It is your responsibility to teach respect, pride, accountability, teamwork, and ownership. You have to encourage and motivate your team to be decision makers by paying attention to the simplest details. As the leader, it is your obligation to pay attention to the little things and hold your crew accountable for their actions. They will never accomplish the big tasks if they have not completed the little things.

In just the past few days another woman firefighter filed a lawsuit against the Fairfax County (Va.) Fire and Rescue Department claiming not only that was she sexually harassed and stalked by her captain, but she was retaliated against when she reported his behavior. That’s right, the same department that Nicole Mittendorff worked for before she took her own life.

Those local governmental leaders should have sent a “loud and clear” message to not just the members of the fire department, but all of its governmental employees by terminating the employment of the three officers who failed at having the self-discipline required of a leader.

The “explosion” of accessible and affordable on-line training and education is a topic that is “near and dear” to my heart. First of all, I’ve always been a “training guy”: I loved training to become a better firefighter and EMS provider and I loved being an instructor who helped “kindle” the same passion in others.

So how do we in the fire service become better at recognizing that one of our own is “drowning”? How do we get better at asking for help? How do we get better at providing help?

The confidence that I gained to be able to work through any tough situation, not just firefighting situations. I’ll never forget the slogan that was on our camp T-shirts and all the equipment that we used, “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll understand. Involve me and I’ll remember.” Been more than four years now and I still remember that.

Prevention of dehydration and hyperthermia should be a key concern for both Incident Commanders in the field as well as Training Chiefs responsible for the safe training of both entry-level and incumbent firefighters.

I, for one, am growing very tired of words like, "wrestling, grappling, struggling, etc.", being used to describe the misogynist attitudes that still exist in too many fire departments four decades after some of the first female firefighters came on the job.

Marketing your fire and EMS agency is not something you should be doing, it’s something you need to be doing. More so than ever, you need to be telling the public you serve the why, what, and how behind their fire and EMS department.

I’m seeing more postings on social media platforms, e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, promoting social media infographicfirefighter employment opportunities in various locations around the USA and Canada. That’s a good thing, for sure, because if people don’t even know about the opportunities that are out there…but I don’t think that using social media to promote job announcements is any kind of “silver bullet” for fire service organizations looking to attract quality people to their “tribe.”