Fire Rescue EMS Management News

Ken Farmer | 10/14/2011

“Many times you hear stories that make you think,” a friend from Kentucky recently told me. After some discussion, he detailed how he works with clients in his real estate business to get a better idea of exactly what they want in a home. He obviously wants to make his clients happy. He said often people don’t have a clear or precise idea of what they want in a house. His approach has been to gently encourage them “towards the barn” first by asking questions to narrow down what they wished for, as well as what they actually want. He asks some key questions like: What features do you want in the home? What is your vision of your home? What ma... Read More...

Relevant Tags: Barnyard Management, management, person, behavior, barnyard management, staff management

Douglas Cline | 07/25/2010

As we embark on a new decade and plunge deeper into the millennium, changes are sure to occur. The fire service will surely see many of these changes. The place that we need to make changes initially is within ourselves as instructors. We must be prepared to meet these new challenges and a new millennium with a set of fully charged batteries.The task of change is extremely hard, as we are often times nostalgic. However, we must strive to reach new levels in education and training. Read More...

Relevant Tags: FIRE,instructors, training, department, service, fire service

| 07/25/2010

Bobbitt Builds Addition For St. Stephens Fire Department Bobbitt Design Build recently started work on a 12,700-square-foot addition, as well as renovation of the 2,640-square-foot existing facility for St. Stephens Fire Department, headquartered in Hickory, N.C. Read More...

Relevant Tags: FIRE,government, credit union, local government, storage racks, fire department, general devices, federal credit, square foot

Bradley Dean | 07/25/2010

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to work with some individuals who really understand people and how to motivate them. I have seen others that really knew how to destroy them as well. A dear friend that has experienced a lot over the last 10 years in his life recently sat in my office talking about his shift and how much he cared for them as a supervisor. Given his latest and third round of cancer it was apparent that the personnel on his shift really care for him as well. Read More...

Relevant Tags: FIRE,ems, safety, rescue, stuff starts, ems journal, starts wars, friend has, has experienced, experienced lot, dear friend

Ken Farmer | 07/25/2010

The spring of each year is a time that people on the farm get out and start to check the fence line. Basically you walk the fence around the on your property to see if a tree has fallen on the fence, or maybe a creek has washed out some fence poles, or some other damage has happened. You look for loose or stretched wires and try to make sure the fences are in good order and strong. As the spring arrives the animals always tend to think that tender green grass just over the fence is sweeter and better than the very same grass they have on their side. Furthermore, with Spring comes the apparent desire for every animal to see what lies beyond t... Read More...

Relevant Tags: FIRE,fence, fences, mending fences, fence line, rescue ems, fire rescue, make good, fences make, ems journal, our lives, carolina fire

Dave Murphy | 07/25/2010

Do you remember the Whiners on Saturday Night Live ? The Whiners were recurring characters on Saturday Night Live from 1982 to 1984. Joe Piscopo playing Doug Whiner, and Robin Duke playing Wendy Whiner, spoke all their lines in a whining, nasal tone, hence, a double meaning of their name. They struggled with the everyday rigors of life and constantly whined about everything. Read More...

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Michael P. Dallessandro | 07/25/2010

If your fire department issues take home cars or SUVs to any of your paid staff members the media, either print or television is going to come knocking on your door. You will notice I didn’t say might or maybe, but will. As our economy tightens this becomes even more of a guarantee, so you better be ready for them with facts, figures and justification at your fingertips. The purpose of this article is to provide you with some key points to use as a starting point, or baseline, to make sure your department’s take home vehicles, and who has them for that matter, passes the media smell test Read More...

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Christopher M. Haley | 07/25/2010

In today’s fire service, leadership and management have become just as big of buzzwords as incident command, and homeland security. Fire service leadership has grown from something that leader’s “just knew how to do” into a studied and instructed science. Some departments feel that just by sending someone to an officer class, they are ready to lead and grow the future firefighters that they will command. Read More...

Relevant Tags: ,fire, know, leadership, service, officer, leader, fire service, service leadership, great leader

Steve Baird | 07/25/2010

Nearly all fire stations have a few items in common; apparatus bays, restrooms, decontamination, storage, at least one office, and an outdoor BBQ area. The challenge is that they are all moving targets based on the needs of the surrounding community. Budget constraints, current and planned equipment, functionality, response times, as well as personnel likes and dislikes, all exert influence on the station design. If you do not control the growth of your community, are not told what your budget will or won’t be, are grateful when you acquire or inherit another piece of equipment, and never know for sure what your line up is from year to year, ... Read More...

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Karl J. Mosbacher IV | 07/25/2010

Has your department recently convinced “the powers that be” that a new Fire, Rescue, or EMS facility is needed? Have you confirmed your funding source for the project? Is there even a glimmer of hope that you may be in line for a new facility sometime in the next few years? If you answered yes to any of the preceding questions, let me be the first to say congratulations! Now that you have one of the most difficult pieces of the puzzle in place, it’s time to move on to the next challenge — soliciting your needs to qualified architects. Read More...

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Mike McMonagle | 04/26/2010

As we all know, “emergency response” involves more than just fighting fires or tending to someone who has been injured. That is not to say that suppressing a fully involved structure fire or resuscitating an unresponsive heart attack victim are simple feats. Rather, they are the public-facing actions that are typically prefaced by behind-the-scenes information gathering and analyzing that is oftentimes performed while en route to the call. Whether it is a paramedic accessing past medical records, or a firefighter reviewing a building layout for a facility before arrival, the information that is available will ultimately shape the means by wh... Read More...

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Lenny Yox | 01/11/2010

If I were to ask you what the main differences are once you are promoted to a position of leadership in your department, what would you say? Some would glibly answer about the color of their helmet, a new radio, a response light in their POV, new keys getting added to their key ring. Far too often the most important answer is overlooked; more responsibility gets piled on. Read More...

Relevant Tags: Fire,volunteer, fire rescue, rescue ems, fire ems, heading right, carolina fire, right direction, ems journal, ems officers, lenny yox

STEPHEN MARKS | 01/11/2010

Regardless of our background in the emergency services, we are charged with the responsibility of serving our community. Most of us realized this when we began our careers, although it may not have been the only reason we chose to follow such a path. It doesn’ t matter whether we are paid or volunteer. It doesn’ t matter if we dispatch the calls, respond to them, or clean up after them. We’ re all in this together —serving our community. Read More...

Relevant Tags: KEEPING YOU SAFE,community, serving, emergency, our community, emergency services, fire rescue, serve others

S. JOSEPH WOODALL | 01/11/2010

Is it just me or is excellent customer service getting harder and harder to find? It appears that our national culture is suffering from a lack of commitment in completely and thoroughly assisting a customer to a positive outcome. The root-causes are many: personnel shortages, a stressful workplace, increasing financial and family challenges, low pay, off-shoring, low morale, automation and on and on. In many of my encounters ‘good’seems to be the benchmark but ‘good’ is somewhere in the middle of the customer service continuum; probably better than average but well below outstanding and excellent. Read More...

Relevant Tags: Fire,service, customer, fire, team, customer service, company officer, life death, excellent customer, crowd competent

DAVID ELLIOTT | 01/11/2010

We’ re all very familiar with the incident command or incident management system. You have either been trained on it, or like myself, have applied it to successfully mitigate large-scale, multi-agency responses. About 13 years ago I responded to a large woods fire. I established and maintained command until the incident was terminated. By the end of the day, fire equipment from the state and multiple counties was requested and utilized. The high number of news helicopters present prompted me to request restriction of air space over the incident in order for forestry aircraft to survey the scene. The extended duration of the incident necessit... Read More...

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