All Blog Posts (3,147)

How do we get new members into the volunteer fire service? To answer this, we must fully explore the problem that exists in many communities. We must understand three things our people, our department, and our community.…

Even to this zealot, the arguments against the tactical improvements inspired by fire dynamics research can, at first, sound persuasive:"The aggressive interior attack has proven effectiveness."; "Experiments have little application to the 'real world' of structure fires."; and "Nothing works everywhere” are common examples.  Furthermore, I have heard and read these and similar statements from many fire service leaders, and such pronouncements generally garner more applause…

Firefighters don’t fight fires or respond to emergencies alone. For the safety of themselves, their peers, and others, they approach crisis situations as a team. The emergencies that firefighters respond to affect them emotionally, long after the crises are under control. Firefighters in the upper ranks have seen first-hand that job-related stress in the firehouse can lead to more serious problems like excessive…

I made up a meme on Facebook recently on the need for ventilation to be "Controlled, Communicated, & Coordinated". I think we'd all agree that this is a good tactical practice to observe. The meme generated a lot of discussion about the practice of ventilation in general and several FDNY "Heavyweights" like Chiefs Vin Dunn & John Salka, Capt. John Ceriello, and Lt. Bob Pressler weighed in. Now these are all guys who have forgotten more than I know, so I just sat back (with a…

COMING THROUGH

“If you don’t hustle, I don’t accept it. If a player shows up the club, I show up the player.” Billy Martin.

NY Yankees Coach Billy Martin said this after making a pitching change and sending Paul Blair to right field to replace Reggie Jackson. Boston’s Jim Rice had poked…

Fire Engineering Magazine September editorial illustration.



Remember, there are more lives in your hands than your own when you set behind the wheel. Be trained. Be rested. Be mentally ready for anything and everything.



Stay Fired Up, and be ready!…

Sleep Tips and Strategies For Firefighters

By: Jordan Ponder

BE SUCCESSFUL: Improving Your Sleep

Everyone can agree that sleep is important to your health.…

     Every adversity you and the team you are leading will ever encounter is either a problem or an opportunity. Although one might think there are many different variables that would distinguish one from the other, there is really only one difference between the two – YOUR ATTITUDE. That’s right. Often times the difference between a problem and an opportunity has everything to do with how you look at the challenge at hand.

     Opportunities…

Never forget, and keep those still suffering with the scars of that day in your thoughts and prayers.

Drones have added tremendous value in the fire service since the beginning of the second decade of this century.  In its multitude of uses ranging from a 360-degree size-up tool to delivering high-profile images in real time to commanders as they decide how to respond, conducting flyovers of areas involved in natural disasters, and locating seats of the fire in firefighting operations, to name a few.  Drones used for fire service training can also be a substantial value added tool.  Drones…

We Americans can be rebellious by nature, quarrelsome to the point of violence, contentious toward our elected officials, suspicious of our neighbors, and melodramatic about the most insignificant of events. That being said, I will argue that no other nation comes together as a people when tragedy strikes like Americans do. It is, unfortunately, one of the only true…

When we think of firefighters or any other type of first responder, it often reminds us of the brotherhood that they share. Early in their careers, firefighters learn to lean on one another inside and outside of the station house. For many of them, there’s nothing like hitting the local bar to decompress after a tough call. Some firefighters can manage the stress that accompanies the trauma that they…

Mastering the Size-up

by: Thomas D. Kuglin Jr.

Becoming proficient with sizing up the fireground takes practice.  Not only in terms of the main components of a well-described size-up, but also in the way it’s conveyed over the radio.  The way in which the information is conveyed is just as important as what the content of the message is.  If either of these are not in sync, the initial operations on the fireground…

Well, anything worth doing is worth doing in your skivvies.



Stay Fired Up, and be your own dog!

     Whether you're the new guy/girl to a crew, the senior member or an officer taking on the "new guy/girl", it is important to understand the phases of group development and how to be the best version of your self during each phase! I'm sure most of us have seen the group development model developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. His theory states that there are 4 phases (Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing) that are inevitable and necessary in…

In my brief but current tenure in the petroleum refining industry I’ve noticed a lot of differences yet a lot of similarities in regards to the dynamics of training.  Unlike the structural firefighting realm, industrial firefighting can, arguably, contain a cache of significant hazards that are not otherwise encountered and contain an inherently more dangerous fireground.  The hazards are a myriad of chemicals, off-gasses, high pressures, high temperatures, liquid and pressure-fed fires and…