Firefighter Podcast

In this episode of the IFIW Australia mini-series, James Mendoza, Captain and Training Officer with the San Jose Fire Department, takes us inside a major large volume fire at a Home Depot in 2022. With a background in education and microbiology, and experience contributing to UL’s Coordinated Fire Attack study, James blends science and street-level decision making as he unpacks the realities of operating inside a thirty foot high warehouse filled with high rack storage, compressed gas cylinders and lithium ion batteries. This is a raw debrief of what it actually looked like when the smoke layer dropped to the floor and traditional straight stream techniques began to show their limitations.
We explore gas cooling in a large compartment, the cognitive load on company officers, the tension between defensive indicators and life risk, and the uncomfortable gaps in training when firefighters are highly competent in residential fires but underprepared for mega structures. 
The series is supported by Enduro Protect and De-Wipe, organisations committed to protecting firefighters from long term exposure risks while continuing to develop operational competence. Links to both can be found in the episode notes.
Connect with James HERE
You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE
For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]
PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 
Access all episodes, documents, GIVEAWAYS & debriefs HERE
Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July
Podcast Apparel, Hoodies, Flags, Mugs HERE
 our partners supporting this episode.
GORE-TEX Professional Clothing
FIRST TACTICAL- tactical gear for elite operators
MSA The Safety Company
JAFCO
IDEX
FIRE & EVACUATION SERVICE LTD 
Send a text
Support the show
***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***
Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew

In this episode I sit down with my good friend John Gregory, one of the original trailblazers of the British Firefighter Challenge as we head into a challenge season that is bigger and more competitive than ever before. 
John and I have shared the arena many times over the years, from Toughest Firefighter competitions to international search and rescue arduous conditions courses and HYROX events and that shared experience shapes a conversation that goes far beyond fitness. 
We unpack the growth of the British Firefighter Challenge series, competitions organised by firefighters for firefighters that tests operationally relevant skills against the clock and we talk openly about the runners and riders this year, the returning legends, and the hungry disruptors stepping up to shift the order. 
SEE ALL THE British Firefighter Challenge series competitions HERE
Access all episodes, documents, GIVEAWAYS & debriefs HERE
Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July
Podcast Apparel, Hoodies, Flags, Mugs HERE
 our partners supporting this episode.
GORE-TEX Professional Clothing
FIRST TACTICAL- tactical gear for elite operators
MSA The Safety Company
JAFCO
IDEX
FIRE & EVACUATION SERVICE LTD 
Send a text
Support the show
***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***
Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew

In this episode recorded live at the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, you’ll hear from Edward Hartin as he explores fireground sensemaking and decision making for the station officer. Drawing on more than fifty years in the fire service and decades at chief officer level, Ed takes us inside the cognitive process that underpins command. How initial cues shape your frame of reference before you even arrive. Why experience alone is not expertise. And how deliberate practice through Tactical Decision Games builds the pattern recognition, risk assessment and coordination skills that actually show up when conditions deteriorate.
This episode forms part of the IFIW Australia mini-series and was recorded in a live working environment, so what you hear is raw and authentic. The series is supported by Enduro Protect and De Wipe, two organisations focused on reducing occupational exposure risks in realistic training environments. Enduro Protect’s particulate blocking range and De Wipe’s decontamination wipes are practical tools designed to protect firefighters from harmful contaminants while continuing to develop operational competence. Links to both, along with Ed’s downloadable presentation, can be found in the episode notes.
Connect with Ed HERE
Find Command Competence HERE
For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]
You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE
PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 
Access all episodes, documents, GIVEAWAYS & debriefs HERE
Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July
Podcast Apparel, Hoodies, Flags, Mugs HERE
 our partners supporting this episode.
GORE-TEX Professional Clothing
FIRST TACTICAL- tactical gear for elite operators
MSA The Safety Company
JAFCO
IDEX
FIRE & EVACUATION SERVICE LTD 
Send a text
Support the show
***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***
Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew

London Fire Brigade protects one of the most complex urban environments on the planet. The resident population of London sits at around 9 million people, but that number is misleading. On a typical weekday, when commuters, tourists, and transient populations are added in, the number of people moving through the city regularly swells to 11 to 12 million, sometimes more during major events or peak travel periods.
Around a quarter of all fire and rescue service calls in the UK come into London. Around 70% of the UK’s high rise residential stock sits within the M25. This is not just a big fire brigade. It’s a service operating at global city scale, with global city risk.
In this episode, I sit down with Jonathan Smith, Commissioner of London Fire Brigade, to talk honestly about what it takes to lead a service like that in today’s operating environment.
We start with Jonathan’s journey into the fire service, from training and operational life through promotion and leadership, but this is not a career timeline conversation. It’s a working discussion about responsibility, decision making, and pressure at scale.
We talk about training and professional standards, what was lost after the early 2000s, and what it really means to professionalise a modern fire service. We explore high rise firefighting in London, lessons learned from Grenfell, and how evacuation, control, and operational command have fundamentally changed over the last decade.
This conversation deliberately looks beyond a single service or even a single country. We frame London alongside other global cities like New York, Paris, and Tokyo, because the risks London faces don’t stop at national borders. Climate change, lithium battery fires, terrorism, urban density, and geopolitical tension all show up on the streets of this city, and the fire service has to be ready for that reality.
We also talk culture, not as a buzzword, but as lived behaviour. Leadership, accountability, psychological safety, and what it actually takes to create an organisation where people can do their best work without fear or silence. And finally, we zoom in on the personal cost of leadership, resilience, and how you stay grounded when the stakes are this high.
This is a grounded, boots on the ground conversation about the future of firefighting, leadership in complex systems, and how our profession can continue to shape its own destiny.
 Access all episodes, documents, GIVEAWAYS & debriefs HERE
Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July
Podcast Apparel, Hoodies, Flags, Mugs HERE
 our partners supporting this episode.
GORE-TEX Professional Clothing
FIRST TACTICAL- tactical gear for elite operators
MSA The Safety Company
JAFCO
IDEX
FIRE & EVACUATION SERVICE LTD 
Send a text
Support the show
***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***
Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew

This mini series opens a door into the International Fire Instructors Workshop 2026 in Australia, a gathering that for nearly two decades has been built on closed room conversations, honest challenge and the exchange of experience between some of the most respected fire instructors in the world. 
With the full support of the organisers and attendees, these recordings bring that environment into the open. The theme this year is Back to Basics, a deliberate return to the fundamentals that genuinely change outcomes on the fireground and in the training environment. What you are hearing is live and unfiltered, complete with the movement and background of a real working room, because that is exactly where the learning happens and why it is so valuable.
Alongside the operational learning sits a clear commitment to longevity in the job and reducing the hidden risks that come with realistic fire behaviour training. The support from Enduro Protect and De Wipe reflects a practical approach to contamination control and long term health, based on repeated use in live burn environments and consistent performance over time. If we are serious about pushing our competence and exposing ourselves to high fidelity training, we have to be just as disciplined about protecting ourselves from the long term consequences of that exposure.
This first episode features Karel Lambert, Division Chief at Brussels Fire Department, presenting on air consumption during tunnel firefighting. 
For those undertaking professional development, CPD is available for listening to this episode through the Institute of Fire Engineers - email [email protected]
You can also download the full presentation using the link HERE
PROTECT YOURSELF IN LIVE FIRE WITH ENDURO PROTECT & DE-WIPE 
Access all episodes, documents, GIVEAWAYS & debriefs HERE
Join me at Blue Light Show in London in July
Podcast Apparel, Hoodies, Flags, Mugs HERE
 our partners supporting this episode.
GORE-TEX Professional Clothing
FIRST TACTICAL- tactical gear for elite operators
MSA The Safety Company
JAFCO
IDEX
FIRE & EVACUATION SERVICE LTD 
Send a text
Support the show
***The views expressed in this episode are those of the individual speakers. Our partners are not responsible for the content of this episode and does not warrant its accuracy or completeness.***
Please support the podcast and its future by clicking HERE and joining our Patreon Crew