Picture your neighbor’s house…steam and smoke lazily coming out of the hole in the roof as you watch salvage and overhaul crews entering the house. Most of the men and women too busy to realize that you are there watching, not knowing that you are a firefighter and understand the entire process that is unfolding in the front yard of the house next door. You know it will only be a matter of [ Read More ]
How does the bench press or bicep curls help a firefighter lug two and half inch hose down a hallway or lift a 300-pound patient up off of the bathroom floor? Does having bigger trapezius muscles or a stronger gluteus help us breach a wall quicker or force a door more easily? It’s no secret that strength training helps us look and feel good, but does lifting weights translate to [ Read More ]
Building a stronger heart is the best life insurance there is. Each year heart attacks take the lives of more firefighters than all other line of duty deaths, and hundreds more are forced into early retirement. One often over-looked and underestimated solution to this epidemic is cardiovascular exercise. We all know that regular cardiovascular exercise makes your heart stronger and more efficient, burns calories, lowers your blood pressure and helps [ Read More ]
By Christopher Huston What is a tradition? One web reference defines it as “an inherited pattern of thought or action”. We do what we do because it’s always been done that way. The fire service has many great traditions. Honor, Pride and Bravery just to name a few. But where do we draw the line between traditions and just bad behaviors? Let’s take a look at some bad behavior. [ Read More ]
To many times since I’ve been a firefighter I have heard people from different areas of the country argue about 2 in / 2 out and how it affects their department. This rule was put in place for our safety but we as a fire service in a whole generally ignore it or don’t follow it as part of our tactical priority on the fire ground. In the past this [ Read More ]
As you probably already know, an unprecedented meeting of the American fire service met in Tampa back in 2004. The Life Safety Task Force generated a list of 16 Life Safety Initiatives. I’m sure most of us had seen or heard them. But, if you are truly dedicated to saving your lives and the lives of those on your department and your crew, you will have come pretty damn close [ Read More ]
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