General

Introduction In November 2025, a jury awarded the widow and children of a Sterling, Illinois Fire Lieutenant Garrett Ramos $31.5 million in a wrongful death case stemming from a 2021 residential fire. The outcome is sobering but it should also be a wakeup call for every fire and rescue agency. This verdict reflects not only … Read more

Smoke Explosion One of the earliest descriptions of compartment fire explosions is the paper published by Steward in 1914. Steward used the term smoke explosion as a general term to distinguish between smoke gas explosions to dust explosions but did not differentiate between backdrafts and smoke explosions as fire behavior phenomenon. “… ‘smoke explosions’ frequently … Read more

Backdraft Preconditions Avoiding adverse outcomes from the occurrence of backdrafts requires a sound understanding of this fire behavior phenomena and the conditions under which a backdraft may occur. Engaging with the task of distilling backdraft scientific research into an accurate, but practical explanation for operational firefighters and fire officers and sorting through backdraft indicators identified … Read more

What’s the Difference? The fire behavior phenomena backdraft and smoke explosion are often confused. This is no surprise given that the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 921 Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations (NFPA, 2024) and NFPA 1700 Guide for Structural Fire Fighting (NFPA, 2022) provide different, and decidedly ambiguous definitions for these two phenomena. … Read more

Common Operating Picture and Situational Awareness This series of posts began with a simple question related to a one-story house with a walkout basement on Side Charlie, “how do I describe the number of stories and basement in my follow-up report”? The second post in the series, dug a bit deeper into the importance of … Read more

Basements and Stories “On Side Charlie” As discussed in the last post, we often have an incomplete perspective on incident conditions such as building layout and configuration. It is essential that firefighters and fire officers recognize not only what they know, but what they do not and work to develop a common operating picture and … Read more

Developing Vicarious Experience Formal learning is an essential part of firefighters’ and fire officers’ professional development, but informal learning is equally important, with lessons frequently shared using stories. Stories are about sharing knowledge, not simply about entertainment. It is their ability to share culture, values, vision and ideas that make them so critical. They can … Read more

For structural firefighters, response to a fire in a tunnel is an uncommon experience. On Friday, February 14, 2025, at 11:37 firefighters in Green River, Wyoming responded to a multiple vehicle accident and fire in the Twin Tunnel on Interstate 80. Working on a 10-Minute Training tactical decision game based on this incident got me … Read more

From apprentice to master, the science, craft, and art of incident command. What makes a competent IC? Think about the company officers and chiefs you have worked for. Which ones demonstrated competence in the role of incident commander (IC)? What made them competent? Is this easy to describe or is it like Supreme Court Justice … Read more