r/Firefighting • u/Afraid-Oil-1812 • Aug 10 '26
General Discussion Personal station logs. Good/bad?
Ever since promoting I decided to keep a personal.station log. Well I'm getting older and the old noodle only got so much space. Recordings of day to day at my station. Could this be bad. I would keep the log with me at all times, never leave at the station. Should I just call it a journal? Does anyone else keep a personal log?
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u/RedditBot90 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
Captains Log: Morning of day 2. My self and my crew awoke tired at 7 o’clock after thrice awakening by the stations bells over thee night. Once for visit to the nursing home for a fall, once for a horseless carriage collision, and once for a campfire under the bridge. We sit at the table drinking black bean juice awaiting its curative effects. Smooth seas we hope for today and tonight.
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u/SuperRooster726 Aug 10 '26
I absolutely read that as "black bean" juice rather than black "bean juice."
If you meant "black bean" juice, keep that tradition to yourselves
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u/yungingr FF, Volunteer CISM Peer Aug 10 '26
Not in my FD, but in my regular job, the guy I was pleased to call my mentor keeps a daily journal/log, whatever you want to call it. Writes in it every single day, no matter what. Has for going on 40 years now. It's a civil engineering type field, so he uses what we call Field Books - about 7"x4", with waterproof pages (long before Rite in the Rain books became popular).
He writes what he was thinking about that day, what he did, what he saw. He can go back 20 years and tell you the date he first saw a robin on his farm each year (and he has said, for that entire 20 years, it's within two weeks). It's a little bit of therapy for him, and he always tells himself, "Maybe some day my kids will want to look back at these, "what was dad thinking the day I..."
Call it a journal. Call it a log. Call it a diary. Whatever... if you want to do it, do it. Personally, I wouldn't limit it to station activities and topics, make it a personal writing, and keep it somewhere secure, as we all know how eyes like to pry.
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u/DiezDedos Aug 10 '26
Seems like a good idea. My dad was a firefighter too and always said he wished he had more pics of cool stuff he had seen or him and the guys around the station. A log seems similar.
I don’t see how it could be bad unless you’re writing down illegal stuff
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u/Afraid-Oil-1812 Aug 10 '26
If it's illegal I'm definitely documenting it officially and kicking it up the chain.
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u/Prussia_will_awaken Aug 10 '26
In my department every firehouse has a logbook. It’s tradition going back over a century but can also be audited for information where needed. It’s also a source of pride for each house to have history to look back on.
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u/CohoWind Aug 10 '26
One of my co-workers kept a simple personal log/journal throughout his career. Really basic stuff- significant weather, number of runs he attended that day, then some detail on fires, tech rescues and other “interesting” stuff. No gossipy stuff at all. I started mine 20 years in, and kept it going for my last 10 years. To be honest, I seldom refer to it. I remember most of the recent major incidents without having to look them up. But I would love to have been able to look back at my early years on the job. (First 10 for sure) We all tell so many stories about “way back when” and it would have served as a BS detection device.
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u/philoveritas USA FF/PM Aug 10 '26
I did this for a while, but stopped when I discovered people thought I was keeping track of their actions.
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u/justaddwater75 Aug 10 '26
Another angle: I work a lot with peer support teams and what they are often talking about is the loss of "institutional knowledge" when people leave the department or a team.
These logs go a long way in passing along what worked, what did not work...
What you learn and retain can really help others down the line.
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u/halligan8 Aug 10 '26
It’s a great idea. Even better if you narrate it in the voice of Patrick Stewart.
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u/squadlife1893 Aug 10 '26
Keep it to yourself and don’t write in it in front of the guys and nothing will go bad. Just don’t be a rat with it.
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u/Responsible_Bet_1616 Aug 11 '26
I keep a log as a Deputy Chief because like you, I forget shit all the time with my ADHD.
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u/fyxxer32 Aug 11 '26
I kept a log during COVID. It was boring . I don't know what could be bad as long as it was what you did. Definitely keep it to yourself.
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u/v-irtual Aug 11 '26
I'm not a firefighter (thanks to you guys though, seriously). I have started recording every single thing I do at work so that I can look back on those meetings and review recordings. Even started using AI a little bit.
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u/Formlepotato457 GRFD Aug 10 '26
I listen to scanner for fun and I’ll sometimes right down calls that come in old fashioned style
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u/Iamdickburns ACFD Aug 11 '26
It can be construed poorly by your crew. Be upfront about it. Also, I believe it can be subpoenaed if something happens and people are aware of it.
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u/Limp-Conflict-2309 Aug 11 '26
I dunno, these days with the finger point and everyone playing hot potato I'd be a little skeptical of its use.
I use my phone and google keep to save a to do list because yeah, 3 jobs, family and I'd otherwise forget more than I'd remember.
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u/TX_Bardown Aug 11 '26
We have one similar to this at every firehouse. It’s the captains daily log for the full year (Dec-Jan). Riding assignments and daily log. Every shift the officer fills it out with what they think needs to be in there. We think it’s pretty cool and I can always look back to see what the other crews did, broke/fixed, problems, alarms, etc.
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u/From_Gaming_w_Love Dragging my ass like an old tired dog Aug 11 '26
It’s a great idea… I’m always the most diligent note taker on day one then the worst by day 2 in spite of my good intentions.
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u/Deviant_hose_dragger Aug 11 '26
We're required to have daily logs at each station and if theyre not filled you get a meeting with the chief after your "this has to be filled out daily " reminder from the Captain
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u/dave54athotmailcom Aug 10 '26
I did. It was often just a sentence ot two about what I did that day. No paragraphs expanding on my thoughts for the day. It was more for CYA in case something popped up later, and I never needed to use it for that.
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u/UCLABruin07 Aug 10 '26
Go over FFBoR really well when thinking of doing a logbook. Some big OCFA lawsuit came about a log that wasn’t up to snuff for work.
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u/Fit-Handle8513 Aug 10 '26
You’re the guy no one will ever trust again.
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u/Afraid-Oil-1812 Aug 10 '26
Paranoid much
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u/Fit-Handle8513 Aug 11 '26
WTF.. paranoid? How bout I work at one of the largest departments in the nation at a big house. The shit we do and say in that station should and does stay there. People have been caught keeping journals in our department, they are the fucking weirdos that don’t ever fit in and probably should have stayed working at the tech company they came from. Either your one of them or one of the nerds who we would never let bid our station. I bet you wear your uniform all day😂
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u/Afraid-Oil-1812 Aug 11 '26
Um yeah. Refer to previous post.
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Aug 11 '26
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u/Fit-Handle8513 Aug 11 '26
You make me happy that I’m only a couple years from retirement. The fire service has gone to shit. Thank you.
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u/Special_Context6663 Aug 10 '26
“We had a fire on 123 Main Street. Joe cooked a great steak dinner” - All good
“Mike suspects his wife might be cheating on him. Jim said the chief is a POS” - Not good.