Combustible
Episodes
Episode 114 - The Game Has Changed with Greene County Fire Chief Rodney Wiggins
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On September 4, 2024, Greene County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Chris Eddy was tragically killed at a tractor trailer fire. In this episode, Fire Chie...
Episode 113 - Perseverance and Endurance
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Antarctic Explorers, the British Prime Minister, and a recruit that wouldn’t give up.
Episode 112 - Sean's Team with Fire Chief Pat Kenny
07 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One word to describe Fire Chief (Ret.) Pat Kenny’s story is heartbreaking. But you could also describe it as raw, honest, inspirational, optimistic,...
Episode 111 - Parallels and Extreme Ownership with Chris Welchel
04 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, we sit down with Chris Welchel, co-owner of the Towing and Recovery company Welchel Enterprises, to talk about leadership; specifica...
Episode 110 - Do We Need To Demystify Leadership? (Part 2)
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second part of our discussion on whether this podcast’s focus on the challenges of leadership are discouraging the next crop of leaders ...
Episode 109 - Do We Need to Demystify Leadership? (Part 1)
23 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode grew out of a discussion while hiking that maybe we have talked about great leadership to the point where anyone starting out on their le...
Episode 108 - The Most Sacred Leadership Principle
20 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On this episode, we examine the crash of a B-52 in 1994, and the events leading up to it, through the actions of two of the four USAF officers killed:...
Episode 107 - Substitution In Decision-Making
11 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We hijack Daniel Kahneman’s idea of substitution and apply it to decision-making in the fire service. How reliable is your decision-making on scene ...
Episode 106 - Is Emotion the Charging Elephant in the Room?
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A recent discussion with one of our listeners led us on a discussion of what part emotion plays in our roles as firefighters and our responses on this...
Episode 105 - Falkland's Law (with guest host Scott Sellers)
01 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is about delaying decision-making. Or maybe it’s not. We really don’t know what to think of Falkland’s Law, but we have a good time...
Episode 104 - Lē'•der•shǐp' (noun)
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We talk about it A LOT, but we’ve never really tried to define what we think leadership is. In this episode, we discuss various definitions of leade...
Episode 103 - What Would Ted Do?
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whenever you lose your way as a leader, you can always ask yourself, “What would Ted do?”
Episode 102 - Building Experience And Turning It Into Expertise
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we dive into how firefighters’ decision-making process works, and how critically reliant that process is on experience. So, where a...
Episode 101 - Bob Maynard Part III - The Black Box
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Part 3 of our interview we pick up where we left off and get into how we evaluate accidents in the fire service, what we might be able to learn abo...
Episode 100 - Bob Maynard Part 2: Purposeful Non-Compliance
11 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Bob is the first guest we’ve had to show up to the recording with a powerpoint presentation. And while that gave us a chuckle, it’s a presentation...
Episode 099 - Bob Maynard Part 1: The Most Interesting Man In The World
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 098 - Technical Expertise vs. Judgment
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 097 - George Cowgill on Resigning, Retiring, and Leaving the Birmingham Fire Department
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Former Birmingham Firefighter George Cowgill posted a very personal account of his time as a firefighter and why he’s leaving that behind. If you’...
Episode 096 - We Debate What the Hell a Psychological Contract Is (and Whether You Can Break One in Good Conscience)
06 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Like the picture above, psychological contracts can be binding, circular, heavy, old, rusty, and sometimes broken. Before this episode, two of us had...
Episode 095 - Know Your Enemy
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Fire is where the glory is. They call us firefighters, not building fighters. But fire isn’t really the enemy, is it? How well do you know your enem...
Episode 094 - Every...Single...One
14 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Murder holes, force multipliers, and obstacles. All of them are components leading to what very well may be a unified theory of firefighters.
Episode 093 - We Solve The Pay Problem
23 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Spoiler Alert: we don’t really solve the pay problem. That would break a long-standing tradition on our podcast of not solving anything. But there a...
Episode 092 - That I May See
18 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when lightning doesn't strike a house, and you don't act like the other firefighters?
Episode 091 - The Pathfinder Part III
29 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
And we wrap up our series on The Pathfinder with Part III, which picks up right where we left off at the end of Part II.
Episode 090 - The Pathfinder Part II
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We think that the Pathfinder concept is such an important one, that we actually recorded two separate episodes trying to get it right. But each episod...
Episode 089 - Damned Sweet
16 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What do a fire recruit, a 70’s sitcom, and Walt Disney have to do with regret?
Episode 088 - The Pathfinder
12 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Every organization has those persons who push the organization from the inside. They advocate passionately for change, but while they’re doing it th...
Episode 087 - The Ship of Theseus
03 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This isn’t really an outtake; it’s just a topic that wasn’t really large enough to devote an entire episode to. Bill, all by his lonesome, talks...
Episode 086 - Be Wrong Or Do Nothing?
24 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A listener asked us: “At what point is a wrong decision actually worse than no decision at all?” It’s a great starting point for a roving conve...
Episode 085 - On Hallowed Ground with Eriks Gabliks
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The National Fire Academy is the home of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial; hallowed ground for any firefighter. To borrow a phrase from Presi...
Episode 084 - For Bill Smith, A Battle Buddy
03 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On June 6, 2021, Baldwin County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Smith gave his life while saving others who got caught in a rip current off the Alabama shore....
Episode 083 - What's Better: To Be Liked or Respected?
21 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
As is the case with many of our episodes, we didn’t set out to make an episode about this. It actually was just a spirited conversation that we were...
Episode 082 - Firefighter Luck
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How do we as firefighters deal with luck? How honest are we about what part luck plays in our successes? More specifically, how much do we count on th...
Episode 081 - What Do You Do When You Don't Get Promoted?
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You make the case that you’re the best person for the next step up; only you don’t get chosen. What do you do then? When does a natural amount of...
Episode 080 - Joy, the Job, and Some Questions from Austin Kohler
15 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, we talk with “backstep” Firefighter Austin Kohler, who is only a few years into his career in the fire service. We ask him what ...
Episode 079 - Planning, Preparation, and Pivoting with Louie Bruno
21 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The book Leadership On The Line says a plan “is no more than today’s best guess.” So why do some in our profession get so attached to their plan...
Episode 078 - The Tenth Man
31 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What you’re about to hear wasn’t really ever intended to be an episode. It was a side conversation that took place during a recording session in D...
Episode 077 - A Challenge for 2021, Hal Moore, and Buried Treasure
31 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’re issuing all of our listeners a challenge in 2021. It’s only nine minutes long, but the effects could last for many years to come if you’re...
Episode 076 - A Better Version of Yourself?
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’ll wager there isn’t a firefighter in the fire service who isn’t an advocate of training. But when you call that training “higher education...
Episode 075 - A Risky Episode: Building Your Team of Rivals
30 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How do you figure out if someone is good for your team? Good for the organization? Good for you as a leader? What does it mean to build a diverse team...
Episode 074 - Ten Rounds of Undermining and Custom Turnout Gear
08 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When you don’t agree with a decision made above you, is it wrong to let people know you don’t agree? For this Ten Rounds we discuss whether tellin...
Episode 073 - Screw-ups Are Your BFF
28 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
No matter how hard we try to avoid them, screw-ups are going to happen. When they happen, we shouldn’t avoid acknowledging them. Don’t wear them l...
Episode 072 - Ten Rounds Of Managing Expectations
21 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of our last recording session we only had twenty minutes left to record, which isn’t enough for a full episode. So Hatch suggested we do ...
Episode 071 - Sizing Up The Size-Up
25 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We all should be doing a size-up as we approach any scene. And if you’ve got other units responding with you, someone is ultimately going to be requ...
Episode 070 - We Get A Lawyer with Lance LoRusso
10 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we sit down with Attorney Lance LoRusso to discuss the dangers of something almost all firefighters engage in: social media. And you ...
Episode 069 - The Boots on the Ground
27 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
There is a central concept that runs throughout Pete Blaber’s The Mission, The Men, and Me: That you should always listen to the boots on the ground...
Episode 068 - Flippin' Firefighters with Todd Edwards Part 2
07 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This episode is the second part to our conversation with Todd Edwards. We pick back up where we left off last time: with Todd’s view on how to appro...
Episode 067 - Flippin' Firefighters with Todd Edwards Part 1
29 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The illusion of a perfect fire is a tempting one, but it’s also just that: an illusion. In the first part of our discussion with Todd Edwards, we ta...
Episode 066 - The Bandwagon with Payton Owens
17 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Payton Owens came to the fire service, left, grew an impressive beard, and then came back again. When he left the department, he had some pretty serio...
Episode 065 - Outtakes: We're All In on Plan A
29 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A short side discussion from one of our recording sessions about what’s at the nature of success when operating on the fireground: adaptability.
Episode 064 - Outtakes: Command NOT Control in Knots
14 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This quick discussion was born out of an article called “Command NOT Control” by Eric Saylors. Not all of us had read the article, and Shane and P...
Episode 063 - Talking Shop with Chief Chris Wessels
26 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When we sat down to talk to Chief Chris Wessels, we had a specific topic in mind that we thought we would cover. But what happens so often with the be...
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Twenty: What Citizens Can Do
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Nineteen: Federal Involvement
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Eighteen: Research for Tomorrow's Fire Problem
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Seventeen: Fire Safety for the Young, Old, and Infirm
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Sixteen: Fire Safety for the Home
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Fifteen: Fire Safety Education
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Fourteen: Forest and Grassland Fire Protection
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Thirteen: Rural Fire Protection
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Twelve: Transportation Fire Hazards
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Eleven: Codes and Standards
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Ten: Hazards Through Design
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Nine: The Hazards Created Through Materials
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Eight: The Hazards We Have Created
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Seven: Equipping the Fire Fighter
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Six: A National Fire Academy
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Five: Fire Service Personnel
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Four: Planning for Fire Protection
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Three: Are There Other Ways?
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter Two: Living Victims of the Tragedy
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Chapter One: The Nation's Fire Problem
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in fire service history.
Audiobook: America Burning - Preface: What This Report Is About
21 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This audiobook was a project of Combustible to produce an audiobook version of one of the most important documents in the fire service history.
Episode 041 - Two Phones (The Wives Part 2)
09 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Often, the longer you are with an organization, the more your responsibilities increase. Get enough responsibility and this means you are now carrying...
Episode 040 - Off The Hook with Samuel Our Youngest Listener
08 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When we recently opened up the podcast to questions from our listeners, we never suspected that we would receive such a good question from a listener ...
Episode 039 - Optimism, Pessimism, and Reality
01 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Do you consider yourself a glass half-full or half-empty person? What would others say about you? In this episode we discuss the nature of optimism ...
Episode 038 - Off the Hook with Mike Chester
12 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, Mike Chester calls in with a question for the group. Chester asked, “What do you tell a good, and I mean good, Fireman/EMT who is ...
Episode 037 - Off The Hook with Captain Rick Meyers
05 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For this episode, Captain Rick Meyers (Ret.) calls in with a question for the group. Rick was actually one of our first guests back when we started th...
Episode 036 - Am I A Good Firefighter? (What Makes A Good Firefighter Part 2)
13 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This episode wasn’t intended to be an episode, but sometimes we have private discussions and the “record” button gets pushed. This was the conve...
Episode 035 - What Makes A Good Firefighter?
30 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It seems like a pretty simple question. If you were to ask the public what makes a good firefighter, they probably wouldn’t hesitate to tell you. Bu...
Episode 034 - Listener Responses: It All Comes Down To...
01 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve recently started asking weekly fill-in-the-blank questions on our Facebook page, and the first question generated a lot of great responses. In...
Episode 033 - Fast Track Or The Wrong Track?
14 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Fast Tracking…Lateral Transfer…Whatever you want to call it…The idea of bringing persons into your organization who are already trained (and pos...
Episode 032 - Connor's A Peach
03 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us probably have someone that we call a “mentor,” but that’s a really vague label for something that most of us probably haven’t thoug...
Episode 031 - When Does Hollywood Get Firefighting Right?
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Some of us had never really considered that some of our listeners might not be firefighters, up until one of those listeners asked us to talk about th...
Episode 030 - How Close Is Too Close?
23 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How well do you know the person above you in the chain of command? How about the person below you? When your buddy got promoted, did you think he chan...
Episode 029 - Wives Hang In The Balance
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We’ve joked that this was possibly the most dangerous podcast we’ve ever recorded. Turning the microphones on and encouraging our wives to turn th...
Episode 028 - Shane's Mulligan
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Our Mulligan Series continues with Shane’s tale of regret about an apartment fire that probably should have gone a little better. But like all of ou...
Episode 027 - 16 Minutes Under a Collapse in a Structure Fire with Clark Glass
26 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
16 minutes doesn't sound like a long time, unless you're pinned under a collapse, unable to move, and running out of air. In that situation, every sec...
Episode 026 - Hatch's Mulligan Part Two
13 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this follow-up episode, Hatch gives us a second mulligan involving his role as Safety Officer at a particularly aggressive fire. His first mulliga...
Episode 025 - Hatch's Mulligan Part One
09 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Hatch surprises us a little when he reveals his mulligan. It wasn't exactly within the parameters we had established for the mulligan...
Episode 024 - House Dues And Don'ts
21 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We've never heard of a station that doesn't have some form of house dues, and most of us have been at a station where someone questioned whether or no...
Episode 023 - What Motivates Someone To Be Unmotivated?
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A listener wrote to us about some senior firefighters being disengaged with less experienced firefighters in the station and basically asked why won't...
Episode 022 - Bill's Mulligan
10 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Mistakes. We all make them. And if you've been a firefighter long enough you probably have a few fires in your mental rolodex that you wish you could ...
Episode 021 - Lessons From 30,000 Feet
30 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we explore the lessons that can be gleaned from Captain Tammie Jo Shults' radio traffic after her Boeing 737 lost an engine on April ...
Episode 020 - Moneyballing It: Leadership Lessons Of The Film Moneyball
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Moneyball is the story of the Oakland Athletics' 2002 season; a season in which General Manager Billy Beane used the unconventional theory of "Sabrm...
Episode 019 - Scott Stroup And The Catch Seen Round The World
10 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It's a once in a career moment, and it actually happened twice on this one fire in DeKalb County GA. Two children, in desperation, were thrown from th...
Episode 018 - Outtakes: Active Shooter
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This outtake comes from our session with Cale Hamilton. Here we talk about the role of the fire service in active shooter or active threat situations.
Episode 017 - Frank Martinez In His Own Words
20 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
This audio was compiled from the interviews we did with Frank Martinez. We assembled this to use in a class because of how profound Frank's words are....
Episode 016 - Firefighter Perspective vs Chief Perspective with Cale Hamilton
10 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Cale Hamilton was a self-described mediocre firefighter until a 2010 mayday incident prompted him to explore what it means to be more engaged in firef...
Episode 015 - Professional Development with Lt. Colonel Bill Smith
29 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The fire service is a para-military organization. But what does that mean? Are there things the military does that we should be doing? For this episod...