This episode is essentially a long, mostly uninterrupted monologue charting the slow and graceful unraveling of my internal thought processes over the last twelve months. There is no guest. There is no structure anyone would recognise as sensible. Just me talking through what 2025 actually looked like, what the podcast quietly became, and the ideas, questions, and mild existential spirals that refused to leave me alone this year.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s really behind the podcast, what I actually think about the fire service, leadership, culture, success, failure, or life in general, this episode might be useful. There are a few practical tips, some mental hacks I’ve leaned on, a handful of lessons that landed the hard way, and a look at what I’ll be focusing more on in the year ahead. I’ll also fill you in on what we’ve been up to along the way. Think less “highlight reel” and more “director’s commentary with questionable decisions and occasional clarity.”

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In part one of this two-part episode, I’m joined by Dave Payton and Ian Evans, co-founders of Fire Tactics and two of the most experienced fire behaviour and breathing apparatus instructors to have worked in the UK fire service. With decades of experience spanning West Midlands Fire Service, the Fire Service College, and national BA and fire behaviour training, this conversation cuts straight through doctrine, buzzwords and inherited habits to focus on what actually happens when theory meets heat.

This episode explores how fire behaviour training has evolved, where it has drifted away from operational reality, and why firefighters need understanding, not just procedures, when conditions start to change. If you want fire behaviour that is honest, practical and deployable, this is where it starts. Make sure you follow the links to learn more about Dave and Ian’s current work with Fire Tactics and the training they deliver across the UK and beyond.

Contact Dave HERE Iain HERE

FIRE ATTACTICS HERE

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In this episode, Pete sits down with Dr Lynsey Mahmood, PhD, a behavioural scientist and applied psychologist whose work bridges academic research and real world fire and rescue operations. The conversation explores how psychology shows up on the fireground every day, whether we acknowledge it or not. From watch culture and social identity to leadership, behaviour change, and organisational blind spots, Lynsey explains why who we are, how we belong, and what we value shape the way we act under pressure. Together they unpack why evidence based practice can struggle to gain traction in operational environments, and how biases like sunk cost and confirmation bias quietly influence decision making across the service.

A central focus of the episode is the Psychology of Rescue project, which examines rescue from the casualty’s perspective rather than purely through technical or procedural success. Lynsey challenges listeners to consider the psychological impact of extrication, questioning whether well intentioned rescue practices may unintentionally add to trauma. The discussion highlights the importance of casualty centred communication, interdisciplinary research, and training that considers psychological safety alongside physical outcomes. This is a thoughtful, challenging conversation about leadership, identity, and professional curiosity, and why understanding human behaviour is essential to the future effectiveness and credibility of the fire service.

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Today’s conversation is with Bob Palestrant, a firefighter, emergency manager and author of Never on a 10, whose career spans more than four decades across nursing, paramedicine, frontline firefighting, urban search and rescue, aviation firefighting and homeland security. Bob spent over twenty years working in one of the busiest battalions in North America, deployed with Florida Task Force 1 including Ground Zero after 9/11, and later held senior leadership roles coordinating responses to aviation disasters, mass casualty incidents, major hurricanes and terrorism related events. This episode is grounded in lived experience where decisions carried real consequences for real people.

This is not a highlight reel and it is not a nostalgia exercise. It is an honest, wide ranging discussion about physical readiness, mental health, leadership under pressure, recruitment standards, accountability and firehouse culture. We talk about close calls, outdated systems that still put firefighters at risk, the responsibility leaders carry for their crews and why mentorship and paying it forward matter more than rank or reputation. This episode was recorded earlier in the year and released later than planned, but the timing does not dilute the message. These lessons are earned, unfiltered and absolutely worth the wait.

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This episode goes deep into the reality of fire behaviour as it actually shows up on the fireground, not the simplified version many of us were taught early on. Matt and I talk about how modern fuels, building design and ventilation have changed the speed and violence of fire development, why smoke is often the biggest killer in the room, and how firefighters still get caught out by flow paths, rapid fire development and unseen pyrolysis. We get into high rise and complex buildings, wildfire versus structural thinking, decision making under pressure, and the gap that still exists between contemporary fire science and legacy doctrine. This is a practical conversation aimed squarely at improving how firefighters read fire, make decisions, and stay alive when the margins are thin and the consequences are high.

Matt Davis is a Station Officer with the Tasmania Fire Service and a twenty one year veteran of the job, with deep experience across structural firefighting, wildfire, fire investigation, and instructor development. He has led strike teams on campaign fires, developed high rise and complex building training at an organisational level, and delivered fire behaviour education to firefighters, volunteers and specialist agencies across Australia and internationally. Alongside his operational career, Matt is the creator of one of the most respected fire behaviour education channels on YouTube, known for breaking down complex fire science into clear, honest and usable lessons. He brings academic rigour, operational credibility and a calm refusal to accept nonsense, making this conversation one every firefighter, instructor and officer should spend time with.

Find Matts YOUTUBE HERE

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This conversation with Alan House pulls us back to the foundations of who we are as firefighters. Alan started his career in the 1960s, rose through Hampshire Fire and Rescue, and has spent decades preserving the story of our service. As part of the Firefighters Memorial Trust, he helps record and honour every person who has died in the line of duty. His work reminds us that remembrance is not nostalgia. It is accountability. The story of the British Fire Service stretches from the old insurance brigades to the chaos of the Blitz to the standards and systems we operate under today, and every name in the Trust’s records carries a lesson that still matters.

Across this conversation we explore why history shapes leadership, how easy it is to rewrite the past for comfort, and why we must resist that temptation. We talk about sirens in living rooms during the war years, rooftop fire watchers, the rise of national doctrine, and the craft of learning from experience rather than burying it. Alan captures it simply. If we don’t protect this history, nobody else will. Local memory fades but our duty to remember should never. This episode is about legacy, learning, and carrying forward the wisdom of those who ran toward danger long before us.

Visit Firefighters Memorial Trust HERE

Connect with Alan at - coo@firefightersmemorial.org.uk

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Inside the Lancashire Tactical Firefighting Summit: A Four-Part Series on Modern Firefighting.

The final episode brings the series home with Greater Manchester’s Tactical Firefighting Training Lead Dave Berry. Dave is one of the founding voices behind Tactical Firefighting UK. Dave charts the UK’s slow march toward modernization, from years of near-identical training practices across multiple services to the moment everything began to shift: when a small WhatsApp group of instructors decided to collaborate instead of working in isolation. That collaboration evolved into TF-UK, a national network driving tactical innovation and shared learning.

Dave shows how collective effort has accelerated progress in water mapping, flow testing, hose pack design, search techniques, size-up frameworks and more. He explains how TF-UK has reduced duplication, strengthened doctrine, and helped instructors introduce change with confidence and evidence. This closing chapter ties the entire mini series together with data from Dan, structure from Gerard, training evolution from Lucas and presents collaboration as the engine that will shape the future of UK firefighting.

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