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In a previous article, we discussed communication’s training (or lack thereof) and how it translates from day one instructions to a probie, all the way up to a battalion chief sounding like a goof on the radio. We’ve all heard the radio reports that make you cringe,...

Like most of you, I came to work this morning: relieved the guy from the previous shift, checked my mask, tools, riding assignment, coffee and breakfast supplies. A box goes out across town and all the radio chatter sounds like a 16 year old girl at a boy band concert. Why? If...

In the last article we looked at some potential underlying problems of communicating between crews. Today we will look at some additional items that will make for a clearer and more concise transmission over the radio. There are many items that need to be transmitted across the...

Effective fireground communication is an essential part of successful and safe operations. If we look at NIOSH reports detailing line of duty deaths we will see that a breakdown of communication is listed time and time again as a potential contributing factor. So, in an age where...

Writing department guidelines we will hold our members accountable to and expect them to follow is not an easy task and sometimes requires a little bit of trial and error to get it right. It’s a challenging, labor intensive, and mind numbing job that in today’s fire service is a...

Is There A Problem With Our Communications? As an experiment try doing this scenario. Have a member gear up complete with SCBA. While wearing their face piece have them run a set of stairs two or three times until their heart rate is up and they are breathing heavy. Have them...

Recently my department had a drill at our county fire academy. Yearly, we go out there four to five times for live fire drills to brush up on tactics, give the new members experience and to keep the senior guys skills sharp. Even as a chief officer I always come away from there...

There seems to be a lot of confusion and opinions on when and how to use the radio and how long to stay on the radio. No matter when or why you are using the radio it must always be pithy. Pithy meaning: Brief, concise and forcefully expressive;  succinct, compact, to the point....

BIRs or Brief Initial Reports don’t just inform your fellow responders of what is going on when you arrive. They also let dispatch know what the situation is, who is in charge and what additional resources may be needed upon arrival. Although your dispatcher may have a...

MAYDAYs may not happen often, but when they do the dispatcher and firefighter need to remain calm and revert to their training. It is easy to think that most MAYDAYs are residential or commercial building fires but it can happen on water calls or other rescue assignments too....