Fire News

Wildland fires are becoming more frequent and more severe. For example, the eight largest wildfires in California history all happened in the last five years. In that time, wildland fires burned 10+ million acres in the state, killed hundreds of Californians, and destroyed at least 32,000 homes. As a nation, we are desperately short of … Continued

  In one week of August 2022 alone, three dangerous petrochemical fires raged all around North America and brought attention to the serious challenges facing first responders fighting hazmat accidents, spills, and crimes—not to mention the ordinary incidents arising from the prevalence of everyday hazardous materials in industry and our communities.  On August 6, a … Continued

Fire training is always stressful and risky. But ARFF (aircraft rescue and firefighting) training is especially challenging. It’s not simply that this is higher stakes training that must cover a broad range of topics: response, hazard mitigation, evacuation, possible rescue of aircraft passengers or personnel, and coordination with civilian and other authorities in an airport … Continued

William Greenwood has been in fire services for more than twenty-seven years. As Chief of Warwick, RI’s T.F. Green International Airport Fire Department and Senior Staff Instructor New Hampshire Fire Academy, he thinks a lot about the way that stress affects performance—and he has bad news. Stress can have such a big impact that it … Continued

  Last winter Jim Vaughn (battalion chief with the Normal, IL, Fire Department and Field Staff Instructor and Regional Representative for the Illinois Fire Service Institute) discussed cold-weather fire department training for an article for Firehouse magazine. Vaughn stressed that “Although a large part of North America sees freezing temperatures, departments that are located in … Continued

  Firefighting foams are essential tools for fighting fires, making firefighter foam training essential to every fire brigade. When it comes to particularly hard to extinguish fires, like those whose source includes flammable liquids and/or petroleum (i.e., Class B fires), aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) is still the recommended option where lives or critical infrastructure are … Continued

Back in 2011, Noel Maitland (at that time lieutenant and 15-year veteran with the FDNY) wrote an excellent fire department training op-ed for Fire Engineering. Maitland recalled: “I had an officer who taught me to always test the hydrant on a fire run, even if it’s for one of those annoying automatic alarms that always … Continued

In a November article for Fire Engineering, Burlington (NC) Fire Department battalion chief Paul Watlington sang the praises—and spoke to the brain-bending complexities—of pump operations. It isn’t just that each department has a unique mix of equipment. And it’s not only that new equipment and apparatuses enter the market, altering some of the fundamentals underlying … Continued

  Firefighters are expecting 2021 to be a record-breaking year for building and wildfires. But fire teams are shorthanded and overworked nationwide. This isn’t just about the increasing length and intensity of the wildfire season—nor is it about COVID. Both play a role, but it’s one of intensifying an existing problem: We are an aging … Continued

  Advances in simulator training technology have made it possible to overcome the roadblocks that regularly prevent adults from truly mastering new and complex skills. In 1980 Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus—working at the University of California, Berkeley and supported by the U.S. Air Force—formulated the “Dreyfus Model” of Adult Skills Acquisition. They sought to analyze … Continued