Christopher Huston's Blog – January 2012 Archive (5)

Two phrases heard frequently in the Fire Service, "We will never" and "We have always", are ignorant statements and are just not true. In a profession that constantly encounters new situations, why do we speak in absolutes?

In the previous post, I discussed Training Warning Flags. The first posed question was, Does your training staff (Training Officers, Instructors, and Senior Firefighters) feel responsible for the performance of their students?

This is such an…

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Training is an issue in any department. At some levels the firefighters cannot get enough training. Whereas some, well, we know how they act. We tend to decide if a training was successful or not by getting those “other guys” to step up and train with us. Could we be missing something though? Are we capable of detecting Warning Flags in training? Do we always have control over those warnings? Let us look at some self-diagnosis.

• Does your training staff (Training Officers,…

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Most Firefighters understand what a mayday is and are familiar with Rapid Intervention Crews. What you may not know is that the NFPA has a standard for the qualifications and training "to save our own." Over the weekend, I attended a NFPA 1407 implementation course. This 8-hour session concentrated on the standard and ways to integrate it into our training so we meet the standard for RIC. Rather then get into my own thoughts and knowledge of the subject; I would rather publish a simple list…

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For this week's blog entry, my goal was to discuss the physical rigors of Firefighting. Looking at my notebook of one liners and random babble, it occurred I already have a well written piece on the subject. A cohort of mine operates a website, actually a movement, called FIRE SERVICE WARRIOR. If you haven't checked out that site you should, then buy his book. {insert plug here} "The Combat Position" Fire Engineering Books {end plug}. So the guys that have taken the reigns have really received… Continue

Edison may have quoted "I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work." In our line of work we must succeed the first time and it’s usually “trial by fire”. How we can always be successful is that we learn from both our failures and successes.



Recently my company was dispatched to a chimney fire. It was the typical M.O. We…

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