Fire elves

I drew this guy for the 2004 kids Christmas card. I liked him well enough that he's made his way into every kids card since.

This is a modified version of the same elf. He was originally exhorting his viewers to test their smoke alarms.

I drew this card for fun and ended up using it as my 2003 card to firefighters and friends. It's a little goofy, but it fit my mood that year.

Firefighters can be a superstitious lot. I wrote an article about some of these traditions and superstitions, which you may have read already. This next cartoon was intended to go with the article, but never made it to the web site.



Customer service is important, even in the fire service. The concept that firefighters need to treat people as our customers was popularized by Alan Brunacini, former chief of Phoenix Fire Department. I had my say on the subject, then drew this cartoon to make fun of the folks out there that just want to make a buck.





I think all firefighters join the service because they want to help people, and the stereotypical way to do this is to save lives and property. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out the way we'd like it to. The number of fatalities Upsala has responded to is roughly equal to the number of rescues, and the number of houses burned to the ground far exceeds the number that we've saved. It isn't because we're slow or unskilled - it's just the nature of the problem we face. I wrote an article about giving the public a dose of reality, then drew this cartoon to help us laugh at the dilemma.

training dilemmas

Training is a frequent theme of my columns. I drew this one after writing a bit of a whiny article on the lack of funding for volunteer firefighters compared to ambulance and police. You can read the article here. In case you can't read the small print, the firefighters in this cartoon mixed up a helium cylinder with an oxygen cylinder. I got the idea while taking a course on O2 administration . . . I guess I must have been daydreaming . . .

The most deadly phrase an instructor can hear is "you're boring." Especially in the volunteer fire service. Your students have given up the ball game or an evening walk or their favourite TV show to hear you blather about firefighting, and you'd better not waste their time. I wrote an article about this dilemma, then drew this cartoon to to make fun of it.

a few more cartoons

Recruiting is a perennial problem (I think I said that already). Volunteer fire departments have to capitalize on the strengths of our very diverse membership, and sometimes it pays to think outside the box. I drew this cartoon to go along with an article in Firefighting in Canada's Web Exclusives section.

Firefighting has it's own unique terminology. This cartoon originated from my initial bewilderment about the term "overhaul." (no, I never actually pulled an engine when overhauling a fire). You can read my views on communication here.