Ric Jorge completed a 24-year career as a firefighter with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, a district with more than 50 firehouses covering 1.2 million citizens over 1,762 square land miles. As a national and state-certified instructor teaching in his department for more than 14 years, Ric developed and delivered several department-wide trainings.
Ric has delivered lectures and Hands-On Training (H.O.T.) classes nationally and internationally (Ecuador Fire Academy, S.A.), as well as teaching at several well-known fire conferences and training academies annually across the country. These classes have been presented at the FDIC International (Indiana), Fort Lauderdale Fire Expo, Fire Rescue East (Daytona), Orlando Fire Conference (Orlando, FL), Metro Atlanta Fire Conference (Atlanta, GA), 50th State Fire Conference (Oahu, Hawaii), Florida State Fire Academy, Firehouse Expo (Baltimore and Nashville), Great Florida Fire School, Texas Association of Fire Educators Conference, Berks County Fire Symposium (PA), Command Officer Boot Camp (Pensacola, FL), Firemanship Conference (Portland, OR), NE Fire Summit (MA), TEAM Conference (Spokane, WA), and the Company Officer Leadership Conference (LSU/Fire & Emergency Training Institute).
Ric has developed several courses, two of which have drawn national interest: “Impact This: Forcing Impact-Resistant Openings” and “The Monster/Courage Within: Developing and Teaching Resiliency.”
Ric has authored chapters in books, including Fire Engineering’s Handbook for Firefighter I and II and Dave Dodson and John Mittendorf’s The Art of Reading Buildings. He has also authored articles for publication in magazines (Fire Engineering and 1st Responder), newsletters (“Fire Department Training Network”), and online blogs (“Backstep Firefighter”).
Ric Jorge can be contacted at surfdogs4@yahoo.com. Some of his work can be found on FaceBook under “Tactical Resiliency Training,” as well as on YouTube.
