Tag Archives: NFFF

For those of you not on the job I'll offer this brief explanation. "Making the push" is what Firefighters do once they get to (or near) the fire floor / room. It's what happens after we get to the point of no return... to the point of attack (or a difficult search).

And here's the thing ... you can only "step up" so much .... especially when there's no (or little) forward movement or improvement. You can only beat your head against the wall for so long before you eventually develop a headache.

From the NFFF ... "Families of fallen firefighters face a long and difficult journey. While the rest of the world moves on, family members must figure out how to live without their loved one. The Foundation offers a variety of programs and materials to help during this most difficult time. Most importantly, we want you to know that you are not alone. There are others who understand your loss and honor your loved one’s memory"

This year's services will honor 98 firefighters who died In The Line Of Duty during 2013 and 9 who died in previous years.

I can't describe the feeling in your gut as you're crawling down that dark, hot hallway. So dark that you can't see the lens of your face piece and so hot that your bottle is hot enough to heat the air you try to breath. I can't tell you why it is that we keep pushing / going but we do.

It was a good class that contained a lot of things that needed to be said. I'd bet every Department has a member or two that you wouldn't want in front of or behind you on the line.... am I right?

The statement that stood out most to me was when O'Donnell said "We weren't in a bad spot. I did not feel heat at all,” . From WSBT "With 18 years of firefighting experience, O’Donnell said he did not feel unsafe inside the building".

I always worried that what she had to hear me say and do would affect her. That it would affect how she handled the incident and that, in turn; would affect the other companies / members. It never did. Like Cindy, Sarah was a good dispatcher.

The two beautiful young ladies by his side in the picture above right worked at what I could only imagine being some type of Sports Bar. The place was called "Scores". I assume it's one of those places that have twenty of so televisions on the walls so that their customers can keep up the "scores" of their favorite sport / game?

What we found was unbelievable.... the people we met, even more so. Brandon Whitehouse and Jon Cook were two of the members we were able to assist. You'll hear some of their story in the video below which was produced / directed by Jeycob Carlson for the NFE.