812 Fireman

09/03/2026

Need more Chiefs like this!

09/03/2026

08/30/2026

08/30/2026

🐾🚒 BRING FIRE STATION DOGS BACK.

A fire station dog is more than a mascot. More than a tradition. And more than just another set of paws walking around the station.

For firefighters and EMS personnel, the station is a second home and sometimes the place where we return immediately after experiencing someone else’s worst day.

We see tragedy. We see death. We see injured children. We experience violence, loss, and situations that most people will never encounter. Then we clear the call, put the apparatus back in service, and wait for the tones to drop again.

That cumulative exposure matters. The IAFF recognizes that potentially traumatic incidents and the everyday stresses of the profession can have a cumulative effect on firefighters’ mental health and well-being. That’s one reason peer-support programs have become such an important part of the modern fire service.

A properly trained peer-support or facility dog can become another tool in that toolbox.

And there is research behind it.

🐕 A randomized controlled trial involving 122 emergency physicians and nurses found preliminary evidence that just five minutes with a therapy dog during a shift reduced provider stress. (PubMed⁠)

🐕 A 2025 study examining a facility dog in a high-stress workplace found participants reported an average 19% reduction in stress after interacting with the dog. Researchers also identified benefits including decreased group tension, improved communication, team cohesion, connection between coworkers, and improved job effectiveness. (OUP Academic⁠)

🐕 Research involving veterans and first-aid responders with PTSD found those partnered with service dogs reported fewer PTSD-related symptoms, better sleep quality, and better overall well-being than participants with companion dogs. (PubMed Central (PMC)⁠)

🐕 Another study involving emergency-service personnel and veterans found significant improvements in PTSD, stress, anxiety and other mental-health measures after participants received trained assistance dogs, with improvements persisting through follow-up. (PubMed⁠)

We are also seeing this happen inside the fire service. The IAFF has documented therapy and facility dogs supporting firefighters following line-of-duty deaths and traumatic incidents. Firefighters have described members who were previously closed off beginning to open up simply because a dog was present.

That’s important.

Sometimes a firefighter isn’t ready to walk into an office and say, “I’m struggling.”

But they might sit down next to the station dog.

They might scratch behind its ears.

Someone else sits down.

A conversation starts.

And sometimes that conversation is the beginning of getting help.

A peer-support dog doesn’t replace professional behavioral healthcare, counseling, EAP services, chaplains, or trained peer-support members.

It complements them.

The fire service spends millions of dollars protecting our bodies. We buy better turnout gear, better SCBAs, better apparatus, better cancer-prevention equipment and better technology.

We should be just as willing to invest in protecting the people underneath that gear.

There was a time when dogs were synonymous with the American firehouse.

Maybe it’s time we bring them back—not simply because they’re part of our history, but because we’re learning they may have an important place in the future of firefighter wellness.

🐾 BRING FIRE STATION DOGS BACK. 🚒

Take care of the people who take care of everyone else.

08/29/2026

We want to be firemen. We want the opportunity to make the difference. Most of us want to do the job.

The safety culture puts an emphasis on safety of our crews over the citizens. It puts rescue operations, aggressive searches and attacks at the end of the scene priorities.

We’re showing up and moving with a purpose. We didn’t take the oath to sit in the yard and wait on two more to arrive before entering. We’re not here to ventilate the structure before searching the structure, at that point it’s recovery. The structure isn’t clear until we say it’s clear. It’s our job to put them first. Them before us. If you don’t agree, Walmart is hiring for better pay. They have to trust that you are doing everything in your power to make the situation better. You signed up to do this. Can they count on you?

08/22/2026

08/14/2026

09/03/2026 is the official release date for Confessions of an Engine Nerd, forward by Chief Dave McGrail. I can never repay those who have aided me in this process. This is the book that I wish that I had available to me when I was a probie. Coming very soon my friends 👊🏻