RECRUIT TRAINING LOGISTICS, PART 2
TRAINING NOTEBOOK
Part 1, published in the October 1993 issue, covered preplanning, scheduling, and student orientation. Part 2 provides additional suggestions for ensuring continuity once the training sessions have begun.
When planning your training program, don’t overlook outside agencies. They can provide a variety of resources to help ensure the effectiveness and continuity of your program.
training academies. Other fire academies in your area can help you develop a Plan B for various emergencies, such as when instructional materials are damaged or lost or when an emergency renders your facilities unusable and substitute training sites are needed.
Municipal agencies. Depending on the size of your locality, your building department may be aware of safe vacant buildings in your area that may be available for use for realistic firefighter training. The safety officer and a safety committee from the training academy must approve such structures for recruit training, and insurance requirements must be addressed well in advance. Holding exercises in vacant buildings provides invaluable training, such as for the following: cutting holes in roofs for ventilation, demonstrating the proper procedures for pulling ceilings, and viewing the actual locations of utilities. In addition, some older structures have many roofs that have been placed on top of each other, making the use of circular saws much more difficult than is usually demonstrated in training sessions.
Public and private businesses. Power companies have extensive training programs that include bringing demonstration trailers to your facility. Insurance companies can provide workshops on sprinklers, inspection procedures, salvage operations, and fire loss reduction techniques. Many private sector companies are good sources of printed materials.
Critical incident stress debriefing teams. These teams —part of the emergency response—will come and explain their function to recruits.
Junkyards. Local junkyards and police pound yards are more than willing to provide cars and trucks for rescue tool training. With a little prior planning, you can have your choice of training days and times to conform with your scheduled activities.
Other local organizations. Facilities available through your National Guard Armory, board of education, YMCA, and other community organizations could be used as indoor training sites for ladder training sessions and other exercises that otherwise would have to be canceled because of inclement weather. Such contingency planning, however, takes coordination and must be done long before the classes start so that any insurance requirements or other conditions, such as submitting written requests for the facilities’ use, could be met. Also, should your request be denied by one organization, you would have time to contact another one.
These facilities also may be able to lend you audiovisual equipment for classroom use.
INSTRUCTORS
Most fire departments cannot afford to maintain a full-time instructional staff throughout the year. Therefore, recruit for your training faculty firefighters and officers in your department who have instructor qualifications for firefighter or other specialized training.
During the planning phase, compile a list of adjunct instructors and their qualifications. Determine their availability as primary or substitute instructors. Adjunct instructors are a valuable asset within a department and in most cases are an untapped wealth of experience.
Keep certifications for staff instructors current. It’s too late to send an instructor for training as a new class is about to start. The National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, is a great resource for free training.
COMPUTERS
Using a computer for developing and maintaining curricula materials makes it easier to revise and update them. Be sure, however, to make a complete set of backup disks.
During our program for the second class of recruits, our training academy building, while fully occupied by 47 recruits and eight staff members, was directly hit by lightning during a severe thunderstorm. The building sustained structural damage on two floors and the roof, and stray voltage surges caused us to lose 120M of training-related information in our main computer’s hard drive and burned out the keyboard. Fortunately, just one day before, we had made a backup of the information and stored it on 56 disks in a separate location.
APPARATUS TRAINING
One training area that illustrates the need for building flexibility into the instructional schedule is apparatus. During the entire training cycle, we had all different kinds of apparatus at the academy so that our recruits could become familiar with each type. And, we reasoned, who better to explain the apparatus to the recruits than the assigned officers and crews on duty the days the apparatus were scheduled for the academy? But this advantage also offers a challenge.
To meet the needs of our first class of 50 recruits required having five assorted apparatus at the academy daily for about two weeks. During this two-week period, we had to interrupt the driver-training sessions about five times due to multiple alarms and twice because of severe weather conditions.
To ensure the success of your program, fine-tune your training calendar before recruits arrive.
TRANSPORTATION/FUEL
Arrange for adequate transportation and fuel sources for the duration of the recruit training program. You will have to arrange transportation for exercises/classes scheduled for other locations. If your department does not have the vehicles you need, ask your local school district, National Guard Armory, hospital, senior citizen organization, or public works garage if you can borrow a bus or passenger vans. Keep in mind when planning these activities that enough time must be allowed to enable requests to be submitted in writing, if required; to obtain the needed insurance: and to acquire the services of a licensed bus driver.
SAFETY/FIRST-AID EQUIPMENT
Be sure to have complete oxygen and first-aid kits at all training sites. Depending on your location, you also may have to arrange for a designated vehicle and driver to be on standby should an injured firefighter have to be transported to the local hospital.
Have personal protective equipment (PPE) on hand as soon as training starts. You will reinforce its use for safety and add realism to hands-on training. There is a big difference between climbing a ladder wearing PPE and wearing only a station uniform.
LUNCH AND LIQUID REPLENISHMENT
It may seem simple, but arranging for food and liquids can be a complicated matter, especially when training sessions are conducted at five sites in one day. For example, you must provide facilities where recruits and instructors can keep their lunches without spoiling on a humid August day. Sufficient liquids must be available for the 10 or 15 people on site for all sessions.
FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
Make sure you have enough extra extinguishers on hand and the capability to refill all the different types used. Contact your purchasing department and local vendor to ensure that the refills you need will be available when you need them.
GRADUATION
Try to schedule the graduation exercises for a facility with indoor (in case of inclement weather) and outdoor accommodations. If possible, choose a site in a historic location or one that has high community visibility. One of our classes graduated at Liberty State Park on the Hudson River, adjacent to a refurbished New York Central Railroad Ferry terminal, which is now a museum. Think of erecting static displays featuring your department’s tools and equipment. The highlight of our ceremony was a water stream display from a New York City fireboat spraying water in red, white, and blue. Make sure the graduation ceremony is commensurate with the effort that led to this event and the pride the recruits, their families. the department, and the training staff are experiencing on this day.
After graduation, be sure to send thank-you letters to organizations and individuals who helped make your training classes run more smoothly and successfully.
