Firefighting

Cops vs. firefighters strikes again. Dave Statter (@Statter911) recently posted a citizen video of a police officer “assisting” a citizen out of his overturned vehicle. The video, shown here, APPEARS to show a vehicle on its side underneath a presumably compromised overhang struck by said vehicle.

Commander or collaborator? In the realm of managing emergency incidents both functions have to happen to make emergency incidents safely go away. Yet, we always assign an “incident commander”, someone responsible – organizationally and legally – for the emergency response. ...

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson. I saw this quote while scanning an excellent article in the Harvard Business Journal about the changing dynamics of business command and control, often referred to ...

Government agencies don’t hold a candle to big companies selling products. Case in point, this article. Today, large corporations are spending millions on social media advertising strategies. But, with this expenditure comes a price…time. As the article notes, it can ...

Imagine, you are a firefighter/EMT arriving at the scene of a serious car crash. You begin your sizeup, and approach the vehicle smooshed up against a tree. Radiator fluid and steam are boiling out from the destroyed front end. You ...

Southern California received another wakeup call last week, albeit a minor one, when the La Hambra earthquake rattled the LA basin. Immediately thereafter, the LAFD implemented their earthquake protocol, and began touring their first in areas via pre-designated routes to ...

The Seattle Fire Department, and firefighters everywhere, got a big black eye this weekend when two drunk off duty Seattle firefighters allegedly attacked a couple of homeless people at a downtown memorial statue. One of the victims resorted to pulling ...

By now most folks have heard of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology, commonly called “drones”, and their military use in hunting down Middle East terrorists and tracking cross-border drug smugglers.  More recently, Amazon, Netflix and other mail order companies began ...

You are the captain of Engine 3, assigned as a RIT crew standing by a rip snortin’ house fire.  You and your team were initially disappointed to hear the IC’s assignment, knowing full well you would have been first- in ...

I’m sitting in a Houston airport waiting for my flight and my Twitter and Facebook feeds blow up with news the Los Angeles Fire Department social media sites had been shut down due to patient privacy concerns.  “Nah, that can’t ...