Empowering Firefighters, Instructors, and Leaders to Grow, Lead, and Succeed
Welcome to Train, Teach, Lead—a dynamic learning and leadership hub built for today’s fire service professionals. Whether you’re preparing for certification, leading your first crew, or mentoring the next generation, this site is designed to meet you where you are and help you go further.
Here, you’ll find practical tools, immersive simulations, and leadership resources that support your growth in the classroom, on the fireground, and in the command post.
Recent Posts
- Why Firefighters Can Struggle to Retain What You Teach
You ran a great class. The crew was engaged. The feedback was positive. But when you’re three weeks later half of them can’t recall the main points. This isn’t because they’re terrible students, unmotivated or undisciplined, at least not entirely. Science says this is a memory problem and it’s not just a recent one. The Forgetting Curve In 1885, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus documented something that should make every fire instructor should consider: after learning new material, 42% of the information is forgotten within 20 minutes. 67% was lost after one day and 79% after 31 days! Ebbinghaus termed this… Read more: Why Firefighters Can Struggle to Retain What You Teach - The Rulemaking Window Is Here, and Most Industrial Firefighters Don’t Know It
A federal cancer benefit was just expanded for firefighters. Whether it covers industrial firefighters is being decided right now and there’s a brief window to influence the outcome. On December 19, 2025, the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act became law. It expanded the federal Public Safety Officers’ Benefits (PSOB) program to recognize occupational cancer as a line-of-duty condition. Families of firefighters who die or become permanently disabled from a covered cancer can apply for benefits of roughly $461,656, plus educational assistance for surviving spouses and children. It covers career, volunteer, and federal firefighters. What it doesn’t do clearly is cover… Read more: The Rulemaking Window Is Here, and Most Industrial Firefighters Don’t Know It - The Lecture Isn’t the Problem. I am.
That’s a hard thing to say, and I mean it in the most constructive way possible. Training officers work incredibly hard. The number of hours spent building slide decks, tracking compliance, chasing sign-in sheets, and trying to squeeze 40 hours of content into a department that only gives you 20 is genuinely exhausting. Nobody gets into training because they want to burn out. But somewhere along the way, the lecture became the default — and the default stopped working. Here’s what I see in fire departments across the country: a 30-slide PowerPoint that could be a five-minute conversation. A two-hour… Read more: The Lecture Isn’t the Problem. I am. - How Fast Does Your Confined Space Rescue Need to Arrive?NFPA 350 Answers What OSHA Doesn’t If you manage confined space entries at an industrial facility, you’ve read OSHA 1910.146. You know it requires a designated rescue service. You know that service has to be proficient, equipped, and capable of responding in a timely manner. But here’s the problem: OSHA never defines timely. The exact language in 29 CFR 1910.146(k)(1)(iii)(A) requires a rescue team that “has the capability to reach the victim(s) within a time frame that is appropriate for the permit space hazard(s) identified.” That’s it. No minutes. No tiers. No definition of appropriate. It’s a regulation intended to… Read more: How Fast Does Your Confined Space Rescue Need to Arrive?
- 5 Questions Every New Fire Officer Should Ask in the First 90 Days
5 Questions Every New Fire Officer Should ask in the First 90 Days is a companion article to Raising the Standard: Fire Service Leaders Need More Than Experience on Firefighter Nation. Pinning on your bugles is a milestone. What happens in the 90 days that follow will shape your credibility, your relationships, and your effectiveness as a leader for years to come.I’ve watched new officers make two predictable mistakes in their first months. The first is moving too fast — asserting authority before earning trust, changing things before understanding them, projecting confidence that hasn’t been tested. The second is moving… Read more: 5 Questions Every New Fire Officer Should Ask in the First 90 Days
Events
Shop
Leadership Lens
A Practical Self-Assessment for Fire Service Leaders The Leadership Lens is a structured, field-tested self-assessment designed specifically for fire service and emergency response leaders who want to lead with greater […]