Lately there seems to be a push against experience in favor of education in the fire service. This push isn’t new, but this wave is riding the coattails of the preliminary results of the first large scale fire attack study, which is at best half way done. Many young inexperienced firefighters and officers are looking […]

How often do we give our fire service saws a soup to nuts inspection and cleaning? I’m sure that there are people reading this with a wide range of answers; once a week or after every use that saw gets completely disassembled, inspected and cleaned, some might say we send it out to a shop […]

The drill below are typical drills that happen almost everyday in the fire service. Focusing on the Drill at hand, is it effective? Does this drill bring forth realistic expectations? In what situations do we layout all of our equipment including SCBA and get dressed? I have a few answers in my head, but I […]

The crew of Firefighter Basics will be teaching a class entitled Suburban to Urban Fire Tactics at the SC Firefighters Conference June 10 in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Follow the link to learn how to register. www.scfirefighters.org

Long Lug Out Smooth, Bump, Bump, to the Pump We were going over this basic firefighter safety drill with a class a while ago.  I started the evolution by letting them know that this should not even count as a skill.  Just like putting on your pants or SCBA.  You should know it as if […]

This is the first of hopefully many follow-ups to the Boston Ladder Culture article. After the Aerial or main ladder there are only 2 ladders we concern ourselves with on the truck; the 35′ and the 50′. The rest of the ladders; 40′, 28, 24, roof, pencil, Baby Bangor, Little Giant are almost all considered […]

We must start at understanding why we are using the hose load we are using and the pros/cons

For new and aspiring fire officers remember training does not have to take all day, but has to be effective and have a measurable outcome at the end.