By Vicki Schmidt
Fire service instructors in rural areas face many challenges. It’s standard procedure to head out at 0400 hours on a Saturday for a day of training, often traveling through snowstorms, rain, and other weather-related obstacles to arrive on time at an appointed fire station. They eventually grow accustomed to the late-night travel home over back roads, drinking an extra cup of coffee and dodging wildlife.
Abiding by the fire service mantra “Adapt and overcome,” rural fire instructors apply genuine creativity to ensure they teach courses in the most realistic ways with the most limited resources. One of the more challenging courses to gather resources for is a professional and well-executed emergency vehicles operator’s course (EVOC).
In past years, state fire instructors and sponsoring departments serving Maine’s rural areas spent the days before EVOC evolutions gathering cones, barrels, and other needed props to help them in arranging an accurate course and driving practical. The day after the class, personnel spent time and miles returning cones and barrels to the respective town garages, departments, and local contractors. Rarely were 100-plus cones, barrels, measuring tapes, and other EVOC support items organized or easy to come by.
(1) Easily transported and strategically designed, Maine’s EVOC trailer is proving a valuable asset for rural fire departments. (Photos by author.)
For the state of Maine, everything changed in 2008 when state fire instructors and logistics personnel at Maine Fire Training & Education (MFTE) lobbied administrators to include a traveling EVOC trailer in the FY07-08 budget. The EVOC trailer has been so successful that a second trailer is planned within the year. State Fire Instructor Dwight Stevenson is one instructor who spent time gathering EVOC resources under the old system. He used the new MFTE EVOC trailer for the first time during the fall of 2008. Stevenson notes, “The mobile trailer is exceptionally efficient. It was designed by folks who understand what is required to set up a quality apparatus driving course. Everything you could possibly need right down to clipboards and ANSI vests is there.”
(2) Everything from marking chalk to a hand cart is included in the mobile EVOC trailer.
Outfitted to the highest degree of safety with 36 x 36 fold-and-roll “Training Ahead” signs, the traveling EVOC trailer cost less than $5,500 to establish. The signs and cones are the two big-ticket items, but for Maine the trailer has already saved more funds than than it cost in terms of instructor time and travel. Stevenson adds, “It’s great to just make one request and have the trailer show up, and the next day they pick it up.” Additionally, annual costs for maintaining the state-owned trailer are minimal and amount to replacement of small-scale items, state registration, trailer maintenance, and insurance costs.
(3) The mobile unit is packed and ready for its next assignment.
According to Maine State Police and Bureau of Labor Standard reports, more than 220 crashes involving fire apparatus were reported over the past five years. Many of these involved substantial property damage and personal injury, with one fatality. Although it is too early to tell if the EVOC trailer has helped make improvements in safety, EVOC courses in Maine are more prevalent than in past years. “Since the EVOC trailer went online in June of 2008, it has become one of our highest-demand trailers,” says MFTE Logistics Specialist Gene Cote.
(4) With measuring tapes and wheels included in the trailer, EVOC instructors can efficiently set up a testing course.
The metro departments in the southern urban areas of Maine are serviced by a state-of-the-art EVOC simulator. The traveling EVOC trailer has proven so convenient and efficient that the urban chiefs have decided they’d like one of their own. All agree it will complement practical driving evolutions and the technology of their electronically driven simulator.
The value of the 8-foot x 12-foot cargo-style EVOC trailer proves its worth in the remote and rural areas of Maine. The equipment is strategically packed to allow a very well balanced load on the single 3,500-GVW axle trailer. Its light weight allows any fire department or instructor vehicle with proper towing capacity to haul the trailer without the need for a special braking system. Additionally, the trailer is rigged with a convenient two-step weatherproof locking system to ensure its security if parked overnight.
Many commercial businesses and schools allow rural fire departments to design practical EVOC courses on their parking lots during the weekend. The variety of equipment in the EVOC trailer allows instructors to set up courses in record time. The hand cart moves cones to strategic locations, and several tape measures and measuring sticks allow for multiple driving elements to be set up simultaneously. If a parking lot manager doesn’t want the dissolving marking paint used, a box of sidewalk chalk fills in for marking cone and barrel locations. The best thing about this trailer is it was designed by instructors who teach EVOC. “It’s perfectly planned; they thought of everything. Courses set up and pack up easily,” notes EVOC Instructor and Dixfield (ME) Fire Department Chief Scott Dennett. “When it comes to teaching EVOC, you couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Vicki Schmidt is a state fire instructor II with Maine Fire Training & Education. She is a volunteer firefighter and training officer for the Buckfield (ME) Fire Department and is training program manager for the Frandford Mutual Aid Fire Training Association and the Western Maine Fire Attack School. She also serves on the Maine Fire Protection Services Commission on behalf of the Maine Federation of Firefighters as the representative for Maine’s volunteer departments.
Subjects: Apparatus driving, EVOC
