All Blog Posts (3,145)

This article is being posted, with permission from the author Jake Rixner

In everyone's career, things are said or done that make the "light bulb turn on".  This article was one of the things that I read early in my career that had a tremendous impact on me.  Immediately after reading it, I knew I had to be a member of the 30% Club, that a 30 percenter was the type of fireman I wanted to be.  Though I 've…

Blogger Note: Airport the movie appeared in theaters in 1970 and starred Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin and Jean Seberg. The sequel, Airport 1975 is probably more memorable of the two movies. The sequel starred Charlton Heston, Karen Black and George Kennedy.

Ask anybody.

Stuff happens to me.

Whether it’s to the store or to another state; every trip is always an epic adventure for me.

I never have a travel itinerary; I have places where I have to be and it’s a…

New Blog Post..     Bloggin About Protecting Your Noggin   http://blog.firefightercharlton.com

I would love to hear your thoughts.

There is a chance that I may get punched in the face for the next statement but forethought rarely stops me. I was listening to a Rockies game and rereading the Urban Firefighter Article…

My first show with Fire Engineering Talk Radio is, as they say, in the can.

If you didn’t have the chance to tune in live on April21, you can go to Fire Engineering Talk Radio and you can listen to the archived version. You can also see the schedule of some excellent upcoming shows.

I am also hearing that shows might be offered as Mp3 downloads in the future.

As host, I don’t…

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In my academy we were not taught the art of search, instead we did "search and rescue" drills. When we entered a building be it the drill tower or an acquired structure we would immediately start our search as we were being trained to do. Right hand or left hand from the front door with the sole purpose of finding a victim or reporting primary clear. The monotony of the…

This installment of LODD drills comes from 2006 and the loss sustained by the brothers and sisters of Green Bay, Wisconsin Fire Department. The LODD occurred August 13^th 2006.

From the official LODD Report:

August 13^th, 2006, 1223 hrs

Arnold W.“Arnie”Wolff, Lieutenant

Lieutenant Wolff and an engineer were ordered to enter the…

I recently served as a controller for an exercise up in New England.  This was a combined exercise based on the dispersion of Anthrax.  This in itself makes it a terrorist incident.  Present at the exercise were fire, EMS, Hospitals, Emergency Management???and one lone policeman.

Unfortunately this is not an exception but pretty much the rule when it comes to exercises, law enforcement just doesn?t show up most of the time. Although in most every case, the training of our law…

For as long as I have been in the fire service, there is one question that I always seem to hear..."Hey, what do you carry in your pockets?"  

For some this is an easy question to answer, but then there are those who have to pull everything out of their pockets to actually see what is in there.  I have seen everything from screwdrivers to pliers, wood chocks to channel locks, moldy cheese and other things that many would be scared of!  I have run the gamut of what I carry in…

That is what I like to call the workers compensation system here in Illinois.

Blogger Alert: I want to be very clear that I am not singling out a particular segment of the workforce based on the links provided. My cynicism extends across the board. The term “union” appears in this article as an example of lobbying only. It does not reflect my view of unions either way, so save the vitriol.

As part of my job, I handle work injury claims for my company.…

The classic trench cut shown to the left has not changed by definition only by misapplication. The trench cut was developed during the 1960’s in New York city during an exceptionally busy fire…

As reported in our nations news, five DC Fire Department members were injured yesterday in an early morning house fire.  They became trapped by a ceiling collapse shortly after making entry. The speed with which the RIC deployed and made rescues, coupled with the the IC immediately requesting a 2nd Alarm resulted in not only rapid rescue of multiple trapped firefighters, but also quick knock down of a serious fire.  

Unlike urban/metro FD's, the suburban FD may not have quite…

My colleagues and I at Traditions Training, LLC are very happy to be a part of this "blogger network" with Fire Engineering. I am hoping that this new blog will come out ok, as I am still adjusting to the format on the new FE site.

Ok, here we go... Elder Statesman Henry Clay once said "statistics are no substitute for judgement" and I wholeheartedly agree. In fact I really hate statistics…