I posted the following reply to this COURAGEOUS firefighter in the UK who continues to "shine a light" on the sexism and misogyny that apparently "alive and well" in the London Fire Brigade and other fire brigades in the UK. Antonia, do whatever you must do but PLEASE do not let the ba$tards prevail by taking your own life! I hope that the supportive comments in this space are helping you to keep your "head above water!" But it's not solely a problem in the fire service culture in the UK. Sexism and misogyny are both "alive and well" in too many fire departments around the globe, including the U.S. and Canada.
Read More »How to declare and respond to an off-duty mayday
The driving force behind the Firefighter Health and Wellness Conference is Brothers Helping Brothers (BHB), a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, founded in 2014. Since its launch, BHB has given out 14 grants to advance its mission of “Helping Small and Rural America, One Fire Department at a Time,” to fire departments in Ohio and surrounding states. The genesis for the conference, according to Nick Magoteaux, founder and co-director of BHB, came in early 2018: “I was doing a fire EMS conference then, and I saw that there was a lot of interest in firefighter cancer. But not much on mental health. So, I got to thinking that mental health was a topic that needed attention.”
Read More »Yes, Virginia, Girls Can Grow Up to Be Firefighters!
Why not introduce the young girls in your life to Ember and Molly this holiday season as a gift that shows them girls can grow up to be anything, especially a firefighter!
Read More »The Mind of The Tactical Athlete
So, it's easy to see why athletes—be they amateur or professional—have embraced the sports psychologist as a “mental coach”—on par with their hitting coach or pitching coach for a baseball player--who can help them take their game to the next level. That next level being those same abilities alluded to by Jones: To have faith in their abilities to perform, to thrive in pressure situations, make good decisions under pressure, and then deliver physical performance. But athletes aren’t the only clients. Consider the rigors of performing surgery, for example. Doctors may need help gaining the confidence to return to the operating room after losing a patient. Actors or comedians may need support getting back on stage following a poor review
Read More »What’s new at the “Home of the U.S. Fire Service?”
NFA Superintendent Eriks Gabliks opened the symposium with a great overview of what those changes to the campus included. The Superintendent began by highlighting how the COVID-19 pandemic had affected the NFA's operations. He noted that for just over a year, the campus had been shut down by the pandemic, but he quickly added that while the shutdown caused NFA to cancel on-campus deliveries, it didn't stop the NFA staff from training and educating members of fire service.
Read More »Don’t Miss the 5th Annual Conference Presented by the Fire Service Professional Psychology Association!
By: Robert Avsec, Battalion Chief (Ret.) and FSPA charter member The mission of the Fire Service Psychology Association is to provide the best standard of psychological care for fire service personnel and their families. The Fire Service Psychology Association (FSPA) will host its 5th Annual Conference on October 7, 2022 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm PST. The conference will be an online event ...
Read More »Retired Battalion Chief–And now published author!
If you’ve come upon this book expecting to read about emergency calls, I responded to during my 26-year career with the Chesterfield (Va.) Fire and EMS Department, I'm afraid you might be a tad disappointed. But if you want to learn about the greatest single assignment that I had the pleasure and satisfaction of serving in during my career, you have the right book. Because in this book you'll learn about how a single project that I was a part of that created not one, but two transformational changes in our fire and EMS department.
Read More »What I’ve done since I retired as a fire officer
It took me five years before I found my “2nd career) as a freelance writer. During those first five years, I took positions as an operations chief for a small private ambulance company, a fire instructor and course developer at the Georgia Fire Academy, and finally as a contractor with a management services company providing services to U.S. Army’s Installation Management Command (Where I got to do an 11-month stint as a staff officer for the Army's Fire Chief).
Read More »Protecting the Minds of Young Firefighters
The following was posted on LinkedIn by my fire service colleague, Ellen Morrison Yarborough, whose LinkedIn headline reads, "Educator, Fire Chief, Consultant “Schoolhouse to Firehouse” recruitment." And Ellen is certainly a person who "puts her money where her mouth is" when it comes to informative and insightful posts on LinkedIn. Read Ellen in her own words in this article.
Read More »Why aren’t more women becoming career firefighters?
Why does the fire service have difficulty attracting, hiring, and keeping women on the job? Because in too many fire departments there's still a “gauntlet” that women have to “run” every day! And that gauntlet is not a single challenge, but rather multiple challenges.
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