Jim Mason's Comments

Thanks for the add Lt.!!! I am a firefighter little west of you in Kane Co.... keep in touch! I'd be interested in chewing the job with ya and learn something!

Stay Safe and Take Care,
-Rob Delete Comment

Hi Jim, and thanks for your welcome message. I work for a small paid department that is located west of Milwaukee. We run out of three house, 18 man daily staffing, 2 engines, 1 platform, and three ALS ambulances, and a shift commander. We work a California schedule, but our DC's work a 48/96, which is weird. Go figure. But that's a whole 'nother story. Around 3500 calls a year. A still alarm structure fire will get all 18 men, anything beyond that we'll request a MABAS box alarm, which will give us another truck, 2 engines, a chief and EMS. At the hint of a any sort of structural fire we requested a RIT truck from a neighbor right off the bat, usually before calling for a MABAS box.

On a personal note, I teach both fire and EMS part-time at a local technical college, and my areas of interest are TIC technology and RIT. I have a high interest in technical rescue, but there are no opportunties to get involved in such things around here. Otherwise spend alot of time teaching recruit fire basics.

Thanks again, Jim, for the welcome and I look forward to some interesting discussions.

By the way, did you ever get a chance to work with Eddie Enright before he retired?

Jim,
I'd like to pass along my compliments on the CSF group. As a firefighter in "the 'burbs" we don't do many working fires. The group is a great way to have my memory jogger about what the 'old timers' taught me many moons ago! As well as a great place for learning new information and tactics. Thanks again, Jeff

Located in mid-Michigan. We are a paid-on-call department with initial alarm being 3 Engines, 1 Rescue and 1 Ladder,15-25 FF total at night with less during daytime. We use the State of Michigan Company Officer Certification program which I taught over the last two years. Currently teaching Fire Officer III program to the department.

Hey Jim;
You're doing a great job on your group. I had hoped to generate some dialog and discussions on my Command Safety Group...but its a "small' group. I saw Chief Zern's comments on Risk and the thread back to your group. I look forward towards adding my couple of "cents worth" to the discussions. My thoughts on fire officer development are this; Its an area the fire service last visted as a focus area back in the mid 1980's. I was in the middle of the vortex as programs were being developed, training was being instituted and the fire service pulse was beating related to CO, leadership,skill development, compentencies etc...much of what we are talking about again today in 2008-09. The difference being that we are seeing the drop in (fire) call volume and fire severity ( ie; true combat fire engagement..) sans the inner city/ large metro area ops. I believe co officer development is a key area that we need to focus into and expand, IF we're going to make a difference in the safety reduction efforts established and being further forged. More on this later...
PS ( I'll be out in Chicagoland this spring or summer doing some classes, will keep you informed...will also hook up w you at FDIC ( I'm doing a couple of classes this year...) Looking forward to some great dialog and discussions..stay safe.

Thanks, Lenexa is 15 to 20 min. S.W. of downtown Kansas City. Our first alram (regular) consist of two to three quints (3 to 4 personal), one or two engines (3 to 4 personal) for a total of four fire appartus are assigned. Also responding one Lenexa rescue ambulance (2 fire fighting personal), batt. chief (1) and a Johnson County Med-Act Ambulance (2 non-fire fighting personal). Most of the time 14 fire fighters and 2 medical. Lenexa runs out of 4 soon to be 5 stations, with 90 fire ops. personal and 2 non ops. personal.

Side note will you let the guys at engine 78 and 98 thanks for the good advise on places to eat and were to go for a good time in Chicago. My wife and I are die hard cubs fans. We visited your city a couple years ago. We went 78's to by t-shirts for half my shift and we just stumbled in to 98's by accident. The guys at 98's were better than the people at the visitor center!
Keep safe brother!

Keith

Jim, nice work on managing the threads. I work on the 4 Truck. Im glad you like the Air Management book. Those guys put a ton of work into it and are amazingly sharp. I have the privilidge to work nextdoor to L10 which is led by Lt Bernoco on my shift. He's even better in person than on the page.

Tom

I work for Shelby FD. We are located in the foothills of North Carolina. It's a small town with the 3 stations. We operate 2-engines, 1-95' Platform and 1-Quint (runs as an engine co.). The engines run with 3 and the ladder with 4 (except my shift--we run with 3), also 1 Batt. Chief. We get all companies on all structure assignments (ie--fires, alarms, natural gas leaks inside structure, etc.). New Hope is located in Belmont, NC ( about 30 miles east of Shelby). We have 1-engine, 1-rescue pumper, 1-tanker, 1-QRV, 1-brush, 1-fire boat, 1- SCOTT air trailer/generator. We staff 2 part-time M--Fri. from 0830 to 1630 hrs. to perform maintenance and truck inspections. The site for my vol. company is: newhopevfd.com.

Jim,
We have 4 assigned to the engine (officer, driver, 2 FF) but usually we run with 3 due to be short staffed across the rest of the city and those persons end up being detailed to other houses for the shift.
For a First Alarm "structure" assignment, heres the line up: (3) Engines, (2) Ladders, (1) Squad (RIT engine), (1) Heavy Rescue, (1) Medic Unit w/3 FF, (1) Batt. Chief, (1) EMS Supervisor................When a "working fire" is confirmed, an extra Batt. Chief is dispatched and mobile air.

Jim,
Thanks for the welcome, your right about others from Rock Community in the group, Jeff Broombaugh, Matt Mayer Jr, & Doug Ott are members also.
Rock Community has established a theme for 2009 "Back to Basics', each month we are reading, discussing, quizing and practical training on a chapter from the 'Essentials" book. This training will be done at the company level then at the shift level. Rock has 5 houses w/ 19 FF's on the line per shift.
I will be attending FDIC 09 and will look forward to a group outing. I have a question for you concerning the training expo that is held in Chicago, I know it is smaller in scale to FDIC, but how are the hands on training in comparison? I'm always looking for training opportunities and would like some in-sight on the event ther in Chicago.

that's fine you can delete it! thanks for the help this site helped out alot!

Hey Jim not sure why it wont work. Which video? Im at work so I will send them to you later.
Take care Delete Comment

Jim,
Good to hear from you. Rock Community is located about 20 miles south of St. Louis Missouri. We cover approximately 38 square mile in a suburban setting. Mainly residential and commercial, with a couple pockets of light industrial complexes.
Our first alarm assignment consists of 3 pumpers, 2 aerials (quints) and a Battalion Chief. Target hazards have additional equipment. This would account for 20 personnel if we are full (minimum manning for a shift is 17). We can drop down to three personnel on the equipment with the exception of the aerial at station 1 that has minimum manning of 4 (working on the same minimum manning for the aerial at station 2).
I look forward to sharing ideas.
Jeff

Jim,

We have many, many mid-rise (4-6 stories) and many taller. Due to O'Hare Airport being at our South border, we don't go much above 10 stories.

Jim,
No I did not get out to LA. I'm sure they are doing well with it out there. Yes the holidays are here and we are all pretty busy. My son is doing well over in Iraq and my younger son is getting ready to go to USMC boot camp in January. Talk to you soon and have a Merry Christmas.
John Salka

We currently deliver and certify Fire Officer I & II. We're working on Fire Officer III. We are also delivering a series of senior fire officer professional development seminars that are targeted at chiefs.

jim, im in... that troy kerckhove kid should be in too... even if i have to drag him there

What house are you at? Going to be in the big city next week for class. be safe troy

Jim,

Thanks you. I am hopig to make FDIC this year. Of course, I've said that for the last five years, but teaching/training conflicts came up and I'm yet to make it.

Yes, we (Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute) are the state fire training and certification agency. We are part of Continuing Education at the University of Kansas. I am the Certification and Technical Rescue Programs Manager.

Stay safe!
Dave