Wandering Lessons of Leadership

THE FULL TITLE:
Lessons Learned from a Couple of Happy Wanderers and the People they Wandered Into.

I read with great interest this related tale of two foreign firefighters who recently came to “The States” to learn more about our fire service culture while hoping to raise some much needed funds for their pet projects across the pond.

Read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Fire Service” by my friend Janet Wilmoth, editorial director for Fire Chief Magazine and stop back here to finish the journey.

INSERT LONG PAUSE HERE………………………………………………….

Welcome back from your side trip. What did you take away from her story?

I was intrigued not only by the firefighters’ journey itself, but also by Janet’s comment on how she was so enthralled by their stories. There’s that word again: STORIES!

I wasn’t surprised by Janet’s reaction as she is who I credit with planting a seed and inspiring me to create this story-sharing site. It’s our stories that link us across the fire service, across the states and even across ‘a pond.”

Then, what really excited me was the lesson she shared in effective leadership as demonstrated by Chief Frank Trout of the Westmont IL Fire Department who talked about turning their organization on its head.

Rekindle: Chief Norm Flanders

Editor’s Note: My apologies to Chief Flanders for the delay in publishing his story. However, it’s only fitting that we publish this feature on our nation’s celebration of Independence Day as Norm Flanders is my favorite kind of two-hatter: a veteran of our US Armed Forces — and a veteran firefighter, and for that — we thank him for his service to his community and our country.

As a young boy, I always ran out to the street to see where the fire trucks were going and always waved as they drove by. I later befriended a firefighter in the city fire department and would stop by on his shift to say hi and visit. His friendliness and willingness to take a few minutes to talk to me impressed me greatly. Unfortunately we had to move out of the city and my weekly visits to the fire station ended.

Future Firefighter Preston

I was about 15 years old when my real passion first got started…so to speak. I helped our local small town FD {not the one I am with now}, at a structure fire that rekindled.

After we moved we lived near a lake. I learned to love to fish and swim. I loved being outdoors every chance I could. Then one afternoon while about five of us friends were swimming, we heard sirens coming up the road. We hurriedly dressed, then went to check out where the fire truck was going and what the excitement was about.

The excitement was at a large farm house that burned the day before, from a lightning strike. It was again on fire. So we followed the fire truck up the road to the house. There was a small amount of smoke showing from the second floor window and the hole in the roof.

At first there were only three firefighters and us kids at the fire scene. Two firefighters were taking a portable pump to the lake to draft water. We stood around watching what was taking place.

Long Time Leader: Doc Moltrup

My Story:

PGFD Division Chief Donald "Doc" Moltrup

I first became interested in the fire service when I was three or four years old. We had a very good family friend near our home town of Beaver Falls, PA, who was the Chief of the Chippewa Township (PA) Volunteer Fire Department. We visited them often and I also looked forward to going to the fire station with him.

He also gave me all of his old issues of “Fireman” magazine, then the official magazine of the NFPA (and probably the only real fire service journal in that era). I poured through these magazines and even traced pictures of fire apparatus in advertisements in them and made up my own fictitious fire department with them.

Although my Dad was never in the fire service, he was kind of a fire buff so I went to fires with him often. I lived in State College (PA) for several of my pre-school years and a volunteer with the Alpha Fire Company in State College lived across from our house. I always saw him rushing off to fire calls and wished I could go too.

We call it brotherhood

Photo by Tom Suddath the DCFD band photographer

I stumbled upon this post via Facebook and was enthralled as the author shared the story of a bus ride that stretched from jubilation to sadness and every point in between Washington DC and New York, NY.

The author is a DCFD firefighter who, like most of us, enjoys other passions in his life. His are cycling, music and beer. Doesn’t make him a bad guy, does it? LOL

I won’t ruin the story for you but I just had to share this gem of a quote I found within it that reinforces my theory on the importance of storytelling in the fire service:

Help Out this Run-to-the-Curb Kid

Chiefs and Run-to-the-Curb Kids: Jimmy and Tommy Hook

We’ll share the rest of the story about 11-year old Tommy Hook soon but all you need to know for now is that his Dad, Deputy Chief Jimmy Hook of the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department died last week after a brief illness at age 42.

The good folks at HVFD are doing the right thing by him and making sure that Tommy has the financial support to go on to be a great kid after the loss of his dad — and to follow in his father’s footsteps as a great adult and maybe even a firefighter some day too.

I only met Jimmy and Tommy once, and just a few weeks ago during my visit to Hyattsville, but as you can see from this photo I snapped by chance right before they left the firehouse — both of them left an impression on me.

Here’s the link to the education fund that’s been set up for Tommy Hook. I hope you’ll consider helping them take care of this great Run-to-the-Curb kid: http://www.hvfd.com/hvfd/content/view/304/2/

Related Links:

• HVFD Mourns the Loss of Chief Jimmy Hook – http://www.hvfd.com/hvfd/content/view/300/2/
• Hyattsville Remembers Deputy Chief Hook, Honors Best of 2010 and Beyond at Annual Banquet – http://www.hvfd.com/hvfd/content/view/302/2/

Epic Stories from the Beltway

One week after I bunked and rode with Hyattsville Volunteers, the “white cloud” (as they called me because they didn’t catch any work while I was there) was lifted and HVFD caught all the work they could eat this past weekend.

Here’s a few links to their wild fires and wild times to whet your appetite. I can’t wait to hear the back stories of these adventures.

You could even say that this is the story of my life: A week late and a dozen fires short!

• Epic Day for Hyattsville & County Crews – http://www.hvfd.com/hvfd/content/view/297/2/
• One of the Busiest Days in PGFD Department History – http://pgfdpio.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-of-busiest-days-in-department.html?spref=tw
• From FirefighterNation.com – High Winds Fan Several Brush And Structure Fires Around Nation’s Capital –http://www.firefighternation.com/forum/topics/high-winds-fan-several-brush

From the Halls of Hyattsville

Nik and Nick (practically twins) - two bunk-ins at Hyattsville Volunteers

It may be a while before I have a chance to share all of the great stories and experiences I heard this weekend during my awesome bunk-in tour-of-duty with Hyattsville Volunteers but I didn’t want to delay in showing you the photos.

While we didn’t catch any real work, I still had a blast and gained a real education on and appreciation for bunk-in programs — especially theirs.

I also had the opportunity to tour College Park Volunteer Fire Department — a class act and great fire-dorm set-up — courtesy of Capt. Matt Machala who is rightly very proud of their program.

All of these young people are pretty impressive.

So until I can find the time to get to the real story, here are some photos — to paint a thousand words.

• Hyattsville Volunteers on Flickr
• College Park VFD on Flickr

Related:

• Living it up Like a Live-In
• Is this the Ultimate Bunk-In Program?
• Can You Afford to Live Without a Live-in?
• FDLiveIn.com
• www.hvfd.com
• www.cpvfd.org

How I met Billy D. Hayes … and stuff

This story of how I met Billy D. Hayes (and several other great people) was told when Billy called in during the Firefighter Storytellers Internet Radio Show with special guest Janet Wilmoth on February 9, 2011. It was originally printed  in “The Volunteer Firefighter” magazine from www.fasny.com –  August- 2008

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This article is one in a series of toolkits focusing on recruitment, retention, fire service marketing and leadership.

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My best friend: Chief Dennis Allen

Last month I said we’d take the summer off from talking about clearinghouses and trench work to focus on some other aspects of the fire service as they relate to recruitment and retention.

So, I decided we’d talk about an often mentioned but rarely explored principle of the fire service: Brotherhood. For the purposes of this article, the term “brotherhood” is gender-generic, so I hope the feminist revolution doesn’t show up at my doorstep any time soon.

Already you might be asking yourself what brotherhood has to do with recruitment and retention. But think about it. What is one of the greatest if not somewhat intangible assets we have to offer someone thinking about joining our ranks? That’s right; it’s the real brotherhood of the fire service.

Storytellers: Janet Wilmoth

Fire Chief Magazine "Editor-in-Chief" Janet Wilmoth

Janet Wilmoth isn’t just a Run-to-the-Curb Kid, she’s the one who I credit with planting a seed in my mind as to the importance of storytelling in the fire service.

This Wednesday night — February 9th, she gets to tell her side of the story.

Click here for the details of: Not Just a Daddy’s Girl! and listen in to Firefighter Storytellers on the FirefighterNetcast Radio Network.

Stop back on Wednesday night at 9pm and you can listen to the show here.

Mourning the Loss of a Run-to-the-Curb Kid

I didn’t know Chief Auch personally but I am certainly aware of his dedication to his city, the fire service and the instructors’ conference his city has hosted for so long. The following is provided and reprinted courtesy of my good friend Chief Bobby Halton. We share in their loss as we honor Steve’s story:

We Mourn the Loss

Indianapolis Battalion Chief Steven F. Auch, age 56

The staff of the Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) is sad to report the passing of Battalion Chief Steven F. Auch, age 56, of the Indianapolis (IN) Fire Department (IFD).

Steve was appointed to the IFD in 1978, and his assignments included Station 21, Engine 12, and Engine 11. In 1986, he was promoted to lieutenant. He served in Rescue 19, Rescue 2, Battalion 2 aide, and EMS duty officer until his promotion to captain in 1999. He served on Medic Squad 10, Engine 11, and as chief of EMS. In 2003, Steve was promoted to battalion chief. He has been Battalion Chief 11 A since 2007.

Steve was married to his beloved wife Donna Auch for 12 1/2 years. He was an extraordinary “father” to her three children, Brad, Laura, and Heather. He always asked his grandchildren, “Who’s a genius?” to which they would reply, “Pop-Pop Steve” and give him the thumbs up. When they heard he died, one of his grandchildren said, “God must have needed a genius.”