Peter Matthews sat down with Capt. Ariel “AJ” Jackson to look at his role in developing an officer mentoring and training program for the Anne Arundel County, MD, fire officers.

Jackson, a second-generation firefighter, talks about the night he was promoted and the working fire with entrapment that followed. That fire turned into a career-long learning experience for him in which he partnered with another firefighter to develop a company officer mentoring program that’s been used by the department. He takes listeners through the process and offers insights that can be used by any department.

A veteran of the fire service, Jackson finishes up the podcast with an explanation of why he still attends conferences as a student to continue learning.

Peter Matthews invites author Michael Glore, who is a deputy chief with the Reading, PA, Fire Department, to share his interest in fire service history and how the war stories from the past has shaped today’s fire service.

Glore, who has nearly 40 years in the fire service and has co-authored four fire service history books, explains why firefighters should know their department’s history to help make tactical decisions, but also to understand by certain tactics are understood.

The show is filled with historical nuggets for all listeners from the recent 40th anniversary of firefighter fatality fire in Reading involving a flashover, to an early example of a BLEVE to firefighter cancer. Glore explains how firefighters can capture their history and how to share it with others.

Resources

• Pottsville Firefighting
• Reading Firefighting
• Schuylkill County Firefighting
• The Great Memorial Day Fire of 1945 and Other Schuylkill County Disasters
• Fire Alarm Boxes Silenced in PA Town, For Now

Peter Matthews sits down with longtime Firehouse contributors John J. Lewis Jr. and Robert Moran, who have been named Firehouse’s Hall of Fame Class of 2025. The two reflect on their fire service careers, Lewis retiring as a lieutenant and Moran as a fire chief.

The two, known as The Jersey Guys, entered the fire service Northern New Jersey and had lengthy careers in both volunteer and career fire services as well as two decades of instructing and writing.

From close calls and the incident that led them to begin teaching firefighters, to advice for new firefighters, those seeking promotions and rising to the rank of chief, they share nuggets from across their career while looking back on major incidents and milestones with their time at Firehouse.com.2

Resources

• Jersey Guys Fire Service Training
• John J. Lewis Firehouse.com contributor page
• Robert Moran Firehouse.com contributor page