All Blog Posts (3,146)

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…

FIRE TRUCKS AND TRAINS

The “Triple Cross” is in Richmond, Virginia. It is said to be the only place in the United States of America and possibly the world where three Class 1 railroads cross at different levels over the same spot.

Near the “Triple Cross” stands Main Street Station, the…

As a company officer, one of the earliest things to accomplish with each individual firefighter on your crew is to have a one-on-one meeting and ensure they fully understand what your expectations are.  After this is accomplished, you sit down with the entire crew and discuss the goals and vision and invite them to weigh in on what the team can do to meet those objectives.  Getting their buy in, listening to their thoughts and ideas, and allowing them to be a part of the team direction is a…

I have been an officer on an Engine for almost 9 years. In that time I have worked with different crews and many different personalities.  As my crew changed, I also had to change my style to fit the crew.   What I has taken my nearly all 9 years to figure out is that when people don't do what I want or what I expect, it is most often because they didn't understand what I wanted.  That was tough for me to recognize because I think I am being very clear.  So I am the problem? Yes, at least a…

Lets go back for a while and practice on some more residential occupancies we all may have. 

The exterior load bearing walls are wood with brick veneer.  It was built about 1900. there are four apartments on each floor. Three stairs serve the building. One of the "A" side, one the "B" and one on the "D" sides as well.  There is no egress in the "C" side. 

All units are believed to be occupied with an unspecified number of occupants.  However, while returning from runs and other…

By Billy Schmidt

Are you building your fire department administration strategically? How do you find and position the cornerstone members who will ignite interest, introduce new ideas and development, and achieve a dynamically talented team? Can they hit the target?…

Pro-Safety is all the buzz. If fact soon we will be so safe that we won’t even respond to incidents because it is just too risky. A friend recently told me that he replaced the word “safe” with “smart” in all his SOP’s. I think that is OUTSTANDING. The word “safe” is defined as:

adj. Safe

1.…

How many times have you heard someone follow up a sentence with: but he is a nice guy, or she is nice person? How many times have you heard people make excuses for other Firefighters? I completely understand that we have all sorts of nice people in the Fire Service, but the Fire Service needs Firefighters more than it needs nice people.

He is a horrible EMS provider, but he is a nice guy.

She can’t perform her job, but she is really nice.

He shouldn’t be in this…

I am one who has had my share of frustrations with the fire service at times.  There were times that it would have been really easy to sit back and just glide into a recliner and drift away into the land of complacency and doing as little as possible.  

It would have been real easy to become one of those guys that learned all I needed to know at the academy and on the job.  I could have been the one who wears the t-shirts and puts the stickers in the back window of my truck to…

The fire service has so many different sayings and mottos that they become cliche and difficult for newer firefighters to truly understand what they mean.  But, more than just saying these slogans and even understanding, in some cases we need to make sure we act on those mantras.

One of the sayings that I hear a great deal of and say myself is "do the right thing."  For some of us we probably take for granted that the persons we are telling this to know what it means to do that.  …

By:  Mark vonAppen 

Working a shift trade on a company that you are not totally familiar with poses some interesting and potentially hand-tying problems.  It also presents an opportunity for growth.

As things were winding down at our last structure fire, a…

I was watching the wind driven fire research and recognized a bit of irony. During the wind driven fire study a large PPV fan was used to create the wind for the study. A fire curtain was deployed to block the wind from the fan in order to control the wind driven…

Hello, my name is Paul Combs. I am a firefighter NREMT-B and I have a problem relating to my patient’s emotional and physical needs.



There, I’ve said it publicly, you’ve read it on social media, and I can now begin my personal growth. It’s that easy, right? I wish!

EMS care has been a struggle for me. Not the training, certifications, continuing…

Old guys like me are occasionally asked what we consider to be the highlight of our career.  I always thought standing on the “big stage,” at FDIC represented the pinacle of achievement in our business.  It’s where I’ve seen all of my fire service heroes stand and talk on the latest in firefighting and what is coming next.  I had the honor some years ago to stand there.  I couldn’t believe that they let me anywhere near that podium, but I was honored to have the chance to do it.  But as it…

Engine 846 with smoke showing PLUS articles from Fire Engineering

Prince George’s County firefighters responded to the townhouse fire in the 600 block of Harry S. Truman Drive. The box alarm consisted of Engine companies 46, 33, 5 and 23; Truck companies 37 and 38; and Truck 9 as the Rapid Intervention Company. Engine 846 arrived to find smoke showing from the end unit of a two-story row.…

Appointed or Anointed?

I have had the honor of serving as a Chief Officer for nearly twenty-eight years. I have seen a few things and I have been around the block a couple of times. I may be different from some because I believe that I was appointed but never anointed.

I recall a Captain opening my office door and advising me that a Battalion Chief from FDNY was in the…

One constant in the fire service is there is never a shortage of people who have a better way to build a mousetrap.  Without this naturally occurring firefighter forward-thinking mentality, we would certainly see a fire service that is less capable, less safe, and just plain less than it is.  Because emergencies can be approached and executed from many different angles, our training and preparation can also be approached in many ways.  We see this all the time. You can talk tactics with the…

Eight members of the fire service died while on duty

The following information is a breakdown of the details of those members in the fire service who died while operating “on-duty” as defined by the United States Fire Administration. For more information on this definition and that of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation's definition of "line of duty death" read “…

Today’s blog is inspired by my nephew who I am incredibly proud of after following in my footsteps joining the DCFD. I was fortunate, that as the Chief of Operations, I got to go to a few fires with him and I watch him grow in to a solid firefighter. Unfortunately for him, this often exposed him to the daily serenades of “Uncle Larry’”

Its been interesting managing the difference in fire department philosophy between my views (as the Boss) and his view’s as the one who has to…

This past week I found myself being very stressed out with my work. Not so much the duties I perform everyday but the recent frustrations I have with the way things are being done, or not done. We all have our pet peeves. We all have the things we are passionate about. Most of mine are very simple and just to name a few; pride in uniform appearance, training, accountability and passion for the profession we spend months or years trying to get into. At the end of this frustrating week for me…