The FireRescue1 tips section offers tactical and safety advice aimed at helping fire and rescue personnel better deal with the difficult and dangerous situations encountered daily.
These tips and resources, provided by industry experts and members, range from ways to prep your apparatus for the winter to ensuring your SCBA face piece is properly cleaned. Because most tips are based off of real-world experience, we encourage you to submit your own tips.
By Mark van der Feyst The tasked with securing the hydrant a common place for staging the tools is the ground around the hydrant. This area is a bad choice. The ground area around hydrants can be a...
By Mark van der Feyst When working on the roadways, it is important to protect responders from distractive drivers. Angle the fire truck across the road or lane to provide a safe area to work. This...
By Mark van der Feyst When working in the winter months, be extra vigilant to be more visible to motorists while working on the roadways. This can be accomplished by donning a reflective vest over ...
By Mark van der Feyst Due to the change in the season and fewer daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere, be sure to illuminate the work area and warn other drivers that firefighters are working o...
By Mark van der Feyst As the winter months approach, it is important to have fire trucks ready to respond in every type of weather. This means checking all of the winter options on each truck. This...
By Mark van der Feyst For those who use SCBAs with a detachable regulator, give a little tug on the regulator to make sure that it is firmly and securely locked in place once on air. Too many times...
By Mark van der Feyst Wash your face piece after live fire trainings, actual fires or any calls where you used your SCBA face piece. Removing contaminates reduces your risk of exposure. It also sto...
By Mark van der Feyst During a training session last week, it was very noticeable that everybody's PASS alarms were working. Most forgot to disengage the PASS alarm when doffing their SCBA. This se...
By Mark van der Feyst When using a roof ladder for vertical ventilation operations, always deploy the roof hooks before ascending up the ladder. Make sure that the hooks are facing away from you. Y...
By Mark van der Feyst Inspect rotary or ventilation saws on the fire trucks to ensure there are no missing teeth on the blades or chain. The saw manufacturer may recommend the minimum number of tee...
By Mark van der Feyst As mechanical equipment is staged for use on the rigs, nozzles on pre-connected hose lines can also be readied for action. For the smooth-bore nozzles, nothing needs to be set...
By Mark van der Feyst Mechanical pieces of equipment such as the rotary saw, vent saw, hydraulic pump and positive pressure fan need to be checked and started on a daily basis to ensure that they a...
By Mark van der Feyst When checking your truck, check each piece of equipment to ensure that it is working and problem-free. When a mechanical piece of equipment is put back on the shelf or tray, i...
By Mark van der Feyst Working in sweltering heat is common for us especially inside a burning house. But when the outside temperatures are extremely high, we need to take extra precautions against ...
By Mark van der Feyst I recently conducted a live burn class for an outside department. I noticed one participants had about a two-day's amount of growth on his face. He was under the impression th...
By Mark van der Feyst The SCBA is face piece is easily overlooked when it comes to cleaning. The face piece is exposed to all kinds of dirt and grime from the fireground and exposure in the station...
By Mark van der Feyst A part of the duties of a driver assigned to an apparatus is to check the truck. One often-overlooked aspect of checking the truck involves the windows. For the driver to safe...
By Mark van der Feyst Many fire trucks have a hydrant kit located in the rear compartment for quick access for hydrant operations. The firefighter will grab the hydrant kit along with the large sup...
By Mark van der Feyst When using a gate valve to flow water to control a hand line or whatever, open the vale in a slow manner. This can be accomplished by opening the valve partially to allow wate...
By Mark van der Feyst Most SCBAs have battery-powered components. These items can include the heads-up display, the chest gauge and the voice communicator. The lifespan of a battery can vary, but t...
By Mark van der Feyst I recently addressed a recruit class of new firefighters. I told them to never stop learning. The fire service is an environment where technology, tactics, science and facts c...
By Mark van der Feyst One of the hardest skills to develop is that of listening. People are generally too quick to speak and often miss important information. Instead of listening, they are speakin...
Being turned down for a grant can be a part of life. Sometimes even the best applications are denied funding, but that does not have to be the end of the story brightcove.createExperiences();
By Mark van der Feyst Many fire trucks are equipped with headsets for the crew to use when they are driving. These headsets are designed to cancel out loud noises while allowing each member to comm...
By Mark van der Feyst Portable radios are technologically well-advanced pieces of equipment. One of the advances with our newer radios is with the microphone. The mic is very sensitive and will pic...
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