Save Your Balls|WEAR YOUR MASK! received an honorable mention in Bill Carey's recent post on Backstep Firefighter.
I personally just never understood why, if we go to the roof for the purpose of, and with the full intent of being successful at releasing the super-heated and toxic gases of the fire, would we not wear our mask?
Does making the fire more survivable for the trapped-victims excuse us from making the fire more survivable for the trained-firefighters?
I had the pleasure of sharing my "Xbox Live" conversation with virtually the entire membership of the Brighton Fire District a few months ago and they revealed that they've never had a formal swearing-in ceremony for new members. No oath, no standing up in front of the group and raising your right hand. Nothing.
I told them how I've always thought that to demonstrate real brotherhood and to truly welcome a new member: have the new recruit stand up in front of the membership at their first meeting, raise their right hand and state their name — immediately after which the rest of the existing membership stands up, raises their right hand, states their names — and together the membership and their newest member(s) recite the oath of membership together. And in doing so, they rededicate themselves to the department and the people they serve.
What an awesome sight that would be. What an impression that could make on your new member.
Once in a while — an idea sticks.
My good friend, Brighton Capt. Rick Zicari just shared this photo of their entire membership reciting their new oath of membership for the very first time, together. And to top it all off, they had their Senator Joe Robach administer the oath. Truly a hallmark moment in the history of their great fire department. They get it.
Once in a while you have a chance to make a small impact. I'm confident that this was just as proud of a moment for them, as seeing this photo is for me. Thanks so much for sharing, Rick!
Do members of your volunteer fire department take an oath of membership? Do you recite the oath as individuals, or as a group as shown here? Send me a pic of your swearing in ceremony to tiger@tigerschmittendorf.com and I'll post it here.
Let me know how I can be of assistance to you and your fire department.
Stay safe. Train often.
— TigerSchmittendorf.com|FireRECRUITER.com
Author: "From the Xbox to the Box Alarm — Understanding, Motivating, Leading and Training Today's Firefighters"
View the photo: http://tigerschmittendorf.com/files/2013/10/Brighton-Swearing-in-Ceremony.jpg
Bob Newell was both old school and cutting edge at the same time, always focused on training his replacements. I was fortunate enough to be just one of many.It's been 5 years since I wrote "Missing a Mentor: What about Bob?" — a tribute to someone who I admittedly underappreciated until it was too late.
A lot has happened in these 5 years. I was a chief officer in my volunteer fire department then and now I'm back to riding backwards, still struggling to find my place in my company. The ups and downs in my personal and professional life are countless. Against all odds, I even survived long enough to turn 50 last week. lol
We've built three new multi-million dollar live fire training facilities, created state-of-the-art roof ventilation simulators, added fresh blood to our cadre of dedicated instructors and coordinated nearly 5,000 training events from our Erie County Fire Academy. Those are big investments.
I think that one of our greatest investments, and thus our greatest returns have come from the fact that we've trained and graduated more than 1,000 new firefighters in our county in the past 5 years. More than a thousand firefighters now unselfishly serving their volunteer fire departments and their communities.
If anyone thinks that today's generation is only all about themselves and not about giving back — they need to observe one of our Firefighter 1 Boot Camp courses. I'm proud to say that Erie County NY is bucking the national decline in volunteerism as we brought in over 600 new recruits in 2012. Those sheer numbers are a tribute to the great work ethic and spirit of our caring community.
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.
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.
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.
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.
That’s right!
“From the X-Box to the Box Alarm: Motivating and Leading Today’s Firefighters” is back by popular demand at FDIC 2011. I hope to see you in Indianapolis March 22-26, 2011. Look me up if you plan on attending and look for my presentation titled: “Understanding & Motivating Today’s Firefighters” modeled after my feature article: “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm.”
Some 300 first responders engaged in the discussion at FDIC last April and this year’s conversation promises to be refreshed with my ongoing observational research; new samples of recruitment, retention and leadership solutions and feedback from last year’s participants.
I’ll also be including fresh insight from some X-Box firefighters from Hyattsville Volunteers and FDLiveIn.com I recently spoke with about generational differences and what we can learn from and about them. Some of the information will be pre-recorded material and some of it will be provided by members of our “live studio audience.” (more…)
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.
It’s been a great, long, hot summer — causing me to take some time away from blogging to spend with my family and friends. Although I haven’t been writing much, I have been doing a lot of reading and observing. And, it’s my observation that the need for effective story telling in the fire service has never been greater.
This was never more apparent than during my observation of and interaction with recruits participating in the Firefighter 1 Boot Camp at the Erie County Emergency Services Training & Operations Center where I work.
Each day, I had the opportunity to spend time with those 50 recruits from 37 different fire departments across our county, talking not just tactics and techniques, but about life in the fire service. (more…)
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.
That's me with Past Chief John Latimore, one of my best friends in the fire service and the neighborhood I grew up in.
It’s been more than a month since my presentation at FDIC and my live Internet radio talk show on FirefighterNetcast from the show floor, but a lot of exciting things have happened since then.
Feedback from my show about the importance of storytelling in the fire service with special guest Chief Tom Merrill was tremendous and it’s amazing to see the influence that the Run-to-the-Curb (RttC) concept has had on people. Several firefighters have since shared their own personal stories of growing up in and around the fire service. In fact, so many have responded that it’s tough to keep up with and more of their stories are pending publication here.
Read more at: http://runtothecurb.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/run-to-the-curb-is-top-story/
A recent article in the Buffalo News featured two online fire service sites (www.ecfwire.com and www.ereicountyfireblotter.com) that provide live audio feeds and in-depth news coverage of the fire service here in Erie County.
Although the article focuses on the potential training value, some fire chiefs had mixed feelings about what could be considered a form of social media and the information they share.
Read it here:
http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/05/22/1058838/wire-fire-on-the-web.html
What do you have in your Internet neighborhood?
What’s your take on citizen-jouranlism sites like these?
Discuss it here and on FirefighterNation.com.
THIS IS A DRILL! This is not an actual event. Evans Center Firefighters "responded" to a Pre-Prom Season Stop-DWI Drill that demonstrated the devastating effects of drinking and driving to juniors and seniors at the Lake Shore High School. Photo by Tiger Schmittendorf
Despite the fact that as I’m writing this it feels far more like winter than spring in Buffalo, it’s not those seasons I’m talking about in this story.
Evans Center, my volunteer fire company, planned and supported a Pre-Prom Season Stop-DWI drill for our Juniors and Seniors at the Lake Shore Central Senior High School Friday morning. Coordinated by our Asst. Chief Tom Szczepaniak, Principal Chris Walsh and the Town of Evans Police Department’s Chief Ernie Masullo, Capt. Chuck Danzi and Patrolman Ralph Maslach — the assembly and demonstration stressed the devastating effects of making poor decisions relating to drinking and driving.
Not much unlike what is done at schools across the country at this time of the year, the Lake Shore team put together a comprehensive program that really hit home with these at-risk young adults. And, when I say “at-risk” I mean that, statisticly, they are at great risk of being involved in an alcohol-related accident before they graduate from high school or make it to their freshman semester in college. (more…)
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…)
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:
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.
I hope to see all of my loyal followers (both of them) at FDIC in a few short weeks. I’ll be presenting “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” on Thursday-April 22, 2010 at 10:30am in Room 127-128. There’s room for 308 of my closest, most personal friends so there’s really no excuse for not joining me! LOL (more…)
My helmet is off to the folks in the Syosset NY Fire Department for recognizing 40+ aged recruits as a viable part of the solutions to our recruitment and retention challenges.
Rhett Fleitz at FireCritic.com has compiled one of the greatest collections of firefighter stories in hosting his first edition of the First Due Blog Carnival which asked our brothers and sisters to answer the question: “I am a firefighter because…”
It fits right in line with my theory on the importance of story telling in the fire service and even includes my own personal story of how it was others who forecasted that I was going to be a firefighter one day.
Take a peak at Run-to-the-Curb.com and be sure to stop back there to tell your story.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m posting this blog literally minutes after completing my first NetCast on the topic of volunteer recruitment and retention, compliments of FireCritic and FireDaily at www.firefighternetcast.com. What a tremendous opportunity that was to connect with so many people via the live chat and simultaneous telephone call-ins.
My helmet is off to those two gentlemen for harnessing that technology to accomplish something that they may not even realize they’re doing: Telling Stories.
Storytelling is important to the survival and success of the fire service. Very important. As I wrote in my article: “Saving Stories,” in this month’s edition of Fire-Rescue Magazine, storytelling “passes on our traditions, conveys our values and protects the rich heritage of the fire service.” Thanks to Rhett and John for doing just that through the tales shared on FirefighterNetcast.com.
At the end of the Netcast, I let the cat out of the bag about a new partnership I created between our volunteer fire service and the National Guard. Look for more info on that coming soon. In the meantime, the following is a story that is a little bit about my love for my father, my passion for the fire service and my appreciation for the military men and women who protect our freedom every day. (more…)
I was in Texas for Advanced Unified Incident Command training last week (which I’ll tell you about soon), so I’m late getting this out.
I’ve been asked by FireCritic and FireDaily to join them as their special guest on this week’s edition of Firefighter NetCast.
Naturally, we’ll be discussing volunteer recruitment and retention along with an overview of my presentation “From the X-Box to the Box Alarm” at FDIC (Thursday-April 22nd at 10:30am) and my cover story in the March edition of Fire-Rescue Magazine featuring my storytelling project: Run-to-the-Curb.com.
I hope you can join us at 9pm ET this Wednesday-March 10, 2010 at Firefighter Netcast for a lively discussion of challenges and solutions to the volunteer fire service’s survival and success.
Stay safe. Train often.
The Volunteer and Combination Officers Section of the IAFC recently released a new and long overdue guideline focusing on the proper and safe operation of fire department youth programs.
It holds something for everyone including chief officers, youth leaders, fire department administration, parents, support liaisons and the youth themselves.
Read more at FireRecruiter.com>>>
I opened up Internet Explorer where my home page is literally my home page: www.tigerschmittendorf.com and I clicked on the FireEMS Blogs icon in the upper left hand corner to see what my fellow bloggers were up to tonight.
I was drawn to a blog from the “Raising Ladders” site that caught my eye, titled: “Finally, a first due job… and a pretty good one, at that.” I didn’t think much of the title when I first read it until I got into the rest of the story. It was the author’s first real working fire in his career.
His story, along with my story telling experiences earlier in the evening, got me to thinking: “I remember my first time…”
St. Paul MN Fire Chief Tim Butler is blogging about his fire academy experiences
I don’t remember how and when I stumbled across this particular blog, but it’s a good one.
St. Paul, Minnesota Fire Chief Tim Butler has written a blog about his experiences with the fire department since being appointed to the position two years ago. What’s so unique about this chief’s blog is that it details his adventures in participating in the latest recruit academy executed by the fire department.
The chief indicated early on after his appointment that he fully intended to experience everything his firefighters have experienced. In that vain, he prepared himself for and is actively engaged in the academy.
I was very impressed with his attitude as he wrote “We (sic) must share a common bond – a common culture – and a shared base of experience and perspective. We all must be confident in each member’s ability to operate safely and effectively on an incident scene or when representing our department to the public.” (more…)
That’s what I overheard a certain young fire officer tell a probie recently.
“If you’re worried about getting cancer — you probably shouldn’t be a firefighter!”
I didn’t miss-hear or mis-understand him, nor did I take his comment out of context. That’s exactly what he said.
I nearly blew my cork. What an immature, ignorant, reckless thing to say.
Here’s all I have to say to him: “This one’s for you.”
THE FOLLOWING IS A MUST READ ARTICLE – DON’T SKIP IT.
IF YOU’VE EVER THOUGHT ABOUT TAKING YOUR MASK OFF, EVEN JUST FOR A SECOND, WHILE THERE IS STILL SMOKE OR FUMES PRESENT — THINK AGAIN! READ, PRINT, POST AND DISTRIBUTE THIS ARTICLE
TO EVERY FIREFIGHTER YOU KNOW.
Editor’s Note: If you can stomach reading this gut-wrenching story, you might like to read:
Stay safe. Train often.
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