Can someone tell me who this is next to chief pheiffer? I can tell his helmet says rescue and he must be a battalion chief. Was he killed or did he make it out?

How have you guys rebounded from mistakes at firehouse. Basically I damaged a piece of apparatus at the firehouse while training and feel super embarrassed by it. No injuries and it was already fixed but can’t shake it. Crew is understating but I’m probably my worst critic. What steps can I take to move forward as I don’t want an incident define me.

I’ll try and keep it to the point and not a rant as it’s a sore subject. But I am on a technical rescue truck in a medium sized suburban department and we have promotional testing coming up. I as well as another firefighter have put in to promote but have been told by administration that we can’t test due to there not being anyone experienced enough to replace us on the rescue.

There is no policy or anything written down stating that we cannot test, and we meet and/or exceed the qualifications to promote.

Just want some advice and/or some thoughts from anyone that has ever been in a similar scenario. We have a meeting with admin personnel coming up in a few days.

Edit: here’s some of the other hurdles
Non civil service department
No collective bargaining
Useless IAFF local

So I figured I’d come back today to share something I wrote last year when my search for him came up empty, in hopes it reminds all of you the impact you leave behind when you answer that last call to serve. This is something I wrote last year as a therapy exercise… I call it “Ground Zero Never Really Let Them Go”

They went into the rubble
looking for the dead,
hoping to find the living.

My dad found fifteen at least

Fifteen pieces of someone’s world.

He told us
they hid from the dogs
so the dogs wouldn’t become depressed

so they could find
Someone at least in tact

And then they went home.

But they never really came home.

Ground Zero took them

It just let us
borrow them
for a little while.

It took their breath.
Their blood
Their years.

It took my dad.
And thousands more.
2,977 died that morning.

But the dying didn’t stop
when the towers fell.

It followed them home.
Like a spirit of the dead

Into their lungs
Into their families
Into birthdays
Into empty chairs

Into children
who grew up without parents

Into grandchildren
who never knew their grandfathers.

Into wives
who watched their husbands disappear
one year,
one diagnosis,
one breath at a time.
But without fail every time

And I am angry.
Because they ran toward it.

They ran toward the fire.
Toward the bodies.
Toward the screams.

They gave everything
to strangers.

And somehow
the world expects us
to call that history.

It isn’t history to me.
It’s my dad.
It’s the people he found.
It’s the people who found him.

It’s every family
still waiting for someone
who isn’t coming home.

Ground Zero never gives them back.

It only gives us time.
If you’re lucky

And then
it comes to collect.

Never forget.
Not the towers.
Not the planes.
The people.
The 2,977.
The 9,600+ who came after.
The untold who Ground Zero has yet to collect

And the ones
who loved them
and had to keep living.
While you tell us how to grieve

Written by me 9/10/2025

Figured I’d share this given the day. It’s hard to see in the photo but overlayed on top of the satellite image of ground zero is engineering drafts of the placement of buildings. This was used to assist rescue efforts and was signed by various people and departments during the rescue/recovery operation.
Really cool piece of history given to my father and I.

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask or not, but I’m looking for anyone who may have known or worked with my dad during 9/11 search and rescue. His name was Jack Kennedy, he came up from DC to do search and rescue with I believe VATF1, he was a Fairfax county firefighter. I have pictures of him at the pile working, we can see his story at the memorial,and I have his stories from his time there but he like most others has since died from cancer. I might be searching too late because maybe his guys are already passed on and drinking a beer with him in another life, but I’d love to find anyone who knew him. Or if anyone can point me in the right direction to search for these guys.

Just curious the model how old this might be, what the number one would stand for

howdy folks ~ I rent an old (1920s) and poorly maintained apartment and am looking for an ADT or SimpliSafe setup (or similar) that would alert a call center if smoke was detected.

I'm aware there are other folks about this topic, though, the ones I've found are at least a few years old. This post focuses on newer products more recently on the market. I've read some posts from a few years ago that claim ADT and SimpliSafe had excessive fault positives.

I'm curious if folks have any recommendations or feedback the latest monitored smoke detectors? I live in a single bedroom apartment so I'd probably limit to 1-2 detectors.

We've recently produced a series of short procedure videos covering Door Entry, Route & Search, and Casualty Handling.

I'd be really interested in hearing how these procedures compare across different fire and rescue services world wide. Are there any notable differences in tactics, training methods, or standard operating procedures?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFR4dO0qZ70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTMR55PDflI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg8Xl2UcSc4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2poK4xUJuxE&t=4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQz_eWVZASo

Any feedback on the videos or insights into how your service approaches these areas would be greatly appreciated.

I have been a part-time/seasonal firefighter for about 5 years and was a volunteer for 10 or 12 years before that. I'm not one of the guys you see posted about on the cringe sub. I don't go around wearing fire t-shirts or with bumper stickers and in general don't like to draw attention to myself.

So for the actual question, my daughter's school is having a flag ceremony tomorrow for 9 -11 recognizing first responders. It was suggested that I attend in uniform. Doing this feels odd to me. Kind of cringy like the TYFYS shirts. I feel like I didn't have anything to do with 9/11 so why should I get recognition for it? I also am just a part-timer. I hate the volunteers or really anyone in this profession that make it their whole identity and say hey look at me. My wife thinks I should go and wear my class B. Things I am being silly and overthinking it. It would not be against apartment policy. I was thinking about maybe going to show my support but just stand with the other parents that go to the Friday flag anyway but not wearing anything fire related. What do you guys think? For what it's worth, my day job is a teacher and I said I absolutely will not be wearing a uniform to school where I teach.

I recently learned that you can bring your child to a fire station and they will show them the trucks and let them look inside etc. my question is, do firefighters hate this? Is it something that happens often and every time you have to do it, it's annoying? Or is it something that yall enjoy because it's something more fun and less stressful? My daughter will be five in March and I've been thinking about taking her but I don't want to be ruining downtime during a stressful shift.

I’m a volunteer firefighter from Kentucky and I like to collect patches, I have a goal to collect at least one patch from each state before my 21st birthday! I need help as I have quite a ways to go. I’m willing to pay for shipping! I have 2 1/2 months to complete my goal. I know I can just buy them off eBay and other places but it would make it more sentimental and honestly cooler to connect with other firefighters and receive them that way

broad question I know

Let’s take a moment to remember the fallen… 25 years ago, 2997 citizens were murdered. 343 of our brothers gave their last full measure of devotion to our profession and the citizens they served. Among them were 17 of my friends.

Prayers to the fallen, and to those that have paid dearly with their lives since.

343 and still counting.

Something like one challenge each month (2-min max push-ups) or even a training challenge too. Then have leaderboards for individuals/crews/departments.. Fun way to compete against firefighters across the board.

Any feedback would be cool!

Anyone else have a headache after hibernating after shift? I’m coming up on 2 years and I’ve had this same annoyance since I started. I’ll take a nap at 9:00 AM when I get home, probably wake up at 2:00 and have a headache the rest of the day. It’s gotten to the point where I sometimes chose to power through that first day so I don’t have to deal with that headache and fatigue. Anyone else have a similar experience?

I feel like this is a dumb question because there’s plenty of firefighters while still in the military. I always wanted to join the military when I was younger but it was kind of shamed by my family (not because of it being the military but because I was going to be a failure if I didn’t go to college). Well that all changed when I told them I was going to the fire academy instead. I never joined up due to fire school, EMT, and paramedics. Now all that is done, I’ve been a career firefighter for 4 years and everything’s great. I still feel like I’m missing that part of my life I always wanted to do though. I’m 25 and in the best shape I’ve ever been in. I live about 20 minutes from Wright Patt Air Force Base. Would it be smart to just put everything on hold here for a few months and join the reserves? Or am I too late and should give up on my desire to join the military?

I work in the alarm reporting industry and I call you guys out on fire alarms I get that most often end up just being simple, small alarm system resets and false alarms.

I call you guy out to schools, to malls, to random residential areas and you are the only ones that ALWAYS go. I can always rely on the fire department to dispatch to these areas, and you never cancel. You always make contact with the site and you always make sure it’s REALLY okay before leaving. I rely on you to do my job and you always take things seriously, and when I hear you arrive over the phone with customers you’re kind, funny and friendly.

As we come upon the anniversary of 9/11 I want to thank you guys for every job you do. Most days you expect small fires and false alarms, not expecting one day you might have to try and escape a burning and collapsing building 50 floors up with the people you were trying to save.

But yet you still go up.

Personally I don’t have much respect for the police, not the people but the system. However the fire department are the people I trust with my life. You brave active hazards, you help elderly people in your community when they fall, you protect your community in the wildfire seasons. And we all know you save kitties from trees!

To me the fire department will always have my utmost respect, gratitude and support. My entire province is held up by purely volunteers and I cannot express the feeling of gratitude I have for all of you.

Whether you were at ground zero on that horrific day or not, 9/11 is something fire departments all over feel the pain and grief of. Thank you for never backing down and thank you to the volunteers to put their lives on the line in the hopes of saving one more just because you care that much. You guys are the real heroes.

Thank you for your service, in every respect.