Protest Preparedness – Defeating Demonstration Devices With today’s political climate continuously escalating from matters both domestic and foreign, incidents of protest (demonstrations) and civil unrest (riots) are becoming more prevalent in both rural and suburban geographical areas of the United States. These occurrences pose a significant risk of depleting our resources as First Responders and it is imperative that we continue to educate ourselves from the past experiences of others to better prepare our Officers and Firefighters for future responses. Recently in Middlesex County Connect ..read more

Customer service has been a buzz word in the fire service for decades now.  As the fire service has turned from a blue collar, public servant job towards a white collar business, we’ve lost the true meaning of customer service as it relates to our duty.  Management styles from business have begun to infiltrate the fire service and standard metrics from business have been used to determine the level of the job that we perform. One large metric is citizen complaints. Customer complaints carry a lot of weight in the business world and as the job has turned towards the white collar, they ..read more

Escaping the "Death by PowerPoint" Trap: Emphasizing Hands-On Fire Training In the world of fire training, the relentless onslaught of slide-based presentations, commonly known as "Death by PowerPoint," has cast a shadow over the effectiveness of our instruction methods. It's high time we break free from this monotonous cycle and place a renewed emphasis on hands-on evolutions in firefighter training. The Perils of "Death by PowerPoint": The overuse of PowerPoint presentations, while sometimes informative, has been at the heart of the issue. Firefighting is a dynamic, real-world profession th ..read more

PNW%20Fire%20Nuggets%20Oct%202023%20to%20share.pdf ..read more

  In the realm of firefighting, leadership is not just about making decisions; it's about ensuring the safety of communities and the lives of firefighters on the front lines. Leadership that forgets about the rank and file can have far-reaching consequences, and it's a critical issue to address. In this blog post, we'll explore what happens when leadership neglects the rank and file in the firefighting profession and the invaluable lessons we can draw from these scenarios. A Disconnect Emerges When leadership forgets about the rank and file, a significant disconnect can emerge. Firefighte ..read more

Communication is key in much of our daily life. As much as we try, we sometimes have that “failure to communicate”. That said, to avoid some confusion, there is a need to let go of the term and the concept of “false alarms”.  Smoke alarm or smoke detector activations related to “culinary mishaps”, burnt popcorn, or burnt whatever in the microwave or a pot of food on the stovetop, are not false alarms. Those devices did their job. Even in the case of when steam sets those devices off, those devices did their job. Pull station activations caused by the mischievous or nefarious individuals a ..read more

Rehabilitation for Emergency Operations   Establishing and implementing a strong rehabilitation process for firefighters during emergency operations is extremely important and creates numerous benefits. Due to overexertion on the fireground, combined with the existing temperature and humidity of the 2023 summer season, firefighters face a variety of risks including dehydration and electrolyte imbalances.   In an effort to better protect your personnel from the known and predicted associated risks, it is imperative that your respective agencies develop and enforce an organized approac ..read more

Firefighters are called to risk their lives in order to protect others. They are respected professionals who are known for their bravery, selflessness, and dedication. However, there are times when firefighters are let down by poor leadership within the Fire Service. Unfortunately, poor leadership can negatively impact the effectiveness of the Fire Service, leading to a decrease in the quality of service provided to the community. In this blog post, we will discuss the cost of poor leadership in the Fire Service and why it is important to address this issue. One of the biggest costs of poor le ..read more

    I was blessed with the opportunity to finally attend FDIC. I has been on my to do list for some time. My opportunity to attend was made possible by the leadership and vision demonstrated by my Fire Chief. Indy became FDIC with building high banners and 38,000 Firefighters filling downtown streets, restaurants, and of course spots to "network".     The heart of the international fire service was FDIC. The streets and buildings were filled with firefighters from all walks of life- big city career, volunteer companies, young and ..read more

The Halyard Quick Tie (See Youtube link at bottom) To tie or not to tie? That’s one of the biggest debates on the internet. Couple that with fly in vs fly out and you’ll break the internet with the discussion.  The halyard is not tested as part of annual ladder testing. We’ve all seen the old Manila rope break. That’s one of our biggest excuses for not relying on it to tie off the fly section when extended. The second excuse people use is that there are no documented failures of dawgs failing.  I’ll concede both of these points. But the reason to tie the halyard doesn’t fall to eith ..read more