On occasions when going to a training site to do some hands-on training isn’t viable due to weather or time of day, etc., quick exercises involving the members assembled can work just as well.
This week’s drill covers size-up and tactics for a mobile home fire. A column of smoke is visible on arrival. As you approach the scene, you find a heavily involved motor home; extension to a one-story, wood-frame garage; and another vehicle and some out buildings as secondary exposures. A civilian has a garden hose in operation in a futile attempt to slow down the rapidly advancing fire.
What do you do next? Your size-up will determine what actions you take to extinguish this fire.
Walk your firefighters and officers through the scenario and discuss what tactics should be employed for this fire scenario. There are no right or wrong answers during a drill like this. The idea is to stimulate conversation and discuss the various tactics to be employed. If your fist-due doesn’t have many mobile homes, you can easily change the mobile home to the mobile construction trailers we often see at construction sites that contain offices for the foremen and others at the job site.
Once you discuss this scenario, change it around and come up with scenarios for your own first-due. Add elements to challenge your officers and firefighters.
Hopefully by the time you’re finished, drill participants will have plenty to think about and new strategies to employ at their next job.
This scenario for this week’s drill can be found HERE
