All Blog Posts (3,147)

I suppose I am fortunate that one of the only ongoing debates between my wife and I are the nuances of loading the dishwasher.  You see, I load the dishwasher the way it was designed to be loaded.  My wife, she believes randomly loading the dishwasher.  We both think that our respective methods work best for fitting the most dishes and getting the job done the best.  Much like the fireground, and numerous other “hot topics” right now, there are many different opinions and theories on the…

Let's have a show of hands, figuratively speaking... Who likes to be micromanaged and placed under the ever-present scrutiny of a magnifying glass? If you raised your hand, please quietly leave my blog now - I'm sure there's a mega-corporate blog out there in Internetland just for you!



Great leaders lead by placing trust in their subordinates and empowering…

This illustration is in response to the many letters and emails I've received from followers of my commentary. They state that texting and responding in department vehicles or POVs is becoming very commonplace - and has resulted in a few accidents, as well. To be honest, I'm guilty of doing it myself on occasion. Not while responding, but driving to the station or…

In our classes we spend a lot of time showing firefighters how to stay out of and how to get out of bad situations.  Our fire service is seeing an increase in firefighters who are falling through floors into basements or sub-levels.  This is large part due to the engineered flooring systems that do not perform well in fire conditions.

Fires are growing more intense much…

Here we sit in 2012 and there is still a need to address. discuss or simply admonish the lack of turnout gear on incidents. We are still seeing chiefs or incident commanders of some sort running into buildings and homes or walking about a mvc with the sole protection of their hand held radios. Then we see firefighters jumping off the rigs wearing a leather helmet and tennis shoes or a ball cap and turnout pants. It makes for a fine commercial for that particular brand of shoes or hat, but…

The Chatham Fire Department is in the process of expanding its membership. In order to do so focus needs to be made on what drives member to join and to continue to perform the tasks that are given to them. The purpose of this project is to determine how to keep current members motivated and to provide direction for new members.

To accomplish this, descriptive research was conducted to answer the following questions.

1. How did members become involved in the fire…

If you've ever had someone vent windows without coordinating their efforts with your hose team, then you'll empathize with these two firefighters. Whimsical look at a very dangerous situation.

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Cuando somos novatos estamos pendientes de lo que nuestros superiores o gente más antigua en el departamento nos diga. En la academia sólo nos indican lo que hay que hacer por teoría y básicamente una que otra práctica controlada. Pero al pasar el tiempo llegamos a tal punto que hacemos nuestro trabajo casi mecánicamente y con tal confianza que ya ni lo pensamos. Ese es un peligro latente en nuestro trabajo como bombero, ya que descuidamos cosas básicas como al levantar una escalera…

Spanish:

R.I.C. Rapid Intervention Crew en sus siglas en Ingles, es un grupo de intervención rápida, grupo de bomberos que nos ayudarán bajo ciertas situaciones mas alla de lo normal y las que nos pude pasar y estar envueltos, a estas situaciones las llamamos "Mayday" usando el radio.

Como ayudamos a R.I.C., tan simple como poniendo en funcionamiento L.U.N.A.R. cinco letras que nos salvarán la vida y que harán mas fácil la labor al R.I.C.

Al entrar en…

As you may or may not know, the great people here at Fire Engineering Online have allowed me to be a Featured Blogger. All my FE post will now be in that section. Thank you to all those who have supported, read and followed me on this amazing journey. So many new friends have been made because of this online forum and I look foward to making many more. So from now on please stay up to date with this link:…

Last weekend several of us competed in the Revolution 3 Cedar Point triathlon that tested varying degrees of endurance.  Does this type of endurance translate into endurance on the fireground?  You bet it does.  Leading up to the triathlon, we trained together and pushed each other to new limits.  Read previous posts leading up to the latest triathlon …

Alcanzar la inmortalidad

Ser Bombero es extremadamente increíble no hay nada comparado con salvar una vida, salvar una propiedad, rescatar a un ser viviente, hasta que descubres que ser instructor de bomberos te hace alcanzar la inmortalidad.

De joven quería ser inmortal y conseguí la formula y de la mejor manera, siendo parte de la profesión mas bella e interesante del mundo, ser Instructor de bomberos, se preguntaran por qué? Porque cuando le enseñas a alguien técnicas de…

Today is a solemn day. Eleven years ago this country was attacked by terrorists and changed us forever. That day is remembered not only for the horrific events of the attacks, but also for the heroes of that day. We lost 343 of the bravest our profession has known and some of the most influential fire service leaders and instructors we have seen.

Today will be filled with ceremonies, Facebook posts, blog post like this one, speeches and news coverage of events remembering this day all…

By Chris Mc Loone, Associate Editor, Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment

I understandably get a little reflective whenever September 11 comes around. There’s the usual reflecting on where I was when I first heard the news about the first plane striking the first tower and where I was when the second plane hit. This morning though, I decided to…

On this eleventh rememberance of the events of September 11, 2001 The Terry Fund would like to say thank you to al those who have made such a positive change from the horror of that day. Thank you to Chief Halton and the great folks at FireEngineering who make training is more important than ever. Thank you to Paul Combs who has been able to take the feelings and heart of every firefighter and family member and put those to paper for all the world to see. Thank you to the thousands of…

Thought I'd share my September 11th, 2001, related artwork that has been created over the past ten years.



I Will Remember!…

Just because it's entertainment or funny to you, doesn't mean it has a place in the firehouse. Use a little discretion and self-control, please!

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Once a firefighter, always a firefighter - in this life and beyond!

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Do you workout on shift?  Should you workout on shift and what is the best workout to perform?

This is a major…

   Why is a very profound word , esp. in our line of work. Today we are seeing this word being used quite a lot , not only by our younger Firefighters , but our older firefighters as well. years ago we did we didn't ask Why, we did as we were told , we did the job that was required by us, did we ask Why? , of course we did , but not out load , because we knew that an order was given and followed it .

  In today's Fire Service , you hear Why , asked quite alot , at least 5 times a day…