As a firefighter for most of my professional life, I’ll be the first to admit that I cherish our fraternal rivalry with our brothers and sisters in law enforcement. I also admit that I have a few members of my family who crossed over to the “dark side” to work in law enforcement. (In the interest of full disclosure, I confess, at one time, I also dabbled in the “dark arts” of law enforcement).
It’s a tough day when, as firefighters, we must admit that the police could teach us a thing or two. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, I know, but bitter medicine helps the patient to survive. Surviving the fireground is Priority 1, and anything that helps us to achieve that goal is worth looking at.
Fire departments nationwide have suffered for years from budget cutbacks, staffing issues, equipment shortages and, frankly, leadership deficiencies. Across the board, one area that suffers the most in times of fiscal and leadership downturns is training. When times are lean, training budgets shrink faster than a Styrofoam cup in a campfire. This failure to fund and conduct adequate training, particularly leadership development, is a firefighter killer.
Firefighting is a team sport. Like any profession, the skill sets that are necessary to accomplish the mission are perishable if they aren’t honed and practiced. Unfortunately, many fire departments believe that training isn’t important if companies are “doing it”—fighting fires—on a regular basis. Yet few companies today get anywhere near the amount of time that’s needed to stay proficient in our increasingly complex environment. For example, team building is critically important to the success of small units, but it rarely is taught to new lieutenants or first-line supervisors.
Any firefighter who ever watched a SWAT team execute a dynamic entry must (begrudgingly) marvel at the level of training and determination that goes into successfully executing this tactic. The team members line up at the door, closely coordinated and in constant communication, then move toward the objective with speed and precision. Done properly, it’s like a ballet, a thing of beauty, and looks simple, if it wasn’t so deadly serious. It looks that way because the teams practice it over and over and over until they can do it with their eyes closed.
It occurred to me that, as firefighters, every time that we attack a dwelling fire, for example, we do our own version of a dynamic entry. The driver/pump operator secures a water source and drops the onboard tank. The “tip” flakes and bleeds the line, packs up and stands by. Ladders are placed, and ventilation is executed. The “irons” forces the door. The backup feeds the line, and the officer directs the entire operation from the front. When done correctly, it also is a thing of beauty and is one of the most impressive things that you (or the cops who watch from across the street) ever will see. All engine and ladder companies are expected to perform the equivalent of a coordinated, dynamic entry every time that they attack a structure fire—except that they must do it with no advanced notice and little time to coordinate units or plan it out, all under rapidly deteriorating conditions.
Emphasis on organizational level training
Now, compare our training time with that of a SWAT team: It isn’t even close. Remember, SWAT teams are the elite of law enforcement, not ordinary patrol officers. Fire departments are expected to get the most dangerous task in firefighting correct 100 percent of the time with their rank and file, with what amounts to minimum training. Keep in mind, firefighters are expected to perform dozens of tasks, any one of which, if performed incorrectly or out of time, could lead to severe injury or death. Can we actually say that we get enough realistic training? Remember, effective training is training that simulates as close as is realistically possible the conditions and circumstances that are expected to be encountered in the line of duty.
For the chief—the incident commander who is responsible for the ultimate success or failure of the campaign—many operations involve multiple companies that attack the fire from multiple directions and/or points of entry simultaneously, usually in the most adverse conditions. The real-world fireground always is fraught with complications—poor radio communications, blocked access routes, equipment or performance deficiencies, utilities malfunctioning or compromised, logistical issues—the list of what can go wrong on a fireground can be endless. Yet, in many organizations, the first time that fire chiefs might get to supervise a large-scale emergency is when they’re called to command their first incident. Practice running an incident or practical, multicompany training for most officers is virtually nonexistent in some departments. Imagine a SWAT commander in the same situation. How many times does a SWAT team run the drill? The answer is, they never stop.
When we talk about training, there are various types that we can describe, from reading professional literature on our own time, to station drills and exercises, all the way up to what I consider the most important training of all: organizational level training (OLT). The reason that I place the highest emphasis on OLT is because that’s the formal, standardized training level, which is endorsed by the organization and that every unit is supposed to be capable of executing on command. These are the baseline and advanced tactics and techniques that are vetted and endorsed by the organization, using consensus standards while operating within acceptable levels of risk. They are formalized and usually set down as standard operating procedures (SOPs) or other agency policies. Other training—station exercises and company drills—is important but only is meant to fill low-level gaps or reinforce competence in skills that already are learned in an otherwise comprehensive training program.
Promotion
One of the most difficult transitions to make in the fire service is from firefighter to lieutenant (usually, first-line supervisor). It’s a transition that’s fraught with complexities, such as removal from one’s dominant social or peer group and entrance into another. That first promotion is when we go from being “one of the fellas” to not quite “being in the club” of leadership. The promotion to lieutenant can be stressful and turbulent.
As a first-line supervisor, you’re responsible for making some of the most critical and difficult decisions at any incident scene. These decisions—to mount an aggressive interior attack or go defensive, for example—drive the rest of the incident.
The promotion also is where we sometimes do the least to prepare our members. Without formal officer development training that’s part of an ongoing leadership development program, we endorse a “back step to front seat overnight” environment that isn’t fair to the new supervisor nor to the members who are being supervised. Remember, firefighters have the right and expect to be led by competent, highly trained and highly motivated supervisors who have a desire to learn their craft and to accept the burden of command.
The surest way to motivate a new supervisor to rise to the challenges that they are expected to face is to instill competence in their own ability to handle whatever the streets throw at them. That confidence comes through successful training. The flipside is sending unqualified, unprepared, unsure and indecisive officers into situations that they aren’t ready for, essentially setting them up to fail. That’s unforgivable, because new officers’ reputation and confidence easily can be destroyed if they make mistakes or don’t display competence fairly quickly. It might not be fair, but the firefighters who are trying to extinguish a basement fire aren’t concerned with what’s fair. Like the first police officer through the door in a dynamic entry, firefighters only are concerned with doing their job and going home at the end of their shift.
Members who step up to assume a leadership position in the fire service are choosing a difficult path. We owe it to them to see that they have every tool that’s necessary to succeed. We owe it to them to help them to become the best, most competent leaders that we can field.
