Denver (CO) Assistant Chief Manny Almaguer draws a distinction most fire departments have never heard: cultural competency and cultural empathy are not the same thing. One checks a box. The other earns trust. In this conversation, he breaks down what that difference actually looks like on the ground. Before he ever put on turnout gear,...Read More
Curt Varone’s voice falters as he describes an all-too-familiar scene. Kneeling on the floor of a stranger’s home, performing CPR and trying to keep someone alive, often with frantic family members watching in shock. “Then you look up, and you’re looking right at their wedding pictures,” Varone says, pausing to finish his thought. “It’s hard...Read More
Twelve FDNY Firefighters Perish in Floor Collapse During Drug Store Fire – The 23rd Street Fire – Manhattan, New York – October 17, 1966 Submitted by Rick DeGroot On October 17, 1966, a fire in the basement of a commercial occupancy in the Flatiron District of Manhattan, New York claimed the lives of a dozen...Read More
Part 4 of 4 Read part 1, part 2, and part 3. If ego is the invisible weight we carry, and culture, biology, and stress reinforce it, then how do we begin to set it down? How do we break the cycle? The truth is, most of what we call “leadership failure” in the fire...Read More
