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Fire In His Bones
“Dave, we do a great job in this department with every victim we encounter except one, the one in the mirror. You’re a victim and you either don’t know it or won’t admit it,” Chief Mann said. Captain Dave Michaels attained his dream job as the company commander of Rescue Squad 1, one of two such elite units in Fairmont County. But the dream turns into a nightmare, literally, when his crew is first arriving after a North Korean sponsored terrorist bombing of a library slaughters a visiting Kindergarten class. The “old school” Michaels resists help as his life spirals downward. Removed from his company and saddled with a desk, Michaels faces the loss of his job, wife, and family. Assigned to develop a rescue squad training program, the project turns out to be more valuable than imagined, teaching him about himself and helping him deal with the mental trauma. The assignment and the help of a firefighter counselor reopens the fire house door. Restored to command of a truck company, Michaels works through his struggles to reach a stronger place, at the same time wondering if the deadly attack was a lone wolf or are more in the wings?
Saturday, March 4, 2017
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
"Living The Dream"
The experience of being a live-in firefighter is one
that most who have ever done it would not trade for anything. “Living the dream,” it is called by many,
particularly those who never had the opportunity, and they are not wrong.
A few things do change, arguably for the better, after
you move out and on. Language is
one. Fire stations are not kind to the
vocabulary. The F-word is not only a
noun, verb, and adjective, but in skilled firehouse hands, can be used as
punctuation. I remember having to
consciously restrict myself when outside the station in “normal” company to
avoid saying things like “pass the f@^*ing potatoes.” As time passes, so does the propensity to
use the F-word in every sentence. Once
or twice a paragraph suffices.
Sleep improves as well. When living in the station, I think I slept
eight straight hours once a week, maybe. Between calls, staying up late bullshitting,
and calls, three to five hours was a normal night’s sleep. This experience is excellent practice for the
period following the birth of your first and subsequent children. That amount of sleep would now leave me on a
continuous coffee intravenous.
The live-in opportunity is a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. Thankfully, it is one you only get to do when you’re young.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
My Top Ten....
Lists of the top ten this or that have been the rage for years, and fodder for great fun and debate. I decided to add to the noise with a selection of my Top Ten Fire Service reads. This is totally subjective and personal, and is my list today. It could change tomorrow. Everyone out there can and probably would come up with a different list.
My list is hopelessly prejudiced because of two selections I would automatically make. The books below are not in any particular order.
· Report From Engine Company 82—Dennis Smith
· Fireground Tactics—Emanuel Fried
· Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11—Patrick Creed and Rick Newman
· D.C. Fire—Dennis Rubin
· Last Men Out: Life on the Edge at Rescue 2 Firehouse—Tom Downey
· Population 485-Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time—Michael Perry
· Thirty Years on the Line—Leo Stapleton
· B-Shifter: A Firefighter’s Memoir—Nick Brunacini
· Mayday! Firefighter Down—Gary Ryman
· Fire Men: Stories From Three Generations of a Firefighting Family—Gary Ryman
This is an eclectic list and includes some works that many may have never heard of, much less read. Some haven’t been in print for a while (but may be available on the used market). Only one is a true “tactics and strategy” book—introduced to me by my Dad over 30 years ago. It was good then and is still relevant now. There’s not a book on this list I haven’t read multiple times.
I hope you’ll put together your own list and hopefully at least one of mine will make it!
Here are some links to a few of the above.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
A Writing Update
It’s been a while since I’ve written
anything here but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been writing. To the contrary, in the last few months I’ve
completed the first draft of Fire In His
Bones, which is the working title for the sequel to Mayday! Firefighter Down. Editing
and a second draft is well underway on this manuscript and I’m jotting down
ideas for the third and final book in the series. In Fire
In His Bones, Dave Michaels fans can follow him with his promotion to
Captain and assignment as the company commander of the elite Squad 1. It will be an exciting ride…
At the same time, I’ve finished the first
draft of another novel on a non-fire topic, which allowed me to creatively
stretch a bit. This book, entitled The Education of Stuart McGrath, is
political satire set in the satirical gold mine which is Scranton,
Pennsylvania. Stuart is a young grad
school political junkie who by the force of sheer competence, an unusual
commodity in Scranton electoral politics, and a cheap salary, rises to the
illustrious if deceiving position of Chief of Staff to the mayor. This manuscript is fermenting in the bottom
drawer of my desk for another few weeks before I begin the revision process,
but I’m excited to take a fresh pass at what I hope will be a fun book.
Time to fire up the coffee and get back to
work….
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015
It Won’t Happen to us…Our Treasurer is Honest Harry
Treasurer
arrested, fire company president accused, chief steals funds; the newspaper
headlines scream and the citizens of multiple communities sadly shake their
heads on a daily basis. Why do these
otherwise civic minded individuals do this?
The answer, unfortunately, is easy.
They’re dishonest; it’s as simple as that. Maybe they had personal financial problems,
gambling issues, or thought they could just get away with it. Those rationalizations are excuses but don’t
change the central fact that those who steal from fire departments are
criminals. Unfortunately, there’s no
surefire method to keep them out, at least completely. Think about the CIA and FBI agents who are
vetted more carefully than any firefighter; go through regular polygraphs, and
we still end up with the occasional bad apple which we hear about on the 6:30
PM national news.
There
are ways, though you can reduce the chances of your department being on the
front page of the newspaper with a photo of your company president doing a perp
walk in hand cuffs. With some basic
business controls, procedures, and processes, you can make it harder for these
individuals, less tempting, and hopefully discover nefarious activities before
they become bank account busting.
This
isn’t about trusting good old Harry who’s as honest as the day is long. Honest Harry and others like him will welcome
financial controls because it removes trust from the equation and the
opportunity for questionable activities.
If the opportunity exists, somebody, eventually, will take it. Maybe not Harry, but who knows about the
gambling problem his brother-in-law, the company president has.
The
basics have a lot of common sense components.
You don’t need an MBA to put these in place.
·
Establish
rules. They need to apply to everyone—no
exceptions.
·
If
it involves cash, more than one person needs to be involved. This can’t be repeated too often, and as the
teacher said before the test, you will see this material again.
·
Have
a line item budget. The treasurer should
monitor receipts and revenue versus that projected. Likewise, the expenditures for each line item
should be noted. A monthly report with
this data provides a transparent picture to the organization and helps the
leadership with their management responsibilities.
·
Reconcile
bank accounts on a monthly basis. Another
job for the treasurer, right?
Wrong. Someone other than the
treasurer or anyone else handling funds or writing checks should have this
job. This provides an independent
verification and removes one obvious opportunity for someone to cook the
books.
·
Periodic
audits. Annual is best, but at least
every couple of years, an audit should be completed. When treasurers change is also another good
time to ensure a clean bill of financial health. Accountants are expensive, you say, and you’re
right. If the funds are hard to come by
to pay for an audit, consider asking a local CPA who lives or works in your
first due if they would consider doing it as a donation. Wait until after tax season, though. Ask if they see any opportunities to improve
financial management, procedures or record keeping. Use their expertise to your advantage.
·
The
two (or more) person rule. Multiple
signatures on checks, counting cash, opening mail, are all times to have more
than one person involved. Cash is not
your friend when it comes to financial safeguards. Minimize it where possible and always, always
have more than one person involved.
This
isn’t a comprehensive list but just these few items will go a long way in
limiting the opportunity for financial funny business.
So
it’s all about the money, right? Wrong;
the money is important but the main issue is trust. Not
Honest Harry, the long term treasurer. The
trust of the citizens we’ve sworn to protect is what we need to ensure. It is easily damaged and difficult to
repair. We’re the stewards of that
trust, measured by how we take care of their money—whether raised by taxes or
chicken barbecues and pancake breakfasts.
These folks have the right to know that it’s being spent carefully and
honestly.
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Sunday, March 29, 2015
An End of Winter Teaser
It’s been an interminable winter, good only for one
thing, writing. Work on the sequel to Mayday: Firefighter Down! is coming
along, up to around 69,000 words so far.
Predicting when a project will be complete is an act of futility, but a
“teaser” may be in order. No plot or
story hints right now, but here is a scene I recently finished.
Mickey
was on kelly day Monday, the next day Dave’s shift worked. Firefighter Mark Perry, a five year man, was
detailed in to cover the shift. On
overtime from the fifth battalion, none of the truck crew had worked with him
before.
The morning routine proceeded
normally until Dave walked into the kitchen around 8:15 for a caffeine refill
and found the detail man sitting at the table reading the newspaper. Before he could say anything, Pizza walked
in.
“Have you finished your equipment
check out, kid?”
Dave knew Pizza wouldn’t have asked
if he didn’t already know the answer.
Perry answered without looking up
from the paper.
“I’ll get to it.”
Joe balled up his fists and started
for the detail man until Dave raised his hand.
“Perry, my office, now.”
“Come on, Captain; don’t tell me
you’re one of those rule book pukes. I
heard you were a straight shooter.”
Dave looked over at Pizza. He used every ounce of restraint in his body
not to grab the kid by the throat.
“Perry, either walk out the door and
go on sick leave or get your ass in my fucking office now.”
The young firefighter rose, and
faced Michaels.
“Sure Captain, let’s go have a chat.”
In the office, Dave leaned against
his desk while Perry slouched in one of the extra chairs. The engine officer was out on a run.
“What’s your problem?” Dave asked.
“My problem? I’m here on an overtime shift, not to kill
myself. You want to give me that rule
book shit, no problem. I’ll be filing a
grievance by lunch time.”
“Kid, let me explain something to
you. On this company, firefighting isn’t
something we do, it’s who we are. You
just want to collect a check, go back to the fifth. I don’t want you here.”
“Gladly, I feel like I’ve got a
fever coming on anyway,” Perry said, rising from the chair. Michaels walked past him and opened the
office door, motioning him out. As he
hit the threshold, Dave said, “he’s all yours, Pizza.”
Outside the office, Pizza
waited. Perry walked out and Dave shut
the door behind him. Pizza grabbed Perry
by the throat with one hand and lifted him from the ground, pinning him against
the wall.
“You listen to me, fuck-wad. You’re not going to file a grievance; you’re
not going to file shit. I know everybody
in this department and I’ll make sure the rest of your short career will be a
living hell. You want to learn to be a fireman,
stay; we’ll teach you. You want to
leave, be my guest. I don’t give a shit
which. Now nod you understand.”
Perry’s face was red, verging on
purple from lack of oxygen. Pizza flexed
his wrist to make the young man’s head bob like a puppet. He dropped him to the floor, turned, and walked
away. Perry sank to his knees, gasping
for breath, bruises starting to form on his neck.
Within minutes, Perry gathered his
gear and exited the rear door, driving away without another word. Dave walked across the apparatus floor to the
battalion chief’s office.
“My detailed firefighter went home
sick,” he told the chief. The older man
looked up from his desk and Dave, lifting one eyebrow.
“Anything
I need to know, Dave?”
“You
may not want to take him in the battalion on any more details; seems prone
to…illness.”
“Got it, Dave; you okay running
understaffed until I can call somebody in?”
“Yeah, we’re fine. Give Mickey a call. I don’t think he had anything special planned
today; might make it easier.” Dave knew
Mickey might appreciate the overtime he’d get paid for coming in on his day
off.
“Okay Dave, I’ll let you know.”
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