BY JENNIFER CORNELL
Training crews is one of the most important functions of a fire service officer. Our profession demands that we be ready for anything from confined space rescue to structure fires to building collapse. The multitude of legal mandates on training leaves little time to train in other skills. The subjects you choose to cover beyond those required must be relevant to your department and the situations you can expect to face. It is imperative that officers prepare valuable and meaningful training sessions that will be the most effective.
Whether you are a training officer or a line officer, teaching new firefighters to recognize building construction features and hazards is essential and daunting. Although many departments incorporate building construction into new employee training or require new firefighters to take classes on building construction at local colleges, transferring that book knowledge to the street is difficult. Have you ever had the experience of standing under a truss roof discussing trusses with rookies who did not recognize the roof over their heads? Even firefighters knowledgeable in building construction can benefit from more training, since the construction field is growing and changing constantly.
Almost without exception, new firefighters want to learn their job better, but they may not know how to do this. The key for fire officers is to provide the best opportunities for your people to learn. At the outset, recognize that your firefighters are adults and that adult learners have different needs than younger students. Active learning is of primary importance to adult learners. Few adults can sit and listen to lectures and truly learn. Also, firefighters have joined a career in which they expect to be moving, not sitting behind a desk. Your firefighters will learn more about building construction if they are given relevant information and the opportunity to “do” instead of read. So how does this apply to building construction?
PREPARING THE LESSONS
First, focus the lessons on buildings in your city or mutual-aid response area. If there is no heavy timber construction in your area, do not spend a lot of time discussing it. If all the buildings in your area are of lightweight wood-frame construction, focus on building features relevant to those structures. Concentrating on the types of construction firefighters encounter on runs will increase firefighters’ interest and retention level.
Second, instead of lecturing about building construction features at the fire station or training facility, go out into the buildings and discuss the features. You may have to do some legwork to find buildings that demonstrate certain features, but you will benefit from the extra effort: You will gain more knowledge about and insights into the buildings in your area.
After choosing building construction features relevant to your area and going out into the community to look at them, how do you get the firefighters actively involved in learning, seeing, and sizing up buildings based on their construction features? One answer is to create a worksheet of building construction features you expect to encounter in your area and have the firefighters fill in the information pertaining to the construction feature.
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The worksheet is basic and can be modified to cover the construction features found in your area and the desired skills and knowledge levels for your firefighters (see Figure 1). Each construction feature has its own worksheet.
At its most basic, the worksheet should include the following:
- a particular construction feature,
- a space in which to write the address of a structure with that feature,
- a space in which to note the recognizable characteristics of that construction feature, and
- a space in which to list the firefighting hazards and concerns pertaining to that feature.
The ability to recognize certain building features from the street is invaluable. The purpose of these worksheets is to get the firefighters looking out of the apparatus window and noticing buildings. Fire-fighters will complete the worksheet to varying degrees; the information they provide should be similar to that provided in Figure 1.
You may want to add additional questions to your worksheet based on the firefighters’ experience and skills and may want to incorporate additional information such as the following:
- tactical considerations,
- sketches of the building,
- response/staffing considerations,
- availability of water supply,
- apparatus positioning, and
- hoselines needed.
The worksheet can be expanded according to how you plan to use it as a teaching tool. The main objective, however, is to get your firefighters to look at the buildings in your area in a critical and tactical way. Learning to recognize features of building construction will pay off for them and the entire crew, even if the addresses they choose never have a fire emergency. The concept of the worksheet is broader than building familiarization. The idea is to get the firefighters thinking.
ASSIGNING THE WORKSHEET
How you assign the worksheet will depend on your management style and your firefighters’ skills and level of knowledge. Allow them to complete the worksheet at their own pace, but check periodically to see that they are working on it and if they have questions or are still looking for certain features in the community. Have them bring the worksheet on the apparatus while you are driving around on other business. Point out certain buildings of interest. Every few weeks or so, take them to a particular building that holds some feature on the worksheet. For many, the worksheet will be an invaluable study tool later on, particularly when studying for promotions.
Some senior firefighters may feel it is beneath them to fill out a worksheet. This may be a good opportunity to pair them with a younger firefighter and have them do the worksheet as a team. This allows the senior firefighter to assume a mentoring role, and the two probably will learn something new in the process. For experienced firefighters, you may need to add more advanced questions to the worksheet. At the least, the review will be beneficial for them.
Eventually, check the addresses your firefighters have selected, and examine the buildings more closely. Does the address really have a truss roof as the firefighters guessed from the outside? They may be wrong on a particular building but, with practice, their ability to pick out building construction features from the street will improve.
It is essential that you be a resource for your crew. This does not mean that you have to know everything but that you are open to learning. Any learners, but particularly firefighters, can tell when you don’t know what you are talking about. If you do not know, find out and get back to them later. You do no good giving out inaccurate information. Consider keeping books on building construction around the station for your firefighters to pick up at their convenience. This will allow them to check certain things out without having to go through you every time. They will also help you to answer questions that may come up.
The importance of the entire crew’s being competent at recognizing building construction features is undeniable. Four pairs of eyes are better than one when sizing up a building. Additionally, what will happen when your firefighters are operating away from you? Will they know how to recognize truss-roof or balloon-frame construction if you are not there to point it out? How can you better prepare firefighters who want to move up to positions in which they will be in the front seat giving the all-important size-up? The key in developing an effective construction lesson is to make it relevant and active. Firefighters learn best when they do things they know are relevant to their job. Your firefighters will likely bring the motivation to learn. All you need to do is provide the opportunity.
JENNIFER CORNELL is a captain with the Minneapolis (MN) Fire Department, where she has served since 1994. She has taught two rookie schools for her department and has been an instructor in the fire science degree program at Hennepin Technical College since 1999. She has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a master’s degree from the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She is a founder and secretary of the Minnesota Women Fire Fighter’s Association.
