Eric Snow’s keynote presentation wasn’t a study of his performance on the court; rather it was an insightful, down-to-earth discussion about how he came to understand what it means to be a successful leader.

Simulation training is proven in the aviation industry, and it’s beginning to become more popular within the fire service as well. In their seminar at FRI today, “Using Tactical Decision Games and Simulation to Improve Incident Command Decision Making,” William Sturgeon and Ron Tarr demonstrated how simulation training can be effective and discussed strategies for implementing a simulation training program.

In his Thursday morning keynote address, Complacency to Catastrophe, Dr. Tony Kern urged attendees to challenge the way they think about responsibility, accountability, the value of experience and, most importantly, human error.

In his Thursday afternoon session “The 7 Cs of Volunteer Leadership,” Tim Holman explains the seven simple words every volunteer fire officer should always have in mind—words that will help you maintain your leadership presence through the ups and downs of running a volunteer fire company.

As most firefighters/fire officers will tell you, the first 5 minutes of any incident can affect the next 5 hours. But what exactly should happen in those first 5 minutes? According to Fairfax County (Va.) Fire & Rescue Department Battalion Chief Chuck Ryan, if you’re the first-arriving officer, you’ve got two main priorities on your plate: sizing up the scene and developing an initial action plan. Without proper attention to these two tasks, your operation could very easily fail.

Succession planning in the fire service is one of those topics that generates a lot of talk but not much meaningful action. Everyone knows the organization should be looking ahead to when leadership at the top will change, yet there are many barriers to doing active succession planning which can undermine even the best intentions.

Fire-Rescue International allows us to better understand our challenges through professional and leadership education in the classroom and to broaden our ability to share our experiences and, therefore, learn from a greater network of peers who have “been there, done that.”

This article will provide you with many tips to successfully transition from company officer to chief officer, including not forgetting where you came from and who you ultimately work for, two common mistakes made by some chief officers.

I had been in the fire service for some time before I had my first opportunity to attend a large production national fire service conference. Before that I thought that all fire departments were pretty much the same and what was going on in Shreveport was going on everywhere else – same services, personnel issues, [...]

“My concern speaks to what is in place for those who suffer either from long term effects from an incident or the root of the problem has nothing to do with an emergency response, as was my situation.”