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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...

Have you ever been sitting around the firehouse when the training for the day is done, and you realize you haven’t had the time to work out yet? Or does your shift workout all together at a set time during the day? Either way, the camaraderie of a good workout together can go a...

When the alarm goes off, we need to be prepared. Part of being prepared is having our bunker gear situated so that we can get it on easily. Whether we store our gear in a locker or next to the rig, keeping our gear organized is the key to success. Keeping my gear organized helps...

“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...

We all know it can be challenging to eat healthy in the firehouse. Shift meals are notoriously high calorie and big in proportions — and there’s the challenge of trying to eat in between calls. When I talk about eating “healthy” there’s really two parts: 1) eating foods...

As volunteer firefighters, whether we are responding directly to the scene of a call or switching assignments with each run, we need to have a certain tools with us to be prepared, whatever the type of call.  We’ve talked about 5 of these items already.  Here are the last 4...

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...

Firefighter rescue teams (whether called RIT, RIC, FAST or one of a host of other acronyms) are essential and necessary to our survival on the fire ground. To be effective, firefighters assigned to a firefighter rescue team need to have the right tools. Let’s look at a few...

As volunteer firefighters, we often do not have the luxury of having a specific seat to ride on the apparatus with a specific assignment. (We may also be responding directly to the scene of the call.) On one call we could be doing truck company work, on the next engine company...

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...