With the recent school shooting does your department have a mass shooting response? Is there policies in place or do they need updated? It’s a crazy world we live in and it’s unfortunate that our children have to be part of the nasty world of shootings in schools. Mental health of responders is real. Having an incident where children are involved can be tough on a responders mental health. Take care of yourself and your fellow firefighters. Talk with someone if you’re having issues. Check out my latest episode where I voice my thoughts about this topic!

I’m motivated today!!! Do you trust your leader? Your leader makes decisions that affect you and your company and department. Are they sound decisions or are they bullying tactics to get their point across? I talk about issues that we see in the fire service with our leadership. How we can possibly change that outlook. I’m on fire so check out my latest “Trust your leader”.

Your name means everything. You start building your reputation when you start the fire service. Do you want to have a good reputation or are you not worried about it?? Your reputation follows you no matter where you go. People may only know your reputation and not know the real you. I talk about building a good reputation and how to get out of a bad one. Remember your name on the back of your coat means everything!!

Don’t get me wrong I support EMS, but are we concentrating more on the high frequency low risk calls over the low frequency high risk calls. When it comes to money, training, personnel I believe that the forgotten side of Fire has become worse. I’ve never seen a private ambulance service do tech rescue or high angle rope. Yeah those calls are few and far between, but the neglect is there. I talk about having those tough talks and being proactive to gain ground to bring the fire side in the Fire Department, stay motivated!

What is your roll? Are you a rookie, driver, officer and do you know your roll in your department?? I’m going to dive into this topic and hopefully give some helpful advice to anyone who can help people with understanding their roll. Check it out!!

Watching my sons baseball practice and it got me thinking. They did nothing but fundamentals of baseball. We need to do more fundamentals of firefighting. Help create a bad ass crew, a dependable crew. Have your people become great firemen. Fundamentals of firefighting are important on the fire scene. Don’t let a mistake happen while the fire is blowing out the door. Be fluid in your abilities of your job!!

Blue shirts vs the white shirts. Having tough conversations for both sides. Communication between the two is crucial for developing a good working relationship. Having tough conversations to bring certain topics to fruition. I’m back it’s been a year and I’m ready to bring on the talk!

We love this job so much that it intertwines our personal life. The fire department is our 2nd home and family. With such negativity, death, little sleep, etc… why do we do it? We have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and we show up every shift ready to do work! Why?? When our own lose their lives why do we still continue doing what we do? It’s the love of the job and the people. Greatest job I’ve ever had!!

It’s the end of Season 2!! Hope everyone has enjoyed it!! I get into micro managing the decision makers and how that just ain’t right. We have to work together for an overall positive outcome on calls. Just because you have power doesn’t mean you know everything. There are folks out there that have expertise in certain areas that maybe you don’t. Trust your people, trust your officers and firefighters in leading roles. Don’t be a boss be a leader!

It’s 2022 and let’s start a new year with getting that positive change in mind. Let’s kill that complacency that is haunting the fire service. Let’s not worry about our 2nd job for 24 hours and concentrate on our department. Let’s make 2022 better than last year and make yourself and your department better!