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Tiger Schmittendorf

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About Tiger Schmittendorf

Tiger Schmittendorf: Male
Angola NY, United States

Residence.: 3359 Broadway, Cheektowaga NY 14227

Department:: Erie County Department of Emergency Services

Title/rank:: Deputy Fire Coordinator

Years of public service:: 27

Agency structure:: Public safety (police-fire)

Top issues in your department:: Insufficient funding to support basic firefighter training; recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters; apathy in the fire service.

Professional Qualifications:: Nationally Certified Fire Instructor; ICS 400 Trained; Experienced Logistics Chief

Topics you provide training for:: Leadership; PIO; Volunteer Management; ICS; Highway Safety

Areas of expertise:: Absolutely nothing.

Bio:: Tiger Schmittendorf serves as Deputy Fire Coordinator for the County of Erie Department of Emergency Services (Buffalo NY), which manages three training facilities, 50 fire instructors and the training of 97 fire departments and 5,000+ firefighters.

He is a Nationally Certified Fire Instructor and a firefighter with the Evans Center Volunteer Fire Company in the Town of Evans NY since 1980, having served most recently as Chief of Training, Webmaster and Public Information Officer (PIO).

Schmittendorf brings 15 years of experience in engineering, sales and marketing management to marketing the product he loves: the fire service. He specializes in recruitment and retention, marketing, training and leadership consulting for counties and fire departments around the country.

He previously served as co-founder and Managing Editor of The Fire Fighter Newspaper and created a recruitment effort that doubled his own fire department's membership and helped net 500-plus new volunteers countywide.

He is a regularly featured author, presenter, instructor and photographer addressing the business of emergency services delivery.

He suffers from an extremely dry sense of humor and routinely makes an ass of himself, often in public.

Web site:: www.firefighternation.com/profile/tiger5

Tiger Schmittendorf's Groups

Training Officers Mutual Aid Group: (107 members)
Created by Forest Reeder

“Pride and Ownership”: (248 members)
Created by Rick Lasky

Fire Service Honor Guards: (19 members)
Created by Jim Byers

Chief's Thoughts and Concerns: (54 members)
Created by John Salka

Videos

Erie County Boot Camp Video

Added Apr 30 by Tiger Schmittendorf.

Erie County Recruitment Video

Added Apr 30 by Tiger Schmittendorf.

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Forum

dispatcher training

Added a post Mar 23

I know that APCO offers extensive training and in our state, the NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Control offers tiered training. In fact, we're hosting one of their basic courses at our Erie Coun... Read More »

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Life in the Fire Lane

Erie County Department of Emergency Services - Division of Fire Safety www.erie.gov/fire

Tiger Schmittendorf's Friends

Tiger Schmittendorf's Blog

Live Auction of Fire Memorabilia to Benefit Fire Chief

As part of a large fundraising effort for Evans Center Firefighter Dennis Allen, a benefit scheduled for September 6, 2008 will feature a live auction of firefighter art and memorabilia. The benefit will run from 2-8pm and the live auction will kick off at 5p…

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Posted by Tiger Schmittendorf on August 24th, 2008 at 10:42pm — No Comments (Add)

Recruitment & Retention Toolkit: Brotherhood

This article is one in a series of toolkits focusing on recruitment, retention, fire service marketing and leadership. It first appeared in the August-2008 edition of FASNY's "The Volunteer Firefighter" Magazine

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Posted by Tiger Schmittendorf on August 22nd, 2008 at 10:25pm — 2 Comments (Add)

Fire Service Funeral Practices

I originally wrote this piece for another blog spot in October-2007 but felt it has relevance here. I'd love to hear what you think on the subject:

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Posted by Tiger Schmittendorf on March 27th, 2008 at 3:33pm — 3 Comments (Add)

Comment Wall (18 comments)

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At 6:41pm on August 25th, 2008, Greg Wild said…: Tiger,

I saw the site on Dennis. Is there anywhere that we can view and bid online for the donated items?
Greg

At 9:30am on August 8th, 2008, Rick Lasky said…: Hi Tiger,

Thanks for your kind words and for mentioning P&O. I think we're all starting to make a little headway and getting things back to the way they should be and were.

Great job on the article. Well said brother!

Be safe,

Rick

At 1:56pm on August 7th, 2008, Katey Scripter said…: Wow! Thank you!! I really appreciate you saying that. I love doing it and hope to one day become a full-time fire photographer. If you ever need anything, feel free to let me know! Thank you so much!

Katey

At 2:36pm on July 1st, 2008, Les Greenwood said…: Actually we have been very busy this year with the program. I need to get some handouts made for this. Also been aqccepted into the I95 coalition and will go to my first meeting in two weeks.
Hope all is well...take care Les

At 4:55pm on June 23rd, 2008, Bruce Green said…: i couldnt be so lucky

At 10:25am on May 4th, 2008, Frank Ricci said…: Take a look and sign up to our group we could use your input. Tactical Building Blocks & Air Management. If you search groups by most members we are list at the top.
This group will focus on aggressive interior firefighting. We will address tactics that increase your chance of not getting jammed up and cover what actions to undertake if you do.We will cover some big issues as well as small tactical tips

At 9:29am on May 4th, 2008, Jim Byers said…: Tiger,
As I said I would I brought up the question about levels of Honor to the other commanders at the symposium and I felt that the group was truly on board with the fact you cannot give everything to everyone everytime which made me feel better about how I felt
I hope that you can attend next year the contacts and new friends that were made this year will last a life time.
hope to hear from you soon
jim

At 10:16am on April 6th, 2008, Rick Lasky said…: Thanks Tiger! Another good brother to contact and he has a page here, is Chief Joe Florentino from Little Elm Texas. He is our Funeral Chiefs Committee Chair and has some great info.

Be safe brother.

Rick

At 10:07pm on April 5th, 2008, Michael "Mick" Mayers said…: Fancy meeting you here.

At 9:44pm on April 2nd, 2008, Randy C. Rider said…: Hey Tiger thanks for the heads up on ''the community'' Talk to you soon,stay safe

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