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The first arriving officer (whether a chief, engine company or ladder company officer) at the scene of a working fire is tasked with many responsibilities. They must convey a variety of information over the radio, essentially make sense out of an often chaotic scene and direct...

Webbing is one of the most important tools we can have as a firefighter with it’s limitless uses. The ingenuity firefighters have always amazes me especially when it comes to webbing. We are going to discuss  only 7 of the ways firefighters use webbing.  The most common...

Mostly thought of as a piece of equipment that the truck company utilizes, “The Can” is a formidable piece of equipment in the hands of a well-trained firefighter. Every engine I have ever come across has one tucked away in a cabinet somewhere.  Sadly, it rarely comes...

The ordinary “door chock” is an essential tool that should be carried by all firefighters regardless of whether they respond as an engine or truck company. They are often overlooked as a great tool, probably because they are so simple, but as we will examine here in...

We have heard countless times that the fires we encounter today are unlike the ones we responded to years ago. That being said, we need to evaluate the way we go into these fires as well as the tools we bring along. Let’s take a look at what the engine officer should bring...

Firefighting foam has many uses and is a necessary tool to carry on the engine. There are many types of foam and their uses abound. This article is not intended to be a tutorial on foam; we will save that for the future. Instead we will focus on one of the situations that I find...

In the previous two parts we discussed how a chauffeur/driver can train and become an effective operator, in and out of the cab. Today is the last part of our series. We will give you a few more ideas on the best drills to conduct for the driver. Loss of Water Drill The loss of...

There is a considerable amount of responsibility that goes along with driving an engine and the driver/operator/chauffeur/engineer must be a well oiled machine. They must be able to react to any issue placed before them, independently and with speed; all in a safe manner. A good...

Based on comments I have been receiving on previous articles, I decided we should address some drills that can be practiced on the department and or company level. These drills are simple enough, but will build the skills needed to be a competent chauffeur if they are training or...

In Part 2 we expanded on the roles and responsibilities the driver has as part of the engine crew. Today we will discuss additional duties and why they are important to a successful operation. These duties can be reinforced via drills and training. The engine driver must know his...