March 2015 Blog Posts (70)

God Bless the members of the tight-knit rescue company completing their morning checks, making sure that everything is ready to perform at its highest level. The saws, the spreaders, the SCBA.

God Bless the single mother, going off duty after her busy shift on the engine company, driving through the rain to pick up her kids from their father’s house, so he can go to work.

God Bless the paramedic who holds the hand of an elderly lady on her last ride to the hospital, as she…

Whole lot of Monday Morning Quarterbacking going on around Twitter and Facebook today - typical after an accident or tragedy. Nothing wrong with learning from videos posted online, but keep your social media expert advice to yourself. Move away from the keyboard and show some…

Below is a story I posted to "The 1st Battalion" Facebook page a few days ago. We write to a mixed audience, including many folks from the community, so please excuse the layperson language. I wanted to share it here because these little passive CO monitors work! My department chose the Protege CM- we have them wire-tied to every aide/BLS/jump bag in the department. Ours alarmed less than a minute after initial patient contact, at which point we very quickly removed the two residents and all…

I often hear this question mentioned numerous times, how young is to young to be in this service? Where do we drawl a line and say their not old enough?

Having come from a rural department in Kentucky I understand the need for working hands, but is their an age that stands out as "they are too young"?

in the state of Kentucky 18 is the minimum age to join up as an active duty firefighter but many municipalities set their hiring age at 21, is there a reason; and…

     From just reading the title, I know what you’re thinking, “Why don’t I get to decide which line I pull at a fire, that’s crazy talk!” Let me clarify that, we don’t get to decide which line size is appropriate to pull at a fire, the fire dictates that, not us.

     Over almost the last three decades in the fire service I have heard many of the same comments about using a 2…

DRAWN BY FIRE Flashback - Because who doesn't love the constant blowing of hot air through a big h*** that never closes!

Can I get an amen?!

Order prints and books here:…

Never Forget Your First Day

Joseph Kitchen, Bath Twp. Fire Department (Lima, Ohio)

     I love the fire service. I truly believe that being a career firefighter is the best job on the planet. Thrilling, exciting, fulfilling, and demanding are all…

 It is estimated that, within the last ten years; 1,500,000,000 articles and books have been written on Leadership. That is not a typo.

And if someone tells you, "I have read every book there is on Leadership", you might want to do a fact check. I mean; the time commitment alone to accomplish that should raise a red flag.

 …

A guide to help your self-study in size up and command

By: Joe Pronesti

With today’s social media everyone knows that fire video is a click away sometimes we can get video while crews are on scene still. It’s great that we can…

THE SUNDAY PREACH

"FEEL"

On this last installation of the look, listen, and feel approach to our search technique, we discuss how,…

A large proportion of fire or rescue related incidents that we respond to often happen in the low light or dark hours of the day. This is important to know because we need to be proficient in working in these conditions. We usually do the majority of our training in daylight hours. This is because we can see and it’s easier to teach to students or refresh on skills in these conditions, it’s also easier to schedule the classes. I think we need to perform more of our trainings at night so we…

Does your size-up typically look beyond the moment you arrive? With a good working fire, this may be an obvious part of a response. But what about for those responses where we arrive and believe there to be no fire? If nothing is burning, is there really anything to size-up?

While a good size-up should give us a clear picture of what we have and what we need to do to mitigate the situation, we must also consider the events that we may or may not actually see happening, as well as…

When I entered the fire service as a young man at the age of 15, I had no idea what the profession stood for...nor did I know where I would ever end up. As times have progressed, I have found myself needing to change with the times in order to adapt for the needs of training, education, and being a coach/mentor. We look at ourselves as professionals, and speak about being part of the best profession there is...which it most certainly is!

In 1995, being part of the fire service meant…

A recent Jimmy Kimmel episode poking fun at EMS response times in New York City where Uber response time averages beat out EMS may not be so funny.  In an era where consumers can locate the nearest taxi, private car or rideshare from their mobile phone, it would seem that 9-1-1 is a bit behind.  Nationally, very few of us can see the locations of our apparatus and virtually nowhere can 9-1-1 callers learn the ETA of their assigned…

Note: This article is written from a suburban perspective for suburban firefighting.

Suppression culture. The most interesting and dynamic part of the fire service in recent years, that is becoming the most debated topic within the fire service. From the concept of "hit it hard from the yard"…

Daryl…

A short while back, I posted a blog called The Undeniable Truth that challenged fire departments to be courageous in…