Over the past couple of weeks I have become very disheartend with the fire service in my local area. I have realized that there is a lot of lip service paid to Doing the Right Thing, but very little action as to which. The dishearting comes from the lack of truly sharing resources and information. Even though I have been in the fire service very long when I started thirteen years ago it was expected and acted upon when you had information or were doing a training, that it was going to be shared so as many firefighters as possible could be affected. Now with that being said the Greedy Ones and in this case Greed is not Good. The belief I was given coming up in the fire service and still believe today is share the information, share the training so that many can be affected not just your particular group or agency. Do the days no longer exsist of if I got it you got it. It appears that firefighters now use the mentality of the fish from the movie Finding Nemo Mine! Mine Mine! Who are you? Where did you come from? Last time I checked that ain’t the Brother/Sisterhood I knew or know and/or want to be apart of. My point is as you go out and find new information and you know its validated and correct share it with the masses it does you know good trapped up inside that head of yours.
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Kicking Cancer: Daughter of Rock Hill (SC) FD Captain Needs Support – Fire Engineering
Kicking Cancer: Daughter of Rock Hill (SC) FD Captain Needs Support – Fire Engineering.
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Posted in Thoughts
Drilling vs Training
As the fire service seems to grow younger, there seems to be a lack of understanding in drilling and then training. Some have the mindset that drilling means training and vice-versa and they would not be far off the mark. However, you have to train before you Drill.
Drills are a series of exercise that provide insight into how well you took in the instruction on a particular skill set (s ) being taught.
Training is just that, training on those skill set ( s ) to gain mastery. Often times now I see the cart put before the horse, and drills are conducted poorly companies perform poorly. When you want firefighters to gain a particular skill set they must be trained to perform and then evaluated through a series of drills.
So I ask you do you train before you drill or are you drilling all the time?
Mother-in-Law is back in town
Well, my wife’s mom is back in town. My kids are excited that they would now get more help with their homework.Grandma was an elementary school teacher for 40 odd years before retiring to focus on her true passion; making my life miserable.
I found it interesting that they would look forward to her arrival because last time she was here they actually asked me “When is she leaving, nothing is goood enough for her?”. I can only imagine they LIKE her high standards. They really do want people to ask more of them.
So, in an attempt to make this relevant to the fire service….I went to my next assignment as a rental officer the other day. No big deal I know these guys, and they know me. I’ve worked with them at incidents before and done training with them. Before I could get through my first cup of coffee one of my new, and temporary, crew asked me about elevator incidents. I told him we could go out that day and see a few different types and go over some basics. He said “That’s why I asked you. I knew you’d take us out and show us.”
The boss of the house also seemed pleased to have me on his company. He hinted at the fact that I did not get the best group in the house and that others may have refused the spot because of the crew. I could care less who I get, I have a job to do and they are part of it. I partially believe that a “bad” crew is a reflection of the officer.
We took the chain saw apart and visited the elevators at the nearest mass transit stop on the first day. The next tour we went to a high rise under construction for a preplan, a couple of the guys didn’t know the site was going on, let alone in their district.
We will see how long before they get tired of me and ask “when are you leaving, nothing is good enough for you?”
Stay Safe.
Posted in Thoughts
Investing and Not in a 401 K
I have written on this topic before but, I feel that it is even more important now. In a time when the Fire Service is under attack by the political hacks who are suppose to be servants of the people, our budgets are being cut and what area normally suffers first is training. Firefighters are innovative by nature but were spoiled when times were better. Paid firefighters often criticize our volunteer brothers for giving of their time freely but, I employ you to see the lesson in their service. The lesson is investing in yourself. Finding a way to make it happen. A good friend of mine, once a shining star in the NFL, told me during a discussion over dinner that Pro Athletes are relentless in their pursuit of their goal to make it to their respective leagues. Meaning they don’t just quit because practice is over and they are committed to spending whatever is necessary to go to camps and/or strength in conditioning tool. My point is they are constantly investing in themselves to achieve the optimum performance they expect of themselves. Firefighters have to make that same sacrifice in order to achieve the excellence we swore to provide when we took our oath or accepted the badge. Even while not get raises and insurance cost on the rise, we have to find our way to increase our training no matter what. The Fire Service is becoming a youthful service and providing realistic and relevant training couldn’t be more important. What I’m getting at is we must be willing to reach into our own pockets to build necessary props and travel to training such as FDIC. I’m not saying the fire department is off the hook for training just saying we can’t sit around crying about what we don’ t have because truth be told we never had a lot before. At least not to adequate levels. So I ask again, will you be willing to invest in yourself? It is up to you to give yourself that edge you are looking for when on the fire ground or during promotional testing. What KSA’s will you bring to the table? Ever wonder why that guy you think is a know it all always has something to say or appears to know just about everything? It is because they invest in themselves. They are the folks who drool at the sight of the new Fire Engineering Books Catalog. They are the guys whom pay for the conferences and spend their vacations on doing fire service related things. Sure their are some who could just never shut up and when challenged can’t produce but what about the person who can? Every asked yourself why?
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