Mark Munroe's Page

I wanted to share with everyone, an article my Father, Henry Munroe wrote for the old Fire Command Magazine around 1985. Most, if not all of it, still holds true today.

Memorandum

To: Maximus Fabus, Magistrate, Pompeii Assembly

From: Florus, Chief of the Pompeii Fire Department

Date: Janus IV, A.D. LXXIX

Subject: XXVI Annual Fire Prevention Week Theme

Your Excellency:

Despite your repeated…

I wanted to thank everyone for the excellent feedback on my last blog on weak fire chief's. I had hundreds of great replies and greatly appreciated all of them. I was asked by many of you to expand on this topic to the fire service in general and the first topic that came to mind was Ego's!

We all have them, at times it might help us build our low self - esteem, give us a boost when we need it most. But as we all know, there is a flip side to this coin. How often in today's world,…

" Hey Chief, I just punched Firefighter Smith in the face because I didnt like the way he looked at me" Chief - "Ok, well try not to do it again". "Chief, I got caught driving DUI again and lost my License this time for 60 years" Chief - " Ok, well try and do better"  "Chief, although you received a medal for saving the whole town and everyone under the sun thinks you did an outstanding job, I think you are the worst because you didn't take my advice and let me do what I wanted to do at that…

If you notice, the title is not "The Training Officer" and your first thought is, what is the difference? Much. Your thinking of the old myth that an Instructor has to be certified from an accredited group such as IFSAC or ProBoard. But that myth is wrong and here is why. I myself, your blogger for the time being, is a Certified Fire Instructor from both Massachusetts and New Hampshire and I have the "Certs" to prove it but, does any of this make me a good or a better Instructor than anyone…