David Rhodes's Blog (69)

This is one of those Hump Day SOS's that I still get an occasional email about. I've even seen it show up in a few folks presentations. This will make the 3rd time sending it out but sometimes things just need to be repeated for new members following the blog that might of missed it and for those who didn't quite understand it the…

Instructor Driven Fires

So the status tell us that the number of fires are down 53% since the 1970’s. I don’t have any numbers on the decrease in “acquired structure” fire control classes but I can speculate that it is probably down even lower than 53%. As a…

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…

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…

Penciling is for Drawing a Nozzle Fully Open

When recruit firefighters are told one thing and then shown something different they end up applying what they were…

Who’s Gonna’ Fill Their Shoes

 In 1985 the late great George Jones release the country music hit, “Who’s Gonna Fill Their Shoes?” The song talks about…

You Can’t Change People

Why is it that some individuals in authority think they are responsible for changing people? Is this a good or bad thing? Can you really change someone? We all hear stories of people who have…

Boss/Manger Leader vs Expert Leader

Does it matter if the fire incident commander was never a competent company officer? Does it matter if the company officer had limited time as a firefighter? Does it matter is the chief was an expert firefighter?…

When the Sleigh Is Out the Rig Fills In

Have you ever noticed that if Santa is in a parade, being delivered to a public function or is just needing a ride around town, that it’s usually a fire engine filling in for the sleigh? Now I don’t get much snow where I live and sleighs are rarely seen. In fact the closest thing we have to a sleigh or even a sled is an…

Brotherly Advice for the Soul

So you just took that fire chief job in a new department or maybe you just got promoted and moved across town on a different shift. Maybe you are just a pawn in the reorganization or the…

Farwell Harvey

It was with great sadness that I received news that my friend Harvey Eisner had passed away. I met Harvey years ago and he had asked me to do some writing and teaching with Firehouse. I told him that I didn’t feel it would be the…

Which Came First?

Here I go again beating up my RIT friends. No, I'm not anti-RIT but I continue to be amazed at the lack of balance or should I say prioritization in our fire training. RIT training is fun and fire behavior training…

EBOLA vs FIREFIGHTING - Safety Logic

I’ve heard recently that we have nothing to fear as responders when heading out to a person sick or in a few cases even being dispatched to a “possible Ebola patient". We have nothing to fear because…

Brown Card IC Training

How much training have your command officers actually received in commanding incidents? Oh yeah, don’t tell me they have completed the NIMS 100, 200 and 700 online. This is not to diminish the importance of NIMS training…

Service Leadership

In the world of constant bad news and the incredulous suffering at the hands of bureaucracy I witnessed a moment of hope yesterday. My friend Mike “Waldo” Reynolds (3^rd…

Don’t Lose Site of the Purpose of Checklist

I had a few conversations with some folks that really push the use of the “checklist”. This is not a bad thing but I see it getting misapplied in many departments. I once saw a safety officer circling the building with a clipboard busy filling…

More on the Mission Statement or Mis-Statement

Earlier on the Hump Day SOS we looked into the mission mis-statements and how far away we have drifted from our original mission “To Save Lives & Property”.  Many of you responded with your own stories of mission creep,…

To Be or to Do? Your Fork In the Road

Here you are in the middle (or later) of your career in the ole’ fire department. You grew up with an understanding from your parents and grandparents that the harder you work and more you accomplish the more successful you will be. Then…

Losing Our Experts

A few years back you had your engine guys and your truck guys. You had the guy in the department that was the expert in friction loss and nozzle flow. You had your expert in elevators. You had your guy that knew how to write the truck specifications. The go to guy in forcible…

To Save Lives and Property

Usually nothing is better than the original and that holds true with mission statements. Departments all over have severely missed the mark by a compelling desire to outdo each other with prolific works that are turned into posters and plaques.…