The most grueling fire of your career may not wait for you to have seniority. In fact, it can easily happen on a rookie’s second shift. Or first! So the fire service must handle health and safety training with the same urgency as it does for fireground operations. On this episode of The Training Officer, host Dave McGlynn sits down with seasoned fire chief and FDIC instructor Dennis Reilly to discuss the weight of cancer in the fire service, professional legacy, leadership roles, and FDIC. They also explore the obligation veterans have to mentor the next generation and why every minute of training is an investment in someone else's survival.

This episode is brought to you by The Fire Store: https://thefirestore.com/

This episode is brought to you by Fire Facilities: https://www.firefacilities.com/

What is the role of leadership? And how can it shape an "aggressive" fire service culture?

On this episode of Tactical Impact, hosts Jason Hoevelmann and Jim Silvernail welcome Jamie Young and Joe Gragnani to the show. They explore how to move beyond clichés and how to build organizations that prioritize tactical excellence. They discuss the "Four Pillars" of departments: running calls, training to run calls, mastering tradecraft, and everything else. Young and Gragnani share how they transitioned a "storied" department toward a search-heavy, "victims until proven otherwise" mindset, supported by a significant investment in off-duty training and strong labor-management relationships. They explore why today's toxic fuel loads demand a smarter, more proactive breed of firefighter and firehouse culture.

This episode is brought to you by The Fire Store: https://thefirestore.com/

This episode is brought to you by Fire Facilities: https://www.firefacilities.com/

Jay Bonnifield, a captain with the Everett (WA) Fire Department, joins this episode of Hooks & Hoses to discuss how RECEO—Rescue, Exposures, Confinement, Extinguishment, and Overhaul—helps firefighters prioritize life-saving actions and navigate chaotic fire scenes effectively. He discusses the hierarchy of RECEO and how it helps inform decision making and situational awareness while enabling members to rapidly process chaotic scenes.

Bonnifield also reviews practical training habits: 15‑minute daily tactical decision games, hot washes, and pattern recognition drills that accelerate rookie development and keep company officers empowered.

What's the significance of aligning leadership and crews in modern fire departments? On this episode of Tailboard Talk, hosts Jeff Wallin, Chris Rasmussen, and Craig Nelson welcome Kent Orvik and Andy Dingman, of the Fargo (ND) Fire Department. The panel discusses how firefighters who become chiefs keep the instincts of the engine room yet inherit a very different job: long timeframes, political constraints, and layers of oversight. They unpack why quick operational fixes don't translate to administrative problems, why training and wellness get squeezed by limited budgets, and why crews want plain answers. Together, they explore ways to align priorities so safety, staffing, and community service move forward together.

Host Christopher Naum's two-part series for BuildingsonFire takes a closeup look at building literacy and reshaping decision making on the fireground. This episode explores the operational framework that links building era, construction, occupancy, and functional domains. Naum discusses tactics, safety, and command.

He gets into the importance of the first 20 minutes of an incident, the predictability of building performance, and moving beyond surface familiarity to applied architectural and engineering knowledge.

Inside a firehouse, teamwork isn’t part of a slogan—it’s the difference between control and chaos. For this episode of Women in Fire, host Lisa Baker and guests Heather Mozdean, Paige Cowell, and Kim Phillips get candid about what teamwork actually looks like. They move past textbook definitions and into the reality: coordinating ventilation with interior crews, trusting the person next to you to read conditions the same way, and knowing one freelancer can unravel an entire operation in seconds.

They also take a look at station life, where unresolved tension, uneven effort, and poor communication quietly erode performance long before a call comes in. This discussion presents an honest conversation about training gaps, ego, leadership responsibility, and the difficulty of building cohesion across personalities and ranks.

This episode features:

• Lisa Baker, Southwest Trustee, Women in Fire (host).
• Paige Colwell, battalion chief, Forsyth County (GA) Fire Department.
• Heather Mozdean, deputy chief, Fremont (CA) Fire Department.
• Kim Phillips, district chief, Houston (TX) Fire Department.

On this week's Humpday Hangout, Frank Ricci and Josh Miller talk to guests P.J. Norwood and Sean Gray about The Evolving Fireground: Research-Based Tactics, which they cowrote. They discuss why transitional attacks and ventilation must be coordinated with hoseline placement, argue for early water application from outside to improve interior conditions, and reframe “search” and “door control” to prioritize survivor access and firefighter safety.

Later in the episode, the show welcomes former Navy SEAL Chris Shea of the North Haven (CT) Fire Department and discuss his decision to run for Congress.

Command Show host Anthony Kastros and guest Rick Nelson, Chief of the Reading (MA) Fire Department, discuss how a small New England fire department modernized incident command to close the tactical gap. They unpack NIOSH 5 failure points and show how decentralized leadership, mutual-aid run cards, and tactical supervisors improve accountability, reduce radio traffic, and improve outcomes.

The conversation covers regional collaboration across New England, practical benchmarks for tactical communications, and Reading’s next steps. Kastros and Nelson also also talk about technology and how leaders empower lieutenants to lead during mutual‑aid responses.

This podcast is brought to you by Tablet Command. www.tabletcommand.com/get-started-lp