May 2018 Blog Posts (16)

© 2018 Jim Wick

What Do You Win When You Lose?

By

Jim Wick

Have you ever been intimidated when first meeting an organizational icon?  I was.  “What do you win when you lose?”  John asked sternly with an intense stare as I walked into his office. I was already…

Many of us in the public safety business have always believed that through property taxes or other publicly funded methods, the fire service would be able to provide a full range of services in an ever-changing and challenging environment.

There are a lot of hands reaching out for limited pubic money to adequately fund parks, police, parks, potholes and other necessary services provided by government and now is the time to discuss the elephant in the room, cost…

Recently, I read this quote by an anonymous author - “A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands for everybody else.” I can think of nowhere else this is truer than in today’s fire service.



My daughter, now 24, has never known a mother and father that wasn’t inspiring her to be anything she wanted – anything, regardless of the physical,…

     We all know that Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is a necessary part of firefighting. Through the years PPE has evolved into the most high-tech equipment ever used by the modern firefighter. Every year that passes brings new innovations to make a dangerous job, on a good day, a little safer.

     None of us would ever dream of sending our firefighters into a burning structure without proper PPE. We would never send them into fight fire without the best gear we can…

I hate to admit it, but unfortunately, as a leader, I know what the words I don’t trust you sound like. Perhaps the most frustrating part for me at the time was that I didn’t know exactly what I did at the time to earn this statement. I spent countless hours second-guessing myself, asking other’s opinions, and trying to find a way to reconnect with this person to get us back on track.

But in searching for answers I found none.  Each day the distance between us…

            The number of people switching to natural gas as a fuel source is ever growing. It’s obvious the frequency of “gas calls” in which we respond seems to be increasing by the day. With this becoming a solid reality, the opportunity of becoming complacent as a fire service when responding to these calls has become a tangible threat. The following is a call we responded to where even the gas company representative was surprised to find what had materialized.…

Over the past year I’ve been contributing to the Stop Believing Start Knowing (SBSK) blog https://www.facebook.com/StopBelievingStartKnowing, a professional firefighter page dedicated to helping firefighters learn and understand modern fire attack principles, based on the modern fire dynamics science studies provided through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Underwriter Laboratories (UL).   SBSK has…

Photos by Brian Butler/Rob Dooley

A few years ago while doing a fire preplan at an old parking garage downtown in our first due, we discovered the seven deck parking garage had no standpipe. So every year, we conduct a training exercise to make our own standpipe. There are several methods to deliver water to an upper deck…

“Preparing New Members For A Growth Mindset”

by Matt Beakas

     Becoming a firefighter takes poise, stamina, physical strength and more importantly, mental…

“Only one quarter (27 percent) of fire departments have a basic firefighter fitness and health program, slightly down from 30 percent in 2010.” 

-NFPA Needs Assessment, 2015

27 percent

“…slightly down from 30 percent in 2010”

Really?

While it is doubtful that every single department in the country participated in this assessment…

All,

I am conducting a pilot study through the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to better understand organizational factors that influence wellness.

The research conducted in conjunction with this survey explains the need for multifaceted wellness programs that address aerobic fitness, mental health, recovery, nutrition, and sleep. These areas are interconnected and all attribute to cardiovascular disease risk.

Abundant research has examined the effects of total…

The Alameda County judge recently ruled that Oakland officials had a "mandatory duty" to ensure safety at the doomed Ghost Ship warehouse, leaving the city potentially liable for a fire where 36 people died. Attorneys for the dozens of victims and their families, as well as reports by Mercury News (CA) have detailed numerous visits by police, firefighters and building officials in the years before the deadly Dec. 2, 2016, fire. The maze-like Fruitvale district warehouse with…

     I have had these ideas on leadership swimming around in my head for quite some time. I have now decided to try to share some of my thoughts on leadership in the hopes that my thoughts on the subject might, in some small way may help other leaders or aspiring leaders. At the very least, maybe it will generate the desire to slow down and consider different solutions to problems. You may find, after some thought, that the problem you thought you had isn’t really a problem for anyone but…

Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) International is considered by many in the Fire Service as “the Greatest Show on Earth.” This is a place where Chiefs, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders, Firefighters and all walks of life in Emergency Services come to learn, network and more importantly get their batteries recharged.

Batteries Recharged? This got me thinking…

As I walked through the show room and the halls and took in every second of everything I could that was offered…

Life moves at a fast pace these days... So fast you can easily miss an opportunity to improve one self. The pace affects everybody from the firefighter down on the floor, right up to the chief’s office. There are two common management models during these busy times, the first would be the progressive management model. Being progressive involves supporting the needs and requirements of the organization and predicting or forecasting the future. The latter is called crisis or chaos management…

Community Collaboration: How Local Fire Departments, First Responders, and Business/Industry Can Form Partnerships

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

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