I was speaking with a fire chief recently who was extremely proud of his department’s aggressive nature. He name-dropped, quoted those who are on the speaking circuit with confidence, and boasted that he has had to replace five helmets this year due to thermal assault (his words). He also mentioned that he had single-handedly instituted this ultra-aggressive mindset in his neighboring departments, too, and they had sent “a couple of guys” to the ER for burns—again, he was more than a little proud of this fact. So, intrigued, I asked, “What are you doing for training to support these tactics?” I was met with a blank stare. I asked a more simplified question, “What is a typical training night for your department?” His self-gratifying answer was, “We listen to podcasts and watch videos on techniques.” Insert my befuddled blank stare!
Mind you, podcasts and videos are great learning tools, but if that’s ALL you’re doing for actual training, you better have a great health-care plan and budget to keep replacing helmets.
Our nature should be aggressive, and it’s a shame that it has become a buzzword. Our business is to take educated risks; however, if you’re going to employ vertical ventilation, you better train on vertical ventilation. Aggressive hose advancement? You better be pulling lines, knowing your stretches, understanding flow rates and fire behavior. Victim searches or VES? Yep, you might want to train on proper search techniques under the most stressful environment you can create outside an actual structure fire. Have a ladder on your rig? Perhaps take it off the truck, deploy it multiple ways, raise it, and see how high it goes…and how high you can go. Building construction. Communications. Engine ops. Size-up. Command. RIT… you get the picture.
Aggressive tactics is not a game, T-shirt, sticker, or trivial mantra; it’s literally life and death for the public we took an oath to protect.
STAY FIRED UP, and train as aggressively as you claim to be!
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