Recently I was looking at some old pictures from my younger years in the fire service and the people that trained me and that I had the honor to fight fires with. It made me think, am I doing all I can to help the next generation of fire fighters? Yes technology has changed the way we attack fires, ventilate, and even  our extrication techniques have changed, but if you stay up on your training you still have a duty to pass on what you have learned from training and from years of being a firefighter. Who will be the next leaders in your department when it is time for you to move on? Are they ready to lead and  command a scene? If the answer is yes then you have done your job and you should be proud. If you said no, then you, we have failed. Us old guys have learned special ways to make that old pumper pull a prime and pump away, we have experience on how a building will act when on fire. The little trick on how to force a certain door, are tricks that we need to help train our next group of firefighters.

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