I'm going to go on a little rant here because of the way things seem to be in the fire service concerning training. I travel extensively, across the country and up into Canada and Alaska. I cannot believe the number of career fire departments that do not have an official designated training period sometime during each shift. I can't believe the number of volunteer departments that don't train every week. Some train bi-weekly and others once a month. Let me be straight with you here. If you are training just once a month you should hang up the helmet and get a job at Walmart before you kill yourself or someone else. If you work for a career department and you are not spending some time every time you are on duty training, you are not...

There has been much discussion about the issue of closing the door. I’m talking about whether firefighters entering an apartment from a public hallway or stairway, or even firefighters entering a single family home through the front door, should close the door behind them when they enter. There are many fire departments that have firefighters enter ahead of the hoseline to search the building for victims and fire. When you get to the second floor and locate the fire in apartment 2F, there are decisions to be made. The question is, after getting through the door and entering the fire apartment, do you chock the door open, or close the door behind you? This debate and discussion has been around for years and my good friend Marty...

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...

When you establish a rapid intervention team (RIT) at an incident, they are there to perform a vital and technically challenging task. As we all know, a RIT need not ever be activated and if they are well trained and utilized, they will still have performed several important tasks. The title of this piece is "Don't Relieve the Rapid Intervention Team" and I suggest this for several reasons. First let's look at when you should relieve the RIT. When environmental conditions are severe, meaning extreme cold or heat, or any other condition that will wear down the ability of the RIT to react and operate immediately and at full effectiveness, they should be replaced or relieved. I strongly believe that should be the only reason to take a...