David Rhodes's Blog (69)

"Our customers are #2" Are you kidding me!!!!!!

I had a long conversation with a friend of mine yesterday who is currently working on his fire science degree. He told me one of his professors made the statement that the fire service…

Are there spider webs in the hose bed?

There are a multitude of skills that must be mastered in order to be proficient on the fire ground. There are two skills make or break the fire operation. They are the ability to stretch hose effectively and search effectively. No doubt there are numerous…

“This SOP is not for me to follow it must be for you…….Oh yes, well I know I wrote it, but I never intended to actually follow it……….I meant for you to follow it……well if you want too. The main thing here is that if something happens I can say that I had an SOP in place and you didn’t follow it so I won’t be…

Have you ever thought to yourself, “What in the world are they talking about? Do they work for the same department?” Maybe you are stuck in the world of Wizard of Oz management. It often boils down to perception. Those in the station are closest to the work (responding and assisting the people in the community). Those at headquarters are…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your thinking.…

KThis week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your thinking.…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your…

This week is another retro-SOS from my original first few months. These were pictures only so now that we are broadcasting out to the FE community and in full blog mode I will add some commentary. Again, if you already saw this one I hope you get another laugh or affirmation that you are not alone in your thinking.…

There were a few original Hump Day SOS's that only appeared on my Twitter and Facebook pages. A few were posted on Urban Firefighter prior to this blog. They were simply pictures with no commentary. For the next few weeks I'm going to go back repost them here on FE along with added blog text. The intent here at the Hump Day SOS is to provide a somewhat satirical…

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…

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……..…

This Hump Day SOS is in honor of Lieutenant Gregory Pickard who posthumously received the Ray Downey Courage and Valor Award today at the Fire Department Instructors Conference.

Courage and Valor are traits are not learned through training. They are not automatically bestowed upon…

As I head up to Indy today I’m reminded of 100,000’s of firefighters who become “unmotivated” by departmental climates of politics, charlatans, bureaucracies and just down right lameness. It seems the more you push for professionalism, competence and brotherhood the more disappointed you are the fakers who…

Spring is here and it’s time to do a little spring cleaning but, be careful what you ask for. Would it be interesting to tell the 1 year rookie to “get rid of everything that doesn’t get used anymore” and then see what ends up at the dumpster? Along with the items shown in the picture might also be conversation, common sense, station…

I can’t remember what I am supposed to do at a fire anymore. The acronyms keep coming and I don’t want to screw anything up so I’m going to suggest we use OMAHA just like Peyton Manning. If you get to a point where all the acronyms run together and you are about to panic just take a deep breath and call,…

Pro-Safety is all the buzz. If fact soon we will be so safe that we won’t even respond to incidents because it is just too risky. A friend recently told me that he replaced the word “safe” with “smart” in all his SOP’s. I think that is OUTSTANDING. The word “safe” is defined as:

adj. Safe

1.…

I was watching the wind driven fire research and recognized a bit of irony. During the wind driven fire study a large PPV fan was used to create the wind for the study. A fire curtain was deployed to block the wind from the fan in order to control the wind driven…