Here you have another Firenerd talk, this time with John McDonough. We start with some history and then move on to primarily talk about the culture of learning/excellence. We also cover how to think about what the right level of simplicity is for training firefighters. I hope you enjoy it!
John McDonough
John has been a professional firefighter for 32 years and is an Inspector with Fire & Rescue NSW, Australia where he is currently in charge of 14 fire stations in the busy inner-west of Sydney.
From 2003 to 2017 he was Team Leader of Fire Training and in charge of a team of structural fire instructors delivering live fire training. During this time, he also personally facilitated the training of fire instructors from a number of Fire Services across Australia and Internationally.
During his career, he has traveled extensively in order to study modern firefighting trends and benchmark against these for world’s best practice in developing training programs. He has delivered fire training courses in Germany, Croatia, Belgium, Poland, France, Canada, Hong Kong and the USA.
In Belgium alone, he has trained over 400 CFBT Instructors.
He is a founding member of the International Fire Instructors Workshop (IFIW) which meets yearly to discuss and examine current fire related topics. From 2014 to 2017, he was a lead instructor on the Canadian ‘FIRE – Firefighting, Instruction, Research and Engineering’ project.
During 2017, he was a panel member of Underwriters Laboratories, ‘Study of the Impact of Fire Attack Utilizing Interior and Exterior Streams on Firefighter Safety and Occupant Survival’.
He is a co-author of 3D Firefighting – Training, Tactics and Techniques, which was published in the USA by FPP/IFSTA.
In 2009 he was awarded Australia’s highest honour for Fire Officers, the Australian Fire Service Medal for his work in structural firefighting training.
This is the truth, or maybe not.
This conversation might not always be accurate. I am no guru and sometimes simple mistakes are made, especially if English isn’t a person’s first language. It’s just our chat – nothing more or less. Have fun!
