All Blog Posts (3,173)

Have you ever heard firefighters use the term "Pushing the Fire"? If so, did the firefighter have a clear understanding of the term? Although this is a valid term in the fire service, it seems there are some misconceptions regarding our actual ability to “Push the Fire”. Most commonly I have heard this term used when firefighters are discussing how they attacked a residential fire from one particular entry point because they didn’t want to “push the fire…

I am thankful for the opportunity to blog on Fire Engineering. This is my first blog post.

My name is Warren Cersley (Kers-lee) and I have been a Fireman for just over thirty-nine years. I came through the ranks in Richmond, Virginia where I currently serve as a Battalion Chief, a position I have held since 1986. When I write that it sure sounds like a long time, but I have enjoyed the people business, the fire service, so much that it seems like only yesterday.

My goal is to…

How many of you can think back to your first days in the fire service. You were brand new, and had no clue how any of the tools worked, nor did you know about any tactics related to the fire service. Now if you can, think back to when you started to learn these things. Was it in Probie…

Here we go again.

By now, we know way too much about the coward with anger management issues who killed a dozen innocent people yesterday at the DC Navy Yard.  I won't repeat his name.

Someone said he never got over "his demons" working at Ground Zero immediately following the 9/11 attacks.  Boy, that sure sucks, eh?

In my opinion, we give these criminals way too much coverage.  They don't deserve our attention.  I'll keep it clean…

Thanks to those that posted comments. They were good and showed some different ideas which is what I want.  

In this scenario, we have a fire in a split level residential house.  The fire occurs at 0630 hours on a Sunday morning. As with all these scenarios, what you see is what you get!   As a reminder, you are using your departments staffing, procedures and equipment.

Here is what i want to discuss:

• Where would you enter the house to begin your…

First of all, let me be clear that this is not an indictment of the method itself. You will not read any dispute or argument here against its effectiveness and rapidity. Nope, it’s good alright. A solid ventilation operation was born out of the necessity and a belief in the importance of peaked roof ventilation. These firefighters developed, evolved, and refined a vertical ventilation method that accomplishes the tactical requirements and at the same time keeps the brothers on solid working…

By: Mark vonAppen

Come with me to the land of make-believe.  Once upon a time, I thought I was a pretty good firefighter.  I could pull pre-connected hose line, tie a few knots, and strap my SCBA to my body in well under one…

Keep your enthusiasm alive, regardless of what the ol' status quo group says.

Another year has come and gone, and we firefighters have paused to remember the brave 343 who gave their lives on that spectacularly horrific morning in Manhattan.  We re-live the nightmare by peering at images from that crisp morning, reading gut-wrenching stories from survivor families, and admiring the ceremonies, plaques, and walls of remembrance.

It is right that we do this.

And, even without the t-shirts, helmet stickers and seemingly parroted rote…

We will always remember the service and sacrifice of our FDNY brothers 12 years ago today.

We will always remember the service and sacrifice of our FDNY brothers 12 years ago today.

I have been in quite a few fire houses where the troops are just sitting around watching sportscenter or shooting the breeze with conversation. At some point one of them will say "what are we going to train on today?" or "what’s going on next drill night?" At that point someone will say either don’t know or that there wont be a training officer around so we will just talk about football, hockey (Go blackhawks), or our latest…

There has been a lot of talk recently, the last few years especially, about the culture of the fire service. There have been all kinds of cultures thrown around: a culture of safety, a culture of extinguishment, a culture of tradition, a culture of nexters, etc. I think you get the point.

I'm going to keep this short.

First, cultures are created over long periods of time by attitudes, beliefs and habits. Cultures of anything are not easy to change or fix, if that is the…

Firefighter/Technician Steve Brookbank, (Air Unit No. 1, Wash. DC) sent these two photographs in. This standpipe configuration is located on the upper floors of a high rise building. 



The photograph on the left is of a 2 1/2" riser connection in the middle of a hallway corridor. You may notice that…

In the fire service there are a number of companies and individual firefighters/officers that are always "going for the gold", trying to find better ways to accomplish our job and strive to assure the "basics" are always fresh in the minds of others.



This certainly plays true for Captain Daniel…

When I teach, I usually bring up the point that “there is always more than one right way to fight a fire and conversely, more than one wrong way to fight a fire”.  What works (or worked) in Toledo may not work in New York and vice versa.  

In my third book, “Searching Smarter” (published by Fire Engineering/Pennwell, 2011), in Chapter 2,  I discuss the four types of search I am aware of; those being “Standard Search”, “Team Search”, “Vent Enter Search (VES)” and the “Oriented…

When your department is short staffed and your Training Division is short staffed it makes it difficult to conduct quality training in the basics. That is why it is imperative that at the company officer level training in the basics continues. Although plentiful overtime is good in the short term in the long term it can lead to fatigue and lack of consistent training sessions. One of the things that the Training Division must balance is the amount of work hours firefighters are putting in…