Firefighters Time To Work

Firefighters Time To Work. No matter how experienced you are or how many times you enter the flames every fire is a new fire. You've got this. You have trained it, experienced it, you have a team with you and the tools and training you need. Never get complacent. Never get overconfident. Trust in what you wear. In what you know. And trust in your judgement to know when it's time to go.

Photo of me just before entering a structure fire a few years ago.

 #brotherhood #courage #firefightertraining #firetruck #onthejob #staysafe #911 #rescue #fireman #femalefirefighter #team

Stay Low. Stay Together. Stay Safe. See you on the next job. 

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Firefighters Take The Heat

Firefighters - yeah we can take the heat mentally and physically. But remember you have to know when it’s time to back out physically and the same goes for a break when your mind needs to step back some.

Firefighter teams aren’t just for physical work. Be there for your buddy.  Go to a buddy when you need one. That’s the right way to handle the Heat.

When Only Firefighters Are There

When only firefighters are there to do the job no one else can do. When it's only up to firefighters, be the best firefighters they deserve.

Train hard. Work Hard. Stay Safe.

Firefighter Hot Personalized Sales and Deals

Firefighter Personalized Deals - Everything is discounted firefighter t-shirts and hoodies, Christmas ornaments and Personalized Christmas stockings, iPhone Cases - you name it we firefighter design it and it's on sale!  Check it all out at:  Firefighter Gift Shops By Bonfire Designs

Firefighter Thanksgiving Memories

Firefighters, EMS and Police celebrate Thanksgiving too. While the world is planning the celebration to include the turkey roasting, stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie, firefighters are planning too. We can't help it. While you worry about burning the turkey, we are worried about you burning down the house.

Roasting a turkey is one thing, how about all those people deciding to deep fry the turkey! Structure fires waiting to happen. Yes it has happened on Thanksgiving, on my watch. Way more times than I can count.

Boiling pots of water and fry pans are not innocent cooking tools. Sleeves that hang over the flames while lifting the pot. Handles facing out that children can touch, can get knocked over by someone walking by.

Grease. Oh those grease fires. On the stove. In the oven. And the people who inevitably throw water on it .......

And the candles. People love burning candles especially on holidays. Fall scented, pumpkin scented candles that have started more fires on more holidays than I even care to remember. Children who were burned by the candles adults don't give a thought to when they put them out to impress their company. Medivacs for burned children on any day is awful and on the holidays.....

The roads are packed. The family is stuffed. Don't drink and drive - please don't drink and drive. Slow down it's OK. Too many motor vehicle crashes especially on the holidays. Especially on Thanksgiving.

And if you make it through the night without any of the above happening - you can be sure by midnight when the dishes are cleaned, the company is gone, someone will turn on the self cleaning oven and you will probably get your call then!

Firefighter holiday memories. Reminds me of how much we all have to be thankful for. Reminds me how important it is to take a little time, do a little planning so all of our holidays are happy. And safe.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone. Stay Safe. Stay Thankful. Stay Happy.

Firefighter Dates In Time

Firefighter Dates and Time are inseparable yet separate as can be. Every firefighting experience is all about time. No two calls are ever the same. Ever. Could be a fire alarm in the same senior citizen residential community, almost the same time of night and yet, still never the same. Especially when after 5 nuisance calls in a week or so the 6th one is a working structure fire in the same building, the same time of early morning. I remember the Chief calling to Central to make sure they double re-toned all fire depts involved to alert them that this was a confirmed working structure fire so no one became complacent after the first 5 false alarms.

Three apartments totally burned out, water and smoke damage to the rest, 166 unhappy senior citizens many at least partially handicapped, evacuated to the medical building and no firefighters injured means no one got complacent. Everyone did their job. The fire incidentally was started by a senior citizen who wasn't supposed to be smoking, dumping the ash tray into the garbage while it was apparently still smoldering when someone knocked on her door. It smoldered there a couple of hours before the alarm came over.

The time and perspective was different and always is, for everyone on the scene. Senior residents remember they have to go find somewhere else to live for a while. Some remembered firefighters being mean to them and dragging them out of their apartments. Firefighters remember the residents resisting leaving even as the apartment two doors down was on fire. My LT on scene recalled with a sense of humor later, the woman he encouraged strongly to move out with him was screaming she wasn't leaving her fur coat as she stuffed the cash that was under her mattress into the pockets. I remembered seeing her on the scene later wearing that coat and not letting the EMT's check her out or touch her. Most of the residents were worried, confused and extremely grateful for the help and I was so very proud of every firefighter and EMT that not only put out the fire, evacuated them to safety, stayed an additional shift to help them get their property out of damaged apartments with respect and humor.

I also remember the next day the Chief and I took a ride to that community and started putting real pre-plans in place, started training sessions with their security office, their administrators and also even their residents. We also made the Executive Administrators have the alarm company out to upgrade the system in an effort to cut down on the overwhelming amount of false alarms. It all helped and today I hope pre-plans are the norm in communities now.

Firefighters always making time count.