Commentary
Important Changes/Trends in the Fire Service
Was wondering if you could do me a favor and list what you believe to be the most significant changes/trends in the past 10 years of the fire service.
Customer Service is Alive and Well
So I did, and the CEO of the company picks up my call! Great customer service and I’m not even a “buying customer”! I can only imagine what you folks do for the people who buy your products!
What’s your department’s funding strategy?
Let’s “cut to the chase”, shall we? We've got many paradigms in the fire service that we need to “break" and one of them is how we seek resources to get the job done.
Role Models for Recruiting, Hiring and Retaining the Right People
Think it’s not important to your efforts to recruit, hire and retain the right people? Here’s an Fire Prevention Demoanecdote from one of my fire service colleagues on Facebook, Firefighter Irene Silknetter Fitzkee, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania:
What’s Your Plan for an Inclusive and Diverse Department to Increase Service and Safety?
The solution for an inclusive and diverse fire department is NOT just recruiting more women and people of color. The SOLUTION is recruiting the RIGHT people—qualified, inclusive, diverse and safety-conscious. And yes, that includes the RIGHT white males who understand why an inclusive and diverse department increases service and safety. Recruitment is not just getting more people to apply and show up for the test. Successful recruitment is the first level of the screening process.
Life After Firefighting: It’s a Matter of Time
In many cases the most important component of their treatment will involve time. The time to get a diagnosis, get the proper treatment, and recover from that treatment. A caring and empathetic manager and organization can make a world of difference, especially when an illness puts an individual’s life and career in jeopardy.
Life after Firefighting
This story is written from my perspective; it is simply my own experience. My breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent legal action combined for my “early exit”, so the “sudden end” was really not so sudden. I fully expected to retire just as many firefighters did before me had: 50-years-old, twenty years of service, healthy, and financially stable.
Four Firefighters and a Woman Named Sue
As each of my fire service brothers went up to the front of the room to receive their award plaque—along with a big hug—from Sue, words cannot adequately describe seeing the genuine bond that had been forged between those rescuers and their “rescuee” by this catastrophic event.
Why this is wrong on many levels
Am I “jumping the gun” on this one? We don’t know all the facts of the case, that’s for sure, but I know one thing from my career in the municipal fire service: You don’t conduct an extensive investigation of an incident, and produce a 200-page report that documents that investigation, because you didn’t have anything better to do.
Heroes All–19 Fallen and One to Carry On
Let us never forget that there were 20 members on the Prescott-based Granite Mountain Hotshots on that fateful June 30th, 2013.