from standards to stories, be the first to read what’s next
Manuals are written to capture what we know, but the margins are where we scribble notes, underline what matters, and add reminders from experience.
The margins are personal. They’re where the official meets the practical.
Join me as I share insights, experiences, and reflections from the evolving world of first responder training – where standards meet stories and preparation meets purpose.
Maritime incidents have a distinctive way of exposing uncertainty more quickly than a lot of other public safety missions. When conditions deteriorate, information remains incomplete, and multiple agencies converge on the same stretch of water, a familiar question often emerges, (sometimes unspoken, sometimes asked aloud)… Who, exactly, is in charge here? On paper, the answer…
Maritime search and rescue (SAR) can seem as if it lives on the fringes of public safety…something that happens “out there,” handled by somebody else, on someone else’s water. In reality, maritime SAR has quietly become one of the most complex, interdependent missions facing local first responder agencies today…and one of the most unforgiving when…
For much of the fire service’s history, water represented a boundary – a feature of the landscape that shaped jurisdictional lines but rarely defined operational identity. Fires happened on land. Emergencies happened on roads and in buildings. The maritime domain, when it entered the conversation at all, was often viewed as the responsibility of federal…
Courtney Livingston, PhD, is a nationally recognized leader in first responder training and standards . Read full bio.
