Fire Chief

The haunting sound of the lone bagpipe lingers in my ears. There isn’t a dry eye as I watch the final hugs at the cemetery. I am miles away at the studio of WKRC-TV in Cincinnati trying to add a firefighter’s perspective to the procession.

How many free baseball caps, buttons or thermal cups do you really need? Trade show freebies are nice, but one company came up with a different approach to attract show attendees to their booth.

What better gift is there than to pull a structure fire on your birthday? It was a warm summer evening and I was straddling the roof peak of a single-family residence, looking out over the lights of south-suburban Denver.

Fire safety education. That idea doesn’t give the same adrenalin rush as the wail of a siren or the sight of black, billowing smoke, does it? I’ve been around the fire service long enough to remember when the most memorable things about fire-safety education were the animals: Sparky the Fire Dog or Smokey Bear.

Firefighters and fire trucks bring out the child in adults. There’s just something about those big red (or yellow or white) fire trucks that draws people like bees to honey.

The Congressional Fire Services Institute couldn’t have come up with a better way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the annual National Fire Services Dinner than to take over the National Mall on Wednesday, April 2, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., to display fire and emergency service personnel and apparatus.

Every department has a story about building or renovating a fire station. One of my favorites is the department that put in a new kitchen during renovation. For some reason, the new kitchen cabinets weren’t wide enough for dinner plates to lie flat in the cabinets, so the plates have to be stored underneath the counters.

Sometimes life forces us to change, even when we’re not ready. Often, it’s gradual. At other times, it comes at us so fast we have to hold on for dear life. And it may happen to us directly or indirectly through heartbreaking events that change the way we see the world.

With five significant opportunities to spring into action, April is shaping up to be a pretty busy month for the fire and emergency service industry.

A couple years ago, my department was awarded a $300,000 Assistance to Firefighters Grant to upgrade our communications equipment. At that time our dispatch center, transmitter and antenna system all were 40 to 50 years old. It was designed to use a dedicated telephone line to carry audio from the dispatch console to the transmitter that was over a mile away on the city’s water tower.

I was surprised to see how quicky the rig became a dot in the distance. I sped up to see just how fast the tanker was going and guessed 60 mph in the straight aways and 50 mph on the curves. I thought, this must be some fire.