Rob Wiggins is used to running into burning buildings without a second thought. But putting pen to paper to help write a book? Now that got the local firefighter nervous.
Wiggins — who has been a firefighter for 13 years, first as a volunteer in Essa and Springwater townships and then as a career firefighter in Oakville before transferring to Barrie Fire and Emergency Service in 2019 — recently celebrated the launch of The Tactical Firefighter, a book he helped co-author.
In addition to being a member of Barrie Fire, Wiggins also teaches for a company called Fire Service Incorporated where he provides training for firefighters across the continent.
The book, he explained, is meant to serve as a reference guide of fire ground tactics in the modern age.
Wiggins told BarrieToday when he was asked by his fellow firefighters Mark Wehrle and Mark Van Der Feyst if he’d like to contribute to a book they had underway he was grateful for the opportunity, but admits it was definitely an overwhelming experience stepping outside of his comfort zone.
“I’ve never done anything like this. It’s different than talking at the fire hall kitchen table discussing tactics and ideas, and what we do when we pre-plan on the fire ground,” he said, noting he often travels around the continent to provide training to various fire departments. “We can talk on the apparatus floor or training centre all day long, but then taking that and putting pen to paper was challenging.
"It’s everything we talk about and discuss outside of your classic textbook," Wiggins added.
Working on the book took the trio two years, during which time they broke topics into categories of what they wanted to cover. They then went about figuring out how they’d go about teaching the different topics in training and how to best write it step-by-step in order to accurately capture the information they’re working to get across, he said.
“I have been super fortunate to get to travel quite a bit. … We have been able to attend lots of conferences and learn from some of the best on the continent in the United States and Canada. (The book) is basically a resource of all of our experiences both on the fire ground and on the training side - which is just an extension of all those instructor’s experiences,” Wiggins said.
“It puts it all together so if you don’t have the opportunity to go to Pensacola for County Fire Tactics or the Canadian High Rise Conference… then this is a resource of all the stuff we’ve learned. You’re able to pick that up and gain from that experience," he added.
The book was officially released two weeks ago.
Wiggins said the goal is for it to serve as a “ feet-on-the-fire-ground” type of book.
“It’s all tips and tricks for firefighters who want to be more effective and efficient on the fire ground,” he said.
Wiggins hopes it will eventually make its way into the hands of firefighters across the country and beyond.
“My hope is it ends up on the nightstand of every firefighter in the country and that they can take it and add to it. Not all of this is content we created. We are custodians of that knowledge and are just trying to pass it on to the next generation of firefighters.”
