The Hadley Way

Send us Fan Mail Episode 3: The Hadley Way Every fire department has an identity, whether it's ever been said out loud or not. For Hadley Township, that identity is moving water — drafting it, hauling it, supplying it, efficiently and without hesitation. In this episode, Chief Kurt Nass traces that identity back to a lost house in 1969, through the 1980s "surround and drown" era, into how the department actually trains its new recruits today, and the hardest run of his early career. In this episode Why onboarding really starts with a bigger question: does your department have an identity, separate from its mission statement? The 1969 house fire that cost Jack Tunison the argument for handlines — and how he became chief a year later and modernized the department through the 1970s The "surround and drown" doctrine that took hold under Kurt's father in the 1980s, and why it's still doctrine today The Hadley Way: training new recruits from the water source to the pump, to the fire — in that order Learning to drive a ten-speed manual pumper in 1989, including a memorable prank from trainer Ed Rose A camper fire at a state recreation campground in the early '90s that turned from a routine run into one of the most tragic calls of Kurt's career Quote of the episode "A mission statement is what you're supposed to do. An identity is what you actually are." Support the show