Wayne Zeman's Blog (20)

Old Becomes New- A look at Training Programs

There is a song by the Real McKenzies by that name, and the last verse of the song goes like this;

"And if you hang around long enough,

You'll experience really cool stuff,

You'll see that old becomes new,

Then new becomes old,

Til old becomes new again"

Like Bobby Halton said at FDIC this year, "we are in a time of great change". It seems like the changes are coming at us fast and furious with…

Some would say it is a fine line between being an aggressive firefighter and being a reckless one. While that may have some truth to it, I feel that the main difference between the two is knowledge. Knowledge gained through education, experience and judgment.

Education is the first one I will address because it has to come first. We don’t send untrained people out to fight fires, we educate them first. Of course this is done to varying degrees throughout the fire service, whether it…

What is it that you consider Brotherhood? Is it confined to duty hours? Is it all the time, but mainly for your crew or shift? Just your department? Local firefighters that you know?

Or does it extend to every firefighter everywhere, career, volunteer, black, white, purple, or not? If not, why in the world not?

Do we not share the same passion, the same vocation? Does fire not burn with the same intensity in Marlboro Mass., Kingsbury IN, Melbourne AU, London, New York,…

Well, I have just finalized and submitted my proposal for consideration. I have been nervous as I spent the last months or two thinking about, and fleshing out a rough idea I had, which started here as a blog post.

 …

As more and more folks in the emergency services are using various social media, we need to think about what we are doing with it.

I am a user of several different forms of social media but I have a rule. Just one rule, but an important one.

Never post anything that you will have difficulty justifying or explaining.

Thats it. No more rules have been necessary for me.

Unfortunately not everyone has such a good filter on…

Hello? Is anyone listening?

I have been worrying a bit lately. About training. I know, I know, thats all the training officer EVER worries about!

But follow me on this one guys. Are we really keeping up with the times? When we teach building construction at our recruit academies, are we still talking about balloon construction and bowstring trusses? Lathe and plaster? Or are we teaching about the current building methods and practices?

A mix of…

I am not really sure what brought this up in my head, but there it was. I thought you guys might like to hear the stories.........

It was 1993 or so. I was a VERY wet behind the ears young firefighter on a small volunteer fire department. Back then, the City of Gary Indiana Fire Department allowed ride alongs, as long as you signed a waiver and provided your own gear and SCBA. I signed the waiver, got permission from my Chief, and started to ride.

The first few…

From Saturday, June 5, 2010

The snow falls, pristine and white.

As a Mother goes to wake her now grown son, he is 18 and a high school senior.

He won't answer her calls to get up before he is late to school.

The snow falls. It covers the roads, a perfect blanket.

A blanket. Mom pulls back the blanket covering her son. He doesn't stir. She touches his shoulder, about to shake him to wake him.

The snow falls. Big fluffy flakes glisten in the morning…

Well, we did our ice rescue training a few weekends ago.

It was the usual rehash of what we do and say every year, a good refresher for everyone before the annual ice fishing derby the next weekend so we are ready with the know how fresh in our heads.

 …

Too late to stop, too early to quit.



What does that mean?



To me it means I have been doing this job to long to stop. It has become a part of who I am. It is more than just something I do. It is a part of me the same as my right hand; I can’t imagine life without it. For the years I was blessed enough to make a living doing this job I was the…