August 2015 Blog Posts (63)

Sometimes a little pride has to be swallowed to get the job done!





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Sometimes we need to seek out opinions from others in order to ensure the validity of our own, and that is not a natural or even comfortable process.  In fact, it seems someone is always trying to tell us how to live our lives or do our jobs, providing advice we didn’t seek out, or explaining their view of our world.  Still, it is often only with the assistance of outside eyes that we can truly see ourselves. 

How many times have you been asked by a…

The Sunday Preach:

Expectations & Communication

"We can earn loyalty by training well, treating people fairly, and by setting a positive example... Someone is always watching your actions and interactions. Set the tone for the way you expect your crew to perform, and they will follow you." (pg 12).

I often get asked how I began teaching on the topic of understaffed company operations, or why I feel addressing short staffed operations is so important. The answer is very simple, because our lives depend on it. Most foundation level training programs are based on students working in teams of five or six, even in my own state. Realistically, that is just not practical for many firefighters across the country. Our focus is to take the skills and material taught in most training programs…

         There are a few common sayings that are heard on a daily basis in fire departments that absolutely get under my skin. Here are just a few to name; “It has been this way for 40+ years, you’ll never change it now” or “XYZ Fire Company does it that way so we will not”, but we are aware that there are plenty more that are used.  These statements are the “Cancer Sayings” in the fire service.  As volunteer and career guys, we have the best job in the world and if you do not…

A strong, good willed, open-minded, patient, listener but most importantly supporter walks into the room. This is a person with integrity, with values, a person who puts themselves second and lives to help and support others. No, I’m not talking about the Fireman, I’m talking about the Fireman’s wife.…

Every once in a while, I look back on the individuals I hired as firefighters during my career. As the hiring process is a relatively complicated, I believe I made the right decisions in the hiring and rejection of candidate firefighters. That I made the right decisions was reaffirmed the other day when I stopped by one of my stations to check on crew deployed to Eastern Washington fighting the wildland fires and were met by several firefighters and…

Its been very well documented that the leading cause of  firefighter-on-duty deaths is related to heart disease. Therefore any information regarding decreasing the chances of heart disease are very valuable to the firefighting community. I’ve recently been researching the correlation between cholesterol and heart disease and have found some interesting correlations.

The long-established dietary recommendations of yesterday have created epidemics of obesity and diabetes, the…

This will be a working extrication of my head from my A$$

“Avoid putting callouses in the hearts of your loved ones”

We have a ritual with our oldest child, Ayla who is three years old. We finish each nightly bed-time routine by…

By: Mark vonAppen

Improving Internal Communication 

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

             Every fire chief has a pet peeve. For some its unpolished boots, for others its firefighters staring at their smart phones. Each of us has at least one thing that our personnel do that drives us crazy. For me, it…

During many of my Tactical Extrication Courses, students will occasionally come across compressed airbag cylinders located throughout the vehicle. Anyone who has taken one of my classes knows that I always push peeling back plastic and exposing posts/pillars to check for airbag cylinders. So what happens when you run across…

Should we link Firefighter fitness to pay, appraisals and continued employment?

We are about to introduce a new fitness standard, and tests, in our Fire and Rescue Service (Fire Department), and after we have established that for 9 months Firefighters pay will be affected by whether they pass the tests or not. Even their continued employment with…

Stop Asking for “The” Way by David Rhodes

As fire research continues to evolve and more dialogue continues about fire attack I have noticed that many…

I’m sure one of these categories fits you. Summer camp is done and the kids are bored, and driving you nuts. The kids are back to school or are going back to school shortly. You dropped your college student at the campus for another year of who knows what? Vacationing at the camp grounds, Disney, a resort, a remote island, the south of France or the back yard stay-cation are a distant memory. Did I hit it yet? One thing is for sure. We’re about to embark on the fall season and school is just…

I used the term “Vertical Vandalism” as the title of my most recent post 

(http://community.fireengineering.com/profiles/blog/show?xg_source=activity&id=1219672%3ABlogPost%3A620250), leading some to believe that I was suggesting we abandon that tactic.  In fact, my specific wording was that we could stop “routinely” creating damage in the pursuit of increased…

This information may only reach out and touch a few people that visit the Fire Engineering Community. If you are part of an organization that responds to military installations, specifically US Navy waterborne installations, this applies to you. It is equally important to those of us responsible for shipyards where military vessels will enter port. For the most part this will include departments on or near each of our coastlines, to include the gulf coast. I served in…

Monday August 24th is the sixth anniversary of a double line of duty death that must be studied and lessons taken by all firefighters responding to Type III legacy buildings If you are new to the service I have attached the report and also video and audio from the scene, crews arriving were met with a serious basement fire with reported people in the building.

The audio in my opinion should be a mandatory part of every command officer's training in this country and I encourage you to…

Do you PPV?

"Positive pressure ventilation (PPV) is a topic worthy

of some discussion. Ladder companies that carry PPV fans must be well versed in their use. There is a tendency that if someone sets a PPV fan at the front door, it should be started and run. This is not always the case. PPV fans are excellent tools for removing smoke…