Justin Graney's Blog (7)

Close calls happen more often than we admit

In my short career of just over 10 years, I have unfortunately been involved with two close call incidents. For a long period of time, I was simply unable to speak about those incidents. If I needed to talk about them, I joked about them or brushed them off like it was nothing. Many of my closest friends don’t even realize how these two incidents truly affected me. I actually didn’t communicate my thoughts about my situations until I was…

“Never Forget” is a slogan that the American fire service enjoys using. People never forget major events, brothers that have gone before us, or historical fire service moments, though it often drifts far from a firefighter’s daily thoughts over time. Sometimes a small show of brotherhood is delivered in a way that makes it difficult for one to have an important memory far from their thoughts. I have questioned over the past few years if true brotherhood is a dying breed. All too often it is…

My entire life, my parents have told me “it’s all what you make of it.” Like any kid, I would roll my eyes and say, “ok whatever”. The truth is, everything in your life is “all what you make of it.” As a firefighter in today’s fire service, this statement is true more than ever.

I believe that we can all agree that the fire service is changing. In some ways there is change for the better and in others, it seems the changes occurring are having a negative effect on the…

Rapid Intervention: A dreaded assignment or progressive task for the elite?

Years ago, I hated to hear the words “Engine 212, take Rapid Intervention.” There was nothing worse than having to grab the assignment of RIT (before the terminology changed to “RIC”). You don’t get to fight fire, search, or get dirty and worst of all, you grab a RIT bag and stand in the front yard for hours.

In 2005, Captain Chris Wilson of the City of Raleigh Fire Department…

Many organizations across the country have scaled back their automatic fire alarm response over the past 5 years. Many fire departments are simply having a single engine respond to fire alarm calls, while others have cut back the response to an engine and a truck. For the sake of this article, we will not address Department of Insurance standards or the changing of these standard to allow for the reduction in responding assets.

Why cut back the…

I am fortunate enough to have been enjoying a week at the beach. The weather has been great and the fishing has been wonderful. It has been a needed time to recharge the system. I even had my best friend say she would marry me on this trip. It has been a great week. It is always at the time you least expect it that an event will occur, creating an inspiration for a new post.

Today, I was relaxing in the beach house when my fiancé called to say that something was on fire a…

What does the fire department do? If you ask Joe Citizen walking down the street he will reply, “they put out fires”. Yes, our original purpose and still our number 3 job is to fight fires. Years ago, I was one of the guys that moaned and groaned about running a medical call. I have even let the words “I am a fireman, not a medic” slip from my lips from time to time.

As my career has progressed over the years, I see the bigger picture now. Fire Department stands for much more than the…