Training on the basics is still a must

Recently I have seen several reports of fire apparatus accidents, the one with the ladder

truck in Florida at a train crossing was just in the news the last few days. We have spent a lot of

time the past few years on trying to reduce line of duty deaths due to heart attacks, cancer and

mental health issues, and while these are very, very important, we can never forget the basic

training that we need. One of those is defensive driving. Basically on 100% of our incidents we

use a vehicle. The same cannot be said for SCBA, hose lines and ladders - our use of those

pieces of equipment does not occur on every incident. The routine is what kills us. We get so

used to taking the vehicles out for incidents and for training events that we don't train for their

use. Nearly every NIOSH report that I have seen where a fire department vehicle accident led to

a line of duty death, NIOSH recommends at least two defensive driving classes each year - one in

the classroom talking about the law and vehicle dynamics and the other getting our people out in

the field and actually driving the apparatus. Let me make it clear here - this is not about keeping

apparatus on the road. It is not about insurance rates. It is not about having to make vehicle

repairs. It is about keeping our firefighters alive and uninjured. Those folks are our number one

resource. So while your firefighters may grumble about doing defensive driving classes, we need

to make sure they know it is all about them - not the trucks.

The same can be said about basic pump operation. I have literally seen fire departments

get to the incident and no one on scene can get water to flow from the engine. That is a training

failure. Some departments don't have training officers but there has to be one person on the

department that knows how to get water moving from the engine. I did a class several years back

for another department with their new class A pumper. This engine, that they had taken delivery

on several months in the past, was basically worthless to them. They had never trained on basic

pump operation. Maybe if they had worked long enough they might have figured it out, but that

training day was a real eye opener.

Then let's talk about getting gear on properly, being confident in the use of SCBA and

extrication equipment, understanding how to deploy ladders. All of these are basic firefighter

skills that have to be taught to new recruits - and frankly refreshed in the minds of us older

firefighters. Every fire meeting should be a training event of some type.

We just started a new year; make this a goal, a new year's resolution if you will, to train

like your life depends upon it - because this is a job that can hurt you. That makes it all the more

important to train, train and train again, because where there’s smoke...