Firefighter Wisdom

Tips, tricks, and trivia related to the fire service in 280 characters or less. These veiws may represent your department. #FFWisdom

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

Tradition should live in our pictures, parades, and patches not our procedures, practices, or PPE.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

The most effective chiefs are those who define standards that are best for the community and not biased by their personal values.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

You will resent and resist any supervision you receive that you don’t need.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

“A leader without followers is just a man taking a walk” -Abraham Lincoln

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

Union and civil service rules can often be the bane of high achievers

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

What saved you yesterday can kill you today if conditions change.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

Leadership is a responsibility to do more, not an excuse to do less.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

You’ll be criticized if you do everything by the book, and you’ll be criticized if you take shortcuts. But only one of those habits pays off when things go sideways.

[Science to the Station @Science2Station]

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[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

To err is human.
To worry about those errors is compassion.
To take action to prevent those errors in the future is professionalism.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

You need luck on this job, but skill is more important. Luck runs out, skill does not.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

One of the most offensive statements that an officer can have said about them: “He’s going to get someone hurt.” It characterizes carelessness, ignorance, or indifference.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

The actions and decisions in the first 5 minutes of any incident often determines the success or failure of that operation.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

If a chemical name ends in -ate, -ite, or -ide, avoid putting water on it. Most of these salts will react violently or give off toxic byproducts when mixed with water.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

If you don’t have a tool in your hand and an SCBA on your back, you aren’t a firefighter; you’re a well informed bystander in expensive clothes.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

Professionalism isn’t always apparent from radio traffic, but inexperience always is.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

Men can never be managed into battle, they must be led.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

A firefighter sees a viable victim rescue as a win. A fire prevention officer sees it as a loss.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

You can’t expect your firefighters to be nice and courteous to citizens if the leadership isn’t nice and courteous to the firefighters.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

If you provide a new firefighter with inadequate training, you don’t just short them but also every person they train in the future.

[Firefighter Wisdom @FFWisdom]

It takes only one harrowing experience to clarify the distinction between minimum practical knowledge and proficiency.