SAFETY MINDED:
In order to be effective, we have to know how to protect ourselves.  By learning the limitations of ourselves, our crews, our equipment and the buildings that we operate in, we can prevent injuries caused by known hazards.  By understanding safety standards (OSHA, NFPA and textbooks), learning building construction and learning from Line Of Duty Deaths and firefighter close calls., we can learn from, and keep from repeating, history.

AGGRESSIVE:
It takes more than being willing to charge into a burning building to be an aggressive firefighter. To be an “aggressive” firefighter is to be an educated and well trained firefighter in ALL aspects of firefighting. Being an aggressive firefighter or Incident Commander demands commitment to all fireground strategies and tactics.

FUNDAMENTALLY SOUND:
In order to be safe and to be aggressive, you must master the basics. If you cannot accomplish the simplest of fireground tasks, how can you expect to succeed when the scene or situation becomes more complex? Everything expands from the basics.

EFFICIENT:
Once you have mastered the basics, have become aggressive in all aspects of firefighting and understand the inherent risks of the fire service, your actions will become reactive, or even proactive, and you will accomplish fireground tasks quicker, better and safer. The “best” firefighters and companies did not become the best by accident.

It never gets any easier!  Seven years later and it still doesn’t get any easier.  Everyone has  there 9/11 story, where they were, what they doing.  Without doubt, and for obvious reasons, that day will be etched into the minds of those old enough to comprehend the significance of the event.

As I’ve watched the news coverage, they all insist on re-playing, complete with play-by-play, all of the footage from 9/11/01.  At first I had mixed feeling about this but then I realized that, though we as firemen will NEVER EVER FORGET, society at large may not always remember.  For everyone else, it reminds them that life will not ever be the same no matter how hard we try to regain our pre-9/11 innocence and freedom.

In the news footage from that day, President Bush informs the nation about these catastrophic events while at a school and with children standing behind him.   It occurred to me that some of those children may be fighting the war caused by events that they may have been too young to comprehend.  And then I realized that as my daughter gets older, the anniversary of 9/11 will come when she asks me, “Daddy, what’s 9/11?”

On that day I’ll have to explain to my daughter that 9/11/01 was the day that my generation was called to arms and answered the call with dedication, honor and sacrifice.  It was the day 343 firemen, just like her daddy, didn’t get to go home but that, because of them, thousands of other people did.  It was the day that the world, as she knows it, was born.  9/11 and the war on terrorism will be a chapter in her American History books.  My only hope is that her generation will not still be fighting the war on terrorism and that her generation, through history books and word of mouth, will learn about and never forget 9/11.

My thoughts and prayers will always be with the families of the fallen and with all of my Brothers (and Sisters) who protect our homes and families 24/7.

FTM-PTB-RFB

I found this gem while surfing the Indy Metro FOOLS website.  It was posted by Mike Gilbert (a Founding FOOL).

This is great answer to the question of which way is the BEST way to load a highrise (standpipe) pack.  Its easy, its versatile and…it works!

Also, below is a second dose.  Looks like the Cleveland Hose Load being tested by our brothers in Prince George’s County. MD to extend lines at Garden Apartments. CLICK HERE to see Corona, CA FD with great training footage of deploying the load from a standpipe in a stairwell.