About
A policy library for the fire service.
Built by people who believe every firehouse deserves the same quality of guidance as a career department in a city.
The story
It started with a binder.
A few years ago, a volunteer department asked a simple question: what should our policies actually look like?The answers they kept finding were dense PDFs written for compliance binders, policies photocopied from whoever was nearby, or templates that didn't match a small-department reality.
None of those worked for a department with eight active members and a chief with a full-time job. So we started writing plain-English versions — what actually happens on a call, what the standard says, and what your department ought to put on paper.
Over time it became a small library. Then it became a site. The goal has never changed: clear guidance and usable templates, available to every firehouse.
What Tailboard is
A resource, not a product.
Tailboard is a website. Read the guides, download the templates, adapt them to your department.
It is not a replacement for your chief's judgment, your authority having jurisdiction, or your state's requirements. It is a head start so you spend your Tuesday night working on the last 20% of a policy instead of the first 80%.
Principles
How we make decisions.
Plain English over jargon.
If a probie can’t understand it at 2 a.m., it’s not good writing. We cite the standards; we don’t sound like them.
Safety first, always.
Mayday, RIT, PPE, and two-in/two-out aren’t opinions. They’re written to the most protective, most current standard.
Updated when the standards are.
NFPA editions change, NIOSH publishes new findings, OSHA issues new guidance. When they move, the library moves with them.
Your department is yours.
We give you a starting point. You adapt it. You sign it. You own it. Nothing about using Tailboard grants us any rights to your policies.
How to help
A library is only as good as the people who contribute.
Request a template
Missing a policy you need? Tell us. Frequent requests move to the top of the queue.
hello@tailboard.org
Send feedback
Found a gap, an error, or unclear language in a template? We want to hear it.
hello@tailboard.org
Share your version
Adopted a template with changes that made it better? Contribute it back — we’ll fold it in with credit.
hello@tailboard.org
The legal bit
Tailboard’s content is provided for informational purposes. It is not legal advice and is not a substitute for your department’s own review, your chief’s judgment, or consultation with qualified legal counsel and your Authority Having Jurisdiction. Every policy adopted from this library remains the responsibility of the adopting department. Standards, laws, and best practices change — verify the currency of any document before relying on it operationally.