#430 Never on a 10: Leadership, Accountability and the Fireground Reality with Bob Palestrant

Today’s conversation is with Bob Palestrant, a firefighter, emergency manager and author of Never on a 10, whose career spans more than four decades across nursing, paramedicine, frontline firefighting, urban search and rescue, aviation firefighting and homeland security. Bob spent over twenty years working in one of the busiest battalions in North America, deployed with Florida Task Force 1 including Ground Zero after 9/11, and later held senior leadership roles coordinating responses to aviation disasters, mass casualty incidents, major hurricanes and terrorism related events. This episode is grounded in lived experience where decisions carried real consequences for real people.

This is not a highlight reel and it is not a nostalgia exercise. It is an honest, wide ranging discussion about physical readiness, mental health, leadership under pressure, recruitment standards, accountability and firehouse culture. We talk about close calls, outdated systems that still put firefighters at risk, the responsibility leaders carry for their crews and why mentorship and paying it forward matter more than rank or reputation. This episode was recorded earlier in the year and released later than planned, but the timing does not dilute the message. These lessons are earned, unfiltered and absolutely worth the wait.

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