BY JERRY KNAPP
How do you train probationary firefighters, sharpen the skills of seasoned members, and pass on veteran firefighters’ knowledge and experience? How do you capture the tricks of the trade and critical skills that firefighters need on the fireground? How do you provide the repetition, reminders, and training needed to create and maintain proficiency in critical fireground skills? How do you quickly, concisely convey life-saving policy information to your members?
Written standard operating procedures (SOPs) and skill drills from company captains are one method, but is there really enough time to train every member on the myriad of required critical skills and techniques? The answer is no. It always seems to be a game of catch-up: Catch the probie up on initial training, catch the veteran up before the skill perishes, catch up on writing a department or company policy on an important topic, and catch up on the tricks of the trade before the veteran retires.
Training and maintenance of perishable skills are huge problems for the fire service. Although experience is our best teacher, it is also the most expensive. Capitalize and use the expensive lessons others have learned so you don’t pay the price yourself.
Fortunately, working fires are down across the nation. Unfortunately, all of our perishable skills will dull and die off as a result.
I recently watched a firefighter attempt to cut a peaked roof at a heavily involved one-story ranch house. The engine was having difficulty pushing in because the heat was down to the floor. When the truck firefighter pulled the saw’s starter cord, the rope broke, putting the saw out of service. The firefighter appeared confused, and the firefighters inside got no heat relief. If only he had pressed the decompression button on the saw’s side before he pulled (and broke) the rope! The decompression button would have reduced the engine compression, kept the saw starter rope from breaking, and allowed the roof to be cut.
It was a small mistake any of us can make, but a mistake with life or death consequences. Did the building light up, burning the engine company searching inside? Did firefighters have to jump to their deaths because of this one forgotten detail? There are a thousand little mistakes we all can make with similarly deadly consequences.
How do you keep your members up on all these critical little details and big policy matters? One way to train new firefighters and keep veterans sharp is the one-page TB.
Chief Andy Kolesar of the West Haverstraw (NY) Fire Department has successfully included TBs in his department’s new standard operating guideline (SOG) manual. Kolesar states, “It is imperative to have policy and procedures in a written format simply as a basis for any fire department’s operation and administration. SOGs are not exciting reading and often are left to gather dust by firefighters. TBs can be posted on bulletin boards where firefighters can review the topic of the week and get a mini training session, almost as they walk by or while waiting for roll call or another opportunity. TBs provide critical info in visual, graphic, bite-size portions for easy digestion and recollection for firefighters when they need it moston the fireground!”
Kolesar continues, “Training bulletins have another significant advantage in that they can serve as a good basis for the company officer to base drills and training sessions. TBs serve as a good reminder for officers and firefighters of important skills or policies. We use training bulletins as a starting point for company drills. Officers use them to get the discussion started among members.”
The TB is a concisely written one-page (front and back) document that graphically describes the tool, technique, or policy. It is not a complete review of the topic but contains all the important deployment, use, and safety guidelines necessary for a firefighter to use the tool, execute the technique, or understand the department or company policy.
Pictures reduce the number of words you need to describe the tool or technique. Use a digital camera and a graphic arts computer program to easily label tool parts, highlight important points, and show step-by-step directions.
SAMPLE BULLETIN SECTIONS
You can select any format you need for the chosen topic (Figure 1 is a saw operation TB).
“Deployment” explains tool deployment in a few easy general terms and steps.
“Procedures” explains step-by-step tool usage or technique execution.
“Details” includes important information about the tool or technique. The level of detail is important here; provide enough to be functional but not so much as to overwhelm the reader. This is a quick review, not a thesis.
“Operation” contains important information for tool operation. Again, these are only the most critical elements.
“Safety” I like to place last, not because it is unimportant but because it is action-oriented. If it starts off with “Don’t do this” and “Don’t do that,” it sets the wrong tone. Positioned last, it will better remain in your mind.
Your TBs may include important case histories to make a dramatic point and capitalize on others’ experience. In the TB in Figure 2, there is a photo of the roof collapse of a restaurant, reinforcing the point of early and catastrophic collapse of these building types. Thus, the reader learns from the experience of other firefighters and fire departments from across the country.
In this case, although there is no room for all the details, good preincident intelligence that then-Chief John Kriska gathered allowed firefighters to know the roof structure was of lightweight construction; thus, they did not make an aggressive interior attack. Firefighters initiated a defensive attack, and the roof collapsed after they made it to safety. (See my article “Preincident Planning and Firefighter Safety: A Success Story,” Fire Engineering, February 1998.)
ADVANTAGES
TBs are not the silver bullet that will solve all your training issues. They are, however, a very good technique with many direct and spin-off benefits. They provide a ready reference, graphically displayed for review and easy comprehensiona reference firefighters can read or review at their leisure, a document for in-house drills, and a knowledgeable and reliable source for firefighters to settle discussions and questions.
OPTIONS
There are many ways to construct your own TBs; what I have described is just one way. You may feel that there is not enough detail or that important steps have been left out. This format works for my department, and some version of it may work for you and your members. The key is that, like your firefighters and all their tools, TBs must be able to work on the fireground.
JERRY KNAPP is a 34-year veteran firefighter/EMT with the West Haverstraw (NY) Fire Department and assistant chief with the Rockland (NY) Haz Mat Team. He has a degree in fire science and was a nationally registered paramedic. He is also a training officer at the Rockland County (NY) Fire Training Center in Pomona, New York, and an FDIC H.O.T. Engine Company instructor and seminar presenter. He is the plans officer for the directorate of emergency services at West Point.
