Featured Blog Posts (259)

Here is a quick drill for figuring out hose stretches for larger complexes or properties with long set backs. The key is to get out and figure this out long before the call comes in. Share and add your own information to it.

Company Drill for EHT Hose Stretch…

One of the ways I mentally prepare and train as an incident commander is to review major working fires around the country, this past Sunday while reviewing the day’s prior events I read about a terrible tragedy that occurred in Portland, Maine where five victims perished in a fire in a large two story duplex apartment house. I researched the photos and listened to the fire department audio from the scene and based on these I am assuming…

Meet Michael Jacob (Jake) O’Melia

 Grandview is a town of twenty-seven thousand, Northeastern coast inhabitants. There are several bustling businesses on both sides of Main Street in the downtown business district.

Of particular interest is Hermie’s General Store. When you walk through the front doors at Hermie’s, you step back in time. The floors are hardwood and…

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…

Any student of this profession by now as read or been instructed on all the UL and NIST research, some of our largest and busiest departments have changed some of their procedures due to this remarkable research. In my opinion for any size department it makes sense to re-think your present tactics and current policies if you have any and if you don’t now may be the time to start a procedure based on all of this data and train on it.…

Happy Halloween, everybody - may your bags be full of treats and your smoke detectors plentiful!





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Chief Harvey Eisner was a wealth of knowledge and insight - and an important force in my early career as a fire service editorial cartoonist. He and I talked in 2005 during my first Firehouse Expo about creating cartoons for Firehouse magazine (I had already been creating cartoons for Firehouse.com for a couple of months). He wanted me to expand my cartoons beyond “funny”…

Nine firefighters have lost their lives while on the road, to date, in 2014

Eight actually, if you don't include the one who did not feel well and was found off the road in his private vehicle after an alarm.…

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…

I couldn't resist a little pre-Halloween fun. Beware of the unexpected - especially during the bewitching month of October.





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Most of you who know me know that I write about either a training concept or things that inspire me. This month I’m inspired. It comes right in time for Fire Prevention month. Sorry to scare off some of you with the FP words but keep reading anyway. 

On January 19, 2000, an arson fire took the lives of three college freshman and injured 58 others at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. I was a Chief in New Jersey at the time and colleagues of mine had been to the fire. It was…

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…

            It’s an age old question that is still debated by firefighters to this day, and often quite vigorously. When responding to an occupied residential structure fire, do you immediately go for the rescue to remove the victims or do you attack the fire? Many firefighters would say that you should do both at the same time, and if you have the available resources showing up quick enough to do so, that is probably the most correct answer. However, many times our reality is that we are…

"Never Forget" also means never forgetting all those we've lost since 9/11/01. It's 343 and counting...

Never Forget....

Who could have ever imagined what that beautiful September morning would turn into... the thousands upon thousands of lives impacted. Many, never ever to be the same.

The inscription found below the photos of the members of the firehouse where I was assigned as a fireman that died September 11th, 2001 reads: "There was a time when the…

Two tragic apparatus crashes; one provides a sorrowful reminder to us all

The following information is a breakdown of the details of those members in the fire service who died while operating "on-duty" as defined by the United States Fire Administration. For more information on this definition and that of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation’s definition of “line of duty death” read…

I could say many things about these cartoons and my personal experiences, but I am going to give this space up for a friend who is following the noble calling of helping firefighters save ourselves, so we may continue…

Will you fit? Better find out before the box

Companies in the 39^th Battalion responded to Box 1873 for the reported fire on the fourth floor of 1308 Loring Avenue on 29 July 2014. Reports of children trapped led to the initial assignment being made…

Here's a little end of Summer silliness. Enjoy our last few days of warmth, brothers and sisters - snow is just around the corner.

Take care, stay safe, and always make a difference!

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