The 2011 Fireman's Association of the State of New York

(FASNY) Convention will be held August 16th-19th in beautiful Alexandria Bay, New York. The four day event is filled with social and educational activities for all levels of firefighters.…

It’s very easy to become complacent as a firefighter. Yet it

is also one of the most dangerous attitudes to adopt.

We’ve all been on calls where weekly, it seems, the alarm at

the same location seems to activate and ends up being a false alarm. It could

be a commercial structure in a business district or a residential alarm in what

seems to be the middle of nowhere. It could be that geriatric call you’ve

gotten…

Sometimes we need to look outside the fire service to

improve how we learn, how we train, and how we move forward. Successful people

in virtually every field can point to a person who they feel positively

affected them in a way that steered them in an affirmative direction to achieve

their success. While they may not realize it, those people are mentors.

The concept of mentoring is not new, but has recently become more…

I spent twenty-three years in the same fire department, volunteering with the same base

group of people for most of that time. Like most departments, the core group of

people rarely changed. Every so often we would lose a person or two to job

transfers, burnout or death, then gain a person or two through just plain luck,

since we really never had an organized recruitment effort.

In my early years trying to find my way within…

While on an MVA call on Rt 438 in the middle of the night; our Dispatch called our Chief to find out some information. The conversation went something like this:

Dispatch: "What kind of accident scene do you have chief? Is it multiple cars or a single car?"

Chief: "It's one vehicle and they ran into a telephone pole. We're gonna need Niagara Mohawk out at the scene."

Dispatch: "What direction was the vehicle going?"

A little Pause on the airways

Chief:…

Air brakes on a truck are not the same as the hydraulic

brakes in your personal vehicle. When you push the brake on your personal

vehicle, oil pressure pushes the brake pads against the wheel to slow the vehicle.

In an air system, air pressure holds the brake pads away from the wheel. When

you push the brake, air is released allowing the pads to engage the wheels and

slow the vehicle.

The air system was designed for…

  As a firefighter, the most important thing that should be on your mind is your own safety. You will have others looking out for you and, as you develop as a firefighter, you will find yourself looking out for others. The most basic step you take while preparing to do the job is suiting up. Proper personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential to not only

protect you from the heat you will encounter, but also from the many other hazards to which you…

So, you joined the fire service. Congratulations on

beginning what, for many, becomes a very rewarding and fulfilling way to give

back to your community. Usually new members of a department are recruited by

friends or family members. I remember I was recruited by a family friend who

felt an obligation to the department to find someone to replace himself as he

was…

Welcome to RookieFireFighter.com where the focus is on the Rookie firefighter. Your first years in the fire service are not easy and we know that.

Veteran firefighters on this site are here to assist you with your questions, help you through some tough times that may be ahead of you, and also support and encourage you while you enter the world…