CMC Podcast CMC

In this CMC Podcast our school instructors Craig McClure, John McKently, LeRoy Harbach, and Jason Ilowite hold a roundtable a discussion about the books, aside from technical manuals, that have been influential to them in their lives and careers.

Books mentioned:

"The Mission, The Men, and Me" By Pete Blaber

"Up the Organization" by Robert Townsend

"Young Men and Fire" by Norman MacLean

"Green Eggs and Ham, Oh the Places you'll Go" by Dr Suess

"Deadliest Seas" by Caley Thompson

"Damn Lucky" by Kevin Lawer

"We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance"
by David Howarth

"Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

"Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun" by Wes Roberts

"Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts" by Annie Duke

"The Ashley Book of Knots" by Clifford W. Ashley

In this CMC Podcast CMC Instructors Wayne Chapman, John McKently, Doug McElmury, and Kelly Byrne hold a roundtable discussion about NFPA General Use vs Technical Use ratings. They explore how the ratings are defined, if there is a requirement to use one over the other, and possible use cases.

Overheard this episode:

“As long as you are buying good stuff from reputable places you are not in danger of breaking things... don't put your Wish .com carabiners on your high change of direction” at 07:41

“Are there NFPA police?” at 17:28

"Hipsters of rope" - at 32:34

This week we are joined by Fred Salazar. Fred started his journey into the fire services at a young age when he attended a fire academy through a junior college, followed by paramedic school. Fred's first position out of school was with a fire team working for a petrochemical plant in Southern California where he served as a full time industrial Fire Fighter for 7 years. After his service in the industrial world, Fred moved to Colorado where he has worked for a metropolitan fire department for 26 years. Currently, Fred is a fire lieutenant in his department's Heavy Rescue program and has been an instructor with CMC since 1994.

Overheard from this episode:

“For me, one of the most enjoyable moments is when you see the student actually get it.”

“Everything will come full circle at some point.”

In this CMC Instructor podcast, we are joined by LeRoy Harbach. LeRoy started in the fire service in 1981 where he worked his way up to Battalion Chief of the Caledonia, Wisconsin Fire Department. LeRoy left his Battalion Chief position to join the Waukesha Fire Department as an entry level Fire Fighter to take on new challenges and open himself up to new opportunities at a bigger department. LeRoy has been a CMC instructor since 1999 and teaches a variety of classes.

Overheard this episode:

“I get called for a lot of oddities, not only US wide but Internationally.”

“Solving those problems…is a lot of fun.”

This week we are joined by CMC School Instructor Craig McClure. Craig got his start in rope rescue volunteering for a Search and Rescue team in Bend, OR. Eventually after many years of volunteering and teaching in the rope rescue field Craig started his own training company called The Crackerjack Group, which he ran for nearly 10 years. After selling the Crackerjack Group he returned to his passion of rope training world joining CMC as an instructor in April 2022.

Overheard this episode:
4:46 - “Dude, rope is where it’s at.”
16:55 - “I really enjoy what we do in this, which is help people overcome those fears and kind of open up new things in their lives.”
24:52 - “That caving influence in ITRS (International Technical Rescue Symposium) is vital to the growth and vital to the history.”
30:54 - “If you’re going to pick up a new technique, you need to consider what you’re going to stop learning if you’re going to learn a new one.”
35:57 - “Their risk profile is different than yours, so maybe don’t adopt their practices.”

Join us weekly to get to know our CMC instructors. This week we are joined by Matthew Scharper. Matthew got his start in high school, volunteering for the Search and Rescue team in Mariposa County, CA. After search and rescue, Matthew joined the Mariposa Sheriffs department where he worked as a "Gun Toter" and Search and Rescue Coordinator for over 20 years. He worked his way up to State Search and Rescue Coordinator, where he was responsible for 58 counties. Now retired from law enforcement, Matthew has been instructing CMC Rope Rescue Technician I/II courses since 2013.

Overheard this episode:


“When somebody is basically hanging on to the edge of their life, you cannot question what you are doing.”

“I was responsible to make sure that the State had a Standard of Care from North, South, East to West, that all 58 (counties) had the resources they need to do their jobs.”

“At the time I was hired, I was also given the assignment as the Search and Rescue Coordinator for the department because that was something that actually got me into the job and it was something I loved and I wanted to do.”