Jim,
Good to hear from you. Rock Community is located about 20 miles south of St. Louis Missouri. We cover approximately 38 square mile in a suburban setting. Mainly residential and commercial, with a couple pockets of light industrial complexes.
Our first alarm assignment consists of 3 pumpers, 2 aerials (quints) and a Battalion Chief. Target hazards have additional equipment. This would account for 20 personnel if we are full (minimum manning for a shift is 17). We can drop down to three personnel on the equipment with the exception of the aerial at station 1 that has minimum manning of 4 (working on the same minimum manning for the aerial at station 2).
I look forward to sharing ideas.
Jeff

Hey Jim not sure why it wont work. Which video? Im at work so I will send them to you later.
Take care Delete Comment

that's fine you can delete it! thanks for the help this site helped out alot!

Jim,
Thanks for the welcome, your right about others from Rock Community in the group, Jeff Broombaugh, Matt Mayer Jr, & Doug Ott are members also.
Rock Community has established a theme for 2009 "Back to Basics', each month we are reading, discussing, quizing and practical training on a chapter from the 'Essentials" book. This training will be done at the company level then at the shift level. Rock has 5 houses w/ 19 FF's on the line per shift.
I will be attending FDIC 09 and will look forward to a group outing. I have a question for you concerning the training expo that is held in Chicago, I know it is smaller in scale to FDIC, but how are the hands on training in comparison? I'm always looking for training opportunities and would like some in-sight on the event ther in Chicago.

Jim,
We have 4 assigned to the engine (officer, driver, 2 FF) but usually we run with 3 due to be short staffed across the rest of the city and those persons end up being detailed to other houses for the shift.
For a First Alarm "structure" assignment, heres the line up: (3) Engines, (2) Ladders, (1) Squad (RIT engine), (1) Heavy Rescue, (1) Medic Unit w/3 FF, (1) Batt. Chief, (1) EMS Supervisor................When a "working fire" is confirmed, an extra Batt. Chief is dispatched and mobile air.

I work for Shelby FD. We are located in the foothills of North Carolina. It's a small town with the 3 stations. We operate 2-engines, 1-95' Platform and 1-Quint (runs as an engine co.). The engines run with 3 and the ladder with 4 (except my shift--we run with 3), also 1 Batt. Chief. We get all companies on all structure assignments (ie--fires, alarms, natural gas leaks inside structure, etc.). New Hope is located in Belmont, NC ( about 30 miles east of Shelby). We have 1-engine, 1-rescue pumper, 1-tanker, 1-QRV, 1-brush, 1-fire boat, 1- SCOTT air trailer/generator. We staff 2 part-time M--Fri. from 0830 to 1630 hrs. to perform maintenance and truck inspections. The site for my vol. company is: newhopevfd.com.

Jim, nice work on managing the threads. I work on the 4 Truck. Im glad you like the Air Management book. Those guys put a ton of work into it and are amazingly sharp. I have the privilidge to work nextdoor to L10 which is led by Lt Bernoco on my shift. He's even better in person than on the page.

Tom

Thanks, Lenexa is 15 to 20 min. S.W. of downtown Kansas City. Our first alram (regular) consist of two to three quints (3 to 4 personal), one or two engines (3 to 4 personal) for a total of four fire appartus are assigned. Also responding one Lenexa rescue ambulance (2 fire fighting personal), batt. chief (1) and a Johnson County Med-Act Ambulance (2 non-fire fighting personal). Most of the time 14 fire fighters and 2 medical. Lenexa runs out of 4 soon to be 5 stations, with 90 fire ops. personal and 2 non ops. personal.

Side note will you let the guys at engine 78 and 98 thanks for the good advise on places to eat and were to go for a good time in Chicago. My wife and I are die hard cubs fans. We visited your city a couple years ago. We went 78's to by t-shirts for half my shift and we just stumbled in to 98's by accident. The guys at 98's were better than the people at the visitor center!
Keep safe brother!

Keith

Hey Jim;
You're doing a great job on your group. I had hoped to generate some dialog and discussions on my Command Safety Group...but its a "small' group. I saw Chief Zern's comments on Risk and the thread back to your group. I look forward towards adding my couple of "cents worth" to the discussions. My thoughts on fire officer development are this; Its an area the fire service last visted as a focus area back in the mid 1980's. I was in the middle of the vortex as programs were being developed, training was being instituted and the fire service pulse was beating related to CO, leadership,skill development, compentencies etc...much of what we are talking about again today in 2008-09. The difference being that we are seeing the drop in (fire) call volume and fire severity ( ie; true combat fire engagement..) sans the inner city/ large metro area ops. I believe co officer development is a key area that we need to focus into and expand, IF we're going to make a difference in the safety reduction efforts established and being further forged. More on this later...
PS ( I'll be out in Chicagoland this spring or summer doing some classes, will keep you informed...will also hook up w you at FDIC ( I'm doing a couple of classes this year...) Looking forward to some great dialog and discussions..stay safe.

Located in mid-Michigan. We are a paid-on-call department with initial alarm being 3 Engines, 1 Rescue and 1 Ladder,15-25 FF total at night with less during daytime. We use the State of Michigan Company Officer Certification program which I taught over the last two years. Currently teaching Fire Officer III program to the department.

Jim,
I'd like to pass along my compliments on the CSF group. As a firefighter in "the 'burbs" we don't do many working fires. The group is a great way to have my memory jogger about what the 'old timers' taught me many moons ago! As well as a great place for learning new information and tactics. Thanks again, Jeff

Hi Jim, and thanks for your welcome message. I work for a small paid department that is located west of Milwaukee. We run out of three house, 18 man daily staffing, 2 engines, 1 platform, and three ALS ambulances, and a shift commander. We work a California schedule, but our DC's work a 48/96, which is weird. Go figure. But that's a whole 'nother story. Around 3500 calls a year. A still alarm structure fire will get all 18 men, anything beyond that we'll request a MABAS box alarm, which will give us another truck, 2 engines, a chief and EMS. At the hint of a any sort of structural fire we requested a RIT truck from a neighbor right off the bat, usually before calling for a MABAS box.

On a personal note, I teach both fire and EMS part-time at a local technical college, and my areas of interest are TIC technology and RIT. I have a high interest in technical rescue, but there are no opportunties to get involved in such things around here. Otherwise spend alot of time teaching recruit fire basics.

Thanks again, Jim, for the welcome and I look forward to some interesting discussions.

By the way, did you ever get a chance to work with Eddie Enright before he retired?

Thanks for the add Lt.!!! I am a firefighter little west of you in Kane Co.... keep in touch! I'd be interested in chewing the job with ya and learn something!

Stay Safe and Take Care,
-Rob Delete Comment

Jim,

Thanks for the thanks.

We have a six week officer academy that one must go through prior to performing as an acting officer. I believe it's required in order to even sign up for the Lt. test. But don't quote me on that.

As an officer we attend on-going officer development classes once a quarter. The subject matters range from personnel issues, fireground stuff or misc. hot topic items of pressing issues. The classes run about three hours and they are given by our on-duty district chiefs. The size of the class is six to eight.

Informally the district chiefs group will assign an new officer to a double company house that has an experienced officer. To do the "mentor thing".

There has been talk of changing the minimum time on the job to take the Lt. test from five to ten years. I'm not on the committee so I don't know if that was serious talk or if it has stalled.

Lastly, on has to have an associates degree in order to test for officer.

I know a couple guys from Denver FD and have met some other guys at our quarterly Fire Nuggets classes that are sponsered by Denver FD and attended by folks from all over, some by South Metro...Les

Sent ya a message up top in the mail bar.

Our duty is weekend and sometimes day duty. We're not all that busy, but we try to stay staffed as much as we can for a volunteer dept.

I'll be teaching Residential Search and Rescue. I sent you an email to your private address. Get back to me when you can.

Jim,

Anything larger then a single family dwelling gets what we call a commercial alarm: 4-Engines, 2-Ladders, Heavy Rescue and two Chiefs and if a brush pumper or Heavy tanker is housed with any of the Engines, they respond too.

A High-Rise (Anything 5-stories or taller) gets a High-Rise Response: 10-Engines, 5-Ladders, Heavy Rescue, Haz-Mat, 4-Chiefs. Seems large but that basically gets a primary line, back up line, Search on two floors, and RAT's (Rapid Ascent Teams), oh and also Lobby Control established.

We do have High-Rise in OKC. Around 100, give or take a few.

Jim,
Us being volunteer staffing is usually unknown, but generally about 4 in the first out piece. Auto aid we have 3 Tenders, 2 engines, 1 medic coming in. We recieve 1 engine and a 1 tender change of quarters.

Anything past this we utilize MABAS.

Cheers,
Rob

Jim,

If you’re referring to the number of working fires we get; the amount of fires we get as a department and specifically as a crew, varies greatly of course depending on the location and demographics.

We have twenty stations with over 400 firefighters serving a population of over 400,000. Being of medium size and not a major metropolitan city I suppose we’re not much different than other cities our size. As a department we get 45,000 calls a year but you know how it goes; most of those are non-fire. I should also state we are spread out over 250 squre miles.

I work downtown; lately we have been busy but prior to that, months went by since we had a worker. So it kind of goes like this; 75% of training is fire/ rescue related but 75% of day spent performing non-fire activities…Les

High Rises in Chicago? No Way!

Actually, we modeled our High Rise SOP closely from Chicago's. We're in the middle of training the department now.

Hey Jim, are there some recent photos of you on Tim Olk's fireground photo website? Sure looks like you!

http://www.olkee.smugmug.com/

Thanks Jim.

Jim,
Little Elm if about 40 miles north of Dallas, Texas. We are a 2 station department with 10 paid per shift and 4 volunteers that alternate every six days. Our challange is not that we are combition but that we have minimal staffing. On first alarm (if at full staffing) we send 2 medics, 75' ariel, 1 engine and on duty chief. We have mutual aid agreement with all surrounding department and will received 2-3 additional engine on a confirmed fire. Our challenge is that for the first 6 to 12 minutes of the fire our department is on our own. We've cut down some response times with automatic aid agreements but still is an issue for us.

Yes I started on Peotone 13 years ago asd still moonlight their as a Lt. I've been on Bedford since 01. Jim Wilk turned me on to your group. You may know my Uncle Tom Sutkus Capt. on T-32.

Hi Jim, just added a blog to my page called Residential Search; Complacency and Priorities. Give it a look and let me know what you think.

Sounds good hopefully i will be able to make it.

Jim, Crawfordsville is a small career department about 40 west of Indy. On or 1st due we will get 2 engines, 1 ladder and a medic. Also I will be at FDIC, for the last 3 years I have been helping instruct a portion of the Engine company class with Jay Comella and Jerry Knapp. I hope to meet up with everyone during FDIC do you have a certain place in mind? Anyway i look forward in picking your brain.
Stay Low
Nate

Sorry that is 40 miles west of Indy.

Jim, Jerry is from Rockland Co In New York. He has written articles for Fire Engineering. He helps with the engine company class at FDIC streatching attack lines. Very good class.

Jim,

We get usually 15-20 on a first alarm (well 16 if you count the chief). We used to have 2 engines, 2 trucks and the squad. All usually with 3 on each rig so it is typically closer to 15 than 20. We just changed our responses and shuttered our squad and going to 2 trucks instead of 3 trucks in the city. Now we get 4 engines and 1 truck on a first alarm. Same amount of personnel.

You asked about officer development also, Well we dont really do much of that. We have started to do officer training every month. Something that the officer has to turn in. It is so-so. But other than that not much really. And for ff's becoming officer they just ride in the seat for awhile before they get promoted. We do not have much as far as formalized officer development.

Jim,
I am a Lt. with Park Ridge FD on your north border. I am writing a company officer development program for my masters program and look to inplement it at my dept. Does Chicago have a company officer development program? Can I look at a copy if you have one. Do you have information about any other departments officer programs. I appreciate your input. Be safe. John Ortlund, jortlund113@comcast.net

Thank you, Jim

Hi Jim,
Thanks for the compliment!
Stay Safe,
Dave

Jim, I'd love to participate in the Search Priorities conversation however, the video is not Mac compatible

Hi Jim, I just thought I'd let you know the books went out for Duneland Fire School. Your class is in for the first weekend (March 14th). hope all is well
stay safe,
Mark

Thanks for the invite, sorry I won't be attending FDIC this year, but drink one for me!

-Quick Time and things on YouTube are the preferred format. Sorry Bro.
-These are the trials in life for a Mac user.
-But, it is such a great computer I wouldn't trade it for any other.
-Thanks and sorry Bro.
KTF

Our department has no program for officer development. We could be the poster child for innefective company leadership. Promotions are handed out solely on seniority, and there is no incentive to train...PERIOD. Perhaps in the future we could change all this, but for now it's FUBAR. On the initial alarm we get 3 engines, 1 aerial, 1 rescue, and 1 staff car. Total of about 10 personnel, depending on staffing. We run 3 on an engine, but our mutual aid department only runs 1

Jim,
I like the CSF blog and training site. Keep up the good work. Research is going well. Alot of generous people in the training blog are sharing input. As far as your HOT class in the suburbs. What about oak lawn, tinley park, Orland Park. Will any of those departments have the facilities you need? Let me know..Be safe.

Hey Jim,
I have received a couple of other department's officer development programs. A couple of research papers also on the same topic. Now I have to conduct my own interviews and research. Once I get through all of the information I can start designing our program. Thanks for asking..Be safe.

Jim,

Thank you for the welcome. I am not able to make FDIC but thanks for the invite anyway. Niskayuna is a suburb of the City of Schecnectady located in Schenectady County, NY and is part of the Capital District (Albany, Schenectady & Troy). As far as officer development goes, once promoted, by state law we attend FDNY's 4 week First Line Supervisor's Training Program (FLSTP). In my opinion it is really good training opportunity, but does not fully meet the need of small departments. For instance FDNY's first alarm response and staffing is greater than the strength of my entire department (yes I am jealous) and also once promoted we may work for 6-8 months before getting into the FLSTP whereas when an FDNY FF is promoted they go straight to FLSTP. In our case as was the case for most of the other "upstate" officers attending the training many sessions contained education on things we had to learn through trial and error or by NYS outreach training and wound up a good review but was redundant. To combat that I would like to develop a program to bridge the gap and make the transition from FF to officer better for our situation until the more formal training can be accomplished by FDNY. I think it could also provide a model for aspiring officers to as well as a method for current officers to help evaluate potential candidates. So any advice or CO development programs you or anyone else has here that you are wiling to share would be greatly appreciated.

Jim, with the lack of aggression I think it goes back to a lack of experience with the crews. We are doing in house training now with alot of tactics work to get these guys where they need to be. We have people who have come from slow stations and are not used to running alot of call or fires so it is just a training thing we need to work on. I will not be making it to FDIC this year although I do believe from what I have heard from the office next door (chief) I will be going to Fire Rescue International.

Jim,
Thanks for the hit. I just stumbled across this community and was almost overwhelmed with the information.
As far as our first alarm, we rely on mutual aid full assignments. Our department guarantees the first in engine on duty. If were lucky, off duty response gives us another engine, truck and chief officer. With the full assignment, we get four engines, one truck, and four chief officers from neighboring communities. This usualy totals around 20 if fully staffed. We have excellent relations with these departments and they are very solid.
I am really looking at officer development as one of our next projects. Our personnel are put in leadership roles early in their career that indirectly prepare them for the officer role. State certification is required for a promotion and we have the privilege of excellent instructors from surrounding communities passing along their knowledge and experience.
Todd

Hey Jim,
The FLSTP program is newly re-developed. According to my Chief, at the Career Chief's meetings which are held I think every 2-3 months or so, Career Chief's from across the state meet to work on issues affecting the fire service in the our state. I don't know the the particulars about what occurs, but do know that my Chief has brought back and shared a lot of positive information. Recently during a conversation with my Chief he indicated that one of the bigger issues last year was the FDNY FLSTP program. Apparently the Chief in charge of training attended several of the career chief's meetings to ascertain from upstate departments what their needs were. The program was subsequently revised and updated. This is great news. Any chance I could get a copy of the new material?
Thanks,
Jim

I went to Monroe a couple of years ago and liked it. Anytime you get a chance to train with live fire conditions, it's a good thing.
I'm hoping to get to FDIC for the first time this year. Any recommendations on what classes to take? Being a new training officer, I was going to stick with training programs and officer developement classes.

Just read your article from last week on leadership and knowing the district. Nice work! I liked the story from your experience. I was a covering lieutenant for about a year, and although we are tiny in size compared to Chicago, I can relate to your issues!

Jim, I can't get to FDIC this year, but the next one is a priority! From what I'm told they are great events.

Hey I heard you were going to teach a class at Duneland Fire School down here by us but it got canceled. What happened with that?