All Blog Posts (3,200)

“Brotherhood is dead.”

I’ve witnessed that same sentence uttered or typed several times in the last few weeks.  It’s out and out poppycock.  Balderdash.  Claptrap.  Malarkey. 

If service and selflessness are the foundation of this profession, then brotherhood is the mortar that holds all the other pieces of our house together.  Without brotherhood, we fall apart.  There are those in the fire service that truly do not appreciate that fact, nor do they care about…

It’s 4AM and your company is dispatched to an MVC with entrapment. You arrive and find one vehicle against a large tree with the passenger heavily trapped by the dash. Due to the damage, the vehicle cannot be moved from the tree and passenger side access is limited. In turn, we need a full side-to-side dash…

Through the analysis of many line of duty death reports and close calls, the one stand-alone take away that I believe has been fully embraced and is in my opinion become a standard in today’s size up is the 360 degree evaluation of the structure immediately after arrival. But; as with most of our tactics this procedure has been honed on one particular type of dwelling, the residential structure. Doing a lap around an 80’ X 65’ can be done relatively quickly and in doing so can provide…

Firefighter Functional Training - Promoting Health and Wellness in Your Department

In North Carolina the Office of the State Fire Marshal is the certifying body for the fire service.  As in most locales I am sure, it has been quite some time since our firefighter certification program received a major makeover.  Our latest makeover took effect January 1, 2015 and included the addition of three modules to the certification…

Join me on Wednesday evening 7/22/15 at 7:30pm for the next edition  of Fire and Training on Fire Engineering  Talk Radio.  Joining me will be colleagues Chris Naum and Joe Pronesti as we explore Training and Operations for Today's Main Street fires.  The discussions will include building construction, renovations or lack thereof, structural stability, re-appropriated use,…

    A training program that is not comprehensive, effective and / or efficient must be changed!  When you consider how events have impacted our operations in recent years, we as the fire service have taken on EMS, Hazardous Materials, Technical Rescue, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Terrorism  just to name a…

“Why We Train”

I was asked, during a conversation with an older firefighter, one night, “Why it was “so necessary to train so much?” My best answer to that question, goes something like this.

Along with many others, I attended a "Fire Dynamics" set of classes recently, at my local county fire academy, here in my part of Pennsylvania. These classes were based on the science that N.I.S.T. is bringing to the table of America's Fire Service. N.I.S.T. has countless…

Simplistic as these statements are, most of the recommended tactical changes that have resulted from the fire dynamics research are ultimately related to those two general findings.  They summarize the reality of the effects of our primary fire control tactics.  Certainly, the implementation of these “rules” will be situation-specific and in no way as cut and dried as such a short list suggests, but they do represent the themes, so to speak, of how the approach to structure fire control is…

Over the last few weeks I have seen on social media and many other outlets a growing frustration for the lack of making training a priority. I share in the frustration of others when it comes to the mindset that may be out there when it comes to this. I have a very experienced Captain who I am grateful to be working alongside. He has close to, if not over 30 years of service. He has…

How many of you have had a line painted down the middle of the floor between the engine and truck?  I bet a few of you did....

Assessing Fire Department Organizational Behavior comes in many different forms. There are many professional standards, response models and certified accreditation. On a recent training trip I had the opportunity to provide an unofficial organizational assessment of a department. Assessing organizational behavior is important for instructors. You see you can learn a lot…

Who has the juice?

One of the great blessings in life is the time that we all have to quietly ponder and think. Our quiet place and time may differ but the results are the same. If you don’t have that place and time in your life, and in your work, I think it is vitally important that you find it. I hope that you will.…

Vince Lombardi once said “when you get into the end zone, act like you’ve been there before”. This applies to firefighting, meaning when you arrive on the scene of a working fire do the job you have been trained to do. Don’t act like a fool, be professional

As firefighters, most of us follow SOP’s, algorithms or protocols depending on what type of call we go on. The goal of these procedures is to provide a systematic guide to our decision making process. What if we just showed up on a fire and said “well, I feel like doing this today”. That would be unacceptable because inevitably we would miss an important component of our fire attack. We need to think about this concept every time that we step inside a gym or a weight room for a…

        Whether it’s halligans, hooks or hoses, the unfortunate truth is that too many firefighters are using inferior tools and equipment on the fireground…and this needs to stop. To most of the brothers and sisters that will take the time to read (and watch) this, this is old news; but to many of our brethren, this is the first they’re hearing of this.…

White Shirt Fitness

There are numerous “hot topics” that face leaders in the fire service right now, and it does not take much to stir up a heated debate among “brothers” around a station or on the Internet.  Firefighters are very passionate in their beliefs, and if you want to know what they think, generally all you have to do is ask them.  Bring up simple topics like vertical ventilation and smooth bore…

To Be or to Do? Your Fork In the Road

by David Rhodes

This Hump Day SOS was…

I like to pose this question to any firefighter that will take the time to listen to me. I don’t want you to answer just yet. In my previous career, prior to joining the fire service I worked as a Performance Specialist with Athletes Performance (now EXOS). I was fortunate to train some of the top professional athletes in the world and work alongside some of the best Strength and Conditioning coaches in the industry. Most of the coaches that I worked with are currently working in a…