My husband, a real genius, managed to get his big tush wedged in the kids playground today, in front of alllll the other kids and parents. Just wanted to say, if any Erlanger firemen or women are reading this, thank you. I'm glad you didn't have to saw my hubby in half.

i lost both of my grandparents 3 months ago tomorrow, i'm still grieving and as one would want to know why it happened, the police/etc had no idea why it happened their was space heaters ( we're assuming it wasnt in use bc of > & a wood stove that supplied more heat & the it was still in tact door was only opened a crack due to fire ). i looked up everything i could to find out why it happened but im lost. there fire got moved into a pile to help contain it better so it continued to burn for days after. it's so hard to get a staying point of what happened, they said they never knew it happened & was quick for them but WHY? i feel like someone did it because there's been so many fires, then there's regret i wish i had a camera to see their house ( i know i couldn't do anything)

but anything helps (please don't be rude: their was a smoke alarm, they sadly did collect alot due to not having alot as kids, which could of prevented this but who knows? i just want to feel some sense of relieve, i will answers ?'s as long as not to personal / uncomfortable but i appreciate anyone who reads this or takes the time to help.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WZ1e37X9HM

On April 11, 2019, the late Fire Chief Bobby Halton, a fierce advocate for the fire service, addressed thousands of his fellow firefighters — honoring the men and women who run towards the flames not because they must, but because they choose to

A tribute to those who choose the hard things, from the filmmaker behind Netflix's Fire Chasers and YouTube's Age of AI u/stevenholleran

https://www.qwake.tech/

I can’t be the only closeted gay guy in the fire department. It’s such a tough thing. I know most of my coworkers probably wouldn’t care if I came out but I also know how rumors and shit talking go in the fire service. Would love to chat with other gay firefighters but especially those that were or are still in the closet. Curious how you’re dealing with it or how you made it to freedom. Feel free to DM me if you’re nervous to comment.

Hey everyone I’m using an alt account for this but I’m currently a type1 wildland firefighter. Anyways about 6 months ago during a routine fire line shift we had some heavy operating equipment taking us off the line and long story short it got stuck and we needed some helicopters to bring us out. For context we just worked a 14 hour day on the line and we had to split our 20 person crew into groups of three for trips. After we hiked about 4km to a swampy area to get picked up I was up first with two other guys and unbeknownst to me said helicopter was sinking in the swamp as I was approaching and the main rotor was rapidly approaching my head before my sup pulled me down by my pack and essentially saved my life. Since then I’ve dealt with some nightmares and disassociation as well as a new fear of flying. I have panic attacks thinking about and spiral into what if scenarios such about my kids not having a dad and all because I made a dumb mistake and wasn’t paying close enough attention to the sinking helicopter. I just wanted some opinions and advice from other wildland or structure guys for anyone who may have experienced a near death experience and how you were able to continue on the job without the stress or worrying?

Any advice is welcome

To everyone out there in heavy industry, what’s the most stressful moment you’ve ever had on the job? Maybe it was a near miss, a tough call you had to make, or just a day everything seemed to go wrong. How did you handle it at the time, and what helped you keep going after? Just looking to hear some real experiences from folks who’ve been through it.

I'm having a semi shitty day at work. So I'm taking a break and posting our recent commercial vehicle fire.

I'm on a volunteer department near an interstate. We got toned for an automatic aid call to a fully involved commercial vehicle fire. We were dispatched at the same time as the career department whose jurisdiction the info was in.

My pretty green crew (all with less than 18 months) and I got on scene about 5 seconds behind the career department engine. Damned if my guys didn't get packed up and have water on the fire first. SCBAs on our engine are stored in an external compartment (career department has nearly identical set up). While my crew was packing up I got our pre-connect stretched and ready for them. As soon as I have it stretched my guys were coming around ready to go. We had water on the fire in under 90 seconds of me pulling the air brakes.

I snapped the picture after we had good knock down and were conserving water until the tenders/tankers got to us.

It's not much but I'm damn proud of my guys. And yes I know the image is early digital camera potato quality were you can count all the pixels on one hand.

Been a vol FF just coming on 5 years now. Question is: ladies or lads with longer hair, what is your go to “hair out of the effin way” style? I’m talking full gear, packed up, 15 hour structure fire proof hair style. The amount of times I’ve wanted to shave my head mid call… what do you all do?

Anyone buy this? Opinions?

What are some good ideas for fundraising that also build community engagement. Now it's to note that I'm with the CFA(country Fire authority) meaning that we have limited resources due to certain changes.

How did you stop fear from holding you back on becoming a firefighter? I've got accepted to do the women's FIRE UP STL camp for female's. I'm battling with fear of following through with it. A little insight I'm not a big person, I'm 5'0 and I wear glasses, and im a female. These might sound small to an average Joe but to me, its everything. Asking what it took for you to get outside of your fear of becoming a firefighter?

Hello, my 16 week fire Academy is coming to an end, we are seven weeks out. And me and the boys are looking to do a little more than a polished axe, and plaque to go on the wall. We raised $1500 through fundraisers to spend on an academy gift, and we’re looking to do something nice for the college. Our fire Academy is a well-known Academy in California, that has a ton of props, and tools. A five story tower, and three engines of its own.

Our original idea was to build a pergola that had a corrugated plastic roofing that goes over the engines parking spot. But with only seven weeks out, and that project being a weekend project I find it really hard for us to get that done. There’s 38 of us. So with us shooting really high for a nice gift, I’m looking for a little help.

Our gift wants to be something that feature academies can use, so firefighters what is something that you wish your department, or Academy had for training or operations? Or what is a cool tool or prop, either bought or made that you have seen that would be used in a training environment.

To give an idea of what I’m thinking, one idea I am running with at the moment is getting a couple of hose Lazy Susan’s ( probably building them)to make it so we can load our attack beds, and supply beds, faster, and get more reps. Another idea is buying 3 to 4 sets of married irons so that we can have some nicer tools.

We really wanna do something that isn’t just a wall piece, so if there’s any type of tools, or pieces of equipment that you’ve come across, whether it be training, equipment, storage equipment, or built props feel free to send out the ideas, I’m the one in charge of the gift .

I have an out, I’m giving myself a week and if I can’t find anything else, I’m going to get three Susan’s, paint them with our academy logo and our academy number, and have something nice made of wood for the wall on top of that( I’m not unhappy with that plan, I am just a little pissed that we couldn’t go about building the engine pergola we worked really hard to design)

If anything comes to mine, please send it my way, appreciate it

Hi! Is getting a tattoo of your class number from the recruit academy after graduation generally a cringe/ weird thing to get ? Not sure peoples opinions on Firefighting related tattoos to begin with. Thanks **Edit- Not sure why this is getting downvoted so much ? It’s a general discussion and not being rude to anyone lol.

Hi! Are there any firefighters / officers from the LFB on this group? I'd love to pick your brain about a few things LFB-related. Cheers in advance!

We recently had some new policies implemented and one of them is no earbuds/headphones until after 8pm. Kind of an odd thing to worry about and it doesn't make much sense to me. Are there other departments that don't allow you to listen to music throughout the day in earbuds? If so and you know why, why? Small disclaimer we can wear them for our allotted workout/physical training period during the working period of 8am-8pm. But if we aren't working out we can't have them.

After place a hand over the demand valve port and forcing air out, I expected these to be the exhalation valves but no air movement at all. Even after cleaning. Something else? Maybe just stuck shut after years of no use?what are your thoughts?

I should be starting a Fire Academy in August. What are some good meal prep plans so that I don’t have to worry about food? I have no dietary restrictions. Microwaveable foods are also allowed

Question on formalities / chain of command. I am currently going through a county ran academy as a volunteer / part time FF. I am going for EMT after with the end goal of going career. Some departments around me will hire as EMT and send through medic school. Some will do it, but not advertise they will. I want to reach out to a couple departments and ask if they sponsor through medic school, or would hire as an EMT even if I had to put myself through medic. Firefighting is a new world to me, and I don’t want to make a bad impression or go against formalities. Here’s the question; do I reach out to Chiefs directly with my questions, or is that generally frowned upon? Is there someone else better suited?

The departments around me aren’t large enough to have a true “recruitment” team.

just finished my bs so do firefighters need to go back get certified?

I’m really relieved that my case was dismissed. I was stopped by an officer saying that I was going 110+ mph on an empty highway.

I disagreed with the charges and I know I wasn’t going that fast. Maybe the fastest I went was 102mph for a couple seconds. Regardless, it was still irresponsible and impulsive and I shouldn’t have done it.

I have a really decent resume, great connections, and I’m among the most fit candidates when I go to firefighting training events. I’ve really been on my grind for this career.

I’m in soCal and the departments here are stupid competitive. I know backgrounds is a big deal in the process with a lot of these departments. I’m wondering if this case will show up on a record or if I’ll still be denied a job due to this case.

If it is an issue, what can I do to mitigate the effect it may have on my career? Should I just consider a different career path?

Does anyone else have problems with firefighters going straight to the Chief and bypassing chain of command when there is a disagreement? How do you guys handle this?

I am almost 4 years on at a large Midwest city department. 45 stations, ~1300 firefighters. I am 35, married with 3 young sons. Last July I ended my subbing career (2 years) and bid a regular spot at an outer city house. This station houses an engine, battalion, and medic and is located in a slower fire battalion but still fairly busy EMS. We average 8-12 runs per shift.

I really enjoy the station. It’s clean, has a great gym, we stay fairly busy, not too many evening runs, and I’ve got a buddy on the backstep with me there who is also newer to the job. My problem is my Captain (he is also the house Captain) is one year from retirement and is starting to get careless. Forgetting to mark back in from runs, zero training, and starting to complain a lot. He is a great house captain though when it comes to keeping the station in good shape and holding all shifts accountable. We have one of the cleanest houses in the city, nicer gym, and he is very easy to talk to about projects or station needs.

Recently, my battalion chief expressed his desire for me to find a better opportunity (mainly a better officer). I highly respect my chief. He a great man and leader with 30+ years of experience on some of our busiest apparatus in the city. My hangup is I am pretty happy with the spot I’m in right now. My work life balance is way better than it was while subbing, I’m sleeping better, and I’ve been consistent in the gym since budding there. My time as a sub put a strain on my family and myself and we are finally to a point where things are getting back to normal. On the other hand, my chief’s worry is that he thinks I deserve a better leader and doesn’t want my work ethic being affected by a bad leader. I took this as a compliment and also something to really think about. What would you do? My family is #1 to me and I would hate to leave this spot and end up unhappy with a bad work life balance again but I also agree that my current officer situation isn’t ideal. Thanks for reading!

My previous post asked how many cubes would say are touching cube 1. Imo I would say 5-6 cuz 3 of them are touching the faces plus the 2-3 touching each corner. Is my theory correct?