In the end, firefighters contract disease, illness and death through inhalation, ingestion or absorption. To prevent exposure means wearing air and USING it, clean bodies and clean PPE. While the prescription for prevention is simple, the process is complex.
Read More »Tag Archives: firefighting
Readers Weigh-In: Why aren’t We Changing Our Ways?
If you are a fire service leader who's REALLY interested in attaining zero firefighter deaths and injuries, you must take 32+ minutes to watch this video that was produced by Dr. Burt Clark. (Dr. Clark has served the American Fire Service for 40+ years and is one of the "founding fathers" of the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy, along with the now-retired Charles "Chuck" Burkell).
Read More »Coaching for Command Competency
I know that I learned a great deal from everyone whom I facilitated, and my officers and their firefighters really looked forward to our short but productive sessions. They always said that they appreciated the time I spent with them because they learned how to be better initial incident commanders, and they learned what my expectations were for them at the emergency scene in that role.
Read More »Update: What I’ve Continued to Learn by Reviewing Firefighting Videos
By: Robert Avsec Note to My Readers: I first published this piece early in 2013. I think it’s pertinent to republish it–with some revisions–because I continue to see the same threats to the safety and well-being of firefighters. (I don’t think I’m alone in this assessment as I see numerous postings in other venues every day that are sounding the ...
Read More »Life After Firefighting: The Financial and Social Impacts
Then “sticker shock” set in. When I first saw how much of a difference there was between my regular paycheck and my disability retirement check…I knew big changes were in store.
Read More »Why are We Entering Burning Structures With Too Few Firefighters?
Is your department consistently faced with an inadequate number of qualified and properly equipped firefighters arriving at the scene of a structure fire? Are your people launching an interior fire attack solo, or with only another member with them? (We know this is happening every day in the USA, don't we).
Read More »What’s One More Noise on the Fireground?
First off, a faulty PASS device is UNACCEPTABLE on any fire scene. When firefighters and officers hear a PASS sounding it should ONLY mean that a fellow firefighter is in need of assistance.
Read More »How are Your Organizational Competencies?
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?
Read More »Life after Firefighting
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.
Read More »Coaching for Command Competency
I brought their concept home and immediately began using it with the company officers in my battalion. I was a new battalion chief at the time and found that it helped me establish credibility and trust with my new team. (I had a battalion at that time of six stations and eight company officers.)
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