First off I need to thank Brandon for reminding me of this. This is going to sound bad, but stick it out. When recently asked how a firefighter can make changes in a fire department I gave a list of ways firefighters have lead changes in my department, and I’ll write about that in the […]

About a year ago Pope Francis gave a speech to Vatican staff, that most firefighters can learn from. He touched on 15 issues wrong with the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is one of the largest, oldest, and most organized institutions in the world, yet the issues they face are similar to those we face in […]

Those of you who have read my previous articles know that I am not an advocate of the SLICE-RS implementation; I have been categorized as a dinosaur for my thoughts on the topic. But one thing I have never been against is science. I do not doubt what the people at UL/FSRI do. They give […]

When 2 hands, 2 tools is brought up I assume it means to carry a tool to work with and a company specific tool. Company specific means engines bring attack lines and trucks bring ladders. OK, so let’s assume you are on the first truck company showing up, 1st in is not expected to throw […]

When you see a speaker talking about motivation why do you get motivated? Well if they are any good its contagious and you are open to it. If you weren’t open to it you wouldn’t be hearing them, right? If the speaker wasn’t an example of motivation he or she would’t be seen by many […]

Guest post today from JD ​“Hey kid, you’re in MY chair!” 21 Years ago I was 10 minutes into my first day at the Fire Department and I already screwed up! One of the guys saw me nervously standing near the kitchen before the on coming shift started, and “told” me to have a seat. […]

Search- The first thing I want you to notice is I did not include rescue, that will come later . It was not until an article written by Michael Briclaut in the Fire Engineering, that I realize I was one of those guys who did not understand that search and rescue where not lumped together as […]

There is a lot of change in the Casa De Anchorpoint recently. My wife is in nursing school and my oldest daughter has to pick between two really good high schools. Of course Firefighter Basics has some great people to thank for keeping the site going while I tend to these things. But Let me […]

We live in a glorious age of information – the internet has provided unlimited access to a vast wealth of knowledge. Never in the history of man has one been able to gather information as efficiently as we are able today. But most people take this for granted. We ignore information we don’t agree with […]

Ryan and I had the honor of sitting in on a UL/NIST class today on Fire Dynamics Research to Tactical Solutions. We appreciate the time and effort that was put into the class and the fireground application examples that were given. These help to bridge the gap between the “Scientific Lab Stuff” and the real […]