All Blog Posts (3,173)

Ever heard that saying that it's better to be lucky than good? Yeah, me too!

Well, have you ever wondered how some are ALWAYS lucky? That's mostly because they create their luck.

As the officer, you create your own luck by preparing and filling in the gaps in your operational readiness. Luck doesnt' just befall you because it picks you.

It comes along when you have been methodical and persistent in training, drilling, communicating and doing it again and…

WOW what a great conference FDIC2014 was. If you wonder where the brotherhood is then look no further than FDIC! This year the classes where once again great, as well as the opening ceremonies with Chief Bobby Halton and Eric Rohden, but everyone knows about that in anything you read you hear about the education you get from going to FDIC and it is by far second to none, so I want to focus on some other things in my FDIC wrap up.

I will however as usual give a shout out to the best…

        This job isn't easy, and there's no secret to being good at it. The recipe has only two ingredients: training and sweat. Over the past generation or so our responsibilities have snowballed to the point where the spectrum of our services is near infinite. We are the ones called when someone is trapped following a traffic accident, when grandma passes out, when there's a mudslide, a chemical spill, ice rescue, etc., etc...and I haven't even mentioned fire yet. Even though our duties…

Stories of the the snake oil salesman have throughout history conjured vivid images of nefarious characters who traveled from town to town peddling to anyone who would listen to a wide range of elixirs claiming to cure all that ails you.



These traveling salesmen would often use deception and planted audience members who would attest to their products value. This tactic often aided in creating a buying frenzy.



The…

Here is a blog indicating a fire of unknown location in two story house with bedrooms on both floors. Many more modern houses have sleeping areas on more that one area. The concern here is, where to start your search if the location of the fire is unknown and the fire occurs at a time where the sleeping areas should be searched first due to the time of the fire. 

As usual, the fire occurs at 0630 hours.  There are several bicycles in the driveway of the house and a swing set in the…

Being in control on the fire ground is critical for the fire officer. Nothing is worse than an officer screaming and shouting about EVERYTHING!

This shows a lack of control on the part of the officer. Staying in control allows you to think more clear, instills confidence in your members and allows for members and other officers to actually understand what your saying over the radio or through your mask.

The more your scream and lose your cool, the more inept you…

Why do we go into fires at all? A question often asked by the public when we they look at the cost of firefighter injuries. The answer should be a simple one, “To perform SEARCH & RESCUE”. People live and work in structures and they catch fire. Often the fire occurs when the people are inside of the…

For any firefighter out there who has ever made the jump to the right front seat, there's always a bit of a learning curve. You know what I mean, going from buddy to boss, going from being responsible for your own job to being responsible for a number of others who may or may not fall within the acceptable span-of-control. Recently, I was off work for about two weeks…

Battle Ready?

Fire Departments can have the best apparatus, tools / equipment and still struggle to provide professional services to their community.  Why?  Behavioral modification or “learning” is a major component in preparing brothers for battle.  While we travel across the country providing some of the best training available to firefighters, we have noted that many fire departments have lots of technology these days.  This technology, especially in the thermal…

Click link below to see more of Paul's work or to buy prints:
http://www.artstudioseven.com/page-LE_Prints.htm

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I recently sat in on a brief on the new Near Miss Reporting System.  I’ve always been a strong advocate of the Near Miss System since its inception and have used it many times when preparing to teach various topics.  It has a strong history of collecting and providing valuable information to the fire service.  And I’m glad to report that the new reporting system is better, stronger and faster than ever before.  But something struck me during the presentation on the new near-miss…

As a good rule of thumb, cutting vehicle posts within 4 inches of the roofline or 4 inches from the rocker panel, will greatly increase your chances of boron/high strength steel avoidance.…

During the invocation at this years FDIC, Father John Carney compared firefighters to children.  He went on to explain that the qualities shared among children and firefighters was to be trusting, dependant, resilient, honest, sometimes tackless, playful, and to have great imagination.  A firefighters quest for knowledge and…

We all advance at a different pace. Sometimes due to us not being prepared, sometimes just being beat out and other times factors we can't control come into play.



No matter what the reason, use a promotion lost as a learning experience. Not only about the process itself, but where to improve.



Use the time to gain more experience, master the craft and to prove you're the best candidate.



No sulking, no complaining and no…

I’ve been fortunate to be able to help with multiple fire academies in my short career in the fire service, and each class comes with their challenges. The class usually starts with 10-15 people in it and it usually ends with 7-10 students. They drop out due to family issues, academic failures, and practical issues. One of the classes we lost someone who just didn’t want to do the schoolwork. This type of behavior is the stuff that isn’t acceptable. In my eyes, what is acceptable is someone…

Are you suffering from Post FDIC Syndrome? Don’t suffer any longer. Introducing FDIC Spray. Just insert nozzle into the ear and give it a shot. You will be full of passion, commitment, motivation and enthusiasm in no time! But wait there’s more……..…

Well, FDIC 2014 has come and gone and sure enough, no one was disappointed. We had more folks there than ever, there was electricity in the air and learning was nearly off the scale. There’s no other place like it. For me and many others, it’s an annual family reunion. There are a host of men and women I only see once a year and it’s in Indianapolis. For those of you who couldn’t get there, here’s a bit of it from where I…