“Welcome to wherever you are. This is your life, you made it this far.” Bon Jovi’s “Welcome to Wherever You Are” was one of six songs featured in a graduation video for Fairfax County (Va.) Fire & Rescue Department’s 122nd Recruit School, and its words poignantly matched the 1,000 photos of the recruits’ 22 weeks at the training academy. The 24 members of the graduating class made it through exercises in suppression, extrication, emergency medical care, rappelling, confined space and more.
Archive of the Training Category
Welcome to Here
Uploading Experience
A group of probationary firefighters got me to reflect on how much they had left to learn, how much they had to learn from first-hand experience, and how much I had learned from those who took the time to teach me.
How the Little Things Add Up
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a multiple-fatality fire in Chesterfield County. A recent fire prompted me to think about the stuff that firefighters do every day to help make Chesterfield County a safer place to live: primarily smoke detectors and in-service training.
Coaching for Command Competency
Back in 2000 I had the good fortune to represent my department at FDIC in Indianapolis. It was my first time attending that fire service conference, and like thousands of others I was not disappointed. The vast array of educational presentations — not to mention the awesome number of vendor displays of the latest in emergency response technology — was overwhelming to say the least.
