It’s no secret that incorporating stress into a training environment has its benefits. It causes us to think and make logical decisions while we are battling increased breathing, heart rate, and auditory exclusion. The first place we can begin this type of training is with new recruits entering the fire service. Incorporating these stressors little by little throughout their practical training in my experience has been the best way to go with a grand finale if you will near the end of their…

I would say there are two questions I field more than any others when it comes to fire streams and apparatus set up. The first is, “How is your engine set up?” and the second, “How would you set up an engine”. I believe most of the time people who ask the first question really want the answer to the second question. So rather than waste the explanation of how an engine is currently set up and what I would change I think it would be best to start with a blank sheet and explain one approach to…

Why Are You A Firefighter?

I was recently invited to speak at the Angola Fire Department Symposium. During the last class of the day which was Leadership: Trust, Love and Thermodynamics, I started off by asking those…

As we pulled out of the firehouse at 0300 hours, the dispatcher informed responding units that they were receiving numerous calls for a serious…

From Captain David Konys

Dealing with manpower issues is a problem that I deal with at the department where I work and where I volunteer.  I am always looking for ways to maximize our manpower and it starts on the training ground.   I usually have a three man engine crew and when we are first in on a working first alarm we are stretched thin, so we have to train to be proficient and everyone knows their roles. We start by talking about what each person’s roles…

VENT LIMITED TEAMS

“It takes two flints to make a fire.” Louisa May Alcott

What’s the condition of our team?

Is our team incipient, smoldering, vent limited, ignited, developing, heavily involved, fully involved or…

In this episode of the Engine House Training Podcast, Kansas City, Missouri Fire Captain Charley Cashen shares his story of survival. Charley was caught in a rapidly changing fire while searching for a victim in the basement of a home in January 2015. Captain Cashen, a 30 year fire service veteran shares his experience, and lessons learned from…

Most departments have internal drama most of it is caused by people who do nothing or people increase the drama to take the pressure off them and make other people look bad. If your department doesn't have internal drama then that is great.

In our career field we endure a lot of stress from incidents where people are at their worst. We see things that normal people don’t see thing.…

Too much? Nah! Who doesn't like a little pop culture parody - and Fifty Shades of Grey was just too juicy to pass on. 



So, what crazy or embarrassing calls have you been on? Share - but please, let's keep it PG rated - just the facts, ma'am.

Click link below to see more of Paul's work or to buy prints:…

“But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.”

                              -2 Thessalonians 3:13

Don’t get tired of doing the right thing.  That’s what the verse above means, taken at its face.  But to gain a more complete understanding of how it applies to today’s fire service, let’s dig deeper into it, and other verses penned long ago.

First, a little background knowledge.  First and Second Thessalonians were epistles, or letters, written in…

Reputations of fire departments are viewed by people based from many aspects in which each and every member has a part in. The most commonly viewed position of every fire department is of course the Fire Chief and how he/she reacts under certain circumstances. As with any business or corporation, recruitment and retention of quality personnel is one of the…

Ok, there are probably not fifty shades of leadership but there are many shades worthy of some commentary.

One of the most important things a leader can accomplish is to lead from the front and not from your office directing your subordinates “what to do” and “how to do it”. If you have that leadership style, then do it yourself, because you will be continually disappointed in the outcome. A great leader is the “tip of…

We’re sitting here in 2015 amidst all of the technology, articles, blogs and videos of “modern” firefighting, most of which is built off of “traditional” firefighting, and yet we struggle with some of the simplest tasks. Two very important tasks that I am particularly writing about here are the ones called listening and providing feedback and acknowledgement of what’s been said. These are two very important components of what is known as the “communications circle” and more importantly,…

From Engine House Training, LLCCo-Owner and Lead Instructor Frank Lipski

Choosing the Right Bailout System for Your Department

February 11, 2015 by Frank…

Fire Service Irony – Creating Wind Driven Fires

After spending a few days last week at UL for the final PPV / PPA experiments I couldn’t resist pulling out a retro Hump Day from last year. Now let me put a disclaimer here, the results of all the experiments are…

I REMEMBER

I remember a time when I worked as a Firefighter in what was considered to be a rough neighborhood. Several blocks from our fire house was an automatic dumpster. The dumpster caught fire automatically every few days.

One evening we were…

The quality and purpose of your fitness regimen are much more important than quantity.

As firefighters, we can all agree that attaining and maintaining physical and mental fitness is a requirement of our job. If you know me, you know that I push this philosophy, and so should you. But any fitness professional will tell you, training just to train instead of training for purpose will not produce the results you might expect. A couple conversations I've had recently with some…

It isn't uncommon for entrapments in my response area to involve guardrails. This common occurrence was covered in Extrication "Quick Tip'' #23. Cable barriers are not common to my part of the country. However, there are many misconceptions to the emergency response to entrapments involving them. Here is some great information from Minnesota DOT covering the emergency…

Scenario – A firefighter in recruit academy has a beard based on his religious beliefs and was expelled from the academy based on the fact he could not pass the SCBA fit test due to his facial hair. He was not provided the opportunity to attempt the fit testing process. Is this discrimination?

 The academy rule on facial hair is:

1.4 Facial Hair

All ------- personnel who wear…

        SOP’s and SOG’s are a fantastic way to make sure everyone is on the same page about what needs to be done and how. They provide the standards for actions that should be taken by fire fighters in certain situations to ultimately ensure the safety of everyone at the scene.

        Standardized procedures and guides hold the fire fighters accountable for their actions. It gives them a reason for what they did if someone got hurt as a direct result of their actions, that way if…