Good hot afternoon from the jumpseat and welcome to the dog days of summer. It seems like, as the summer months come, my brain shuts down and writing this blog seems to be like pulling nails from a 4x4 with a pair of tweezers. Every now and then, it the ideas hit me upside the head like a master stream of water pouring over my head. Oh, wait it did. Recently we had a fire that was fully involved upon arrival, so out come the master streams. Once the big guns come out it amazes me how much water we can really flow. This particular night we had two 2 1/2-inch lines and a deck gun flooding the sky, and the firefighters on the ground. As the second due engine we established the water supply then grabbed our hooks and went to work. Just...

Minute man, triple fold, flat lay, or a horseshoe are a few terms that I often hear in my travels spreading the message to firefighters of safety while fighting hoarder fires. At every department that I visit I will always take the time to look at their hose loads, especially the attack lines. Some things to look for are the type of nozzle, care in which they are racked, and the type of load they use. It seems like there are more types and configurations of attack loads then there are spots on the Dalmatian. Therefore, how does a department choose what type of attack load to use? Here is one jumpseat view on this subject. Speed of deployment: Whichever way you load your attack line is on the rig it should be ready to deploy in a...

Actor Andy Griffith passed away this last week . To most of the people around my age (54) Andy Griffith was more commonly known as Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry. The reason I am even talking about Andy Taylor here on Firehouse.com is because he was a great role model for a generation of people in America who grew up and went on to become firefighters, company officers and chiefs. To the younger generation of firefighters who do not know who he is or was, let me explain. Andy was a Dad, a nephew, a boyfriend, a neighbor and, of course he was the sheriff of the small town of Mayberry. When you watched an episode of the Andy Griffith show there was always a lesson woven into the story. Sheriff Taylor was a role model and regularly...

Millions of events, tiny or catastrophic, occur in a person’s lifetime and lead that person to become who he is. Each one of us is guided, to some extent, by these events. We make choices based on these events. We fight against them. We embrace them. We accept or deny them. We learn from them, expand on them, prevent their recurrence, or are inspired by them. It is one of the inspiring events that I ponder today. Twenty-six years ago, my husband decided to become a fireman. In job interviews, many prospective firefighters will say, “I’ve wanted to be a firefighter since I was a kid.” It is likely an honest, yet vague, canned answer. My husband can pinpoint the exact moment he felt called to serve his community, to save what...