Firefighter Podcast

Your job takes priority most of the time, which often puts you bottom of the list. Well, that’s in the past. It’s time to start serving number one – YOU. Because, ultimately you need to be at your best all year round, you’re needed to serve and protect. You can only get so far on your own – stop trying to wing it. Grace Cowan AKA The Shift Workers’ Coach has been where you are right now serving as...

Captain (Ret) Kirk McKinzie, now President at MCKINZIE SMART TECHNOLOGIES LLC is a Strategic Next Gen and SMART Partnership subject matter expert. Connecting, cooperating, and delivering to regional, national, and global leaders in 360/3D/ SMART cyber-physical systems for saving lives and leveraging his 30 years of hands-on and practical emergency responder and rescue experience handling over 10,0...

 World’s Leading Thinkers on High-Rise Fire Safety Coming to FDIC International 2024 -  The 8th International Tall Building/High Rise Conference will make its US debut April 15-18, 2024 alongside FDIC International in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event, recognized by the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE), will bring delegates together with speakers from around the world for three days to provide v...

The World Firefighter Games is an international sporting event that welcomes all full-time, part-time and volunteer firefighters and their immediate direct family from all across the globe. The games are held biennially in different countries and offer more than 50 different sports and challenges including archery, rugby sevens, windsurfing, poker, swimming, athletics and softball, with the "...

On Aug. 2, 1978, a fire at a Brooklyn Waldbaum’s supermarket claimed the lives of six firefighters.  Twelve firefighters who were working on the roof plunged into the seat of the fire when the roof suddenly collapsed 32 minutes after the first company arrived.  Six of the firefighters fell to the floor and were seriously injured. The other six were hung up in the truss area between trusses 4 and 6...

Episode today from the Firefighter Decontamination & Particulate Protections Seminar 2024 where we spoke with many services attending and many subject matter experts in this space from across the world This seminar attended by the podcast in January of 2024 focused on the current epidemic of cancer among firefighters. It is with a sense of urgency that we shed light on this pressing issue and...

Mickey Farrell is a Lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department, a third-generation firefighter with 29 years of experience, the last 23 years being with the FDNY. Also a team instructor at the New York City Fire Academy, founder and author of Top Floor Tactics, and host of A View From the Top Floor Podcast. Find Mickey at Top Floor Tactics HERE Find Mickey on Instagram HERE We only feature th...

Steven ‘Robbie’ Burns, Watch Manager in the UKFRS shares his very personal cancer journey with cancer. In January of 2012, he first noticed blood in his urine. After a quick ‘Google’ he reassured himself that this was due to the distance running. He ignored this first warning sign. Eight months on, Robbie experienced another episode. Upon consulting a different doctor, he was referred, on the same...

Too often, we hear that we need to have a ‘problem’ or a ‘diagnosis’ before we can start taking an active interest in our mental health – how do we shift this ? What does resilience mean? What are the key components of resilience? How do we get people talking openly about improving their Mental Fitness? At Resilience Agenda, we envision a world where people imagine their mental health just like th...

Hear how Georgina Gilbert & Rebecca Openshaw-Rowe AKA The Antarctic Fire Angels completed a 1,230km ski across the Antarctic in temperatures as low as -50 degrees completing there journey to the south pole in 52 days on January 12th 2024. Go back and listen to them on episode #57 from Jan 2021. Inspiring every girl and young woman who's ever been told they can't participate because o...

Joe completed 31 years in the Fire and Rescue Service, having served in both Essex, and Devon & Somerset. He has extensive experience at all levels of command and retired as Deputy Chief Fire Officer. Joe is a highly qualified commander, trainer and assessor, and he has instructed and been part of Incident Command teams in across the UK, an abroad.  Today we speak a lot about CHANGE as Joe has...

How are firefighter fitness standards developed in the UK ? What is the data behind them ? How do they compare to other parts of the world ? & What are some of the testing methods we have used and still use for firefighter fitness testing and selection ? My guest today Tom Ashworth is Retired Watch manager from Lancashire Fire and Rescue in 2018. He spent 2 years as fitness advisor for greater...

Today is all about Highrise Firefighting. We cover aspects on the History, Lessons learned & what you need to know about how far we have come. References for this episode have come from Steve Dudeney which you can find HERE and also from www.highrisefirefighting.co.uk We only feature the latest 200 episodes of the podcast on public platforms so to access our podcast LIBRARY with every episode...

Excited to be sharing this episode with Lars Axelsson AKA Swedish Fire Nerd. Lars is an evidence based firefighting instructor, Firefighter and former battalion chief. In our chat today we go into so so many great areas of Firefighting, Instructing, Physics, Learning &  with Lars having taught instructors from all over the world he has seen the good the bad & the Ugly and we go into all th...

Incase you missed it: Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a fire on the 9th floor of Shirley Towers at 20:10 on the 6th April, 2010. This incident resulted in the deaths of Firefighters Alan Bannon and James Shears. With more Debriefs stacking up we intend to start putting out a monthly debrief starting 2024 as we know how popular they are so we wanted to re-release some of these less...

British Firefighter Challenge 2024 has now launched. This years event will be held at Water Street, Liverpool, Pierhead underneath the iconic Liver Building on the SATURDAY 27TH & SUNDAY 28TH of JULY. Today i catchup with John Gregory one of the lead organisers for the event as we talk tactics, training, community and the growth of firefighter challenge events in the UKFRS You can now register...

Some quick thoughts and things to consider for 2024 & also reflections from 2023. Also see book a couple of book recommendations for 2024 as we get asked a lot for these.  Would you like more of this, book recommendations for emergency services operators perhaps, I do have a list. Reviews of specific books and also more debriefs as we have a lot on file to get through if the appetite is there....

Ryan is a Crew manager in the UK FRS. In this episode we talk about aspects of creativity & how finding outlets for this can bring out the best in us. Ryan is part of a band known as Habilis & on the 28th of December 2023 they released their new song “Rise or Fall” and accompanying music video which you can view HERE For Ryan this has become the perfect way to merge two important aspects o...

Dilksy served an incredible 24 year military career in some of the most dangerous environments in the world utilising a vey specific set of skills before retiring and joining the UK Fire & Rescue service. We cover so many areas of personal and professional life as we explore some of his experiences and the lessons learned from them. You can find Dilksy on social media HERE We only feature the...

 On March 28, 1994, a landmark fire occurred in Lower Manhattan. This fire was one of the more heart wrenching events in living memory. It led to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) changing its protective gear. Firefighters would begin being outfitted for “Bunker Gear” starting May 16, 1994. The fire will forever be known in the annals of the FDNY as the “Watts Street Fire”. We only feature...

Today I'm speaking with Amy, Matt & Josh about the National BA challenge and their team which one it in 2023 which included team mates Ceri & Sam who couldn't be with us on this chat. The National BA challenge runs every year in the UK at the Fire Service College. In this episode we discuss many operational and training aspects of breathing apparatus and what their experience was...

Amy currently serves as a Station Manager at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service.  Joining the fire service aged 19 with a 1 year old daughter she has grown alot as a person as she has developed on her career. Today we discuss aspects around:- authentic leadership culture value of mentors the imposter syndrome developing emotional intelligence & the publics rection to female firefighters you c...

Brigadier Chris Murray enlisted as a Trooper in the Royal Tank Regiment at Catterick in 1974 before completing a Potential Officers’ Course and subsequent selection for Sandhurst.  He was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Transport in 1975 and served all over the world. He deployed on Gulf War 1 on Operation GRANBY with HQ 1st Armoured Division with particular responsibility for artillery ammun...

Catherine is Editor of the Emergency Services Times - Emergency Services Times (EST) is the UK’s leading publication dedicated to the emergency services sector. Now in its third decade, EST provides an in-depth analysis, insights and news tailored for all blue light emergency services and their partner agencies. Our significant publication readership is supplemented with a 24-hour news website and...

Today with Mike we discuss the ever changing landscape of vehicle technology, the challenge of solving the problem of exposure for crews and instructors  to Heavy Vehicle Rescue & how services can include the requirements of the NFCC UKRO Extrication Framework in the training of their firefighters. Links as discussed: IRRTC Training Providers of Vehicle Extrication and Trauma care (irrtcrescue...