Tunnel Vision in Rural Departments

For most of my career as a volunteer firefighter, I have served rural fire departments. Currently, I serve in a department that averages 250 calls per year, medical and fire. For 6 years, I served in an urban\suburban fire department that ran 1400 calls per year. One of the big differences that I noticed between [...]

Don’t Give It Up

While it is clear that tough economic times have affected most of North America’s fire service, there also seems to be an impression, in some communities that they can do “without” some “parts” of their fire department. But…which parts?

Which roles?
Which tasks?
Which stations and most critically: which people?
What part of the fire department [...]

Responding to Scenes of Violence

The fire service today does not provide yesterdays services.  Hazardous materials, technical rescue, and emergency medical services comprise most of our run statistics over structural firefighting.  Within that, EMS is the largest component for most jurisdictions.  Whether your agency provides transport or first response it is essential that organizations train their personnel to operate safely [...]