All Blog Posts (3,147)

I wanted to take a few short minutes out of your day and talk about the domino effect and the power it can have in our organizations. I, like you, tend to want to see instant results from the work I put in. I want my organization to be great and work hard every day to make it so. Most times I don’t get the instant results I am looking for. These results take time. Weeks, months, or even years until we see our hard work come to fruition.…

One of the less well-defined roles of a Company Officer (or even a senior firefighter mentoring younger members) is that of unofficial fire service historian.  Sometimes in the whirlwind of EMS protocols, WMD training, fire dynamics, probationary check-off packets, apparatus operator approvals, and myriad other training requirements that are placed upon today’s firefighters, the “where we came from” and “how we got here” sometimes get lost in the fray.  The Company…

It's that time of year again. Time to greet old friends, meet new ones, learn from the best instructors on the planet, and see what new innovations the fire industry has to offer. Yep, it's FDIC time! I look forward to this week all year and can't wait to get the show rolling.



Safe travels, brothers and sisters - see'ya in Indy!!!!…

        While the title of this piece is obviously absurd and impossible, this doesn’t stop us from striving to make it a little safer through training. This is obviously evident since life safety, both for them and for us, is our primary goal. Seems simple enough, right? Well, for some, the rub comes when we start discussing whose safety is more important… theirs or ours? Over the past couple of decades some have stated that the focus on firefighter safety is, at…

WHITE FLAG LEADERSHIP

Leaders lead.

They make no excuses about their inheritance, the crews or the present climate and they do not lead with an attitude of fear and they surround themselves with great people.

Leaders don’t carry a white flag, they plan to win.

Many years ago, I printed off…

Do you want to know how fit fire rescue athletes make nutritious meal choices?  Here are some shortcuts, go-to recipes, cooking suggestions and go-to snacks for making the life of a fire rescue athlete a little healthier.

Eating healthy with a demanding job can be difficult.  Add in the fact that the firehouse is usually full of non-nutritious choices like cakes and baked goods and its no wonder that obesity, diabetes and heart disease are huge concerns in the fire industry.  Yet, as…

Endurance is a discipline worth mastering. Those who do are often the same ones who succeed in life. Most of us have experienced the battle between the inner voice and the physical body. Take jogging for example. At some point in your life you had made the decision that you needed to get in better shape. Perhaps you drove down to the local sporting…

(Author’s Note: As I was writing this series of posts, there appeared here on the Fire Engineering Training Community another blog on this same subject by Nicholas Papa [http://community.fireengineering.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1219672%3ABlogPost%3A627047].  Obviously, I decided to publish mine anyway, as there are enough facets to this discussion…

I would rather have one frustrated culture creator in my inner circle than 10 yes men. Yes men tell me what I want to hear. They make me feel smarter than I actually am because they are afraid of my response to…

The Old Stuff

Someday, in the blink of an eye, it will be the time to look back and to reflect on what you did with your life.

If you were chosen to serve, did you serve others well or serve yourself? Did you realize, early on or too late, that serving well requires a few simple steps from each of us who are chosen?

Did you keep a run journal of each run, what you were sent for, what you saw, what you did and most importantly what you learned? Were you able to bring…

The Sunday Preach



'Student and Master'



The second section of "25 to Survive" and the program at is entitled "Mastering the Environment." A powerful section, with chapters discussing pertinent fire service topics such as: residential building construction, home and community design, stairway management, basement fires, the 360' and fire behavior.  



Attain 'mastery' in…

Over the past 2 years my department has re-evaluated our high-rise setups.  In doing such we moved away from carrying 50’ of 2.5” hose, a gate-wye and 100’ of 1.75” hose to carrying 4 bundles of 2” hose.  Because we changed the hose configuration we also re-evaluated how we bundled it.

4 options

FDNY Load-Fit well in our compartments, deployed great, wanted a way to carry it over shoulder or bottle rather than on shoulder.

Denver Load-didn’t fit well in…

“The Ten Percenters; An Exclusive Club but its Doors are Open”

                        The best of the best. The hall of famers. The top performers. The ones you can always count on.…

Prevent Fitness Plateaus for Continued Growth

Why do people stop their fitness program?  There are many different reasons, but one of the most common is because they stopped seeing progress.  Nothing is more motivating that starting a new program, staying with it, and then seeing your body and performance grow.  Nothing is more disappointing than training and not seeing any changes.  …

Over the last few months I have heard some conversations about seeking out additional training/certifications or additional responsibilities in the department. I have heard these conversations lead into statements such as “what’s the department going to give me in return for obtaining these things.” I have heard the “what’s in it for me” statement also thrown around a few times. There are a number of things out there that could potentially infect our fire service in a negative way. To me,…

     As all of the “new” items are appearing in the fire service there are several firefighters that are all or nothing when it comes to adopting the tactics or strategies. Take for instance transitional attack. Transitional attack is a great tool in the tool box, however many are pushing it to be an all-encompassing tactic whenever there is a fire showing scenario.  On the flip side there are many old hats that insist that if you’re going to hit the fire, you’re going to hit it from the…