All Blog Posts (3,146)

The road to success can be a long and winding road of trials and tribulations.  The trials of everyday business can be rewarding at times, but can also emphasis our failures.  We often struggle to bind the large pieces of the pie together, without focusing on the small pieces first.

After many years of chasing our dreams to wear “White”, we are called upon to impact departments in a positive manner…(and I don’t mean trying to be everyone’s friend).  We are forever looked at to guide…

Happy Halloween, everybody - may your bags be full of treats and your smoke detectors plentiful!





Click link below to see more of Paul's work or to buy prints:…

Here is a quick video on setting up and storing your webbing. If you have other methods please share them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEtZcHy6Oxc

Here is a post with an attached company drill on perimeter search.

Perimeter Search from Engine House Training, LLC

      On September 17, 2011, a protest called Occupy Wallstreet was organized in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City’s Wall Street financial district. The protest was initiated by a Canadian activist group. It was the first of many Occupy protests that flowed throughout the world.  Their initial purpose was to take a stand against corporate greed, economic inequality, and undue influence of financial services corporations on government. Their…

Often times we conduct training in our firehouses where we are crawling around in turnout gear for a RIT drill, throwing ladders, and stretching lines. All of which is extremely important. Some of this hands on training is supplemented with talk about strategies and tactics around the galley table as a crew, or watching a fire video online and practicing size-up. Once again, all great stuff. One thing we need to make sure we include into our training calendars is a simple walk through of our…

Any student of this profession by now as read or been instructed on all the UL and NIST research, some of our largest and busiest departments have changed some of their procedures due to this remarkable research. In my opinion for any size department it makes sense to re-think your present tactics and current policies if you have any and if you don’t now may be the time to start a procedure based on all of this data and train on it.…

When we think of football greats, particularly quarterbacks, what makes them great?  Touchdowns?  Passing yards?  What about the ability to read a defense and know that when they set the play in motion, it will be a success not by chance, but by proper recognition of their opponent and confidence in their choice of counter measure against them.  If this is a factor in determining a great quarterback, then who better to demonstrate this skill than the recent Touchdown King himself, Mr. Peyton…

The Adventures of Jake and Vinnie© was conceived in 2004.

It started as an idea while I was writing for the IACOJ. We thought that it would boost membership and readership.

I encouraged the members at the time to submit their biographies to me with the promise of creating a fictional character that I would introduce into the story lines of various episodes.

Interest was high. I had several biographies to choose from and the characters that would populate The…

Chief Harvey Eisner was a wealth of knowledge and insight - and an important force in my early career as a fire service editorial cartoonist. He and I talked in 2005 during my first Firehouse Expo about creating cartoons for Firehouse magazine (I had already been creating cartoons for Firehouse.com for a couple of months). He wanted me to expand my cartoons beyond “funny”…

We all know the importance of staying physically fit to perform our duties, improve stamina, and decrease injury, but very few of us take flexibility as seriously. As a firefighter who is looking 50 square in the eyes, I can tell you that the ol' joints just don't respond and react as they used to, and the only thing that keeps me in the game is strength training…

I am looking for a copy of Qualitative Fire Behavior.  It was published by ISFSI in 1991.  I cannot find it any where on line

including ISFSI.  I anyone has a copy and would like to sell it please let me know.  Or because it is out of print if anyone

wants to sell me copies of the book (with out violating Copy right laws) legally let me know.  It is greatly appreciated

Dave

Which Came First?

Here I go again beating up my RIT friends. No, I'm not anti-RIT but I continue to be amazed at the lack of balance or should I say prioritization in our fire training. RIT training is fun and fire behavior training…

Nine firefighters have lost their lives while on the road, to date, in 2014

Eight actually, if you don't include the one who did not feel well and was found off the road in his private vehicle after an alarm.…

Your company is assigned to Search. The first in Engine Company has already stretched a line in through the front door on the A/B corner and heading up stairs.   One firefighter of that crew is assigned to “Door Control” until the fire is located and darkened.  So we have two firefighters on Division 2 with a hoseline (the remainder of the first in Engine Company).  Their focus is on darkening the fire.

Again, you are assigned search.  Staffing is whatever your crew would be staffed…

Many times extrication training consists of popping a door or completing a dash lift on non-damaged vehicles. One method that has really added to the consistency of our success on "real world" entrapments is…

Just the other day I was sitting here at work and was part of a short conversation on a theory of why the fire service is the way it is. You know us firefighters; we will sit around the galley table and solve everything. Doesn’t matter if its fire service specific or how to fix the economy, run the presidency, or the way we would deal with the Ebola situation. In this case in particular it was about how the fire service is plagued with firefighters who are always trying to come up with the…

The Sunday Preach:



Stickers



My house is loaded with stickers... they are literally littered everywhere. If you have young children, you know exactly what I mean. "Sticker charts" & "graphs" noting progress in manners, schoolwork and chores. Stickers given as treats, used to make…

           Take a trip with me for a minute……Beep beep beep beep: “Attn: Fire Dept, Working structure fire 555 W 555 N.  Caller advised flames visible”.  This is what you hear out of your pager.  You race to the fire station.  As you run in, you see 5 other members putting on their PPE.  Your response guideline says 1^st two trucks out the door are Engine 1 and Engine 2 with the 3^rd being a water tender.  3 of you jump in Engine 1 and the other 3 jump in Engine 2 and…

If you are a middle child in a typical family, you are likely to be subject to the following in regards to your older and younger siblings: you don’t get the responsibility or freedom that your older sibling gets, nor do you get the chance to stay home and watch your younger brother or sister when mom or dad leaves unless it’s a quick trip to the store. 

On the other side, you don’t get the extra attention…