BobbieOnFire

In wildland firefighting we talk alot about the weather. Weather has a huge impact upon our operations in the field. We also talk about the changing climate and how our seasons are longer, fuels drier and fires lasting longer and growing bigger. But we don’t often talk about the command climate in our workplace. And yet, command climate can and does have a huge impact upon your work unit. Regardless of whether you’re on an engine, a crew, manage a station or a department, we all need a reminder about simple factors that impact the climate of our workplace. Join me for a 20 minute discussion about how we influence the command climate of our work group. This is basic leadership that even old time fire leaders can benefit by listening to. Thanks.

Episode 111, Control Your Command Climate, BobbieOnFire.com, March 21, 2026

In your life as a firefighter and leader, more often than not, it’s miscommunications that will cause you more trouble and heartache than just about anything else. If we could only understand why we find ourselves cross ways with our supervisor and co-workers. Take a few minutes to listen in to this episode and hopefully you’ll be curious to do a little more study on the subject. Thanks for listening and please leave a comment.

This podcast should have been posted about 6 months ago, but the filmmaker and I finally got together to talk about this important story. Every firefighter, every family member and every friend of a firefighter and anyone holding a leadership position in any organization should watch this film. There is so much to learn about leadership, communications, being present in the workplace and speaking up. And in this documentary, you’ll hear the tragic details from those who survived the blow-up. The Dude fire is now 35 years old. But LCES is still used today on wildland fires. And LCES came from the Dude Fire. This fire killed 6 firefighters. It burned more than 60 homes. And it deserves your attention. Please listen to this podcast, then watch the movie. Thanks.

Right now, I’m hearing alot of armchair quarterbacks passing judgement on the National Park Service management of a wildfire on the north rim of the Grand Canyon. The ensuing fire burned down the historic north rim lodge along with dozens of other structures. It’s a tragedy. Many people seem to “know” that National Park Management mishandled this fire in the beginning. They may have. I don’t know. I don’t have the facts. We may have opinions about what happened. But opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. There will be an investigation. Let’s wait until we Really know what happened before passing judgement. In this podcast, I’ll describe many of the factors that may have contributed to the sad outcomes.

Currently in congress and in the Whitehouse, there is more than just talk about combining the 5 federal wildland fire agencies into one organization. There is a draft executive order floating around but more importantly there is language in the budget bill to move all of us under one organization within the Dept of Interior. Love it or hate it… but you and I had better engage before the train leaves the station with us standing there watching from the platform. Listen in as we discuss the problems and potential benefits from such a plan.

What’s the craziest unexpected occurance that’s happened to you at an incident or responding to an incident? Was it critical enough that you had to change your plans. The crew of this type 4 engine never made it to their smoke report. Their plans definately changed and so did their local Battalion or Division. We need to constantly be thinking about about what might happen and how we will react to it. Have a plan but don’t marry that plan. Be ready and don’t be surprised when crazy things happen. Listen in to this podcast and think about how you can be prepared for the unexpected.

Two weeks ago, I lost my long time friend, mentor and type 1 Incident Commander to a work related illness. He died after being sick for a couple years. Those last two years for him were not good ones. And his illness was the result of our Incident Management Teams deployment to the World Trade Center site following the attacks on September 11, 2001. Other members of our IMT have died since then and many of us are dealing with asthma, sinus and other more serious health issues. Take a few minutes to listen in to this podcast about what’s at risk from a career in wildland firefighting. And do what you can to reduce your exposure the best you can. Thanks for listening.

There is alot of talk about DEI these days. Much of it is not accurate and much of it implies affirmative action… which is not DEI. In the fire service we will work with lots of different kinds of people. Some from the big city, some from small towns. We’ll work with liberals and conservatives, blacks, whites and browns, LBGTs, straights, religious and non-religious. If you’re a leader… and what??? yes, we’re all leaders, you have to be a leader for everyone on your crew. Take a few minutes to listen in to us talk about DEI as a wildland firefighter. You owe it to your crew to take a few minutes to listen and maybe discuss with your crew. As always, thanks for listening.

There are lots of emotions right now about the fires in LA. And there should be. Thousands of people are forced from their home and many of those will come back to nothing but devastation. But let us not fall into the trap of believing simple answers about why this fire is happening and why it’s causing so much damage. Listen in to this podcast and get some insights from an experienced professional firefighter/chief with 45 years experience on the job. Remember, there are no simple answers to complex problems… and we have a complex national problem regarding wildland fire.

Do you get tired of the topic of workplace bullying? I sure get tired of talking about it. But you know what? It’s still going on. It wasn’t long ago that an east coast female firefighter committed suicide due to bullying at the fire department. Actually there have been two in the last couple years. And those are just the one’s I’m aware of. How bad must they be treated to get to that point? Personally, I hear from firefighters and even their retired firefighter parents about workplace bullshit. It drives me crazy that here we are, almost 2025 and we still have that much inappropriate and unprofessional behavior at work. It seems like officers and firefighters think the workplace is a private club that they can treat people however they like. It isn’t. This is a job. It’s a profession and it’s a workplace that is funded by taxpayer dollars. Those taxpayers and hopefully your Chiefs expect professional performance. Take a few minutes to listen to this podcast and talk about it with your crew. We have got to do better folks! And as always, thanks for listening.