Doug Descant
Level 1 Valued Member
Hey Comrade,
I've been recently brainstorming on where the Good Lord is wanting me to use my talents. Do any of you have advice on how to propose, plan, and implement a comprehensive physical education program for fire dept personnel?
i know many of you do the same for military organizations and FD are based on a para-military structure. i figure there's a lot of similarities.
CAD/heart attacks are the #1 killer of ff's today. my dept likes to remind us of that w/ such things as pointless online "health assessments" (whatever that means) and does nothing to really promote fire fighter strength and fitness.
we have to meet basic standards in the academy that have more to do with pretending you can do 40 flexed arm pull ups and absolutely nothing to do w/ progressive strength and resiliency. once you're out, there's no real standard to be maintained.
i've only been in the dept about 10 yrs (relative drop in the bucket) and already i have experienced 10 line of duty deaths. most of them had to do w/ trauma/injury on the fire ground and 2 were due to heart attacks. 4 of occurred this past march at a hotel fire where an unseen fire in the attic space burned out the ceiling supports causing the roof to collapse on two crews. i was on scene and attempted to resuscitate one of my brothers.
there's images in my head i would very much like to burn out of my memory, but can't. i feel i need to honor their memory by giving others better odds in times of stress.
any advice is greatly appreciated.
God bless
I've been recently brainstorming on where the Good Lord is wanting me to use my talents. Do any of you have advice on how to propose, plan, and implement a comprehensive physical education program for fire dept personnel?
i know many of you do the same for military organizations and FD are based on a para-military structure. i figure there's a lot of similarities.
CAD/heart attacks are the #1 killer of ff's today. my dept likes to remind us of that w/ such things as pointless online "health assessments" (whatever that means) and does nothing to really promote fire fighter strength and fitness.
we have to meet basic standards in the academy that have more to do with pretending you can do 40 flexed arm pull ups and absolutely nothing to do w/ progressive strength and resiliency. once you're out, there's no real standard to be maintained.
i've only been in the dept about 10 yrs (relative drop in the bucket) and already i have experienced 10 line of duty deaths. most of them had to do w/ trauma/injury on the fire ground and 2 were due to heart attacks. 4 of occurred this past march at a hotel fire where an unseen fire in the attic space burned out the ceiling supports causing the roof to collapse on two crews. i was on scene and attempted to resuscitate one of my brothers.
there's images in my head i would very much like to burn out of my memory, but can't. i feel i need to honor their memory by giving others better odds in times of stress.
any advice is greatly appreciated.
God bless