Sorry I have been a absent from our blog recently. I have been very involved with our new Community site, which has attracted the very best thinkers in our profession to join and share. We have established a very different experience in our community: everyone is using their real names. The group and forums are incredibility active and the video and photos are all extremely useful. Serious firefighters are encouraged to join to today at http://community.fireengineering.com/ or just hit the community tab at the top of the page.

We are just three weeks away from the greatest firefighter training and networking experience in the world, FDIC 2008, and things are coming together nicely. I can guarantee you FDIC 2008 will exceed any and all expectations. The Indy experience is something legendary as this marks the 80th year of the FDIC series. The history and the tradition of FDIC is a major part of the fire service. The show will be the biggest ever, and more importantly it is your show, the fire services show. Please come and share your time and talents with over 27,000 fellow like-minded professionals.

We will be keeping you posted as to the proceedings during the show. We are asking all of the firefighters planning on attending Wednesdays Opening Ceremonies to wear their class A or modified Class A as we are doing a special Salute to Service, honoring our firefighters and their sons and daughters who have served both their communities as firefighters and their country in our military forces. You will have a once in lifetime opportunity to salute a living American hero from World War II

We are doing our first virtual FDIC on June 11th and 12th, and it is going to be a historic event. It will be completely online, completely free, and completely interactive. You will be absolutely blown away! Look for more details soon on this site. We also just finished confirming our lineup for the inaugural Fire Engineering Weekend show, which will begin on July 19th and 20th at the Northbrook Hilton just outside of Chicago. We will be announcing the rest of this years Fire Engineering Weekends schedule and the all-star line up of presenters this week here in FireEngineering.com.

The fire service had a very bad week last week and we are all very saddened to have to reflect on several LODDs. We all carry the weight and we all understand the sacrifice the families have to burden by these tragic deaths. Hostile fire events continue to be identified and it reminds us that we must always have that company officer watching for those rapidly changing conditions which often precipitate these events. I will assert again this is why the role of the company officer is not to move hose or force entry or open walls, door, etc. The reason we need NFPA 1710-1720 compliant staffed companies is to ensure we have a watchdog on interior structural firefighting operations. Those experienced veteran eyes, those diligent and vigilant supervisors must be free to continuously evaluate the conditions and progress of the company.

The fire service was made proud in Atlanta and New York city this week, and Fire Engineering was fortunate to get this exclusive interview with Atlanta Battalion Chief David Rhodes who was on site. David gives a firsthand account of the masterful response which the Atlanta FD and the Georgia State USAR task force deployed to mitigate this tragedy. We spoke to several FDNY responders who responded to the crane incident and were amazed by the scope of the event they were faced with over the weekend. We were equally impressed as to the incredible amount of talent and expertise the FDNY has in its ranks and its continued example of world-class leadership under extraordinary circumstances.

In Chicago, leadership was once again front and center on Friday when Commissioner Ray Orozco assembled the second Chicagoland Chiefs Caucus and discussed several important topics which are critical to the communities in and about Chicago. The Caucus was started by Commissioner Orozco and they are meeting quarterly. It is refreshing to see real action and real results in three of the most important communities in America from Americas fire service. The chiefs in attendance discussed the deployment of the CFD command van into the suburbs the MABAS system, future training opportunities, and mutual target hazards. It is easy to se why folks are proud of Chicago, New York and Atlanta.



This photo is from our good friend and Chief David J. Traiforos of the Franklin Park Fire Department
posted by Bobby Halton
3/17/2008 04:02:00 PM

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