The Peshtigo Fire: What America’s Deadliest Wildfire Still Teaches Wildland Firefighters On the same night that the Great Chicago Fire lit up the headlines, a far deadlier fire was erasing a Wisconsin lumber town and sixteen communities around it. Most people have never heard of it. But if you carry […]
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The Worcester Cold Storage Fire: The Night the Fire Service Learned When to Stop
The Worcester Cold Storage Fire: The Night the Fire Service Learned When to Stop Every firefighter carries a few fires they never rode to. Fires that happened to someone else, in another city, maybe before they were born — but that live in the back of the rig anyway, in […]
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The Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire: The Night That Rewrote How We Fight Fire
The Charleston Sofa Super Store Fire: The Night That Rewrote How We Fight Fire On the evening of June 18, 2007, nine firefighters walked into a burning furniture store in Charleston, South Carolina, and never walked out. It was the deadliest single loss of American firefighters since September 11, 2001. […]
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CPAT 2026 Changes: What’s New and How to Train for It
CPAT 2026 Changes: What’s New and How to Train for It If you’re testing this year, listen up. The IAFF rolled out a set of CPAT addendums that took effect January 1, 2026. None of them change the eight events or the clock. But a few of them change how […]
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The 24/48 Side Hustle: 5 Businesses Built for Shift Work
The 24/48 schedule is one of the most underrated parts of this job. Work a day, get two off. Over a month, that’s roughly 20 days you’re not at the station. Plenty of firefighters spend that time fishing or catching up on sleep. Plenty of others spend it building a […]
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The Tech Gap in the Fire Service Is a Leadership Gap — and Your Next Tech Leader Is Already on the Roster
Walk into almost any firehouse in the country and you’ll find two kinds of technology sitting side by side. There’s the gear that works because it has to — SCBA, thermal imaging cameras, the apparatus itself. And then there’s everything else: the records management system nobody trusts, the scheduling software […]
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