Fire & EMS Leader Pro The job of old firefighters is to teach young firefighters how to become old firefighters!

Networking is the lifeblood for your professional life, but how can you effectively and efficiently network in the digital age? It can be relatively easy if you have an action plan and that’s my purpose with today’s post: Help you to develop an action plan for your professional networking.

Safe Kids Worldwide and Prevention Connection share a passion and dedication for making communities safer for families and children. That’s why Prevention Connection is honored to have the opportunity to Safe Kids Worldwide’s new Trusted Partners Program – a cause marketing program based on sales to Safe Kids’ network of 500 coalitions in the United States. As a Trusted Partner, Safe Kids Worldwide will promote the partnership and select Prevention Connection products to the network.

Reducing firefighter deaths and injuries is, or should be, a top priority for all fire departments in the USA in 2014. The 16 Lifesafety Initiatives from Everyone Goes Home provide the framework for a department to develop strategies for making the job of a firefighter safer, more effective, and more efficient. This article takes a closer look.

The use of UVGI in the fire station environment for sanitizing and decontamination has several attractive features. UVGI light is clean and green (no potentially harmful chemicals that require special use and protective equipment). There are no dangerous odors or residues from harsh cleaning agents to affect staff or patients and offers decontaminated spaces can immediately be reoccupied (less downtime for ambulances).

But changing a fire service organization’s culture is not as easy as changing the type of hose that your department carries on its fire apparatus. That’s because making changes to the culture—that mix of rituals, values, and traditions that defines a group—is tricky business and frequently messy. The current culture persists because it’s one of the main ingredients in the glue that holds the organization together. Culture exists in the “space” between people, not just in any one individual or small group of individuals.

Many areas of the country, particularly those affected by sustained drought conditions, are seeing increased use of Type III or Type VI engines, also known as the brush trucks . And when a brush truck sees service it's typically a hard run — operating in dusty and dirty conditions, over undulating terrain and in all types of vegetation can really take a toll on these vehicles.

Here are five game-changing technologies in fire apparatus that will have a major influence on firefighter safety, efficiency and operations for years to come.

Summer fire camps provide a great opportunity for girls and young women to discover what an exciting and rewarding experience being a firefighter can be. Camps also provide fire service organizations an equally great opportunity to begin "growing" the next generation of women firefighters.

Nobody can, or should, have more positive influence over the behaviors of a firefighter on the emergency scene than his or her tactical leader.

The Charlottesville (VA) Fire Department is opening a new fire station that uses innovative "green" technologies to minimize its carbon footprint and save money in operational costs.