I certainly support the idea of pursuing accreditation by those organizations that have the resources, e.g., people, time, and money, but what about those who don't? Well, for those departments I'd like to suggest that they use my "homegrown" template for identifying what's important in their service delivery so that they can then collect the data to determine, How are we doing?

If I were you, I’d spend my limited money on equipment to put CAFS into my firefighting arsenal instead of buying LDH; the 6” water mains in your town really don’t justify the use of LDH. I think that maintaining your 3” supply line cache and combining it with CAFS will give your department plenty of tactical firefighting capability.

Why EFOP? Don’t get me wrong, my course work in both of my degree programs provided me with the opportunity to acquire a vast amount of knowledge in a wide variety of subjects pertinent to Fire and EMS...It was during my four-year pursuit of that EFOP certification, however, that I acquired the skills and abilities that had a phenomenal impact on my growth as a fire officer.

While WBT and social media apps can greatly enhance your community's ability to recruit and mobilize resources in "real time" following an event generator, don't wait until the event happens to put a system in place beforehand. Start now to create a marketing plan to inform and educate the public about how your community will use social media when an EOP/COOP/COG event strikes the community.

This story is written from my perspective; it is simply my own experience. My breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent legal action combined for my “early exit”, so the “sudden end” was really not so sudden. I fully expected to retire just as many firefighters did before me had: 50-years-old, twenty years of service, healthy, and financially stable.

If there's one thing that hounds the fire service it's our reputation for not being, shall we say, the best documenters of the work we do in our communities. Our lack of documentation prowess has several negative influences on our organizations, with the most debilitating being the lack of a comprehensive national fire response database.

The humble pike pole's entry into the U.S. fire service began in the 1600s when it was used to pull down walls and neighboring buildings in the path of a fire to stop the fire's spread. Also known as a ceiling hook, the pike pole is the "hook" in a hook-and-ladder company, also known as a truck company.

In the past couple of years, many communities have been faced with torrential rains and flooding. As we've seen in the most recent flooding in Colorado, we are exposed to a huge risk when it comes to emergency response to both the slow rising water type of flooding and flash floods.

One thing that I do believe is that cases like this are to Fire and EMS leadership and management what the "a canary dying in a coal mine" meant to coal miners underground.

Climate change along with continued human encroachment into the wildland urban interface is making many fire departments realize that they need wildland firefighting capabilities, and these departments are not all west of the Mississippi River. Those departments are finding that their Type I and II engines, the traditional pumping apparatus with an in-line pump, are not the right fit when combating fires and protecting structures in the WUI.