FDIC International 2015 - The Bridge Between Research and Tactics

The fire service is evolving everyday and this couldn’t be more evident in a recent illustration by Brother Paul Combs. This past month’s illustration gives us insight on the necessity to understand, study and learn more about fire behavior.

The fire and the building its within is our enemy and we must know as much as possible about them both. We must also know and train on all of our tactics to combat the enemy so everyone goes home.

There has been and will continue to be spirited debate on tactics and how we combat the fire. What we should not be debating is the necessity to learn as much as we can about fire behavior.

As Tom Brennan so bluntly put it “you can never know enough about something that can kill you”

In only few weeks 30,000 plus firefighters will arrive in Indianapolis to sit in classrooms and attend hands on training (HOT). There is an opportunity for you to choose over 200 classroom sessions to further your education on every aspect on the fire service.

If the importance of science and data is not evident to you, look around at this year’s FDIC International and you will soon understand. We can never know enough about fire dynamics and fire behavior. From the keynote speeches by UL-FSRI Director Steve Kerber; Cleveland Fire Department Chief of Training, Battalion Chief Sean Decrane who is an active UL Advisory Board member; and the always-inspirational keynotes by Editor in Chief Bobby Halton.

The importance of research and data will be very evident to you at this year’s conference.

Take the lessons from Paul Combs in both November 2014 and March 2015 and his phenomenal illustrations. As always Paul is in perfect harmony with where the fire service is and needs to be. Listen closely to Chief Halton, Director Kerber, and Battalion Chief Sean Decrane when they take the stage.

"We can never know enough about fire dynamics and fire behavior"

Today we are using firefighter safety research to enhance our fireground tactics to become a safer, smarter and a more professional fire service.

Sean Gray and I will both be in attendance and speaking on Tuesday links to our classes are provided below. Sean will be presenting his class "Attack from the Burned Side: New Age Tactics on Tuesday 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. He will be also assisting with the UL NIST Live Fire Dynamics for Fire Officers HOT class on Monday and Tuesday. I will be presenting with Battalion Chief Jim Duffy on Tuesday, Tactical and Strategic Perspectives of Residential Fires from 8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Links to P.J.'s class - http://www.fdic.com/articles/instruction/2015/pre-conference-worksh...

http://www.fdic.com/articles/instruction/2015/pre-conference-worksh...

Link to Sean Gray’s class - http://www.fdic.com/articles/instruction/2015/pre-conference-worksh...

Link to UL-FSRI and NIST Hands On Class - http://www.fdic.com/articles/instruction/2015/hots/8hr/ul-nist-live...

Check out our Facebook page Stop Believing Start Knowing for times and locations where you can find us both to introduce yourself, say hello. Lets put faces with the social media names this year at FDIC International!

Until then Stop Believing and Start Knowing!

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