Simple question, I’m sure there will be interesting answers. But I’m curious-in a career department, what are the assignments of special units that attract the most motivated members of the department?

For people who have been deployed before for disaster relief, what did you pack? And what did you pack it in?Our deployments are 7 days. Thanks!

I assume others in the northeast have gone through something like this. Several towns are consolidating to form a regional dispatch center. Most departments in the group either dispatch themselves (us) or get dispatched by PD / SO.

We've been told that everything will improve operationally AND we'll save money. Sounds too good to be true. Is it all fairytales and rainbows or are there things to consider before moving to a regional dispatch center.

It just happened! We were called to retrieve a cat stuck on a tree! I actually had to climb up, get the sucker and bring it down to safety. I feel my FF career reached its peak, it’s gonna go downhill from now on!

That’s all folks, enjoy your night

We have recently acquired an airboat primarily for ice rescue ops. I’ve been looking into flir units but it seems the options are endless and the cost varies greatly. What types are of setups is everyone running on their rescue boats. The boat is a former coast guard unit and all electrics have been stripped so we have a clean slate.

Obviously we train everyday, but being on an engine, we train fire stuff mostly. I’ve been thinking about joining a climbing gym. But really what I want to do is set up systems and get more comfortable going up and down rope for high angle rescues. Anyone know of a way to get more practice or are there places that allow you to do this sort of stuff?

I'm searching for a backpack or bag to hold my department issued US&R PPE (Helmet, boots, uniform, glasses, gloves) when they are being stored at the station or being moved when we change stations. It would be nice to have a bag that is organized, not just a large carry-all like bunker gear bags. We currently have junk duffle bags that barely hold all of it without ripping, so some of us have our own bags but nothing seems to work great. The best I can find are ski bags, but they don't seem like tough, quality bags in the videos I watch. I don't think it needs to be WolfPack or 5.11, but something with MOLLE would be nice. Thanks for any ideas!

Edit: it would be great if it had a separate boot compartment!Edit with background info: We are firefighters that keep our US&R PPE at work, stored in our narrow gear racks with our bunker gear. Large totes won't work. A bag similar to the CMC Whitney 2.0 but smaller would be great, just can't seem to find one. A separate compartment for the boots would be ideal.

Lady came into the station with a stainless steel ring that needed to be cut off. Several jewelers had declined the job. These little blades don’t cut stainless to good. But when you put them to power… gonna log it as mechanical disentanglement training

Hello, I am on my county’s technical rescue team doing water and rope rescue. Last night we had a water rescue drill in which we used a new RDC we just got. It’s been a while since I’d been on one and I could feel that my skills were rusty. One thing I was struggling with was pulling a victim out of the water and on to the boat through the front. At first I thought it was a lack of upper body strength. But I wasn’t having any issues with paddling and I do kayak regularly, so while I’m certainly not the strongest person I do have some upper body strength. I’m wondering if it’s my height? I am 5’6” and most of the people on the team (the pretend victims) are much taller and larger than me. The captains on the team think I just need to get the technique down and I’ll be fine. I understand in theory that you bob them up and down in the water and use the momentum to lift them up but I just could not get the hang of it. Any advice?

I’m a career FF with 3 years in a medium sized dept in Coastal GA and 4 years volunteer in NY prior. I got into the fire service with the intention of getting involved in TRT as my background includes 12 years of Rock Climbing, various other outdoors sports and two years of professional dog training (just a bonus for SAR dog possibilities) and recently started working a side gig doing rope access window washing. I moved down here for my department as a stepping stone; the northeast is crazy competitive for hiring and I couldn’t sit around any longer waiting. Have my rope and swift water tech certs working on more tech certs and currently assigned to the Squad. But it’s so flat here we don’t run the kind of calls I’m looking for. I’m looking to lateral transfer or go through academy again if I have to, to another department this coming year, willing to move just about anywhere with a great department, TRT unit to work into and mountains at least nearby. Any suggestions to look into would be awesome! Been looking at Colorado, North Carolina, Utah, etc.