In this episode of the IFIW Australia mini-series, James Mendoza, Captain and Training Officer with the San Jose Fire Department, takes us inside a major large volume fire at a Home Depot in 2022. With a background in education and microbiology, and experience contributing to UL’s Coordinated Fire Attack study, James blends science and street-level decision making as he unpacks the realities of operating inside a thirty foot high warehouse filled with high rack storage, compressed gas cylinders and lithium ion batteries. This is a raw debrief of what it actually looked like when the smoke layer dropped to the floor and traditional straight stream techniques began to show their limitations.

We explore gas cooling in a large compartment, the cognitive load on company officers, the tension between defensive indicators and life risk, and the uncomfortable gaps in training when firefighters are highly competent in residential fires but underprepared for mega structures. 

The series is supported by Enduro Protect and De-Wipe, organisations committed to protecting firefighters from long term exposure risks while continuing to develop operational competence. Links to both can be found in the episode notes.

Connect with James HERE

You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE

For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]

PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 

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In this episode I sit down with my good friend John Gregory, one of the original trailblazers of the British Firefighter Challenge as we head into a challenge season that is bigger and more competitive than ever before. 

John and I have shared the arena many times over the years, from Toughest Firefighter competitions to international search and rescue arduous conditions courses and HYROX events and that shared experience shapes a conversation that goes far beyond fitness. 

We unpack the growth of the British Firefighter Challenge series, competitions organised by firefighters for firefighters that tests operationally relevant skills against the clock and we talk openly about the runners and riders this year, the returning legends, and the hungry disruptors stepping up to shift the order. 

SEE ALL THE British Firefighter Challenge series competitions HERE

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In this episode recorded live at the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, you’ll hear from Edward Hartin as he explores fireground sensemaking and decision making for the station officer. Drawing on more than fifty years in the fire service and decades at chief officer level, Ed takes us inside the cognitive process that underpins command. How initial cues shape your frame of reference before you even arrive. Why experience alone is not expertise. And how deliberate practice through Tactical Decision Games builds the pattern recognition, risk assessment and coordination skills that actually show up when conditions deteriorate.

This episode forms part of the IFIW Australia mini-series and was recorded in a live working environment, so what you hear is raw and authentic. The series is supported by Enduro Protect and De Wipe, two organisations focused on reducing occupational exposure risks in realistic training environments. Enduro Protect’s particulate blocking range and De Wipe’s decontamination wipes are practical tools designed to protect firefighters from harmful contaminants while continuing to develop operational competence. Links to both, along with Ed’s downloadable presentation, can be found in the episode notes.

Connect with Ed HERE

Find Command Competence HERE

For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]

You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE

PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 

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London Fire Brigade protects one of the most complex urban environments on the planet. The resident population of London sits at around 9 million people, but that number is misleading. On a typical weekday, when commuters, tourists, and transient populations are added in, the number of people moving through the city regularly swells to 11 to 12 million, sometimes more during major events or peak travel periods.

Around a quarter of all fire and rescue service calls in the UK come into London. Around 70% of the UK’s high rise residential stock sits within the M25. This is not just a big fire brigade. It’s a service operating at global city scale, with global city risk.

In this episode, I sit down with Jonathan Smith, Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, to talk honestly about what it takes to lead a service like that in today’s operating environment.

We start with Jonathan’s journey into the fire service, from training and operational life through promotion and leadership, but this is not a career timeline conversation. It’s a working discussion about responsibility, decision making, and pressure at scale.

We talk about training and professional standards, what was lost after the early 2000s, and what it really means to professionalise a modern fire service. We explore high rise firefighting in London, lessons learned from Grenfell, and how evacuation, control, and operational command have fundamentally changed over the last decade.

This conversation deliberately looks beyond a single service or even a single country. We frame London alongside other global cities like New York, Paris, and Tokyo, because the risks London faces don’t stop at national borders. Climate change, lithium battery fires, terrorism, urban density, and geopolitical tension all show up on the streets of this city, and the fire service has to be ready for that reality.

We also talk culture, not as a buzzword, but as lived behaviour. Leadership, accountability, psychological safety, and what it actually takes to create an organisation where people can do their best work without fear or silence. And finally, we zoom in on the personal cost of leadership, resilience, and how you stay grounded when the stakes are this high.

This is a grounded, boots on the ground conversation about the future of firefighting, leadership in complex systems, and how our profession can continue to shape its own destiny.

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This mini series opens a door into the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, a gathering that for nearly two decades has been built on closed room conversations, honest challenge and the exchange of experience between some of the most respected fire instructors in the world. 

With the full support of the organisers and attendees, these recordings bring that environment into the open. The theme this year is Back to Basics, a deliberate return to the fundamentals that genuinely change outcomes on the fireground and in the training environment. What you are hearing is live and unfiltered, complete with the movement and background of a real working room, because that is exactly where the learning happens and why it is so valuable.

Alongside the operational learning sits a clear commitment to longevity in the job and reducing the hidden risks that come with realistic fire behaviour training. The support from Enduro Protect and De Wipe reflects a practical approach to contamination control and long term health, based on repeated use in live burn environments and consistent performance over time. If we are serious about pushing our competence and exposing ourselves to high fidelity training, we have to be just as disciplined about protecting ourselves from the long term consequences of that exposure.

This first episode features Karel Lambert, Division Chief at Brussels Fire Department, presenting on air consumption during tunnel firefighting. 

For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]

You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE

PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 

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Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July

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In this episode, I sit down with Scott Butler, a serving UK firefighter who has quietly built a life around choosing difficult things on purpose. Scott shares the pivotal moment in 2006 when joining the fire service forced him to grow fast, take responsibility, and stop making excuses. That turning point shaped not just his career, but his identity, and set him on a path where challenge became a way of understanding himself rather than something to avoid.

Our conversation goes far beyond adventure headlines. We talk about ultra-distance challenges, rowing the Atlantic, desert races, long lonely days where quitting would make complete sense, and the mindset required to keep moving anyway. Along the way, we explore fear, ageing, doubt, discipline, charity, and why firefighters often feel most at home in uncomfortable places. There is also a surprisingly important discussion about bum butter, because it turns out the right anti-chafing cream can overcome all kinds of horrific challenges. This is a grounded, honest, and funny conversation about resilience, agency, and backing yourself without needing applause.

Find Scott HERE

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This short debrief episode examines the Bethnal Green Road fire of 20 July 2004, a commercial premises fire in East London that resulted in the deaths of two London firefighters, Billy Faust and Adam Meere. Crews attended what initially presented as a working shop fire and committed under Breathing Apparatus into a basement environment characterised by heavy textile fuel loading, restricted access, and limited ventilation.

This episode focuses on exploring how fire behaviour can change when ventilation-limited conditions are involved. Particular attention is given to tactical ventilation, positive pressure ventilation, and positive pressure attack, and how airflow interacts with ventilation profiles in modern incidents. 

Bethnal Green Road remains a critical case study for all firefighters - a FREE downloadable training document accompanies this episode for crews to aid and facilitate training sessions - DOWNLOAD IT HERE

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I sit down with Chris Case, a firefighter who spent 25 years in Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service before making the leap to Canada and becoming Fire Chief of Chatham-Kent in Ontario.

This is not a career-timeline conversation. It is a deep exploration of leadership, identity, and the personal cost of doing complex work in complex systems.

We talk about moving beyond the cookie-cutter career, the curse of competence, and what happens when professionalism becomes a golden cage. Chris shares hard-won lessons from counter-terrorism, multi-agency command, senior leadership, and governance, but also from parenting, failure, anxiety, and learning when to stop optimising everything.

We explore why managers enforce rules but leaders enforce values, why undefined expectations become premeditated resentments, and why senior officers eventually trade tools for words. We talk about ambition, burnout, anger as fuel, and the danger of confusing progress with peace.

This episode is for firefighters at every rank who are trying to do meaningful work without betraying themselves in the process.

Connect with Chris Case HERE

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***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***

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On this episode of we take a slow, deliberate look at the Old Albert Mill incident in Whitworth, Lancashire, from 15 May 2009. This is a structured incident debrief built directly from the original accident investigation report, with large sections read verbatim to preserve timings, context, and operational reality. The focus is not on blame or judgement, but on understanding how breathing apparatus operations, withdrawal under pressure, low visibility movement, and training culture intersected during a real incident that resulted in a firefighter injury.

This episode is designed as a learning tool. Alongside the audio debrief, an incident debrief training document has been created for crews to use on station. 

It follows a clear structure, sets out critical information from the incident, and poses decision points and discussion prompts to help firefighters and officers reflect on what they would do if faced with a similar incident tonight. 

You can find the downloadable debrief document via the link below and use it to support watch-based discussions, training sessions, and professional development.

LINK FOR TRAINING DOCUMENT

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In this episode, I’m joined by Chris Kirby, Chief Fire Officer of South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Chair of FireSport UK, to talk about why bringing sport back matters right now. We focus on the Festival of Fire Sport and how FireSport UK is using sport to reconnect firefighters through teamwork, competition, and shared experience, not just fitness for fitness’ sake.

We explore how sport builds trust, resilience, and identity across the fire service, why earning your place alongside your peers matters, and how initiatives like the Festival of Fire Sport and the British Firefighter Challenge bring people together across roles, ranks, and services. This is about participation, community, and momentum. Bringing sport back is about strengthening the fire service from the inside out.

CLICK HERE - FESTIVAL OF FIRE SPORT

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***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***

Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew