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By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer Read a great piece, and even better guidance and direction, on this critical issue from my fire service colleague and Situational Awareness Matters guru, Richard Gasaway! I recently was contacted by a fire officer asking whether their mayday procedure should include a provision for a dedicated mayday channel for the distressed crew to transmit ...

When I last wrote a post for Fire & EMS Leader Pro (March 2017), I was freshly retired from my 32-year career. I was between therapists. I wasn’t taking any medication for my new friend depression. I was, in a nutshell, miserable.

So, if firefighters are tactical athletes--And I agree, as do the manufacturers of turn out gear and footwear—why do most fire departments not treat them like athletes when they suffer last time injuries or illness?

By: Tanya Bettridge, Guest Blogger, Public Educator The number of smoke/CO alarms, that are either given away or outright installed by fire departments in communities across the planet, shocks me. The fire service tends to revolve the “install or not” conversation around the issue of liability; I prefer to look at it as “what are we trying to address?” Anyone who ...

Hearing loss for firefighters is a real risk of the job, so does your helmet provide hearing protection just by putting it on? Eye injuries are another risk of firefighting and other emergency service delivery tasks (e.g., auto extrication). Does your helmet have built-in full-face protection that’s protected from heat and physical damage until you need it?

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer ICYMI, here are the first three segments of this four-part series from earlier this week: What is your department doing for National Fire Prevention Week? Tanya Bettridge is a Fire and Life Safety Educator You Should Know Jennifer Cooper is a fire and life safety mentor you need to know Now if you’ve been ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer ICYMI, here are Part I and Part II of this four-part series this week. Now if you’ve been following along, you know that the focus here is how you and your department can develop some better strategies for teaching children and adults how to avoid becoming a victim of a preventable fire. Because we ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer ICYMI, here’s Part I of this four-part series this week. Photo courtesy of NFPA.org Now if you’ve read Part I, you know that the focus here is how you and your department can develop some better strategies for teaching children and adults how to avoid becoming a victim of a preventable fire. Because we ...

By: Robert Avsec Source: NFPA.org DYK, it’s only 17 weeks until the beginning of National Fire Prevention Week 2019? Hard to believe, right? Seems like it was just last week (But truth be known, it should seem like it was just last week, as every week should be Fire Prevention Week, am I right?). So, what will you and your ...

By: Robert Avsec, Executive Fire Officer Update: I’ve updated this post because I was moved by the courageous post I read today from a fire service colleague, Angie Hughes, Captain (Ret.) Baltimore County (Mary.) Fire Department. Or today, if it’s early enough in the day. Men in the fire service need to “step up” and call out sexist and misogynistic ...