HBO Mini-Series “Band of Brothers” knows who Major Richard Winters is. The leader of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment states in his book, “Beyond Band of Brothers” that, “Having selected the right men for the job, I then delegated the authority to my subordinates and allowed them to use their initiative to execute the mission. There is no need to tell someone how to do his job if you have properly trained your…
ContinueAdded by Chris Langlois on June 8, 2019 at 4:30pm — 1 Comment
When considering the command process, there are numerous interferences that do not allow the Incident Commander to fully execute his or her battle plan. Let’s look at the ordinary every day citizen. When bad things happen, “people” usually band together and want to help. (The first major human behavior study for a large fire was performed by John L. Bryan after the MGM Grand hotel fire in Las Vegas in 1980) His theories have proven themselves time and time again, e.g. the WTC bombing in…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on June 12, 2017 at 11:07am — No Comments
Company officers (CO) have many responsibilities. Aside from the emergency scenes, they have nothing less than a balancing act going on in the fire station (or should have). Our business is all about people, including our own people that we serve internally. We take care of each other like the family that we are. But are CO’s taking care of the needs of their firefighters as best as they can? Sometimes not. The CO is getting the work of the organization done through the firefighters. Most…
ContinueAdded by Paul Strong on July 21, 2014 at 12:35am — No Comments
As a company officer, one of the earliest things to accomplish with each individual firefighter on your crew is to have a one-on-one meeting and ensure they fully understand what your expectations are. After this is accomplished, you sit down with the entire crew and discuss the goals and vision and invite them to weigh in on what the team can do to meet those objectives. Getting their buy in, listening to their thoughts and ideas, and allowing them to be a part of the team direction is a…
ContinueAdded by Paul Strong on March 7, 2014 at 1:02am — No Comments
Risk Management as we use it today refers to programs that help us evaluate what we do and how we do it. We put in to place certain control measures in order for us to operate within particular safety parameters. These parameters help to insure that we injure and kill less people while working. We use controls, the first of which is “administrative” controls, which consists of standard operating guidelines or procedures, training requirements, safe practices, rules regulations, fire code…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on June 27, 2013 at 1:37pm — No Comments
In 2004, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and it's sub-component the Incident Command System (ICS). ICS is "a systematic tool used for the command, control, and coordination of emergency response", according to the United States Federal Highway Administration. ICS is based upon a flexible, scalable response organization that provides a common framework within which people can work together effectively.…
ContinueAdded by Mackenzie-Anne Kelly on June 5, 2012 at 7:30pm — No Comments
My good friend, Shawn Longerich, Executive Director for the Cyanide Poisoning Treatment Coalition (CPTC) at www.FireSmoke.org sent me the video “Out of Air”; currently in Beta testing.
The video is just under an hour long and it is, as Captain Mike Gagliano of the Seattle Fire Department and a board member at CPTC pronounces; an homage to those firefighters who have succumbed to the effects of smoke inhalation.
“Out of Air” opens with a…
ContinueAdded by Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich on January 22, 2011 at 8:52pm — 5 Comments
Added by Brian Houska on June 8, 2010 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment
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