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“It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.” How many times have we heard that refrain in our lives? Yet horseplay still happens at the firehouse, and yes, firefighters do get hurt due to horseplay. Do any of us want to be involved in a situation where our brother/sister...

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...

Weightlifting & Firefighting Firefighting requires a lot of strength and muscular endurance. So, for good reason, many firefighters lift weights to maintain their physical stamina to perform their jobs. But doing weightlifting exercises properly takes more knowledge than many...

When we think forcible entry, we commonly think of inward or outward swinging doors that can be secured in a multitude of ways. However, there is much more to forcible entry than merely forcing a door with a set of irons. One of the other situations we will run into often is the...

As firefighters we love our tools. We know we need the right tool for the job at hand, so we spend a lot of time determining what tasks we will encounter as firefighters and deciding what tools we can use to address those tasks. One task we encounter in nearly everything we do is...

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...

Sleep is a serious issue for firefighters. Not only does the chronic sleep deprivation make you feel awful mentally and physically, it also shaves years off your life. So it’s essential that you get good sleep when you can, instead of struggling to fall asleep and/or tossing and...

Speed is of the essence when it comes to putting on our turnout gear. Putting our turnout gear on properly so it protects us from the potential of burns, cuts, and scrapes is essential. Thus, the key is to don our gear properly with speed. The speed with which we don our gear all...

  Photo Courtesy of Amanda Moore & Jake Olson Studios

“People don’t mind being challenged to do better if they know the request is coming from a caring heart.” — Ken Blanchard Firefighters grow when they follow great leaders, but they also grow by participating in regular performance appraisals. Performance appraisals are a...