Not much ANZAC over here …

With our Facebook feeds having gone berserk with all the Anzac Day references yesterday, you would be excused in the knowledge that there is any other countries in the world. Certainly there was no mention of Anzac in the US, so we had to make do with the various online references to Dawn Services back home.

Today for me was another day of FDIC workshops, no public holiday for me.

This mornings workshop was “Training with Incident Simulations“, presented by Deputy Chief Ted Nee from Albuquerque Fire Department in New Mexico. It was an interesting presentation covering Fire Studio and SimsUShare and the process of putting together the simulations for training of crews. We use both of these programs back home.

This afternoons workshop was “Fireground Strategies: Command, Control and Accountability“, presented by Deputy Chief Anthony Avillo from North Hudson Fire Department in New Jersey. He reminded me of George from Seinfeld with his accent and mannerisms, however he also had a lot of knowledge on Command and Control as well as some experiences from the Hudson River Aircraft Incident.

Tuesday night at FDIC is Comedy Night. The Firefighters Cancer Support Network has been putting on a fundraiser comedy night for a number of years now and it has been getting bigger each year. We attended with Billy and Teri tonight and it was a great night out, even if we ended up at the wrong Marriott Hotel initially. Who would think there would be two Marriott’s a block apart.

One of the fundraising raffle items was a leather helmet signed by the cast of Chicago Fire. I bought a few tickets and we will see if I am taking it home at the end of the week. The other prize is a trip to the set of Chicago Fire.