I am of the opinion that the fire service is reinventing itself. One hundred years ago, pretty much all firefighters did was fight fires. I started my career at the tail end of that era. Only three years before I came on the job, Toledo started its paramedic program. In my early career, I voluntarily took EMT training. It became mandatory years after that. We are not only doing different things, but we are also doing some of the old things differently—for example, we are fighting fire smarter: risk assessment, SCBA use (air management), incident management, and so on. One aspect of the incident management system (IMS) that enhances the fireground is the use of safety officers (SOs).
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