Don Catenacci's Blog (5)

There are all kinds of schools for management and leadership, some good, some bad and some just silly.  I made myself a promise many years ago that if I ever found myself in a leadership position in a fire department that I would be the officer that I always hoped for and was fortunate enough to get in my career.  The following is a list of attributes that I have always deemed important.



1)  A passion for the job that goes from day one until retirement.  You can’t…

Firefighter Larry Millard of the Endeavor-Moundville Volunteer Fire Department, in Wisconsin was struck and killed while working at an accident scene on I-39 in Marquette County on Friday December 12th. As they were operating on the highway a vehicle approached and swerved to avoid the fire apparatus striking Firefighter Millard.



I have moved back and forth between sadness over the death of a firefighter in a nearby community and anger over the needlessness of it.  I am sick and…

I am really a stickler for showering after a fire, whether real world or for training.  I have long believed the faster I can get all the by-products off from my skin the healthier it is for me, and my family.  The problem has always been that lingering smell of smoke even after I showered.  I tried showering first in cool water to remove the contaminants without opening the skin pores more than they already were.  I would follow that with a warm or hot shower.  So I was washing my…

I have read the many articles in various periodicals and online blogs about the new, super, almost 2 inch, 1 3/4 inch hose and wondered why not just use 2 inch hose?  The Wyocena Bureau of Fire, a small rural paid on call fire department has been doing that for over a decade now.  We don't use 1 3/4 inch hose or 2 1/2 inch hose at all.  We are a 1, 2, 3, 5 inch fire department.  The 1 inch is forestry hose, 2 inch is our handline, 3 inch is used for our apartment line, feeding FDCs,…