Micah Rains has been in the fire service for 18 years and is the Captain of West End Firehouse at Greenville City Fire Department in South Carolina.

Micah is a member of the South Carolina Carolina Task Force 1 USAR team and has a masters degree in Organizational Leadership.  

Micah has taught at many conferences including the NFPA Fire Conference, Florida Fire Conference, Metro Atlanta Fire Conference, South Carolina Fire Rescue Conference,internationally in Ecuador, and many other conferences and departments. 

Along with this experience, Rains has been published by Fire Engineering Magazine and operates Palmetto Fire Tactics LLC.

https://hortonsandhunt.com/

Hey everybody, thanks for joining us as we crack open another episode of the Undisclosed Agents podcast.

Today, we had the chance to sit down with Marc Aloan a Battalion Chief with the West Columbia Fire Department in South Carolina.

Marc is the creator of The Fire Inside blog and a member of the Rust Belt Jakes cadre.

He’s an active speaker, author, and instructor with 20 years of combined volunteer and career service. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Fire Protection Administration and a master’s in Organizational Leadership.

This was a thought-provoking conversation with a leader who’s not afraid to speak his mind, someone deeply passionate about the job, especially the operational side of it.

We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

Now let’s get after it.

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In this episode, we talk about FireShowsWest, what it is, why it matters, and how H&H is involved this year.

From hands-on training to top-tier instructors, FireShowsWest continues to provide high-quality education and networking opportunities for firefighters across the West.

We break down what makes FireShowsWest a must-attend event, highlight this year’s impressive lineup, and share how H&H is taking part.

Spots are filling up fast, so check out the lineup and get signed up as soon as possible!

Fireshowswest.com 

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Danny has been in the fire service for 26 years. He started in a small suburban department north of Atlanta in 1999. After a few years, he knew he wanted to be a City Fireman and began applying in Atlanta. Danny got picked up by Atlanta in February 2005, and that began an amazing experience. 

He was blessed to serve in several busy companies, including Special Operations. During his time with Atlanta, Danny was promoted through the ranks: making Driver in 2009, Lieutenant in 2014, and Captain in 2019.  Then retiring from Atlanta in 2020 after the fallout from a fireground incident that took place June 27th  2019.  

After all that dust settled Danny is back in the saddle and currently serves the men and women of the Roswell Fire Department as a Battalion Chief in Field Operations.

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Jonathan is a Lieutenant with the Denver Fire Department. He began his fire service career in 2009 and has served as both a career and volunteer firefighter. Jonathan has instructed in both lecture and hands-on formats at fire conferences nationally and has published works in several trade magazines. He has been married for 16 years to his beautiful wife, Molly, has three awesome daughters, and has one, handful of a German shorthaired pointer named Tucker. Jonathan is a well-known and respected instructor for engine work throughout the fire service. We were stoked to have this conversation with such a hard charger and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

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Hey everybody, thanks for joining us as we crack up another episode of the undisclosed agents podcast. Today on the podcast, we got a chance to sit down with Jay Bonnifield. Jay is a Captain with the Everett Fire Department in the state of Washington, he is a proud member of station 6, assigned to E6. Jay has been blessed with the opportunity to teach engine operations and live fire training in many venues and conferences across the country. His written work has been published in multiple fire service magazines and has been featured on multiple fire service podcasts. Jay is constantly seeking to learn and share helpful information while pursuing excellence as an engine company officer. Jay is a husband first. He and his wife have 4 amazing children who never stop moving, but wouldn’t have it any other way. This was an excellent conversation with an engine work aficionado, we hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. 

https://hortonsandhunt.com/

Grit First Fire Training is a training company based out of San Diego California. The trio that makes up Grit First are some of the most solid gentlemen we’ve had the pleasure to work with. Grit First offers classes both hands on and lecture on search, tactical TIC use and fire dynamics to name a few. Keep your eye out for these guys, they’ll be offering classes at a conference near you. 

• Dave Stepp Grit First instructor with a passion for teaching search, hose management,  thermal imaging, firefighter survival, RIC and ventilation.  Has had the opportunity to split time riding both engines and trucks throughout the city.  Currently serves as a Captain on Engine and Truck 10 in the area of San Diego State University.  His approach to training is a blend of real world experiences matched up with the skillsets taken from conferences such as FDIC, Firehouse World, Firemanship, FireShows West and soon to come March Mayhem.      

• Mike Smith is an instructor with Frit First Fire Training and has been in the fire service for 18-years and holds the rank of Captain. He serves as the Departments Training Officer and stays neck-deep in training through his work with the County Training Officers and his zone partners. Mike started teaching fire academies back in 2013 and is a State Fire Training instructor for FF1/FF2 academies, Fire Control 3, Firefighter Survival, and Low Angle Rope Rescue. Mike’s passion lies in engine company work, focusing on what matters most on the fireground - putting the fire out and searching for victims. Mike’s about training that's gritty and built for the realities of the job. 

• Jesse Fournier is an instructor for Grit First Fire Training with 18 years in the fire service. He holds the rank of Training Captain with the San Miguel Fire & Rescue Fire Department. Jesse is a State Fire instructor and teaches FC3, RRAO, Firefighter Survival and  Driver Operator. He also serves as an instructor for Miramar College, an  Academy instructor for his Fire Academy, and serves on the USAR Task force. Jesse’s passion is teaching and seeing others’ love for the job grow. He is trying his hardest to bring SoCal back on the map and back to old school gritty firemanship.  More than all of that, Jesse sees himself as a student of the fire service trying his best to make it better than when he started because it has given him so much

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Robert Policht started his career as a volunteer and is lieutenant of Ladder Co. 2 of the Passaic, NJ, Fire Department. During his time with Passaic he assisted with developing and establishing the department’s response to human vs. machine incidents and has a class on this subject he teaches at conferences nation wide. He is attached to Passaic’s  fire Investigation Unit as well. 

Rob teaches at the Bergen County, NJ, Fire Academy and is a member of the NJ Division of Fire Safety's Fire Threat Task Force. Policht has a master’s degree in emergency management and homeland security from Arizona State University and has been published in several fire service trade publications. 

Rob is also a founder of and contributor to Flow and Vent, which is a website that's dedicated to fire and rescue training as well as one of the OG podcasts in the fire service.

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Nick Ledin is a firefighter paramedic with the O Claire Fire Department in Wisconsin, currently assigned to Engine 2. Nick has been a student of the job for over 16 years. He is a major contributor to ‘Firefighter Rescue Survey’, was the former president of the Northland FOOLS, and is an affiliate member of FireNuggets. Nick is a technical committee member for NFPA 1700, he was a former technical panel member for UL FSRI’s PPA and PPV Study as well as a part of UL FSRI’s Public Education Advisory Group. On top of this Nick is a co-host of the FireNuggets Podcast and GRABS Podcast. Nick Ledin is a deep thinker and an incredibly intelligent and knowledgeable fireman. This conversation was thought provoking and certainly one of my favorite podcasts to date. In this episode we discussed search, the powerful 2 in 2 out position paper Nick was a part of publishing earlier this year, risk vs reward and of course the infamous attempted heist of the class name “church of search”. 

https://data-not-drama.com/2024/05/18/removing-two-in-two-out-a-modern-data-supported-defense-of-our-core-mission/

https://www.firefighterrescuesurvey.com

https://www.firenuggets.com

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Mickey is a Lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department. He is a third-generation firefighter with 29 years of experience, the last 23 years being with the FDNY. Mickey has been instructor at the New York City Fire Academy, as well as a speaker and instructor at conferences all over the country. He is the founder and author of Top Floor Tactics, and the host of A View From the Top Floor Podcast. When Mickey speaks about the fire service he does so in a poetic manner that invokes passion for this profession. His views are unapologetic, derived from experience, and profound. This was certainly one of my favorite conversations to date. Like all of our podcast I learned a great deal and was left with lots to think about. 

https://hortonsandhunt.com/