Book Briefs: First In, Last Out: Leadership Lessons from the NY Fire Dept. | CIO Insight

Book Briefs: First In, Last Out: Leadership Lessons from the NY Fire Dept.

Feb 1, 2004
1 minute read

First In, Last Out: Leadership Lessons from the NY Fire Dept.
By John Salka with Barret Neville
Portfolio, March 2004
240 pages, $24.95

The firehouse jargon is confusing and ultimately annoying. Ignore it. Salka, a New York City Fire Department battalion chief, has written an excellent primer on how to lead. It begins with overarching themes such as the one represented by the title: The person in charge needs to go first as the company attacks any problem, and must stay to the end to make sure the problem is resolved. From there, Salka provides specific tactics. Among them: Communicate aggressively (“a working radio is worth 20,000 gallons of water”) and concentrate on execution (“focus your people on the flames, not the fire”).

CIO Insight Staff

CIO Insight offers thought leadership and best practices in the IT security and management industry while providing expert recommendations on software solutions for IT leaders. It is the trusted resource for security professionals who need network monitoring technology and solutions to maintain regulatory compliance for their teams and organizations.

CIO Insight Logo

CIO Insight offers thought leadership and best practices in the IT security and management industry while providing expert recommendations on software solutions for IT leaders. It is the trusted resource for security professionals who need to maintain regulatory compliance for their teams and organizations. CIO Insight is an ideal website for IT decision makers, systems integrators and administrators, and IT managers to stay informed about emerging technologies, software developments and trends in the IT security and management industry.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2026 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.