Congrats to the Honor Guard

I would like to take a moment and say a job well done to the Honor Guard! A year ago they were looking at increasing members to support the different activities they were doing and with that came an idea of going to the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial service. After some discussion, they came up with a plan and set forth to raise the money to support their trip. They have done numerous activities and fundraisers to help cover their costs plus maintain a busy events schedule. While not everyone associated with the Honor Guard were able to go on the trip, it was a job well done by all members of the Honor Guard and something they should be proud of. I hope that they enjoy their time and experience while representing the State of Iowa and the Indianola Fire Department.

Seat belts

I saw this article (click on Seat belts to view the article) and was impressed by the department and the stance that they took. You hear about departments across the U.S. that say their departments are going to wear their seatbelts and how departments say they are grateful after an accident that their members were belted. But here is a department that made their members accountable for their actions. The personnel on the truck were not wearing their seatbelts, they had an accident, and after the reviews were performed, suspensions were passed down. The suspensions were made to say "Buckle UP!" and to make the engineers and officers take note that they are the people responsible for the crew and they need to make sure that everyone is buckled up before the truck moves.

Can we learn from this? You bet we can. We don't necessarily have a problem not buckling up, I think we do a pretty good job. But we can always do better! Again, it goes back to the engineer and the person in the officers seat to make sure everyone is buckled in prior to the apparatus moving. IF something would ever happen, you can bet that is going to be one of the first questions asked.

So, key point from all of this: BUCKLE UP!!