Fire Critic An Unadulterated View of the Fire Service
Over the past several years, I have created several web sites. The Fire Critic has remained one of my favorites.
The past several weeks has brought clarity to its purpose. In an effort to move the site forward, I have decided to update more often with videos, articles, and whatever else is new or interesting in the fire service.
What this means to you is that you will have to check back more often to see what is new and/or scroll down further to see what you have missed!
I have also been working to maximize the potential of the twitter account (@firecritic) and facebook page of the site. As always, you can friend request me as well here.
FireCritic – Twitter @firecritic – Facebook
Interestingly enough, today’s Monday Morning Shoutout here at The Fire Critic goes to ChicagoFD.org. I checked the site out when I found some great videos on youtube from them. The interesting thing about it is that Mike Ward over at Fire Geezer wrote a detailed article on Chicago: Remembering those lost in Chicago: 21 dead at Union Stock Yards in 1910 and 9 dead at Hubbard Street in 1961. Check it out, it is a good read!
This past weekend, I have been stuck at my house trying to pass a kidney stone which my friend Captain Wines so eloquently wrote about here on Ironfiremen.com. Prior to that was the epic anti-climactic “Rhett said” vs. “Dave said” between Dave Statter and I over the events in Obion County Tennessee (Fire Critic links here, here, and here & Statter links here, here, here and here).
Of course, if you weren’t able to catch the live netcast of the discussion on Obion County, be sure to check it out below!
Listen to the netcast right here!
Videos -Videos – Videos
I also posted several decent videos, as did Dave Statter on numerous fires this past weekend. Here is a link to an article with most of them here.
“VACANT” vs. “UNOCCUPIED”
Firefighter Behavior has a decent look at whether or not Vacant Structures are actually Vacant unless we say they are. I have been trying to explain this for a long time. There is a difference between “VACANT” & “UNOCCUPIED”.
In my opinion, vacant simply means no one resides there on a regular basis (i.e. homeowner or renter). Vacant structures can still have people in them. Whether it is squatters or kids playing around, vacant structures can be “OCCUPIED”. The only way to rule out a structure being occupied is by doing a thorough search. Read the story of a child who died in a VACANT, but OCCUPIED structure and why Backstep Firefighter is asking the question When Did It Become Okay To Say ‘No’? They also followed up recently with this post: Why We Search: Baltimore
Have you ever left a coffee mug on the tailboard?
One more thing… FireGeezer has finally come up with a coffee mug that might withstand you leaving it on the tailboard and forgetting about it when you get a call. The new travel mug is available, you can check it out here!
