Firefighter Podcast

In this episode, I sit down with Warren Shepherd and Lee Ralph, the firefighters behind Freedom In The Fire , a movement built around one simple idea - creating space for real conversations about mental health.  From sitting in full fire kit in the middle of Bath inviting strangers to talk, to carrying a log through the mountains as a symbol of the weight people carry every day, their work is raw,...

In this episode of the International Fire Instructors Workshop Australia mini series, Steve De Blauwe, Station Officer and CFBT instructor from Belgium takes you inside the reality of interior firefighting and why so much of what we’ve been taught simply doesn’t hold up when it matters.  This is a raw, honest look at broken training systems, the gap between the academy and the fireground and how t...

In this episode I sit down with Brad Dicks, FireFit world record holder and Firefighter Challenge World Champion to explore what it really takes to perform at the highest level. On paper Brad is operating at the top of the game. But this conversation goes far beyond medals and titles. We get into the reality behind elite performance including setbacks, pressure, and the moments that don’t go to pl...

This episode takes you into a side of investigation most people never even realise exists. I sat down with forensic botanist Dr Mark Spencer who has spent over a decade supporting police forces and forensic teams by using plants, pollen, soil and environmental evidence to interpret crime scenes, locate missing persons and uncover what has happened in complex cases. From disturbed vegetation to mic...

A fire involving a single vehicle at Luton Airport’s multi storey car park rapidly escalated and spread through closely parked cars leading to the full structural collapse of a large section of the building. In this episode we walk through the timeline of events from initial ignition to rapid fire spread highlighting the role of modern vehicle construction fuel load and fire behaviour in open car...

This conversation cuts straight to one of the most uncomfortable truths in emergency services: the biggest risk to our people is not always the job, it is what we tolerate around each other. Graham Goulden is a former police officer with Police Scotland who has stepped away from frontline service to focus on something bigger by helping organisations rethink culture, behaviour and responsibility. N...

High-rise firefighting has a problem we don’t talk about enough… getting water onto the fire floor fast enough when it really matters. From delayed internal attacks to compromised stairwells and unreliable rising mains, crews are often fighting to catch up with a fire that’s already developing ahead of them. And when the building height starts working against you, that gap only gets bigger. In thi...

Humour has always been part of emergency service culture. It builds connection, relieves pressure, and helps people process some of the most difficult situations imaginable. But in a modern environment shaped by increased scrutiny, policy, and public visibility, that same humour is now being questioned. Where is the line between coping and causing harm? And what do we risk losing if we get it wron...

 In this incident debrief, we break down the 2022 Twin Parks high-rise fire in the Bronx, where a single apartment fire escalated into a mass casualty event that claimed 17 lives, all due to smoke inhalation.  This episode explores how the failure of compartmentation, open doors, and an unprotected stairwell allowed smoke to spread rapidly throughout the building, turning a place of safety into a...

Phil is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Pre-Hospital Care, with over two decades of experience and a background that spans ambulance services, air ambulance, and national-level major incident response. He’s currently a Medical Director at South Western Ambulance Service and has provided expert evidence to major public inquiries including Manchester Arena and Bondi Junction. This episode is...

If you’re a firefighter and you’ve experienced a challenging incident, particularly involving search and rescue, you can take part by contacting Dr Catherine Thompson directly via email at thompsc1@hope.ac.uk The only requirement for participation is that a firefighter can remember the incident they choose to describe and that they were working as an operational firefighter during the incident. We...

In this episode I sit down with Blake Richardson, CEO of EaseAlert and the son of a 22 year firefighter to explore what may be one of the next frontiers in firefighter health and safety: how we alert crews to calls.  For generations the fire service has relied on loud bells, tones and lights to mobilise stations. It works, but it was designed to wake an entire building rather than the specific fir...

In this episode of the International Fire Instructors Workshop (IFIW) Australia mini series, Fire Chief Jason Caughey of the Laramie County Fire Authority explores one of the most debated topics in the modern fire service: the relationship between aggressive firefighting and firefighter safety.  With more than 30 years in emergency services and over two decades serving as a Fire Chief, Jason bring...

Beci Newton is a Station Manager in the UK Fire and Rescue Service and an experienced fire behaviour instructor as well as other disciplines joins me for a conversation about our past, our present and our future, and how we are evolving the identity of our profession. This episode is about more than neutral planes &compartment behaviour. It is about identity & about who we are as a profess...

In this episode of the IFIW Australia mini-series, James Mendoza, Captain and Training Officer with the San Jose Fire Department, takes us inside a major large volume fire at a Home Depot in 2022. With a background in education and microbiology, and experience contributing to UL’s Coordinated Fire Attack study, James blends science and street-level decision making as he unpacks the realities of op...

In this episode I sit down with my good friend John Gregory, one of the original trailblazers of the British Firefighter Challenge as we head into a challenge season that is bigger and more competitive than ever before.  John and I have shared the arena many times over the years, from Toughest Firefighter competitions to international search and rescue arduous conditions courses and HYROX events a...

In this episode recorded live at the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, you’ll hear from Edward Hartin as he explores fireground sensemaking and decision making for the station officer. Drawing on more than fifty years in the fire service and decades at chief officer level, Ed takes us inside the cognitive process that underpins command. How initial cues shape your frame of...

London Fire Brigade protects one of the most complex urban environments on the planet. The resident population of London sits at around 9 million people, but that number is misleading. On a typical weekday, when commuters, tourists, and transient populations are added in, the number of people moving through the city regularly swells to 11 to 12 million, sometimes more during major events or peak t...

This mini series opens a door into the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, a gathering that for nearly two decades has been built on closed room conversations, honest challenge and the exchange of experience between some of the most respected fire instructors in the world.  With the full support of the organisers and attendees, these recordings bring that environment into th...

In this episode, I sit down with Scott Butler , a serving UK firefighter who has quietly built a life around choosing difficult things on purpose. Scott shares the pivotal moment in 2006 when joining the fire service forced him to grow fast, take responsibility, and stop making excuses. That turning point shaped not just his career, but his identity, and set him on a path where challenge became a...

This short debrief episode examines the Bethnal Green Road fire of 20 July 2004 , a commercial premises fire in East London that resulted in the deaths of two London firefighters, Billy Faust and Adam Meere . Crews attended what initially presented as a working shop fire and committed under Breathing Apparatus into a basement environment characterised by heavy textile fuel loading, restricted acce...

I sit down with Chris Case , a firefighter who spent 25 years in Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service before making the leap to Canada and becoming Fire Chief of Chatham-Kent in Ontario. This is not a career-timeline conversation. It is a deep exploration of leadership, identity, and the personal cost of doing complex work in complex systems. We talk about moving beyond the cookie-cutter career, the...

On this episode of we take a slow, deliberate look at the Old Albert Mill incident in Whitworth, Lancashire, from 15 May 2009 . This is a structured incident debrief built directly from the original accident investigation report, with large sections read verbatim to preserve timings, context, and operational reality. The focus is not on blame or judgement, but on understanding how breathing appara...

In this episode, I’m joined by Chris Kirby , Chief Fire Officer of South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service and Chair of FireSport UK, to talk about why bringing sport back matters right now. We focus on the Festival of Fire Sport and how FireSport UK is using sport to reconnect firefighters through teamwork, competition, and shared experience, not just fitness for fitness’ sake. We explore how spo...

This episode is a grounded debrief from being boots on the ground at Intersec Dubai , not a second hand summary or a glossy highlight reel. Intersec matters because it shows where global investment, policy attention, and operational thinking are actually heading long before those ideas trickle into day to day firefighting. From advanced PPE and industrial scale suppression systems to drones design...