Roanoke Firefighters blog reaches 400 posts

I have now surpassed my 400th post on the blog. Soon, in less than 3 weeks, the Roanoke firefighters blog will be turning 1 year old. To say this venture has been fun would be an understatement. I have really enjoyed the many facets of this blog.

1. Keep my fellow firefighters informed of happenings both locally and internationally.
2. Linking up to many other Fire and EMS blogs around the world.
3. I have had email and telephone contact with many readers, as well as meeting a couple from outside the valley.
4. Brought the history of the Roanoke FD right to your doorstep.
5. Kept outsiders informed of fires, incidents, events, and history.
6. Educated readers about what we do and why we do it.
7. Often reported more information, more detailed information, and more "frontline journalism" than the newspaper or news stations have been able to.
   

While I have tried to keep the blog as professional as possible. I would like inform and remind you all that this is indeed my very own personal blog. The contents of the posts are mine, unless otherwise noted. I have found it hard to leave opinion, speculation, and rumor out of the posts in order to bring you the facts. I have had to rescind comments made in the past. I have spoken too soon, but that is journalism, and I am not a journalist. Occasionally I get wrapped up in the moment, as most of you do. The big difference is that if I post something on here, hundreds of people read it. I am held accountable for my comments by my own convictions.

I feel this blog benefits me the most. For every article that I post on this blog, I read about 10 or 20 others. I post articles which I feel are going to benefit you by reading them. I post articles that you might not come across otherwise.

I often hear from readers who have something to share. I enjoy this. If you have something to add, or something to correct, let me know. I can take criticism too. So lets hear it.

In the meantime, look for many more posts. I don't plan on stopping this anytime soon. The only thing missing from this blog is personal accounts of incidents. I would enjoy writing about incidents that I run, the crews I run them with, and what the outcome was. I think that this personal account would be an interesting angle on the blog. However, this will have to hold off for the time being due to a lack of material.

If you can think of another angle for the blog, let me know. If you think you can make this better feel free to run it past me.

I recently received a comment from an anonymous reader stating they would like to see which first due areas, first due assignments, and the companies are responding to fires. I will do my part in filling in the holes. However, there is very little chance of me being on scene, or even listening to the call on a radio. So I am asking my fellow firefighters. If you run a fire or something else, and think it is news worthy, give me a call, email, or page. Let me know what is going on, who responded, and what happened. Otherwise I will have to go on what I have.