Bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Do you have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to evaluate behavior, performance, and readiness? Read Mastering the Fire Service Assessment Center to identify what you need to learn and understand how to learn it. There is no way you can read and reflect on the wisdom in these pages and not become a better person and a better firefighter. Why Read This Book? The American fire service is facing a new normal fueled by mass exodus, influx of new generations of firefighters, a lack of hands-on leadership training, sweeping changes in mission, decimated budgets, and the genetics of task-oriented, reactive forefathers. The greatest and perhaps only area that we can affect directly is hands-on, inspiring, realistic, and useful training for our aspiring and incumbent leaders. This book will help you regardless of the fire officer rank you seek. It will help you know where you need to improve, how to develop a specific personal plan to become an excellent officer, and how to do well with whatever assessment center exercises throw at you. NEW MATERIAL in this second edition: --Enjoy reading “Wisdom from the Masters” from 18 fire service luminaries. They provide invaluable insights and challenges you will face as you prepare to promote, whether for the first time as a company officer or up the chain as a chief officer. --Learn lessons from thousands of students from the past 12 years whose feedback will benefit you in this second edition. --Benefit from the many new elements in this book, including relevant articles, additional exercises, and content regarding the dimensions of leadership, management, and emergency operations. The complexities of being a fire officer in the 21st century require an undercurrent of humility while continually pursuing mastery of leading in the modern fire service. Learn how to lead the modern-day firefighter in a modern world, with modern technology, modern fire behavior, and modern sociopolitical and economic challenges. Many firefighters ask themselves if they really want to do this job, but nothing is as professionally rewarding and challenging as leading others in battle to save lives! “This book will give you the greatest probability of success in your assessment center process.” —Bobby Halton, editor-in-chief, Fire Engineering magazine

This version includes all 21 chapters of Essentials of Fire Fighting, 6th Edition and adds three chapters written and validated to meet the emergency medical and hazardous materials requirements of NFPA® 1001, 2013 Edition. Chapter 22 specifically addresses the Firefighter I and Firefighter II knowledge and skills requirements for the emergency medical care competencies identified in NFPA® 1001, 2013 Edition Chapter 4. Chapters 23 and 24 meet the First Responder Awareness and Operations Levels for Responders according to NFPA® 472: Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents, 2012 Edition and OSHA 1910.120. The chapters also provide validated content to meet Section 6.6, Mission-Specific Competencies: Product Control, of NFPA® 472. The hazardous materials information is adapted from the IFSTA Hazardous Materials for First Responders, 4th Edition.