July 2024

The July issue of Firehouse includes feature articles on forcible entry, leadership and fire-based EMS, plus two special Firehouse Survey results, Mentoring in the Fire Service and part two of the National Run Survey.

July 2024

Firehouse National Run Survey 2023 - Part 2

Aug. 2, 2024

fire departments officers firefighters mentoring mentees

Careers & Education

Firehouse Presents Mentoring in the Fire Service

July 31, 2024

Manipulating the lighting of a training environment—even using a quartz light to mimic scene lighting from an apparatus—provides a means to immerse trainees in a scenario and require them to problem-solve while dealing with stressors.

EMS

Enhancing Perceptual Skills and Simulation on a Budget

July 31, 2024

Having the ability to speak face to face with elected officials regarding grant funding or other monetary goals likely leaves a lasting impression that other ways of communicating with them or their staff can't.

Leadership

Fire Chiefs: Building Relationships, Forging Partnerships

July 30, 2024

Fire chiefs and those who oversee their community’s public safety resources must raise awareness of the importance of smoke alarms, sprinklers, kitchen fire-safety measures and other systems that are needed in their own fire station

Stations

As Firehouse Sees It: Fire Station Fires...It Can Happen to You

July 29, 2024

More content from July 2024

First-arriving units found a well-involved attached garage with extension to the dwelling.

Operations & Training

Hot Shots: Fire Scene Photos 7/24

First-arriving units in Bel Air, MD, found a well-involved attached garage with extension to the dwelling.

July 26, 2024

Cutting the metal tabs that are either built into the brick around a window or that are attached to the brick is the fastest, least strenuous of the three methods for attacking those tabs. Beating away the corner of the brick where a tab is set into mortar and getting behind the carriage bolt that attaches a tab to the brick require more work on the firefighter’s part but aren’t too time consuming.

Operations & Training

Window Features: Burglar Bars & Screens

Robert "RJ" James unlocks the fireground clues to removing devices that keep intruders out of homes and businesses, so victims and firefighters can get out.

July 24, 2024

EMS paramedics EMT Richard Bossert motor vehicle accident patient treatment removal

EMS

EMS: How New Automobile Technology Affects Assessment and Treatment

Richard Bossert applies his experience as a board-certified vehicle rescue instructor to inform EMS providers and rescue technicians that MVA patient treatment and removal must...

July 22, 2024

By positioning at a 45-degree angle to block for crews who operated on scene of an adult male who was having a diabetic emergency on the right shoulder of Interstate 95, Baltimore County, MD, Fire Department Engine 481 save those members from injury or worse when a passenger car that was traveling on the interstate struck BCoFD Squad 483, which was in blocking position behind E481.

Operations & Training

Close Calls: High-Speed Crash Slams Engine Company

Billy Goldfeder learned why members who were on scene of a medical emergency on an interstate came away relatively unscathed when their apparatus were struck by a separate passenger...

July 22, 2024

Tire flips help to build strength and lifting technique. Furthermore, tires for this can be obtained from retired fire apparatus and tractors. In other words, the financial investment is minimal.

Safety & Health

Health & Wellness: Essential Fitness Equipment for Firehouses

Aaron Zamzow explains how cash-strapped, size-constrained fire stations can facilitate functional workouts in ways other than via the purchase of exercise machines.

July 17, 2024

Responsibility for the decision regarding number of lengths of hose and ensuring that flow of water at the nozzle is unimpeded is imperative.

Operations & Training

The Fire Scene: The Control Firefighter

John J. Salka Jr. tells why no member should consider the position a lesser assignment.

July 16, 2024

Off-site fabrication and rapid assembly of Rancho Mission Viejo’s Fire Station 67 enabled the design/documentation/permitting process to be streamlined, so construction could begin in a matter of months, not years. Further, once construction did begin, it was completed in six months.

Stations

Station Design: A Modular Fire Station

Matt Wittman tells the tale of the design, fabrication and construction of an interim firehouse that can change viewpoints across the fire service.

July 16, 2024

Maintaining the status quo is an organizational death sentence. To prevent this, an organizational vision that communicates the leaders’ strategic intent and points to the direction in which the organization is moving must be identified.

Leadership

Leadership Lessons: Creating an Organizational Vision: Playing the Long Game

Kristopher Blume tells how a department can entice energy, effort and resources and feed innovation via a well-crafted organizational vision.

July 15, 2024

It’s vital to attempt to verify the precise location(s), or at least the general area, of the fire from the exterior by examining smoke and/or fire characteristics.

Operations & Training

Engine Essentials: The Engine Officer’s 360

Jonathan Hall speaks to five particular elements of single-family dwellings as they relate to size-up and what they can mean as far as firefighter safety and strategies and tactics...

July 10, 2024

Ed Rush shares his story of attending the funeral of a fallen member as a way to remind everyone of important this tradition is.

Careers & Education

First Due: Requiem for a Firefighter I Never Met

Ed Rush shares his story of attending the funeral of a fallen member as a way to remind everyone of how important this tradition is.

July 9, 2024