All Blog Posts (3,176)

When I was a young man, my dad made certain that I did two things; register for the military draft and register to vote. Dad was a World War II veteran and believed that it was a sacred right to vote in elections. He felt that voting was a very personal right and would never tell me how he voted. However; he spoke very fondly of Harry Truman, so I knew even without asking that he was a Democrat.

What I found odd about that is that Dad worked very hard, would not accept…

Here is a short video of our thru the floor prop. This is soley for the use of calling a Mayday and recognizing that parameter.   We place mattresses and foam below the firefighter and is monitored closely by our instructors.

This gives the firefighter a sensation of falling but is a short enough and controlled fall as to keep the drill safe.  Email us if you would like to know how we built it.

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Here is a great "memory jogger" for Command Functions and Size Up from one of our instructors, Scott Hulsey.  I know it's short, but these little cheat sheets can be used during training evolutions or at the kitchen table to stay sharp as an incident commander.

Size-up Matrix…

Shipping out for another USO tour and an opportunity to thank and serve our Nation's Warriors! I will be drawing along side five other incredible cartoonists and look forward to their camaraderie over the next few weeks. I will not be posting during this trip, but will have plenty of stories, photos, and of course, sketches to share when I…

From time to time I get asked how I create my Fire Engineering illustrations. Well, I thought I'd take this month's theme and show you the drawing process.



Every drawing that I do typically starts in my small sketchbook that I carry everywhere. If you seen me at FDIC, you've seen me with this little black book. This is my idea book - where all the things that are bouncing around in my crazy brain get scribbled out before they drive me insane!! Below is the original thumbnail for…

Getting into the spooky spirit of my favorite time of year!! Watch for full moons and empty coffee pots, everybody:)



Happy Halloween, and be safe out there!

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

Automatic Fire Alarm Complacency

By: Tony Kelleher and Ricky Riley

Recently, we have had several discussions; both within my own areas fire department and in other departments across the country with regard to their policy and attitudes towards automatic fire…

Size DOES matter!

Click link below to see more of Paul's work or to order prints:
http://artstudioseven.com/page-fire-ems-prints.htm

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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 …