William M. Kramer

Author Bill Kramer has been in emergency services his entire life, both as a practitioner and as an educator. At the age of 18, he began a fire service career as a volunteer firefighter in suburban Cincinnati and later joined the Cincinnati Fire Department where he worked through the ranks, retiring as Assistant Fire Chief. He then served as Fire Chief for the Indianapolis International Airport Facility and later as Fire Chief for Deerfield Township in Warren County, Ohio.

He has earned two bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees, and a Ph.D., and stayed busy educating firefighters, most notably as Director of Fire Science at the University of Cincinnati. At the University of Cincinnati, Kramer not only leads the ever-popular Distance Learning Bachelor’s Degree in fire science, but also a newly developed master’s degree in Emergency Management. He serves as a consultant, working to improve fire protection and planning for domestic preparedness and homeland security affairs, and travels widely due to his expertise in the disaster and emergency preparedness arena.

Kramer is the coauthor of the Fire Officer’s Guide to Disaster Control (Fire Engineering) and was featured in training videos for American Heat and Working Fire.