By John Sinclair -- The No. 1 job of any officer — chief or line officer — is to make sure a firefighter goes home to his or her family. This mindfulness is always there when you are on the scene and making tactical decisions, be it at a structure fire, a fast-moving brush fire or a car wreck alongside the freeway. But this mindfulness also is needed back at the station looking at strategic issues....More

Many critics have firefighters and the fire service itself in their sights. And we are coming under fire for good reason. Times have changed, and the fire service has not kept up....More

As I walked into the media room of the Chicago Fire Department’s Survive Alive House, Dayna Hilton was sitting in front of a computer, reading Sparkles the Fire Safety Dog. Sitting next to her was Tango, an 11-year-old Dalmatian. And on the computer in front of her was a Skype chat with first-graders in Dallas. The children cheered in response to Hilton’s very animated storytelling....More