I heard this phrase recently, and it caught my attention: “You can’t learn to drive in a parked car.” After reading it a couple of times, I realized that numerous words can be plugged into this idea to make it pertain to some fire service concepts.
For example, you can’t learn to cut a roof on the apparatus floor. You can train and drill and teach everything about using a power saw to cut the roof of a burning building on the apparatus floor, but something more is required. The training and instruction that you must—yes, must—get on a roof or a realistic training prop and actually using a saw to cut a roof are where the real learning takes place.
So, let me explain a little about exactly why hands-on training, for any physical tactic or skill, is absolutely necessary to produce effective and proper operations.
‘Trained,’ but unprepared
Let’s say that you’re the officer on duty in Ladder 11.
You decide to conduct a training exercise with the company’s new roof-cutting circular saw. The members have experience with the currently assigned power saw and use it often, but the new saw has several different features compared with the existing model.
You assemble the firefighters on the apparatus floor adjacent to the truck. The new saw is sitting on the floor beside the rig. After describing the features and differences of this machine compared with the current saw, you ask the firefighters whether they have any questions. After answering and discussing those questions, you bring the group and the saw to the rear yard where wooden pallets are laid out. Each member is instructed to start the saw, make several cuts and shut down the saw.
Are these firefighters ready to use that new saw on the roof of a burning building? No. Why? They’ve been training, haven’t they? However, the level of training that they received is insufficient when compared with the level of training that’s required.
Operating equipment and using tools at fires and on emergency scenes require members to develop physical hands-on experience. That training often is the most difficult and expensive to conduct. Additionally, when firefighters are trained on the technical details of a tool or piece of equipment, such as how deep a saw can cut or how wide jaws can spread, they rarely must be retrained on those facts. On the other hand, the actual physical use of a piece of equipment must be repeated regularly to maintain and improve the firefighters’ ability to use the equipment safely, effectively and rapidly.
Ability & efficiency
Let’s look at a few operations where hands-on training sessions can produce dramatic levels of ability and efficiency for firefighters:
- Power saw operations. After the basics are reviewed, have firefighters start and use the saw to cut on a roof prop or other physical platform that’s of similar construction to actual building roof systems. To make it more realistic, use smoke under the prop and have the firefighters cut while they’re wearing SCBA or instruct them how to move around the cutting area to keep the wind at their back.
- Forcible entry. Use the doors in the firehouse to show how the axe, Halligan and hydraulic forcible entry tools are placed without actually forcing the doors. Then, get to a forcible entry training prop to let the firefighters physically place, strike and pry with each tool for each of the different forcible entry skills. Lastly, get permission to go into a vacant building or a home that’s being demolished and force locked doors.
Bottom line
Training is important, but when it comes to physical tactics and skills, the training is incomplete if hands-on evolutions aren’t included.
