Make Every Day a Training Day

Training in the fire service is more important today than it ever was. That said, with myriad areas from which to choose on any given day, particularly in the all-risk environments in which we function, on what topics should we concentrate?

I long have advocated for directing volunteer training topics to support three specific functions: advancing hoselines, throwing ladders and conducting primary searches. Now, this mindset doesn’t imply that there aren’t other topics that are equally important. For example, saving our own, or rapid intervention, is of paramount importance when the need arises, but without a mastery of the basics, such high-risk/low-frequency events have a diminished chance of seeing a successful outcome. Let’s advance the lines and put some water on the fire, because things tend to improve exponentially after that. Let’s throw some ladders, so we have a way in and a way out. Let’s perform strategic and efficient primary searches that benefit not only the citizenry who we are sworn to protect but also our own firefighters in their time of need.

As a volunteer, the excuses for not training are as poor as they are antiquated. As a matter of fact, there are no excuses for not training. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Four adages that I live by when it comes to training for volunteer departments are:

• You can’t train enough for a job that can kill you.
• Train as if your life depends on it, because it does.
• Let no man’s ghost return to say, “If only the training had done its job.”
• Don’t train until you get it right; train until you can’t get it wrong.

These should drive your department’s training. They speak of mastery, commitment and selfless dedication to our calling; all of them are benchmarks of a strong, ardent and professional volunteer firefighter.

Advancing hoselines

Drills that involve the advancement of hoselines can be done virtually anywhere and require a minimum of props or extra equipment. Everything that you need is on the rig. Hose loads will become a critical factor in determining how rapidly that the line can be put into service. You must experiment with many loads in an effort to find the one(s) that works best for your department. You might find the need for different loads depending on the configuration of your rigs, particularly where the load is stored. Unfortunately, there’s no one perfect hose load for every fire department, and a cookie-cutter approach to determining what will work for you by copying the department that’s down the street will be met inevitably with failure.

Begin behind the firehouse with easy stretches off of the rig: straight shots to the front door without objects blocking the way. Measure the success of your crews by setting time metrics to complete the stretch. Today, most departments utilize a 150- or 200-foot preconnect for initial attacks. Those handlines should be stretched and ready for advancement within 30–45 seconds of the airbrake on the apparatus being set.

As your crews become masters of that stretch—and I emphasize, masters—start placing objects in the path of the stretch. Anything that crews must work around will suffice: other rigs, personal vehicles and 55-gal. drums are a sampling of ideas. Once they master obstacles, start advancing into the firehouse. They will encounter more obstacles there, and the lessons that they learn will serve them well.

If your city or county has a training facility, these same drills can be employed there. You might be fortunate enough to have some acquired structures that will serve your efforts perfectly; they are a true representation of what your crews will encounter. Just be sure that the structure is sufficiently sound when committing crews to advances within the structure itself. If your training facility or acquired structure has very sterile rooms—meaning, there’s no “stuff” in them—put some stuff in them. This assists in building on the previously learned lessons with obstacles.

Two things that are important to keep in mind regarding hoseline stretches: estimating the total length of hose that’s necessary and layout configuration.

An easy way to practice estimating distances without stretching a handline every time is to utilize utility rope or a measuring wheel. Obtain a few sections of utility rope that mirror the lengths of the hoselines that you employ and have your crews/company officers refine their estimating skills.

Regarding layout configuration, I have found that a hoseline that’s stretched perpendicular to the wall, in line with the entry point, is much more easily advanced and with less personnel than one that’s parallel to the wall. A parallel layout will create a bend, or pinch point, at the entry quickly, which necessitates that a firefighter moves to that position to facilitate advancement. Additionally, have the nozzleperson bring the first coupling as far inside of the entry as possible. This procedure allows more hoseline for advancement and prohibits the coupling from getting hung up on the threshold during the advance.

Throwing ladders

Regardless of whether your department runs a ladder truck, ground ladders are a must on the fireground. The ladders that we carry on the pumper are there for a reason, and although they might need a little coaxing to remove from their rusted brackets, trust me, they were designed to be removed and utilized. The roof ladder requires only a single person to throw, and it should be drilled exactly that way. Although many believe that the 24- and 28-foot extension ladder requires two people to throw, I completely disagree. There’s no reason why an extension ladder of the aforementioned lengths can’t be thrown by one person. It just takes practice and the proper technique.

Have your crews work individually with your extension ladders, employing both the low- and high-shoulder carries to see what works best for each individual. If there are members of your team who have difficulty with those carries, let them know that dragging the ladder to where it’s to be thrown is a perfectly acceptable option.

Always have the building do the bulk of the work when it comes to footing/­supporting the ladder during the raise and lower. Do this until your crews are so comfortable with that tactic that you can move on to more advanced single-person throws.

Get your crews comfortable with climbing ladders, too. The things that they were taught in Firefighter I are good techniques and will serve them well. Climbing rhythmically by way of opposite hand/opposite foot and skipping rungs as opposed to stepping on every rung hastens their ascent.

As part of ladder drills, be sure to incorporate victim removal via ladder.

When teaching proper climbing angles, be certain to mention that the old “¼ out for every foot up” rule might not be the best option nowadays when it comes to firefighter safety and survival. Firefighters who are forced to perform a ladder bailout definitely will appreciate a ladder that’s positioned with a climbing angle that’s less severe than the standard 75-degree angle.

Have them extend the butt more than the standard states, thereby creating a lesser and safer angle for those who must bail from an untenable room in a hurry. This lesser angle also aids firefighters when they remove victims, because more weight is transferred to the ground through the ladder as opposed to being borne by the rescuer.

The same places that you utilize for advancing hoselines should serve you well for throwing ladders. Better yet, get out in the community. Talk to local businesses that won’t mind you utilizing their structures for training. Some won’t allow this, but many will. Be cognizant of their donation and let them know how much that you appreciate it by grabbing a photograph for your social media accounts, thereby giving the business some free advertising. You also can consider throwing a challenge coin or T-shirt their way.

Primary search

The primary search is probably the reason that most of us wanted to get on the fire department. The preservation of life is the first objective that’s listed in most departmental mission statements and for good reason. We are the last, best hope, and failure isn’t an option. Some will say that searches aren’t required on all fires, but our noble calling is chock-full of instances when people were inside of burning structures unbeknownst to the occupants. No building is unoccupied until the fire department says that it’s unoccupied, period. Most fires don’t start themselves, so some sort of human interaction must have occurred. Who’s to say that person(s) still isn’t inside? The fire department, that’s who!

Concentrate on the basics: Simple left- and right-hand searches are the best place to start. As the crews progress, introduce more advanced techniques and technology, such as thermal imaging cameras and search ropes. Start them off without their vision obscured to build some muscle-memory and to develop good search techniques. When it’s time to move into vision-obscured searches, you don’t need fancy smoke machines or other high-priced technology to aid in this endeavor. Simply turning their protective hoods backward or purchasing a roll of wax paper from the grocery store and placing a small, crumpled piece (about one-foot square) inside of the facemask suffices. Just understand that these ideas won’t work when you employ the thermal imaging camera.

Make sure that your crews search side-by-side when it’s possible, as opposed to following each other like an inchworm. Make sure that they carry two tools when they begin the search, one to aid in the search itself and one to leave at the door, so they know the entire room has been covered. Instead of searching with their hand on a wall and using the tool to reach out into the room, have them keep the tool in touch with the wall and utilize their hand for the search. This technique keeps the search rapid and safer as firefighters won’t have to leave the wall to investigate something that they found with the tool and then have to find their way back to the wall to continue.

If your rules and regulations will permit it, allow two-person crews to split up, one right and the other left, when they enter a room. When they meet, simply have them pass each other and continue in their original orientation, thereby providing a secondary search for their partner’s primary. If you have the luxury of three-person crews, you might want to practice leaving the crew leader at the door while the other two search the room. The crew leader can use voice commands or bang a tool on the wall or floor to direct crews back to the entry point should one or both become disoriented. The thermal imaging camera is a perfect addition to carrying out this type of search.

I advocate closing the door to the room to be searched (the reason for carrying the second tool) to head off possible routes of smoke and heat travel and to introduce new flow paths into the structure. This is critical if your department utilizes the “vent as you go” search method, whereby windows that are encountered during a search are opened and left that way. Shut the door again as you move from the room and mark it somehow to let subsequent search crews know that the primary search has been completed.

You must incorporate victim drags and carries into your search training (including victim removal via ladder, as noted above). VES (vent enter search) and/or VEIS (vent enter isolate search) training is a bit more advanced but should be given great consideration as part of the training regimen.

Before the ‘more advanced’

Having crews that are masters of these three simple, but critical, tasks set the tone for a successful fireground operation. It allows future, more advanced drills of the same and differing topics to be delivered more efficiently, because your crews will have developed the discipline, confidence and experience that’s necessary.