A unique poll by the Los Angeles Fire Department                   Yesterday on Twitter the Los Angeles Fire Department asked followers which helmet should they purchase. The options were the current ‘contemporary’ helmet or the ‘traditional’ helmet and if they should be either yellow or black.

    Two saved in abandoned bar fire         SAN ANTONIO (Houston Chronicle) – San Antonio firefighters pulled two people from a burning building on the North Side Tuesday morning. The fire started around 1:30 a.m., in an abandoned building near the 800 block of San Pedro. Officials said a faulty AC […]

    A little more than a small outside fire       Tuesday’s five-alarm fire in San Francisco was impressive at first reporting and more so when we learned that the initial dispatch was one engine, one truck, and one chief for a “small outside fire.” According to San Francisco Local 798 the first […]

    On this day a response to an AFA turned deadly       On July 28, 2011, a 37-year-old career captain died and 9 fire fighters were injured in a 6-story medical building fire while searching for the seat of the fire. At 1228 hours, dispatch sent four companies (2 engines, 1 truck, […]

  An increase compared to past Januarys   The first month of 2020 ended with nine on-duty deaths as defined by the United States Fire Administration.      This is the highest January total in six years, but only one of the fatalities involves a victim killed inside a burning structure.  Fatalities related to vehicles […]

    Atlanta’s story isn’t about duty     It was asked that this comment on Facebook be shared.   I had shared the latest from work on the Atlanta fire rescue suspension story and was asked what my thoughts are on the subject.  While it really doesn’t matter what I think, or anyone else […]

Details are key for the lessons we need to learn  

It was a good and bad year for the U.S. fire service  

Doubling down on the fire service mission   Ladder Company 175 had used their aerial ladder to ventilate this window at an all-hands fire, with reports of people trapped, at 3218 Fulton Street in Highland Park, Brooklyn. (Lloyd Mitchell photo) Shawn Donovan and Dave LeBlanc   “He who whets his steel, whets his courage” ― […]

Focusing on fear won’t create a safer fire service