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Fireman Rob is known as a dynamic storyteller with an inspirational voice, on the courage to lead your life with a resilient mindset. He helps people become greater assets to themselves and others, with the ability to lead with courage, passion and mental strength. 

Fireman Rob delivers powerful impact to audiences through his stories and catalysts that have been Forged In The Fires of his life. From numerous years in the fire service to surviving on Discovery Channel’s show “Ultimate Ninja Challenge” to performing search & recovery after the September 11th attacks. His message resonates with everyone and has proven results. 

From surviving post-traumatic stress disorder to breaking a Guinness World Record to being a dad, he lives his message and delivers the fire to the audience.

ACCOLADES •  2012 Ironman Performance of the Year •  2012 HITS Triathlon Athlete of the Year •  2014 In Business Magazine “25 Most Influential People in Greater Madison” •  2015 Jefferson Award 

Attorney and former deputy sheriff- helping law enforcement and first responders with employment related matters. 

Eric McCants is an Investigative Sergeant of Narcotics at Burke County Sheriff's Office/ SWAT Team Member, 5th Degree Black Belt in Karate and Gung Fu Wushu. He has his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Criminal Justice & Law Enforcement Administration. 

First Responder Wellness Coach & Specialist • Former Deputy Sheriff  Helping First Responders Break Free from their Mental Battle and Beat The Burnout

David Leath is a full-time employee of my local County police department in NY. During his 23-year journey, he has experienced thousands of interactions between emergency medical staff and fire departments and has grown to appreciate the similarities between police, medical, and fire services. His wife is a nurse and he has built strong relationships with many fire chiefs, making him feel comfortable in those intersecting worlds. He believes that all types of heroes need a recharge from time to time. He is a coach, professional speaker, podcaster, and author.

Aaron Zamzow is a firefighter/training officer for Madison (Wisconsin) Fire Department with 20 years of experience as a fitness trainer and host of the Better Every Shift podcast. the owner of Fire Rescue Fitness, a company dedicated to creating products and blogs focused on keeping Firefighters, EMTs, and Paramedics in top physical condition and “fit for duty.” He holds a bachelor's degree in health and wellness as well as a Precision Nutrition Level 1 certification.

Dena is a 9-year member of the Raleigh Fire Dept. and Wake County EMS. She was a police officer for 5 years before joining the fire dept. She is a graduate student researching firefighter behavioral health and prevention of firefighter suicides. Outside of work, she enjoys cycling, fitness and crossfit and is a founding member of NC Triangle Peer Support.

Adam Kinakin is the Managing Director and founder of ILET Network, a community-based training platform for international Law Enforcement. A former Infantry Officer with the Canadian Armed Forces, he held various roles and was awarded instructor qualifications from many Canadian and international organizations. In July 2020 he created the International Law Enforcement Training Summit with annual attendance of over 10,000 from 75 countries. ILET Network has partnered with Federal, State/Provincial and Municipal agencies worldwide to support the evolution of training for Law Enforcement and First Responders. Adam attended the University of Saskatchewan majoring in Psychology and is beginning a Masters/Ph.D. program in Forensic Psychophysiology.

Hi, I've got a question here. How do you make time for exercise and healthy habits while balancing your demands for being a firefighter? How do I make time for my exercise? And I've mentioned this many times before, is it's just a way of life. You have to make that a way of life. It's just, I do it either in the morning and the afternoon, at night, I just find a way to do it. And the healthy habits, again, after you've done it for so long, it just becomes a way of life. And that's what I've tried in pressing and telling my students and other firefighters that once you make it a part of your life, it's a lifestyle. It's easy. It comes natural. It's just, you don't even have to think about it. Yes, it takes a long time to get there and you have to have discipline, but you can do it. And if you do it, you'll find that you'll reap benefits.

You can make time for exercise and healthy habits while being a firefighter by making it a lifestyle. It takes discipline, but once you get into the habit of it, it will come naturally. You will reap benefits from doing so.

How do you make time for exercise and healthy habits while balancing the demands of being a firefighter?

Balancing Demands: A Firefighter's Guide to Prioritizing Health

To make time for exercise and healthy habits while balancing the demands of being a firefighter, it's essential to integrate them into your lifestyle. Personally, I prioritize exercise by finding pockets of time in the morning, afternoon, or even at night. Over time, it becomes second nature and a way of life. I emphasize to my students and fellow firefighters that once you make it a part of your routine, it becomes easier and more natural. It no longer requires conscious effort. While it does take time and discipline to establish these habits, the benefits are worth it. So, by incorporating exercise and healthy habits into your daily life, you can successfully manage the demands of being a firefighter while taking care of your well-being.

So how do you balance personal life and work as a firefighter? You know, the real big challenge and the biggest thing that people have to really go into is the mindset and the mental side of it. The physical pain is always going to be there. As you get older, everything gets harder, everything kind of aches, you have arthritis, everything like that. But I think it's the mental side that really needs the most work to balance life and work is to be able to wipe your boots off before you enter the house. Whatever it is, like I listen to music and if I'm not ready before I go in the house, I'll kind of wait and just listen to some music, kind of decompress myself to be able to enter into the house and understand that it's a different environment. And that environment, I need to be able to be present, engaged, and not have the baggage of what I had from that shift or from that day be a burden on that. But at the same point, it's also so important to have that person to outlet to, to be able to speak to, to be able to unburden yourself with whatever you're going through. So don't be afraid to talk to people, but making sure that your personal life and your work life have separate entities and understand that they're not the same environment.

Balancing personal life and work as a firefighter requires mental and emotional strength. It is important to decompress before entering the house, but at the same time talk to people to help unburden yourself. Make sure to have separate entities for your personal and work life and understand that they are different environments.

How do you balance personal life and work as a firefighter?

Finding Balance: The Mental & Emotional Challenges of a Firefighter

Balancing personal life and work as a firefighter requires a strong mindset and focus on the mental aspect. While physical challenges are inevitable, it's the mental side that demands attention. One approach is to mentally prepare before entering the house, such as listening to music or finding a way to decompress and leave the burdens of the shift behind. Being present and engaged in the different environment of home is crucial. Additionally, having someone to talk to and unload any emotional weight is important. It's essential to recognize that personal life and work life are separate entities and should be treated as such.

Hi, I've got a question here that says, can you describe the process of responding to a body recovery call? When you're doing a body recovery, it's, you know, there's could be several things that have happened. We've gone on car accidents that we've had to extricate the deceased party, suicides. We've had to help the coroner bag up the deceased party. We even had one where a mid-20s fella had overdosed and went up in his attic and had died. And his parents hadn't seen him for about three months, but the neighbors had a smell in the neighborhood. We finally narrowed it down to the attic. And when we found him, we had to help the coroner take the body out of the attic. We ended up cutting the roof, just like we were doing a ventilation, in order to get the body out. The body, every time you picked it up, it fell apart. So each body recovery is a little different. The odor is still the same. It stays with you forever. It's just, it's a smell that you don't wish on anybody. They're tough calls.

When responding to a body recovery call, the process can vary depending on the situation. For example, an extrication from a car accident, a suicide or an overdose in an attic. The odor is always the same and something that will stay with you forever. It's a tough call to handle.

Can you describe the process of responding to a body recovery call?

Uncovering the Grueling Reality of Body Recovery Calls

Responding to a body recovery call involves various scenarios, such as car accidents, suicides, or cases where individuals have been deceased for an extended period. I recall one incident where a young man in his mid-20s had overdosed and passed away in his attic. His parents were unaware of his situation for about three months, but the odor alerted the neighbors to something amiss. Our task was to assist the coroner in removing the body from the attic. As the body was fragile, it would disintegrate upon lifting. Each body recovery presents unique challenges, but the one constant is the enduring impact of the odor, a scent that remains with you forever. These calls are emotionally difficult and challenging to handle.

So the question is, do I think that technology can be utilized to assist with active shooter prevention and detection? Yeah, I think there's actually some really good pieces of equipment out there right now that are showing a lot of promise and are only continuing to get better each and every day. One of those is gunshot detection hardware, where facilities or communities have installed gunshot detection equipment. And what that does is that sends off a warning and a direction for law enforcement where gunshots came from. So that would help vector in responders to a shooter's location. There's also artificial intelligence software out there being programmed into security cameras that are able to identify the makeup of a firearm. So that if something like that appears on a facility security camera, it sets off an alarm to provide that early detection before a shot's even gone off. There's also some good equipment out there to deal with online postings because we know that that's where many of these active shooters are committing leakage. There's a lot of equipment out there for us to be able to detect and track some of those threats and some of those threatening posts, and then be able to use that to do an investigation and determine the credibility and the source of some of those postings.

Yes, I think that technology can be utilized to assist with active shooter prevention and detection. There are pieces of equipment such as gunshot detection hardware, AI software, and security cameras that can help in this regard. Additionally, there is equipment out there to deal with online postings which can help detect and track potential threats.

How do you think technology can be utilized to assist with active shooter prevention and detection?

Technology's Role in Active Shooter Prevention: Gunshot Detection, AI, and Online Tracking

I believe that technology can be effectively utilized to assist with active shooter prevention and detection. Promising equipment, which continues to improve, includes gunshot detection hardware. When installed in facilities or communities, this equipment sends warnings and directs law enforcement to the location of gunshots, enabling a quicker response. Artificial intelligence software is also being integrated into security cameras to identify firearms, triggering alarms and providing early detection even before a shot is fired. Additionally, there are tools available to address online postings, where many active shooters express their intentions. Through the use of such equipment, we can detect and track these threats, aiding in investigations to determine the credibility and source of these posts.

So the question is, how do you balance the need for a thorough investigation and the need for a timely resolution? And the primary factor to consider is whether or not the victim is safe. Do you have enough to make an arrest? When I used to work in special victims, the question was always, is the perpetrator still living with the child or is the child safe? Is this something that happened months ago or is it something that happened last night? Because if the person is in an unsafe situation, then the first priority is their safety.

The primary factor to consider when balancing the need for a thorough investigation and a timely resolution is whether or not the victim is safe. The key question to ask is if the perpetrator is still living with the child or if the child is safe.

How do you balance the need for a thorough investigation with the need for a timely resolution?

Balancing thorough investigation and timely resolution: prioritizing victim safety

Balancing the need for a thorough investigation and a timely resolution requires considering the safety of the victim as the primary factor. In cases where I worked in special victims, the key question was whether the victim is safe or if there is enough evidence to make an arrest. The urgency of the situation depends on factors such as whether the perpetrator is still living with the victim or if the victim is in immediate danger. If the victim is in an unsafe situation, ensuring their safety becomes the top priority.

Hi, I've got a question here. What type of communication did you and your partner use when fighting a fire to ensure that you always were aware of each other's location? Well, I tell you, what we did and what I still do and the way I still teach it is you always stay within a communication with your partner. You always talk back and forth. You're either in line of sight or if you can't see your partner, you at least communicate. And as you're searching a building, you talk and tell your partner what you've got. If I'm on a right-hand search and I'm the wall guy, I'll be going down and if I'm on the wall, I'm on the wall, I see it, I got a window, I got a window, where are you at? And they'll get back to me and let me know what they've got. And you just keep communicating back and forth to know where your partner's at. I worked with one gentleman though that we were so in sync together that if we split up and went into each other's room, a different room, we would be able to hear each other, talk to each other, letting each other know exactly what's going on. I knew that if I didn't hear him, I would have to go and find out what's going on. And he may be underneath the bed where I didn't hear him and I would find him and make sure that he's still safe because he's checking under a bed or in a closet. Same thing with me. If he didn't hear me respond to a question or hear what I'm doing, my partner would always come back to find out exactly where I'm at. So communication, just talking back and forth to your partner is so important. And that's the way we teach it at the college, is that when you're doing a search, you stay in communication with your partner. No matter if it's a line of sight, touch, or talking.

Firefighters use verbal communication to let each other know their location when fighting a fire. They talk back and forth to stay in contact and make sure each other are safe.

What type of communication do you and your partner use when fighting a fire to ensure that you are always aware of each other's location?

Effective Communication Key to Safety in Firefighting

When fighting a fire, my partner and I always prioritize communication to ensure we are aware of each other's location. We maintain constant communication, whether we are in line of sight or not. As we search a building, we talk and inform each other about what we encounter. For example, if I'm on a right-hand search and see a window, I communicate that to my partner and they update me on their findings. This ongoing back-and-forth communication allows us to stay connected and informed. I once worked with a partner with whom we were so synchronized that even if we were in separate rooms, we could hear and talk to each other. If there was ever a moment of silence or lack of response, it would raise concerns, prompting us to check on each other's safety. It was crucial to find and ensure the well-being of my partner if I couldn't hear their response or locate them under a bed or in a closet. Communication through talking, whether through line of sight, touch, or verbal exchange, is emphasized in our training at the college. It remains an essential aspect when conducting searches during firefighting operations.