“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
Most of us probably take some time in the summer to relax at the shore or up in the mountains. (I’m thinking the gang in Colorado is looking for the beach and the gang in Florida is heading for Montana, just sayin’.) In any event, we talk “health and safety” every day at every call, at every training class and every drill. Why not? It’s all about surviving the fire service and getting out healthy and in one piece. But what about off duty or when not tied up with the volunteer company? I know…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on August 5, 2019 at 1:30pm — No Comments
The inventor, thinker, genius, mathematician and all around smart guy, Albert Einstein once said, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I think he was right. We worked the same way for a long time (the first 270 years or so) and injuries and LODDs became part and parcel to our service. We thought that simply doing it “over and over again” the same way and thinking it would change all by itself, would work. It didn’t. However…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on June 12, 2019 at 8:03am — No Comments
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,…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on March 23, 2018 at 1:19pm — No Comments
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…
ContinueAdded by Aaron Zamzow on April 13, 2017 at 10:48pm — No Comments
E.V.E.N.T. or the EMS Voluntary Event Notification Tool is a reporting web site launched in 2012. Backed by a long list of prestigious supporters, EVENT was designed to accept anonymous reports of EMS safety concerns in an effort to improve safety across the EMS spectrum. The concept was similar to an airline safety system that accepted "near miss" reports from…
ContinueAdded by Mike McEvoy on April 28, 2016 at 7:57am — No Comments
Everything we do revolves around this fairly new concept for the fire service. Even keeping the fire in the room of origin is risk reduction. The National Fire Academy developed an entire curriculum and delivers it across the board from a two day state weekend program to the Managing Officer program to the Executive Fire Officer program. There must be something to it if they are pushing it out at all levels.
I recently attended the Connecticut Fire Officer’s Weekend at the…
ContinueAdded by RON KANTERMAN on March 29, 2016 at 12:49pm — No Comments
A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves ~Lao Tzu
Recently, a close friend and fire service brother posted an old picture of me on social media. I was a young assistant chief acting as the operations officer on a residential structure fire. When I saw the picture, I thought, “Where in the world did he come up with that…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on March 22, 2016 at 11:00am — No Comments
As 2015 draws to a close, it is a good time to ask yourself where you stand in terms of your personal attitude, accountability and the action you take on your own health and fitness. As a member of the fire service, it is probably the one thing that you can improve upon on a personal level that has the most influence on every other part of your life and all of the people that are a part of it.
Your impact is more powerful than you may think. Every day,…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on December 30, 2015 at 8:00am — No Comments
Updated November 17, 2016
I hope what you’re about to read upsets you.
Added by Dan Kerrigan on December 16, 2015 at 9:30am — No Comments
Individual commitment to a group effort – that’s what makes a team work.
~Vince Lombardi
Firefighters are athletes.
Specifically, we are tactical athletes. With that…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on September 22, 2015 at 9:00am — No Comments
Photo courtesy of The First Twenty
If you think a personal change in your level of health and fitness does not have an impact, I’d like you to meet…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on July 31, 2015 at 7:00am — No Comments
International Fire/EMS Safety and Health Week, sponsored by the IAFC and NVFC, starts June 14 and runs through June 20, 2015. This year's theme, Creating a Culture of Safety, offers many opportunities for improvement from the community, department, and personal perspectives. Whether you take on a fitness challenge …
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on June 10, 2015 at 9:00am — No Comments
Courtesy: glengoschfitness.com
A short while back, I posted a blog called The Undeniable Truth that…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on April 21, 2015 at 11:26am — No Comments
Well, another election is over.
Here in Illinois, fire district board of trustees members for those fire districts that elect their boards are elected on the odd numbered years known as Consolidated Elections.
Yesterday, April 7, 2015, I was again re-elected to a 6-year term as our fire district’s board member.
Campaigning for office is a very…
ContinueAdded by Art "Chief Reason" Goodrich on April 19, 2015 at 6:49pm — No Comments
A short while back, I posted a blog called The Undeniable Truth that challenged fire departments to be courageous in…
Added by Dan Kerrigan on March 26, 2015 at 12:00pm — No Comments
For someone like me, it’s hard to fathom that anyone in the fire service could produce an argument against improving the health and fitness of firefighters. The statistics alone tell anyone that will listen it is the most significant barrier to reducing LODDs. Nevertheless, I understand that the issue, sadly, is more complicated than that. As I've said before – it’s…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on March 10, 2015 at 11:30am — No Comments
Being in the fire service, it is inevitable that you will be subjected to grief, loss, and a world of other assorted emotions. It is also likely that in addition to the suffering you will see in the field, you will also experience the same range of emotions from your co-workers.
In the firehouse I worked out of for nine (9) years, we operated with a small roster of 26 officers and firefighters that shared the workload of three (3) separate shifts. Regardless of your time in…
ContinueAdded by AB Turenne on March 1, 2015 at 4:30pm — No Comments
My friends at Tailboard Training published a new blog post recently. It’s called Ultrahazardous. Everyone in the fire service should read this short piece…everyone from the department chief to the newest rookie, to every person even considering the pursuit…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on February 26, 2015 at 10:30am — No Comments
The quality and purpose of your fitness regimen are much more important than quantity.
As firefighters, we can all agree that attaining and maintaining physical and mental fitness is a requirement of our job. If you know me, you know that I push this philosophy, and so should you. But any fitness professional will tell you, training just to train instead of training for purpose will not produce the results you might expect. A couple conversations I've had recently with some…
ContinueAdded by Dan Kerrigan on February 11, 2015 at 1:00pm — No Comments
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