training ideas

[bvfd228]

I am heading up my volunteer dept brand new division of training. It is a new thing for us and I want to make it worth while. As of now I have no budget and all trainings will be in house and informal. My dept has trouble getting guys motivated. Eventually I would like to push for a training budget to be allocated but for now I am looking for ideas for trainings that I could organize and do with what we have. Anybody with ideas on training or ideas on getting guys motivated on training. Does anybody have incentive programs for members who put in a good effort or those who excel.

[LFDLT10]

Use the K.I.S.S. theory.

Work on the fundamentals. Search skills in the truck bay, working on ground ladders at the fire house, drafting at one of your water points. None of those things require a budget, and are things that everybody needs to train on. Be creative. A few months back one of my training sessions was to break the guys into crews and combine area familiarization, driver training, and hydrant mapping. You can accomplish a lot of training with a nothing budget if you put your mind to it. Also, don't be afraid to ask your guys what they want to do. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of your guys want to get out and do hands on stuff, especially if you have a bunch of newer guys.

Also talk with the officers of your department and see what they think you need to work on. One year we noticed that we were getting slack on our ground ladder skills, so that year I used ground ladders in training every chance I got. Now my guys are some of the best around when it comes to setting up ground ladders.

You also need to have a backup plan. When I post a training schedule I make sure that everybody knows that it isn't written in stone because circumstances may dictate a change on short notice. The apparatus needed for the training could be broke, weather could make the planned training dangerous, A few months ago my Captain and I went around our response area with a digital camera and took photos of different types of buildings. Took us about an hour to take the pictures. We then made a slide show to be used on a drill night when the scheduled topic wouldn't work. The night we used it my guys said it was one of the best trainings we ever did.

[RFRDxplorer]

I will have more time to elaborate on training ideas later as I am running out the door, but a great drill that is fairly simple to do, teaches or refines a seldomly used skill, and can be done for free is the building of a roof simulator for cutting ventilation holes.

I just built one this week for our explorers to use in their drill. All the wood except for two sheets of OSB were salvaged from a construction site (in high winds a church in the process of being built collapsed, my Dad is the safety director for another construction company and called his counterpart at the other company who said we could take whatever we needed/wanted.) The rest of the hardware and supplies, we had lying around either my house or my buddy's house.

We built the whole thing without any plans and just playing it by ear and it turned out to work pretty damn well. We even shingled the sections that were to be cut (also had some shingles lying around)

I will post pictures and more tips when I come back.

[FFYagour88]

I will have more time to elaborate on training ideas later as I am running out the door, but a great drill that is fairly simple to do, teaches or refines a seldomly used skill, and can be done for free is the building of a roof simulator for cutting ventilation holes.

I just built one this week for our explorers to use in their drill. All the wood except for two sheets of OSB were salvaged from a construction site (in high winds a church in the process of being built collapsed, my Dad is the safety director for another construction company and called his counterpart at the other company who said we could take whatever we needed/wanted.) The rest of the hardware and supplies, we had lying around either my house or my buddy's house.

We built the whole thing without any plans and just playing it by ear and it turned out to work pretty damn well. We even shingled the sections that were to be cut (also had some shingles lying around)

I will post pictures and more tips when I come back.

why do explorers need to practice vent operations?

[jbrescue]

You can do a lot of training for little or nothing.
-Engine company drills
------Have the guys pull a line like they are attacking a fire in full gear, time them so see how long they take to get water onto the "fire" and establish a water supply
-Truck comapny drills
------Throw ladders, roof ladder placement, etc.
-SCBA familiarization
-------Have them black out masks and don SCBA, take the packs apart and make the reassemble them in the dark. Create small spaces to crawl through for low profile maneuvers
-Search patterns
-------Put all sorts of obstacles in the bay or smaller area and make them search for a manikin or firefighter. Add a child or infant CPR manikin into the mix, they will most likely miss it, Drives home the point of a complete search
-Drags and carries
-Firefighter rescue
-Building construction
-Preplans
-Walk throughs

None of these would cost a thing, the list is endless. Go under the training section of this site for some sample drills.

[Futureemt73193]

why do explorers need to practice vent operations?

Just so they know how for when they get older....maybe?

In our explorer's program we do hose mazes....if that is something you may be looking for. That is pretty fun.

[bvfd228]

thanks for all the input keep it coming you guys have some great ideas I have already mentioned some to my chief and he is very receptive

[Futureemt73193]

You can look here. These are some things that explorers do but they still may be helpful.

http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?p=920053#post92 0053

Is there any certain one thing you are looking for? Or just anything in general.

This may help.... http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=88698&highlight=Training+Ideas

You can also use the search thats provided by this website and type in training ideas and see what comes up.

[greg1605]

I have found that you don't need a huge budget to get training done. As for getting members to show up for training, make it fun and challenging. I went to class showing how to build cheap props inhouse to help change training scenarios.
One of the better ones was cutting a fence post into two pieces and attaching it to a belt. We then drove the bottom part into the ground and put the "victim" into the belt making it look like the victim had been inpailed. It took a bit to get the crew to realize that the post was buried and they would have to cut the post as well as dig it out and package the patient.
Another low cost aid is instead of a smoke machine, take wax paper and wad it up into a ball. Straighten the paper out and put it on the inside of the facepiece folded over.(MAKE SURE IT IS FLAT AND WILL STAY TO PREVENT EYE INJURY!!) This will allow light in but limit visibility for the member's but instructors can see fine.(also the brighter the area the beter it works).
For scba confidence we built the a tube for the training as opposed to buying the plastic culvert for 500 dollars. We found a source for clean 55 allon barrels and cut both ends out. We then welded two barrells together. After building three of those we can alter how short the tube is or how long it is. The barells are mounted into stands built with lumber donated from local contrators and lumber yards.
Let me knoe if you need more in depth instructions.

Training is secondary only to safety!

[rogerpete]

Last week we played 3 on 3 inside the firehouse in gear and SCBA. The guys enjoyed it, and it was a good experience for some of the new guys. This also was a fun way to teach the new guys how talking will help conserve air (even if it was trash talk about shots), alot of active range of motion, and how fatigue will impair your skills. But some of our guys blamed fatigue on their rotten basketball skills! We didn't run anyone too hard, it was meant to be a "cross-training" of skills, fun, and comraderie all rolled into one. They want to do this once a month now.
Roger
NE Ohio

[dday05]

Anybody with ideas on training or ideas on getting guys motivated on training. Does anybody have incentive programs for members who put in a good effort or those who excel.

Well for starters incentives? How about the training you do might save your life some day? I think that should be incentive enough don't you? How comes there has to be a catch to everything and people are expecting something in return such as a reward or what not?

For training you could do pump operations,ladders, equip fam, hose, search and rescue, scba, ff survival, the list goes on and on...

How does your dept react to the new laws for Ohio firefighters?