All Blog Posts (3,147)

Its 3am and you and your crew are asleep in the bunk room when you are suddenly awaken to the bells and tones going off, then across the radio you hear " structure fire smoke and flames visible with possible entrapment" at that moment your heart now goes into overdrive and your brain is trying to process a million tings. You get in the truck pull out…

This month we honor the victims of the horrific attacks against our country and our people, which occurred on September 11, 2001. As a country we vow to never forget the many people who lost their lives, from the innocent who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time to the numerous first responders who sacrificed their all to come to the aid of others. For the public safety workers who were involved and survived these incidents, we couldn’t forget that day…

Concluding my series of commentaries on the findings of the “Impact of Fire Attack Utilizing Interior and Exterior Streams on Firefighter Safety and Occupant Survival” collection of UL experiments, this installment will cover the 18 "Tactical Recommendations" from the "Full Scale Experiments" (https://ulfirefightersafety.org/docs/DHS2013_Part_III_Full_Scale.pdf). Inspired by the findings from this study, but…

             Obtaining acquired structures is a first-rate asset within our fire service.  If an organization is fortunate enough to have a good training division with members actively working with contractors, developers, and the building department of their city; you can’t put a price on it. …

As a new guy how many times did you walk in the kitchen to hear the older guys sitting around talking about how bad everything is and counting down days until retirement. What people don’t realize is attitude is a very powerful tool. A bad one can sink a ship while a good one can make anything possible. I am blessed enough to work on a crew that has a great attitude towards life, work and each other. We have witnessed first-hand how positive attitudes can rub off and motivate others to…

This is the Fire Department… why are we worried about customer service?

You walk into a restaurant and encounter a rude, unprofessional employee who gets your order wrong, and you immediately get frustrated.  Or, you go to a hospital to find an extra long wait time followed by medical staff who treat you like you the days biggest burden.  We have all faced those at…

Unite and remember... never forget the sacrifices made on September 11th, 2001, and for all those still suffering from post 9/11 illnesses.

The Fall season of Fantasy Football is upon us. With the beginning of the National Football League schedule this weekend, hundreds of thousands of fantasy leagues are getting underway. Online accounts are being made, draft parties are being planned, and player stats are being scrutinized.

Full disclosure: I don’t do fantasy football. Not against it, just not my thing. So maybe my perspective is a bit biased, but I don’t think it is. Bear with me for a minute.

Quite frankly, I…

It's an Engine thing...

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Fit for Purpose – `hose selection makes or breaks the job`

On-Scene Arrival

Achieving successful outcomes when putting out a `fully involved fire` or `working fire` at a building fire, relies exponentially on sound and timely decisions and actions of the first-arriving vehicles crew.

In the firefighters world (size up, prioritising and tasking), the first five to ten minutes represents…

A basic understanding of elevators is a must for companies involved in high-rise fire suppression activities. Elevators can be used to shuttle men and supplies to the floors above. Elevators will be used extensively early on, but be prepared for elevators to be placed out of service during an extended event due to water damage or loss of power.

A few basic rules to understand with elevator use:

1. If the fire is on the 7th floor or below, take the stairs.

2. Firefighters…

If there is one thing that I remember being taught growing up in Northwest Ohio it was I had to own up to mistakes I made or something I broke. Regardless of how bad it was I knew that if I lied about it or tried to pass the blame off to someone else it only made the consequences worse in the end. It was definitely a hard lesson to learn with many “reminders” given to me by my parents. However it instilled a sense of ownership in me from a young age. When ownership is a thought it is usually…

Listen Here

Listen Here

In this episode the group discusses…

Across the country, school systems are gearing up for another academic year. Teachers are excited about their new classroom design. Students are looking forward to getting back to their friends. Parents are ecstatic to get the kids out of the house again!

This time of year is also when many fire training academies get back underway. It may be a new recruit academy or a local technical center aimed at volunteers. Large urban department training centers with all the trimmings or small…

Be Excellent at every opportunity and every moment - even when nobody is watching!

I am VERY excited to announce a special project that will combine Mark vonAppen's Full Involved and Drawn by Fire for the first time, and this cartoon is just the beginning. I will share more very soon...



But for now, here are a few words from the Rock Star…

It’s easy to use the word “passion” in this business. It’s easy to have the stickers and the T-shirts and everything else that makes for good marketing in this business. What’s hard is to actually be good at it.

For those who know me, reference me as “the passion guy.” I created a class about incorporating passion in your leadership. I have been…

With every official system of communication there is an unofficial system, which is commonly referred to as the “Grapevine” or the “Rumor Mill.” This communication system is a social network used to transmit social news and often, an organization’s official information, in an informal manner.

The grapevine is not a preferred method of communicating information within an organization. Official news traveling through the…

Fire Engineering August issue editorial cartoon: Social Mess.

It's a magical time to be alive...

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To see more Drawn By Fire, go to…

The Black Helmet Perspective

“A must have consideration for volunteer leadership”

They’re situated in every firehouse across America. Men or women instilled into leadership positions who can’t carry the responsibility and duty in which a leadership…

We have come to the point in this series that we will be looking at the results of the type of experiments the fire service has been clamoring for since UL and NIST first began releasing findings from their fire dynamics research that challenged longstanding practices. (To be fair, only some members of the fire service wanted these additional studies, in large part to address the concerns of other members who didn’t think the previous tests…