Combustible

In this episode, we sit down with Attorney Lance LoRusso to discuss the dangers of something almost all firefighters engage in: social media. And you can’t talk about social media without talking about the legal ramifications of firefighters taking pictures and video on scene. Even if you don’t post the pictures, you might be surprised where those pictures can get you. We also tackle the very pric...

There is a central concept that runs throughout Pete Blaber’s The Mission, The Men, and Me: That you should always listen to the boots on the ground. We really like that idea. Colin Powell said something similar when he described his “bias was toward the guys in the field.” But we also recognize some wiggle room within the concept, which prompted us to send out a survey to see where our listeners...

This episode is the second part to our conversation with Todd Edwards. We pick back up where we left off last time: with Todd’s view on how to approach the problem of underperforming firefighters in your station. Granted, if you’re good at rehabilitating firefighters, you usually get sent more “projects,” and as Todd explains, it can begin to seem like Groundhog Day. On top of that, you’re not goi...

The illusion of a perfect fire is a tempting one, but it’s also just that: an illusion. In the first part of our discussion with Todd Edwards, we talk about the “perfect fire,” the nature of evaluating our performance at every fire, and Todd’s approach that there are at least three things on every fire that we did well. And when we turn our attention to those things we didn’t do well, Todd explain...

Payton Owens came to the fire service, left, grew an impressive beard, and then came back again. When he left the department, he had some pretty serious stuff going on in his personal life, but he freely admits: he had become pretty disgruntled with the job. Payton got gruntled and came back. His reasons for returning and his perspective are a large part of this episode, but we also discuss “easy...

A short side discussion from one of our recording sessions about what’s at the nature of success when operating on the fireground: adaptability.

This quick discussion was born out of an article called “Command NOT Control” by Eric Saylors. Not all of us had read the article, and Shane and Pabel (who did read it) aren’t sure if they agree with it or not. Just when the discussion might be getting going, our appointed time to interview Chris Wessels sneaks up on us, and he’s calling in. We might have to pick this topic up again in the future.

When we sat down to talk to Chief Chris Wessels, we had a specific topic in mind that we thought we would cover. But what happens so often with the best conversations happened here; the conversation itself led us to places we didn’t think we were going to go. In this episode, we speak with Chief Wessels about respect inside the firehouse, millennials, mental health, what to do when you don’t get p...

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.

This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.