This edition of Code 3 is a little different than most.

It’s about a Fire Chief who lost his job after he incurred the wrath of the Union

Local’s officials and, ultimately, the IAFF.

Scott Freitag was the chief of the Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, or

CAFMA.

The agency was created under Scott’s leadership when two fire districts combined under

a JMA to form CAFMA in 2015.

CAFMA covers 365 square miles of territory of Yavapai County, Arizona. And it serves

about 100,000 residents from 12 stations.

One day in August 2024, a press release showed up in email inboxes saying that the

IAFF had censured Scott Freitag by a vote of 2,520 to 0.

I

was pretty startled to get this news because I know Scott Freitag to be an

honest, decent Fire Chief who was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his

firefighters.

As you’ll hear, the no-confidence vote led to Scott’s firing after 11 years as

Fire Chief in September 2024.

How this all went down depends on whose story you believe. It may well have had

little to do with firefighting and much more to do with politics and a health

plan.

Are you tired of being told to “think outside the box?”

Well, if you are, I have good news: today’s show is about thinking inside the

box.

It's about looking at structures as a series of boxes, determining which box has the

active fire in it, and how to attack that fire. Boxes determine flow path in

large modern residential structures.

It’s an interesting idea, and it was developed for the Plano, Texas fire department

by Eric Wahlberg, a 30-year veteran of Fire/Rescue and an assistant

chief. He is also a Master Firefighter with the state of Texas.

One of the first tools you were taught about when you started this job is the basic ground

ladder.

Once you learned how to throw one, it was no big deal, right? The longer the ladder, the more firefighters get to carry it. Except…

What if there’s not enough people on the fireground to do that?

You might be surprised to find that the 24-foot extension ladder can safely be carried and placed by just one firefighter.

Now, a lot of understaffed fire departments, especially volunteers, already know this. But if you started at a fully-staffed department, you may not have had to throw a ladder this size alone.

Today’s guest runs seminars on the use of ground ladders, and this is one of his favorite topics.

Kevin Weis started his career in the fire service in 2012 as a volunteer firefighter in Coldwater, Ohio. He’s been on the career side since 2014, starting in Defiance, Ohio. In 2020, he moved to the Glendale, Arizona Fire Department.

Kevin’s currently

a firefighter/ paramedic and specializes in TRT & Haz Mat. He’s also been a

fire inspector.

He teaches

several hands-on-subjects, including search

tactics, forcible entry, hose line management, and of course, ground ladders.