“WHAT IS TRAINING?”
BY BILL MANNING
Through the pages of this magazine, we`ve stressed and restressed the vital need for firefighter training. We`ve lived by the creed that training is your empowerment, your bridge to a brighter fire service future.
While at the Fire Department Instructors Conference–six days of hard-core training in Indianapolis–I asked a number of our instructors to feed me some of their ideas about training. Here is a selection of responses.
Our goal here is to stimulate your thoughts and dialogue. It is through sharing that we keep the training juices flowing. Send your ideas to me, and you know I`ll print them.
Mike Cogan, a former FDNY fire officer, had this to say: “World War II German General Irwin Rommel stated, `The best welfare for the troops is a superlative state of training, for it will reduce casualties.` Rommel knew that in war there is no way to prevent death or injury to the soldiers but only a way to reduce the number of casualties.
“Firefighting is going to war. Knowledge and training repeatedly are the only ways to prepare. If Joe Montana only threw passes on Superbowl Sunday and not during the season, how many would he make?”
“From the words of a Jimmy Buffett song, `As we approach the next millennium, the spaceman and his buddy Hal now don`t look that abstract.` The world has become complex,” says Howard Stahl, an Indianapolis firefighter. “Our training and daily lives as firefighters mirror the changes in society. [Fire service diversification of services] makes the job an educational challenge. Lost somewhere in the mix is what we do at the primary level, basic firefighting. Many veteran firefighters complain that the raw recruits hit the streets lacking basic skills for survival in structural firefighting. Gone are the days of a few intense weeks of ladders and hose with too much concentration on other areas.
“Our job has kept pace with society and the survival tactics have changed. However, deep in the middle of the firefight, when your life hangs in the balance, computers and new-wave thinking cannot take the place of proper basic training to get you home to your family. In a life-or-death situation, reflexes and reactions based on strong rudimentary firefighting skills save your life–not stopping and pondering the predicament.”
FDNY firefighter John O`Connell says, “The purpose of training is to properly prepare your personnel to operate in a dynamic, stressful environment that changes continually. If you have not trained when the pressure is off, then there is no way you`ll be able to do it when the pressure is on. Efficiency is the key, and when you have your operation down, it is second nature. Only then can it be done efficiently and safely in a live situation.”
“Training provides the basis for everything we do in our service to the public,” says Leigh Hollins, battalion chief, Cedar Hammock (FL) Fire Department. “Training is the heart of our operation; without it we would not survive, and without it we would be replaced by those who have it. However, some forget that training alone is not enough: We must have common sense, physical ability, and experience to be able to provide 100 percent to the mission. Also, many fail to realize that training does not equal knowledge. Knowledge is not what you are taught; knowledge is what you remember! We can only gain knowledge by training and experiencing.”
Bob Pressler, an FDNY firefighter, remarks, “Training is all about being prepared. Firefighting always was and always will be an extremely hazardous occupation. We must give firefighters the proper tools to accomplish their mission safely. These tools are education, training, and the passing on of experience.
“The training must be in the basics. Diversification of fire department services is fine but cannot be at the expense of our core mission, saving life and property from fire. Technology is also great, but we must learn that just because something makes our job easier doesn`t mean it`s better.
“Our job will always be getting that handline down a smoke-filled hall to extinguish fire and search for trapped occupants. Our mission is to properly train our firefighters to know the dangers and how to address them so that we will not have to say that a firefighter was injured or killed because his training failed him.”
“Training is many things and can be enhanced and refined in many ways,” according to Captain Mike Lombardo of the Buffalo (NY) Fire Department. “For me, though, a simple training perspective can be summed up by paraphrasing the old movie line, `Training is never having to say you`re sorry`:
“Never saying, `Sorry, Lieutenant, I did not know which way the valve turned.`
“Never saying, `Sorry, Captain, I thought the ladder would reach.`
“Never saying, `Sorry, Chief, we did not know how to perform a large-area search.`
“But most of all, never saying, `Sorry, Mrs. Smith, we thought our guys would be able to get your husband Firefighter Smith out of the fire.` This is really what it is all about, and it all comes down to knowing what you are doing. Training!”
I look forward to your comments.
