Mastering the Fire Service Assessment Center, 2nd Ed


Book Description

Bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Do you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to evaluate behavior, performance, and readiness? Read Mastering the Fire Service Assessment Center to identify what you need to learn and understand how to learn it. There is no way you can read and reflect on the wisdom in these pages and not become a better person and a better firefighter. Why Read This Book? The American fire service is facing a new normal fueled by mass exodus, influx of new generations of firefighters, a lack of hands-on leadership training, sweeping changes in mission, decimated budgets, and the genetics of task-oriented, reactive forefathers. The greatest and perhaps only area that we can affect directly is hands-on, inspiring, realistic, and useful training for our aspiring and incumbent leaders. This book will help you regardless of the fire officer rank you seek. It will help you know where you need to improve, how to develop a specific personal plan to become an excellent officer, and how to do well with whatever assessment center exercises throw at you. NEW MATERIAL in this second edition: --Enjoy reading “Wisdom from the Masters” from 18 fire service luminaries. They provide invaluable insights and challenges you will face as you prepare to promote, whether for the first time as a company officer or up the chain as a chief officer. --Learn lessons from thousands of students from the past 12 years whose feedback will benefit you in this second edition. --Benefit from the many new elements in this book, including relevant articles, additional exercises, and content regarding the dimensions of leadership, management, and emergency operations. The complexities of being a fire officer in the 21st century require an undercurrent of humility while continually pursuing mastery of leading in the modern fire service. Learn how to lead the modern-day firefighter in a modern world, with modern technology, modern fire behavior, and modern sociopolitical and economic challenges. Many firefighters ask themselves if they really want to do this job, but nothing is as professionally rewarding and challenging as leading others in battle to save lives! “This book will give you the greatest probability of success in your assessment center process.” —Bobby Halton, editor-in-chief, Fire Engineering magazine







Fire Service Instructor


Book Description

Written specifically for the fire service, this book features educational theory that is presented in a practical manner. Whether you're an aspiring instructor or have been teaching for years, it will provide you with the background, knowledge and tools you need to become an informed instructor. KEY TOPICS: Ideas for developing your own curriculum. Case studies and real-life examples taken from the author's own experience as an instructor in the fire service. Easily accessible resources, including contact information for national and international fire associations, professional organizations, periodicals, and internet links. Fire Service professionals.




Fire Department Strategic Planning, 3rd Edition


Book Description

From the author: This 3rd edition is about organized common sense in the fire service. Section One provides support to fire departments that already have a strategic plan and just need to update and revise their existing plan. I have found over my 30 years of consulting with fire department’s that they want to accomplish their next iteration of their strategic plan as rapidly as possible. Section Two provides a detailed “How-to” guide to help a fire department create its first strategic plan. Section Two is divided into four parts: (1) Understanding the Department, (2) Understanding the Situation, (3) Understanding the Strategic Issues Facing the Department, and (4) Creating Organizational Change. A new chapter (Chapter 20) provides assistance to those departments having challenges with their strategic plan and obtaining the desired outcomes/results. It adds a new troubleshooting process for those departments having challenges to create an effective and successful strategic plan. The book is designed to be effective as a manual to develop an individual fire department’s strategic plan as well as a textbook for use in upper division college/university courses or as a text for post-graduate courses.




101 Tips to Ace Your Promotional Exam


Book Description

Chief Steve Prziborowski reveals more than 101 tips for getting promoted and becoming a vital asset to your fire department, family, and community. From soft skills to hard truths, this book covers what you need to move up the ranks the right way. FEATURING: • Sound advice for personal growth and personal improvement for any firefighter of any rank who wishes to advance • Insights, tricks, and tips for avoiding the pitfalls while preparing for a comprehensive promotional testing process • Bonus: Guidance from 37 professional, knowledgeable fire service veterans What others are saying: “Just like firefighting, getting promoted and moving up isn’t something you can succeed in alone­—it takes a team. Steve has assembled a whole bunch of good fire service veterans who own their very personal experiences, bumps and bruises along with their successes, to help you figure this out. Sit back and prepare to soak up decades of advice based on experience so you can start the climb up.” —Deputy Chief Billy Goldfeder (Proudly bumped and bruised since 1973) “After years of teaching thousands of aspiring fire rescue officers, Steve Prziborowski has documented his highly successful training information. You need this book if you are looking to get the edge up on the competition and demonstrate to the hiring authority that you are ready for the job. If you are serious about being a successful fire rescue officer at any rank, do yourself a favor and add this text to your personal library today!” —Fire Chief Dennis L. Rubin “Committing to taking a promotional exam requires a Herculean effort, a never-looking-back attitude, and a willingness to give up your life as you know it until the exam is over. The book is an invaluable resource to guide your journey. Study hard and then study harder. Good luck.” —Deputy Chief (Ret.) Anthony Avillo, North Hudson Regional (NJ) Fire and Rescue




The New Company Officer


Book Description

As firefighters, even how we answer the phone or the door makes a first and lasting impression on the public and the community we serve. Author Jason Hoevelmann fills in the gaps that may exist in fire service teaching to better prepare you for a lifetime of the greatest job on earth. The New Company Officer tackles the not-so-obvious challenges you will face during your fire service career. Discover: Why do firefighters make bad decisions on the job and off duty? How can firefighters deal with their own problems and their challenges as firefighters? How can you enrich our own career and help your fellow firefighters improve, grow, and advance their own career? The New Company Officer strives to make a big impact on your department and your success. “We do an excellent job pulling hose and throwing ladders,” Hoevelmann writes, “but how do we deal with people every day?” Some of the goals book will help you to achieve are to: be prepared, set expectations, follow through, serve, listen, be humble, be a leader, make no excuses, do your best, and do what others won’t do. What you will learn: How to handle difficult colleagues How to create company drills that keep your firefighters proficient How to delegate and lead by example




The Fire Chief's Handbook, 7th Edition


Book Description

The Fire Chief’s Handbook, 7th Edition continues Fire Engineering’s 82-year tradition of publishing the definitive resource for advanced fire service training. The text has been completely updated to meet the changing environment and added responsibilities of the fire service. Returning authors have rewritten their chapter to address today’s leadership and administrative concerns, while new authors are also introduced to offer new perspectives. This comprehensive guidebook is designed for firefighters, company officers, and chief officers of all ranks and department types who want the latest information on the fundamentals of leadership in the fire service, as well as managing the day-to-day operations of a fire department.




How To Excel At Fire Department Promotional Exams


Book Description

Getting promoted in the fire service is not an easy process. Many people have that desire to promote, but for whatever reason cannot put the pieces together to make it a reality. Over the 20 plus years I have been in the fire service, I have had the opportunity to be on both sides of the promotional process - as a candidate, and as a rater and proctor. This book will assist fire department personnel specifically prepare for their next promotional exam. Promotional candidates will be exposed to and offered key points for the most common tasks and events within a fire department promotional process including, but not limited to: promotional preparation, completing the application, resume preparation, the written exam, the oral interview, the personnel problem, the oral presentation, and the emergency simulation.




Fireground Operational Guides


Book Description

This important new book is designed to serve many purposes in the fire service, ranging from being a starting point and refresher guide for firefighters seeking promotions at any level, to being a field operational guide for on-scene Incident Commanders and Company Officers. It offers an easy-to-follow, step-by-step action plan for firefighters working in Acting Capacities, and can be used when developing SOPís, and when organizing and planning training evolutions. Itís definitely a book every firefighter, officer, and aspiring officer will want to own!




Chief Officer


Book Description

The Complete Fire Officer III and IV Training Solution! Chief officers need to know how to make the transition from company officer to chief officer. Chief Officer: Principles and Practice is designed to help make the transition from company officer to chief officer a smooth evolution. Covering the entire scope of Levels III and IV from the 2009 Edition of NFPA 1021, Standard for Fire Officer Professional Qualifications, Chief Officer combines current content with dynamic features and interactive technology to better support instructors and to help prepare future chief officers to become problem-solving leaders for their organizations. Chief Officer: Principles and Practice has a clear focus on instilling fire fighter safety throughout an organization’s culture. Reducing fire fighter injuries and deaths requires the dedicated efforts of every fire fighter, fire officer, and fire department. The entire fire community must work together to achieve one common goal: to ensure that everyone goes home. Chief officers therefore set the tone for safety in their organization, and this textbook embraces that philosophy. It is with this goal in mind that the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives, developed by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, are integrated throughout the text. The features in this textbook will help students take that extra step toward becoming outstanding chief officers. These features include: • Scenario-Based Learning. You Are the Chief Officer and Chief Officer in Action are found in each chapter to encourage and foster critical thinking skills. • Practical Tips for the Chief Officer. Chief Officer Tips and Voices of Experience essays are integrated into each chapter to provide helpful advice from experienced chief officers. • Level IV Job Performance Requirements. Fire Officer Level IV content is highlighted to discern Level III JPRs from Level IV. • Walk the Talk. Additional activities encourage students to take what they have learned in the chapter and apply it to their own department.