BY JASON HOEVELMANN
Firefighters are always resourceful. No matter what the circumstances, they will almost always find a way to accomplish their goal, which in training is always a great thing.
Recently, one of my captains pulled me aside, giddy with excitement. Leading me to my office, he was eager to show me pictures of the training his crew and some volunteers had done a few days before. When he popped a disk of photos in the computer, I was pleasantly surprised: Firefighters, wearing full turnout gear with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and face masks covered with hoods, were on breathing air as they crawled around a school playground, following a rope around obstacles and over uneven surfaces. There were no doors or walls to follow, and the rope crossed itself in many places, making following it with gloved hands difficult at best. It was a great sight.
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| (1) The rope was tied off to a nearby swing set, and firefighters with face masks covered started with the easy side. [Photos by Captain David Konys, Sullivan (MO) Fire Protection District.] |
The playground, in addition to offering many different obstacles and elevations, did not require any reconfiguration or travel to different sites. It was free to use, and since it was outdoors, it allowed the fire district to showcase the firefighters to the public during a training evolution.
Even the more experienced firefighters commented that being in such an unusual environment was an eye-opener. They said it wasn’t the same as gliding their hands across a smooth wall with doors and windows. The playground equipment offered different shapes, sizes, and textures. The sides and floors moved with the firefighters, giving it an unstable feeling, which increased firefighters’ anxiety levels. The openings were much smaller than personnel normally encountered, because the playground was designed with rambunctious kids in mind. The smaller openings were definitely more challenging and pushed most of the members out of their comfort zones.
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| (2) Crews progressed through the playground and had to fit through tight areas. The triangle formed by the slide and the yellow post was awkward to negotiate while wearing SCBA. |
Moreover, the captain explained, nobody had had any previous experience with the new ¼-inch search rope, which we had only recently placed on the apparatus.
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| (3) Crews had to maintain communication and follow the search rope together, since it took many twists and turns. |
The new search rope is not as thick as the utility rope the members were used to using in other applications. Using their gloved hands to follow the rope and to feel it cross itself takes practice, and more practice to get used to. In addition, the trainees had to find a downed firefighter and bring him back, following the rope back the way they originally came.
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| (4) To squeeze under this slide, which was set in concrete and didn’t move, the individual had to fit through or remove his SCBA. |
As the captain sat and ran through the drill, he and the crew realized that they could just keep adding scenarios to the drill to make it more challenging. They used techniques such as taking off the bottle and squeezing through tight spots, helping each other in tight areas. Communication among crew members was paramount, and following a search rope was not as easy as members thought it would be.
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| (5) During the drill, participants constantly changed direction, encountering new obstacles that challenged and sometimes frustrated them. The course looked deceptively simple. |
We discussed the drills and what we learned. All firefighters were surprised at how difficult a child’s playground could be. Just looking at it, they all felt that this drill would be “child’s play”; they were skeptical of its real-world application. However, afterward, the participants felt they had been challenged with an opportunity to improve on vital firefighting skills. It was meaningful training that served a purpose, not just some attempt at writing some training hours down for the sake of doing so. It reminded the participants of how tough a firefighter’s job can be and how proficient we must be in all of our skills. We plan to create future scenarios for rapid intervention teams and Mayday exercises using multiple companies.
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| (6) Members also practiced descending stairs. |
I thanked the captain for his initiative and his commitment to his people. He is one who is always thinking of ways to improve himself and his firefighters. That’s what every firefighter should be doing.
JASON HOEVELMANN is a deputy chief/fire marshal with the Sullivan (MO) Fire Protection District and a firefighter/paramedic with the Florissant Valley (MO) Fire Protection District. A 20-plus-year veteran of the fire service, he has been an instructor for more than 15 years. Hoevelmann is an adjunct instructor for the St. Louis County Fire Academy and is a state certified fire officer II. Hoevelmann has an associate degree in paramedic science from East Central College, Union, Missouri, and a bachelor’s degree in fire service administration from Eastern Oregon University. He is a Missouri state advocate for the Everyone Goes Home initiative.
