Yesterday evening we trekked out to the Suffolk County Fire Academy for a drill. The “Tower” is a facsimile of a commercial office building. I always liked this drill since in my town we have very few commercial buildings and this is our one opportunity each year to hone our skills and learn new techniques in attacking a fire in this type of structure.
Normally, as PIO, I am tasked with taking pictures and video of the drill to post online and use for internal purposes. It has been a few years since I have had the chance to do an actual hands on evolution of the Tower.
We were a little short handed on the line officer end when we left the firehouse with an Engine and Ladder. I jumped into the officer’s seat on Engine 3 to head out to the Academy.
I end the week with a pretty cool video that hopefully will inspire you as a PIO to try just a little bit harder and go just a little bit further.
I just got off the phone with a friend of mine who is an Army Captain. She was working on a PowerPoint presentation that she is giving tomorrow. She was concerned that the presentation was following both Army and overall military SOP for PowerPoint’s. In the Army the standard operating procedure for presenting a PowerPoint is to use every tool, chart and graphic possible to both try to glaze over and bore those gathered! I know. I’ve sat through quite a few.
I was never of big fan of playing golf. I’ve played in the past but I find it kind of boring and frustrating to take part in. The main reason though that my trips to the links are currently at naught is the pressure I feel teeing off on the first hole.
When I teach Probies in my departments internal fire school, I always tell them that they already know more than many veteran members. Because of the most up to date tactics that they are learning, they already have one up on the older guys who become complacent and are hesitant to constantly upgrade their skills to be on the cusp of today’s standards.
