CRACKYL Magazine

Heavy rooftop equipment and cockloft fire are a dangerous combination, making early roof reports, decisive command, and timely withdrawal critical to firefighter safety Let’s look at and consider the strategic impact of roof loads. In the photo above, we have a one-story commercial structure which some may call a taxpayer. It appears to be an ordinary construction. The lines appear to be directing streams up toward the cockloft.

When betrayal turns your anger inward, the ultimate act of defiance is choosing to live and redirecting that fire People often imagine suicide as the inevitable end point of despair. The story goes something like this: someone becomes deeply depressed, the pain becomes unbearable, and eventually they decide they can’t take it anymore. Sometimes that’s true. But it’s far from the whole story. Like almost every important human behavior, suicide is complex.

In the fire service, legacy is earned through character, mentorship, and the values that outlive every career Legacy gets talked about a lot in the fire service. Usually, when the subject comes up, people think about family names. They think about sons following fathers into the job, or daughters following mothers into the profession. They picture generations wearing the same patch, working in the same stations, and answering the same tones.

The shift from the front lines to the front office holds a hidden danger: metabolic complacency. What is your incident action plan to fight back? For more than 34 years, I have lived and breathed the fire service.

Continuing to learn and contribute is what keeps us valuable as we grow older This year, I met retired FDNY Deputy Chief Vincent Dunn. I’ve had the chance to spend time with him twice now, most recently just a few weeks ago, and both times have stuck with me longer than I expected. Chief Dunn is 91 years old. He spent 42 years in the fire service and has been retired for more than 25 years. I just marked 23 years on the job myself, on June 20. He’s been retired longer than I’ve been a firefighter.

Bill Heffernan is a retired West Haven Fire Department lieutenant, longtime department historian, former technical adviser and consulting producer for the hit comedy Tacoma FD, and cousin of Tacoma FD actor Kevin Heffernan. He now serves as a Connecticut state representative. His blend of frontline experience, historical insight, and behind‑the‑scenes perspective fuels Off the Record with Cousin Bill Heffernan, where he answers your questions biweekly.

A monthly column from the Health & Safety Leadership Alliance in partnership with CRACKYL There is a version of this career most people in public safety never see coming. Not the calls. Not the injuries tied to a run number and a date on a report. Not the ones that arrive with a clear cause and a diagnosis and a direct line to a single incident. The other version.

Your need for quiet after a demanding shift isn’t rejection. It’s a normal nervous system transition, and explaining it can strengthen the relationships that matter most Q: Is it normal to not want to talk to my family after a shift? Doc: Yes — it’s normal. In fact, if you walked through the door after a tough shift and instantly flipped into warm, present, fully engaged mode, that would be unusual. Here’s what’s really going on.

Years of intrusive thoughts, trauma, and mistaken diagnoses led to an unexpected answer, and a renewed hope for healing I thought about killing myself. I know, a heavy way to start this. I wasn’t sure how I would (hypothetically), but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The thoughts would go away for awhile, and then they came back for months at a time. The constant back and forth was awful.The first time was at 14. Then again (heavily and abruptly) at 21. And again at 32.

Kevin Kubler’s The War Years and Back turns decades of FDNY testimony into a story about fire, corruption, brotherhood and the danger of forgetting what came before Kevin Kubler has long been drawn to New York City in the 1970s, an era remembered through contradictions. The music was alive, the culture was expressive, and the city held a sense of freedom that still occupies a place in the American imagination.