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Herman Edwards, a former NFL coach stated “the only way a team can survive is you have to do it together.” The point in this statement is without teamwork, the team will not survive. In business, this means a failure to make profits or produce a quality product. In...

One of the most important tasks a fire officer, or typically the company officer, must complete after an incident is to submit a complete and accurate incident report. There are a number of reasons why it is important for company officers to be diligent in the completion of...

In the final part of this series, we are going to look at two tools that will round out our equipment cache for RIT, tools which may be the most important tools we can keep in our RIT toolbox. Tool # 4 – Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) Thermal imaging technology is relatively...

Tool #3 – Ground Ladders Remember, the RIT toolbox is built on situational awareness. This situational awareness gives us some insight into where and how firefighters are operating inside of a structure. Using this information gives us the opportunity to better understand...

Tool #2 – The Irons The irons are a combination of a flathead axe and a Halligan bar which are carried/married together. This combination has been around the fire service for nearly sixty years and is tried and true. (A sledge hammer or PIG tool can be carried with the...

Sitting through the interview process can be a nerve-racking ordeal; however, taking a little time to prepare for the interview will set us up for success when it comes time to sit before the chief. Whether you are preparing to interview for a new job in a fire department or for...

Putting It All Together Welcome to the final article in the series discussing the Fire Service Leadership Continuum. In this article, we are closing the loop. However, this is not where we stop. The continuum is not a series of independent parts that can begin and end without the...

Poor Leadership Happens At some point in every firefighter’s career, we are going to have to deal with poor leadership. This reality can be a struggle for us. I can recall being very frustrated with some leaders I have worked for. However, there are some things we can do that...

Dangerous Does Not Mean Unsafe Certainly, we all know the profession of firefighting is dangerous. However, that does not mean it is unsafe. On the surface, “dangerous” and “unsafe” are synonymous. If we dig a little deeper into the meanings, however, we...

Disclosure There are numerous acronyms associated with teams designated for the rescue of a firefighter in distress.  It doesn’t matter if we call it RIT, RIC, or FAST, there are some tools that are essential to the team’s operations.  In this series, we are going to discuss five...