For the past two years, I have been getting more involved in instructing in firefighting programs such as firefighter II, firefighter III, engine operations, and rapid intervention. During that time, I have noticed one common challenge: Regardless of whether the students were volunteers or career firefighters from large municipalities, there tended to be a great deal of burn tower tactics. The days of acquiring structures for live fire training are few and far between and may even be nonexistent in many areas. I understand that the burn tower is the only source of training for many departments; however, unless these training sites are set up to provide realism, it is no different from putting a rifle in the hands of untrained soldiers and dropping them off at the front lines.
“Burn tower tactics” train firefighters to do primary searches in bare concrete rooms with little to no furniture, advance hoselines into buildings with the fire and heat contained to one room, and open roofs with no smoke and heat pushing out the hole. They do not pull ceilings or check knee walls and vent windows when conditions call for it.
What can we do to enhance the learning experience of “burn tower firefighters”? First, look at the inside of your burn tower to determine how realistic the environment is. Do you have walls and ceiling props in, near, or above the burn room to develop and enhance skills in overhaul and checking for fire extension? If these props exist but are nowhere near the fire room, then you are teaching a technique only and not a tactic. Having these props in place strengthens the understanding of fire behavior and fire spread as well as tool management.
Second, are there any interior doors to force in low visibility? Learning to size up, control, and force a door in smoke conditions is a challenge and an experience that should not be overlooked. The first time I tried to force a door in a smoke-filled enclosed stairway was an eye-opening experience in that it taught me how important it is to train in these environments. Sizing up a door and working with a partner to help set the forks of the pry bar for a controlled force of the door and controlling the environment take time and practice.
Third, look at the amount of furniture that is in each room. I can’t think of one fire to which I responded, except for those involving abandoned buildings, where the walls and floors were bare. So why would we want to train firefighters to perform and develop primary search skills in empty rooms? Firefighters are practically crawling on all fours in a train formation, dragging their shoulders along all four walls, missing common travel areas of the room, and being set up to fail in a real incident.
Next, look at the props. How realistic are they? I see so many roof props that provide nothing more than skills training on using a power saw or an ax. There is much more to learn about venting a roof besides cutting a 4 × 4 hole. Also, most of these roof props are built on the ground and are easily walked on. As with the department I work for and most departments across the country, vertical ventilation is a primary tactic in coordinated fireground operations. With that in mind, training only on “walkable” roofs is counterproductive.
To bring realism to your roof prop, first get it off the ground. Having a roof prop that requires the use of a ground ladder or the main ladder from a truck to gain access to the roof is extremely valuable. Learning how to get on and off the roof with tools is a skill commonly overlooked; it should be given high priority. Then, make the roof with a nonwalkable pitch on both sides with a ridge/peak. Doghouses and dormers can be added along with a removable chimney; all add navigation, size-up, and cutting challenges.
The training center should also have a realistic flat roof prop with simulated parapets and various roofing materials. Having different roofing materials increases awareness and skills in cutting a variety of roofs as well as learning the effectiveness of certain styles of blades.
One last item to consider is a removable gable end that shows knee walls that help one to understand what to look for and the associated hazards.
Before building the roof props, make sure there is a way to charge the underside and attic space with heat and smoke. Also, hang a drywall under the area where the hole is to be cut to simulate pushing in the ceiling. With these added features, you will have a top-of-the-line roof prop and an excellent source of training for everyone regardless of their time and experience in the fire service.
Finally, in conjunction with all of the other information and ideas, providing exterior forcible entry challenges is also important. Having roll-down doors, burglar bars, plywood, and so on develops forcible entry skills and builds confidence when faced with such obstacles. These and other ideas for props can be found online or are available from other sources.
Setting up a more realistic training ground is paramount in today’s fire service. The old-timers with all of the knowledge and skills are rapidly disappearing. We can no longer rely on actual fires or training burns to maintain and improve our skills. If you are going to have a training center or provide training for others, make it realistic. If you have the mindset of just pacifying the curriculum or going through the motions, you are in the wrong business.
Brett Snow
Firefighter
Chicago (IL) Fire Department
Education vs. experience
There has been and probably always will be debate in the fire service regarding the usefulness of higher education. The discussion goes the same in almost every firehouse: “What’s the value of a ‘piece of paper’ vs. ‘real-life experience’?” These discussions appear to be almost scripted, as each side of the discussion weighs the value of the education received from a school of higher learning and the school of “hard knocks.” As a graduate of both schools, to some extent, I’d like to weigh in on the discussion.
As to whether a formal education or the experience gained by years on the job is more beneficial, I believe they have equal value as long as the same dedication and effort were put into them.
Just as a child who touches the hot stove while the parent is not looking learns quickly that he should stay away from the burner, we also learn from our mistakes as we do our job. In both situations, there is the potential for serious consequences, but with luck and a little help from above, we live and learn. By far, many of us learn more through the trials and errors of doing the job. But, at what cost? Will our next “learning experience” be the one that gets us or a fellow firefighter killed or seriously injured? Will our next class in the school of hard knocks be the one that earns us a lawsuit from mishandling a personnel issue? Obtaining your education through real-life application alone can be very difficult and, as we read almost daily in the newspapers (i.e., fire department lawsuits, terminations, budget miscalculations, injuries, and deaths), can require a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, leaving you with many scars.
A college education cannot and will not completely replace the value of experience. What it can do, however, is minimize the severity and extent of damage you will cause as you continue to learn and do your job. The courses you take will allow you to learn methods for minimizing risk and learning from others’ mistakes and successes. The college curriculum is designed to develop and build on your “slide show” of experiences and prepare you for the challenges you will face in the real world. The material you learn and the exercises you perform in the classroom provide you with tools to navigate through the challenges that would normally take time to learn through a series of attempts and failures. Don’t get me wrong. You will still have failures; your classes will prepare you only to a given level. It’s at that point, beyond the most commonly encountered mistakes, that you build on your formal education with experience, trying new things, and learning from your mistakes.
Many in the fire service have been able to successfully learn through trial and error and have contributed tremendously to the profession. They have done this through hard work and dedication, working hard to learn from their mistakes and studying the mistakes of others to prevent the same stumbling blocks. Whether you attend college or not, you can learn much from them. Inquire about their successes and failures, learn from their valuable experience, and pass it on to the next generations. I wonder, though, how much more they could have accomplished if they had received the benefits of a college education before they were confronted with the challenges on which they cut their teeth as fire service leaders.
Whether we attend college or not, the “secret to success” in this profession is hard work and endless learning. If you pursue a college degree only for the degree and not for the information available in the courses, save your money. That degree is a very expensive, useless piece of paper if you have not learned from your educational experiences. The same thing goes for the experience you gain in the real world. If you are content with experiencing the same things over and over again, you are only surviving and may be setting yourself or others up for a tragic failure. It’s when you are willing to move forward and participate in new and challenging experiences that you begin to lead and increase your value and usefulness to the profession. When you retire, will you have many years worth of experiences, or will you have just experienced many years?
James (Jay) Cullinan
Battalion Chief
Spotsylvania, Virginia
Editor’s note: Photo 11 on page 95 of the article “Vehicle Fires: Is It Time to Change Our Training?” in the July 2010 issue was provided through the courtesy of Los Angeles County (CA) Fire Department (LACFD), not the Windsor Locks (CT) Fire Department. It refers to the injuries LACFD Firefighter Fred Stowers sustained in June 1998.
Fire Engineering Archives
