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32 Years in the 15032

Lt. John Mitchell of FirefighterNetcast.com fame and Snyder Fire Chief (Ret.) Tom Merrill are just two of the countless friends I have been blessed to gain in my 32 years in the fire service.

Editor’s Note: The Federal Fire Department Identification (FDID) Number for the Evans Center Volunteer Fire Company is 15032, thus the title of this article teaser “32 Years in the 15032.”

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It was thirty-two years ago, on September 2, 1980, when I raised my right hand and said “I will” serve my community as I was sworn in as the first junior firefighter the Evans: Center Volunteer Fire Company ever had. I was 17.

Like the old sidewalk they’re replacing outside our fire station, my path in the fire service has been full of both ups and downs. From the highs of truly helping people and really saving lives — to the agony we face in the streets, and sometimes in the firehouse, when our best efforts just aren’t enough, at least in the eyes of some people.

Through all of it though, I have had the good fortune of always being surrounded by great people who have had a deep and profound impact on both my personal and professional life.

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Posted by tiger on September 23, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Brotherhood, Fire Rescue Topics, Public Relations, Training • Tagged: Brotherhood, clean the litterbox, erie county, fire department, firefighter, firefighter netcast, FirefighterNation.com, leadership, military, motivation, recruitment, retention, run to the curb, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer

Video Killed the Recruitment Star

In his February 17th Morning Lineup features (and updated on February 20th), FireGeezer.com's Bill Schumm discusses and demonstrates the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of using video as a recruitment tool. While his perspective on why we face the recruitment and retention challenges we do are certainly part of puzzle, the value of his commentary lies in the subliminal call to action that we need to be more creative in creating the solutions.

Certainly, a recruitment video with appropriate visuals and a good, solid message can be effective, but FireGeezer proposes that we need to do something about our culture, our society, to inspire and perpetuate volunteerism. I couldn't agree more.

As I've said before:

“Simply put, it’s my belief that the survival and success of the volunteer fire service relies on our ability to create more opportunities – for more people – to volunteer less time.

Our success depends on our ability to effectively plan for, lead and manage people; whether you don’t have enough – or you have more than you can handle.

The possibilities for their involvement are only limited by our imaginations.”
- Tiger Schmittendorf – From: "A New Pyramid Scheme for your Volunteer Fire Department"

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Posted by tiger on February 20, 2012 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing, Public Relations, R&R Toolkits, Technology & Communications, Videos • Tagged: campaign, FASNY, fire department, fire rescue magazine, fire service, firefighter, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, grant, marketing, motivation, practices, Public Relations, recruitment, SAFER, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer, volunteering

@FireRECRUITER: Rise to the challenge

An article recently posted to FirefighterNation.com outlines the challenges faced by volunteer fire departments in Pennsylvania in recruiting and retaining their members. Although these types of articles are becoming all too frequent, this one in particular is better than most in that it focuses on the positives of being a volunteer firefighter — not all the negatives. I’ve cited many examples of what not to say if you’re actually looking to solve your R&R challenges in a previous post titled “Is this our best approach?” Too often, it seems that we hand a prospective candidate all of the reasons and excuses why they wouldn’t join on a silver platter.

I have to tip my helmet to the volunteer fire service in Pennsylvania who is no stranger to these challenges — or to innovative solutions to those challenges. I’ve previously mentioned them in “PA VFDs Dip Into Fountain of Youth” for potential solutions as well as I’ve applauded their efforts in the successful recruitment campaign: “Roll with It!” — the sexiest thing to come to volunteer recruitment I’ve ever seen. It rivals the GoArmy.com and NationalGuard.com campaigns.

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Posted by tiger on November 29, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Command & Leadership, Funding & Staffing, Public Relations, Public Relations, R&R Toolkits, R&R Toolkits, Videos • Tagged: campaign, fire department, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, leadership, marketing, motivation, practices, public information officer, Public Relations, recruitment, retention, SAFER, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteering

Impact of the Digital Age on Recruitment and Retention

The world is changing rapidly and the fire service is getting caught up in the tornado effect of technology on our society.

More and more fire departments are smartly using web sites, e-mail and social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter to recruit new firefighters and to stay connected to their community. There isn't much you can't do with a mobile device today that took a super-computer to do less than 30 years ago.

I recently had the opportunity to facilitate a conversation with a large group of fire instructors titled: "From the Xbox to the Box Alarm" for the University of Kansas Fire and Rescue Institute wherein we discussed today's and tomorrow's generation of firefighters. The conversation focused not only on the challenges in understanding, motivating, training and leading this unique cadre of individuals, but also enlightened the participants as to the tremendous potential they possess for moving our fire service forward.

And, naturally, you can't have a conversation about today's generation of firefighters without discussing the importance of technology and the impact of social networking.

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Posted by tiger on November 1, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Fire Prevention & Education, Funding & Staffing, Public Relations, R&R Toolkits, Technology & Communications, technology-communications-ems-topics, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: btfd.org, burlington township volunteer fire department, campaign, curt varone, dave statter, facebook, fire critic, fire department, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, leadership, marketing, motivation, Public Relations, recruitment, retention, rhett fleitz, rom duckworth, statter911.com, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, tweets, twitter, volunteer, volunteering

Going Forward in the Fire Service

I am often reluctant to write about commercial business ventures in my blogs and other platforms as I am sensitive to the trusted relationship between a writer and their readers, and leary about self-promotion. Thus I have delayed writing this post for quite some time.

It wasn’t until I came to the realization that this is not about me or what I’m involved in as much as it is about you – my readers, followers and the fire service at large – that I felt the timing was right for sharing this exciting news.

Earlier this year I was invited by my long time and good friends Dave Iannone and Chris Hebert to share in their vision for tipping the traditional training program on its head. Dave and Chris have a knack for surrounding themselves with inspired people and a solid reputation for bringing innovative and successful solutions to the fire service community, so it wasn’t much of a tough sell for me to join them and the other members of their team at the table.

The conversations were very indepth and engaging, even sparring at points, but all with a common goal in mind: to bring a new and exciting approach to providing training for firefighters and first responders. As I looked around the room, I saw a tremendous amount of passion and caring for getting this right.

It wasn’t long before I was hooked and signed on as chief of training, charged with driving the direction of the educational content of their new conference concept.

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Posted by tiger on September 6, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighting Operations, Funding & Staffing, News, Technology & Communications, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: alan brunacini, courage to be safe, dennis rubin, everyone goes home, fire department, fire rescue magazine, fire service, firefighter, firefighter netcast, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, go forward media, go forward training, go>forward fire, leadership, marketing, motivation, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, practices, recruitment, rich gasaway, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, tim sendelbach, Training, tweets, twitter

Void Space

Firefighter, officer, chief—these are the titles of the jobs we sign up for. But just like “bingo chairman,” “corresponding secretary” or “roads and grounds committee member,” the title of “leader” is not something at the top of our list of “I want to be that guy” jobs that we strive for when we first join the volunteer fire department.

Although almost everyone who joins the fire service dreams of being chief one day, they probably don’t dream of being a “fire service leader”; that is, it’s not necessarily an inherent thought process to connect the title of “chief” with “leader.” And while the title of fire chief may conjure up images of flashing lights and standing in front of a burning building barking orders into a portable radio, as we know all too well, being a “fire service leader” requires a lot more preparation and hard work than that.

There is much discussion going on in the fire service today about this "void space" created by the potentially damaging collision of retiring experience and the growing lack of experience of today's firefighters and officers. When I say growing, I'm referring to the fact that as our fire load goes down (that's a good thing), so does our experience level, accordingly (that's a bad thing). Thus we end up with a "growing" lack of experience.

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Posted by tiger on April 19, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing, R&R Toolkits, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: Backstep Firefighter, Bill Carey, Chief Jack Snook, Chief Jeff Johnson, fire service, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, leadership, motivation, Paul Hasenmeier, recruitment, retention, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, volunteer

Black Diamond X2s to the Rescue

There was about a foot or so of snow on the ground when we got to the house where the fire was reported. The lieutenant wheeled the engine into the driveway and we observed some light smoke coming out of the second story on the 'D' side of what turned out to be a multi-family residence.

As acting officer, I assembled the crew in front of the engine and decided to take a quick look before stretching a line through the snow. We entered through the front door and I took a peek up the stairs off to our right. Thick black smoke was slowly climbing its way down the steps towards us.

We went on air, masked up and headed up the narrow stairs. I held the thermal imager (TIC) while Jack carried the hook, Dave had the irons and Zack, a 19-year old kid just a month off probation, carried the water can over his shoulder.

When we got to the top of the stairs I put my face to the floor and couldn't see anything, visibility was zero. I took a look with the TIC to try and figure out what we were dealing with. The smoke was thick but it wasn't really pushing very hard. The thermal imager showed about the same density of white evenly distributed all around us although we detected little heat with our other senses.

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Posted by tiger on March 22, 2011 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Training & Development • Tagged: black diamond x2 boots, FDIC, firefighter, FirefighterNation.com, marketing, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training

A December to Forget?

Box 191 stands as a memorial to the five Buffalo Firefighters who were killed in a propane explosion on December 27, 1983

A year ago I wrote an article titled “A December to Remember” to remind us of our obligation to be better story tellers, for prosperity’s sake — and for safety’s sake. Earlier today, Chicago and the rest of the fire service buried the first of two firefighters killed in the line of duty on the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Stockyard Fire that killed 21 firefighters.

Given recent events and all the heartache they’ve brought, I’m not sure that December is a month to remember but instead, it’s one we’d like to forget.

Last night I had the privilege of joining some 50 firefighters and civilians as they stood in the cold at the corner of Grosvenor and North Division Streets in the City of Buffalo to remember an event that claimed the lives of five of Buffalo’s bravest. Surrounded by those drawn to the small memorial erected at the site, Division Chief Don McFeeley stood in the center of the intersection and retold the story of that fateful night when a propane tank exploded inside a warehouse — shattering windows, throwing debris and burning buildings across twelve city blocks. (more…)

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Posted by tiger on December 28, 2010 • Filed under: All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Fires, Hot Topics, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Major Incidents, Mass Casualty Incident, News, Training & Development, Videos • Tagged: anniversary, Billy Goldfeder, Brotherhood, buffalo fire historical museum, buffalo propane explosion, chicago fire department, clean the litterbox, fire service, firefighter, firefighter netcast, FirefighterNation.com, line of duty death, lodd, MIKE LOMBARDO, PAT COGHLAN, run to the curb, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf

It’s that time of year.

A thought provoking article in the Fire Engineering Training Community by my good friend and fellow blogger ChiefReason reminded me to re-post this piece I wrote several years ago titled: “Starting the New Year Right!”

Art’s blog titled “The Day the Passion Died” suggests that we’re all due for a fire service check-up to make sure that we’re physically, mentally, emotionally prepared for the challenges that lie ahead, and just as importantly, that our head - our attitude – is in the right place.

His writings remind us all to revisit our fire department and personal goals and direction every once in a while, and there’s no better time to do so than as we’re about to embark upon a brand new year full of new challenges and opportunities. (more…)

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Posted by tiger on December 20, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, Funding & Staffing, Training & Development • Tagged: Brotherhood, clean the litterbox, fire engineering magazine, fire service, FireEMS Blogs, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, leadership, motivation, recruitment, retention, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer

Every Firefighter Has a Story.

It should be no secret by now that I’m big on this whole concept of storytelling in the fire service.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that storytelling has never been more imporant than it is now as a way of sharing our experiences, perpetuating our values and passing down our rich history and traditions.

That’s why I created www.runtothecurb.com as a means of not only sharing my stories which have been writing themselves over the past 30 years, but more importantly, as a platform for others to tell their stories as to what brought them to the fire service and what keeps them going day-to-day and year-after-year. Now a natural extension of that web site, I was offered the tremendous opportunity to develop Firefighter Storytellers — an Internet radio show that gives a voice to those stories that form a common bond amongst us all.

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Posted by tiger on October 11, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing • Tagged: clean the litterbox, fire department, fire service, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, funeral, run to the curb, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, volunteer

My Flag

The view of my flag --- from my hammock.

Whenever I get the chance, I take full advantage of the opportunity to lie in my hammock on the front porch of our house. The porch is covered and it’s on the east side of the house, protected from the sometimes gusty winds that come off Lake Erie not far from us.

The hammock is made out of soft woven strings stretched to a metal ring on each end. The rings have heavy chains connected to them that are attached to hooks that secure the entire hammock to its metal pedestal. The rope strings are covered by a comfortable bedding pad that even has a built-in pillow tied to it. (more…)

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Posted by tiger on September 12, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, News, Public Relations, Public Relations • Tagged: Brotherhood, fire service, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, leadership, line of duty death, lodd, motivation, September 11th, Tiger Schmittendorf

Run-to-the-Curb Radio: Chief Tim Sendelbach

It’s like “Run-to-the-Curb Radio” — but better!

“Firefighter Storytellers” is a natural outgrowth from my popular “Run to the Curb” series — as it offers a radio show designed simply to facilitate kitchen table type discussions between firefighters.

“Storytellers” is an open-format radio show in which listeners are encouraged to call in with their own stories of what brought them to the fire service, what’s made the experience memorable for them, and to share their insight as to what keeps them going day-in and day-out, serving in our business of delivering emergency services to our communities.

Tonight’s installment (Wednesday-July 14, 2010) features Chief Tim Sendelbach, fire service leader and Editor-in-Chief of FireRescue Magazine. Like many others, Tim’s roots in the fire service started with his Dad, a firefighter in his hometown of Wilder, Kentucky.

Produced by John Mitchell and Rhett Fleitz of FirefighterNetcast, visit their site now, sign up for a new user account for BlogTalkRadio, and be prepared to join in the conversation with each new show.

Listen in. Log in. Call in.

What’s your story?

Link to the show for Wednesday-July 14, 2010 – 9pm EDT on Firefighter Netcast

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Posted by tiger on July 14, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Funding & Staffing, Public Relations, Training & Development • Tagged: Brotherhood, fire rescue magazine, fire service, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, leadership, motivation, Public Relations, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer, volunteering

Get Fit. Get Safe. Make It Personal.

My Three-Part Risk Management Plan: Alex, Laurie and Kathleen

Despite the fact that I wrote this piece for Fire-Rescue Magazine last year, I’m pretty sure its content is still relevant as we ponder recent and not so recent events during Fire/EMS Safety, Health and Survival Week http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/usfa-reminds-you-that….

As I stated in comments to another blog by John Mitchell (www.firedaily.com) titled: “The Charleston 43″ (http://www.firefighternation.com/profiles/blogs/the-charleston-43) — if we don’t make these incidents personal to us, incidents like these have the unique ability to quickly become personal for us.

Thus, I present for your review, a re-post of “Make It Personal” http://tigerschmittendorf.com/2009/09/07/make-it-personal/

Let me know what you think of the piece and what you’re doing to make Safety Week 2010 personal for you.

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Posted by tiger on June 24, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, EMS Health & Safety, EMS Topics, Fire Rescue Topics, Firefighter Safety & Health, Firefighting Operations, Funding & Staffing, In the Line of Duty, Line of Duty, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics, Vehicle Operation & Ambulances, Vehicle Operations & Apparatus • Tagged: 16 life safety initiatives, Billy Goldfeder, Brotherhood, clean the litterbox, courage to be safe, everyone goes home, fire department, fire rescue magazine, fire service, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, leadership, line of duty death, lodd, motivation, practices, Safety, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, volunteer, volunteering

@Run-to-the-Curb: Planting a Seed.

It should be no secret by now that I have a passion for story telling, and especially telling of the importance of sharing stories in the fire service as a means of passing down our history, traditions and values.

It’s almost an obsession.

It’s gotten so bad that I’ve started drawing my Blackberry from its holster and pressing the voice note “Record” button at the drop of a hint that a story is about to unfold in conversation. While I took a lot of friendly fire for that from friends while sharing in some “networking opportunities” at FDIC recently, the gems I’ve captured are absolutely priceless. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to read and listen to some of them soon.

It was also at FDIC that I was reminded of what got me on this story-telling kick and who inspired me to tell my stories by creating the Run-to-the-Curb concept.

Click here to read the rest of the story of how I got my story-telling start. (Try to say that 10-times, fast)

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Posted by tiger on May 3, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing • Tagged: Brotherhood, fire department, fire rescue magazine, fire service, firefighter, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, leadership, marketing, recruitment, run to the curb, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer, volunteering

The FDIC Experience: Returning Home

Alex, Laurie and Kathleen

Alex, Laurie and Kathleen

My goal is to chronicle, as best I can, some of the many great experiences I had last week at FDIC-2010 in Indianapolis, Indiana. There’s so many of them flowing through my brain, some of them are short snippets while others I remember as full-length features, and I plan to present them accordingly.

My FDIC-2010 experience ranks up there with some of the greatest memories of my career and life. Full of laughs (my stomach still hurts), meeting good people (and John and Rhett too!), going on “adventures” together and most importantly, sharing the brotherhood that few other professions enjoy.

So, with the intent of eventually sharing all of these experiences, I thought I would start with the end of the trip instead of the beginning; for in the end, in a very unexpected way, the value of my trip to FDIC and the importance of my returning home became very apparent to me.

You’ll see why in just a little bit. (more…)

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Posted by tiger on April 25, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Command & Leadership, fire, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing, Public Relations, R&R Toolkits, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: 16 life safety initiatives, Brotherhood, facebook, FDIC, fire critic, fire daily, fire department, fire department instructors conference, fire rescue magazine, fire service, fire-ems blogs, fire-rescue, firecritic, firedaily, firefighter, firefighter netcast, firefighternation, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, kids, leadership, make-a-wish foundation, motivation, run to the curb, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, tweets, twitter, volunteer, volunteering

Live, from Indianapolis, it’s Saturday Morning!

ChiefReasonArt, Chris Naum and some other guy

ChiefReasonArt, Chris Naum and some other guy at FDIC 2009

Join Snyder NY Chief Tom Merrill and I for a live broadcast from the show floor of FDIC on Saturday-April 24 from 9:30-10:30am CST. We’ll be special guests of FireCritic Rhett Fleitz and FireDaily John Mitchell — hosts of the new hit Internet talk show series: FirefighterNetcast.

We’ll be discussing my FDIC presentation, my www.runtothecurb.com project and the importance of storytelling in the fire service. Chief Merrill will be sharing some of his own stories and who knows, we just might drag some unsuspecting passerby into the conversation.

A full schedule of Netcasts are being hosted at the Fire-Rescue Magazine / FirefighterNation.com / Fire-EMS Blogs.com Booth #3755 throughout the week.

I hope you can join me for my conversation titled: “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” on Thursday-April 22, 2010 at 10:30am in Room 127-128; and most certainly at the MeetUp at Indy. You do not want to miss this gathering:

When: Friday April 23rd – 8pm
Where: Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery just blocks away from the Convention Center at 10 West Washington.
What: Blogger/FireEMSBlogs.com/Firefighter Nation/Fire Rescue Magazine meetup.

The event is being sponsored by the great folks at: Fire-Rescue Magazine / FirefighterNation.com / Fire-EMS Blogs.com booth #3755. Hit me up at the show for some free drink tickets. However, I can’t be responsible for your resulting actions!

Even if you can’t physically be there, I’ll be Tweeting, updating my status on Facebook and maybe even blogging throughout the show as I meet and greet some of the biggest names and greatest faces in the fire service. It’s gonna be cool. Very cool.

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Posted by tiger on April 19, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, All Blogs, Brotherhood, Funding & Staffing, News, Public Relations, Technology & Communications, Training & Development, training-fire-rescue-topics • Tagged: blog network, Brotherhood, campaign, clean the litterbox, Clearinghouse, facebook, fire department, fire rescue magazine, fire service, fire-ems blogs, firecritic, firedaily, firefighter, firefighter netcast, FirefighterNation.com, Generation Y, kids, leadership, public information officer, Public Relations, recruitment, retention, run to the curb, story telling, Tiger Schmittendorf, Training, tweets, twitter, volunteer, volunteering

@RttC: Remember as a Kid…

The title of this discussion on FirefighterNation.com really caught my attention as I remember a lot of things as a kid — and many of them are related to the fire service.

This particular discussion revolves around the author’s childhood memories of hearing the fire siren sounding and then tuning to a particular AM station on his radio dial where they would broadcast the call location for all to hear.

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Related Posts with Thumbnails

Posted by tiger on January 23, 2010 • Filed under: Administration & Leadership, Fire Rescue Topics, Funding & Staffing • Tagged: Brotherhood, discussion, fire department, fire service, firefighter, FirefighterNation.com, kids, motivation, recruitment, retention, run to the curb, Tiger Schmittendorf, volunteer, volunteering

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