BY SID NEWBY
THROUGHOUT MY CAREER, I HAVE seen and experienced when practical repetitive basic training has made the difference on an emergency scene. I have also witnessed when it was obvious that a fire company lacked training and teamwork.
I attended a class taught by Chief (Ret.) Michael Lombardo of the Buffalo (NY) Fire Department that reinforced this philosophy. He talked about how many hours athletes train to be proficient at their skill. Professional football players train countless hours to become the best at their craft. Once they get to the top of their game, they don’t quit training. They train the rest of the week to prepare for the next game. Should we be any different? Think about other things you do in your life: coaching youth sports, golf, and shooting sports. You get the idea. You must practice to perform well. We must train for our job.
We should not be different from the professional athletes except for the fact that we have a higher calling. We are paid to protect the citizens of our community. When the alarm goes off, we are going out the door to help a neighbor who is having one of the worst days of his life. Most of the time, we have only one opportunity to do our best for him.
I am an avid advocate of the United States Military, especially the Marine Corps’ method of teaching how to train and react in time-compressed, stressful situations. The military demonstrates that one should never get complacent when it comes to training, especially in the basics. We must be able to respond in a predictable way so that each member of a small tactical unit can execute his assignment. During an emergency operation, members do not think of the basic skill; they execute the skill by habit.1 At that point of the operation, your small unit is operating on instinct, the result of training to perform through repetition of a skill set. Fire companies (engines, trucks, rescues, rapid intervention, and so on) are small tactical units that perform functions that achieve the strategy set by the incident commander (IC).
Admiral William H. McRaven, in his book Spec Ops: Case Studies in Special Operations Warfare: Theory and Practice, writes that relative superiority is gained through proper planning, preparation, and execution.2 To achieve relative superiority, the theory of special operations lists six principles that can be controlled: simplicity, security, repetition, surprise, speed, and purpose. Applying this information enables company officers to understand what tactical command and control is and why it is critical to a successful mission. Small tactical unit leaders (company officers) incorporate cognitive thought and tactical actions to complete their assignment and the IC’s strategic intent. Company officers can use four of the special operations principles (simplicity, speed, repetition, and purpose of the mission) to train small tactical units to gain relative superiority and to be successful at emergency scenes.
The fire companies are the linchpins for a successful emergency scene operation. If one of the units fails in its mission, it could become a tragedy. Learning and practicing skills repetitively will assist in achieving successful emergency scene outcomes.
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| (1) Drilling on the skill as a team with conditions as realistic as possible enables the small tactical unit to perform in a predictable way. (Photo by Ben Newby.) |
BACKGROUND
The history behind my developing basic training drills goes back to when I first came on the job. As a young firefighter, not having practical hands-on training every shift frustrated me. I didn’t like when “school time” came during the shift and no one had any ideas on what to drill on. Being a “new” firefighter, I had no input on the drill subject. As an officer, I told myself I would change that and attempt to have practical hands-on drills as often as I could. Reading communications off the computer or reading a drill manual is not a drill. I had a schedule (see “Basic Training Drills”) that served as a reference for preparing drills.
Company officers can struggle with what topics to present and how to go about setting up a practical hands-on drill for the members. Sometimes peer pressure is involved, or sometimes officers overthink a drill. Sometimes, they try too hard. Time should be spent on continuously practicing basic skills that benefit fire department members and the community they serve. Even the smallest task performed correctly or incorrectly could make the difference between success and failure on an alarm.
A company officer who does not know what to drill on or who does not have a consistent schedule to reinforce and practice critical basic skills exhibits poor leadership. Skill sets have to be performed often to build muscle memory. During an emergency operation, members will fall back on their training in a particular skill. The key is for each small tactical unit to perform in a predictable way. Drilling on the skill as a team with conditions as realistic as possible brings cohesiveness. Everyone knows his position without wasting valuable time on the emergency scene. Strenuous realistic training will make the fireground appear normal. (1)
I started out developing basic drills for every shift. I work a 24/48 shift schedule, so each day of the week we drilled on a different problem that we might face on a run. At first, we had Medical Mondays, when we would perform at medical or entrapment scenarios. On Thursdays, we would do a timed Big Water drill that used a pumper hydrant hookup and provided water to the truck company’s master streams. These drills made us very proficient during training and on emergency scenes. The drills can be used weekly for volunteer departments. It’s the same principle or concept as revisiting a skill set on a rotating basis. Performing every tour of duty basic drills involving emergencies we could face in a time-compressed emergency response is essential to achieving our mission.
PREPARATION IS THE KEY
It is important to have a framework of drills to assist new company officers and acting officers. Company officers are responsible for keeping a training log. These drills should be performed with all personal protective equipment (PPE) including self-contained breathing apparatus. We must practice as we would in our work environment and be used to working with our gear on. It does make a difference. We need to drill on the correct set of basic skills repeatedly and consistently. Fire companies must be able to act individually on their assignment as well as in unison with the IC’s strategy: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”-Sun Tzu
We will never be able to recreate the fire scene. Our drills can’t replicate the complexity, the confusion, and the time-compressed situations that can occur. We have to forecast the drills that we believe are the most crucial for the success of the mission and then rehearse those drills constantly under progressively more challenging conditions. (1, 31) Success comes from the consistency in performing the drills so they become second nature.
Every member of the unit should be able to respond quickly in challenging and stressful conditions to the company officer’s order to change a tactic based on fireground conditions. For example, the hoseline at a residential fire generally is stretched to the front door. However, the company officer in his walk-around determines that the hoseline should be stretched to the rear of the structure to another entry point. The crew should be able to stretch the line, charged or not, to the alternate entry point with a minimum of instructions.
When each task is performed correctly, it is a wonderful sight for the IC: The hose is stretched correctly to the entry point, ventilation is coordinated with the Fire Attack Team, the Search Team gets a primary search of the structure quickly and efficiently, and there is an uninterrupted water supply.
There is no “I” in team. Everyone on the team should perform the drill in full PPE. There should be a shared responsibility in each team member’s competence that provides consistency and unit integrity. (1)
Every emergency operation outcome is the result of many small unit outcomes. If one small unit fails to perform its task, the whole operation could have a negative ending. It is critical to have a tailboard session with your crew members after an alarm to go over what parts of the operation went well and those that may need to be corrected. It’s all about being better prepared for the next alarm.
Success is having members execute skills on the fireground as if the incident were another drill; it becomes routine (normal). There shouldn’t be high fives in the street afterward; it should be business as usual.
I realize that we have more duties to do every shift than we’ve ever had to do before, but there is no more important duty than to be proficient in using our equipment to protect our community. We must be able to tactically perform our duties at the emergency scenes. That is what the community expects.
Performing drills every tour of duty has enforced my conviction that consistently training our small tactical units is critical to success on the emergency scene. I have integrated the training drill concept into skill sets for battalion chiefs to keep myself up on basic skills. Being brilliant at the basics is dependent on habitual discipline-a consistent pattern of behavior under stressful conditions. The challenge for the leaders and the members is to internalize these habits for the unit. Each company officer should ask himself: How well does my company operate on scene? And how can we perform better?
ENDNOTES
1. McCoy, BP. The Passion of Command: the Moral Imperative of Leadership. Quantico VA: Marine Corps Association, 2007.
2. McRaven, William H. Spec Ops: case studies in special operations warfare theory & practice. Novato CA: Presidio Press, 1996.
Basic Training Drills
Each member of our battalion is expected to follow this schedule: Select one subject listed for the day and conduct a practical hands-on drill in full personal protective equipment. When the members have mastered the skill, make the drill progressively more challenging. On days when the weather doesn’t permit outside drills, substitute one of the following: hose stretches with dry lines on the apparatus floor, search drills, thermal imaging camera drills, riding assignment duties, or getting something out of a compartment you haven’t drilled on for a while. Research drills on the Internet on the subject of the day.
Sunday
Team Meeting/Review of the Week/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports. This is a review of the week’s activities, members’ concerns, along with a review of a NIOSH report on a line-of-duty death.
http://www2a.cdc.gov/NIOSH-fire-fighter-face/state.asp.
Monday
Medical/Extrication/Motor Vehicle Accidents.
Tuesday
• Ladder-throw and setting each ladder on the rig. Set for rescue-ventilation-enter-isolate-search, roof, horizontal ventilation. Check for maintenance.
• Forcible entry tools and techniques (irons, rabbit tool, hydraulic ram).
• Hazardous Materials Operations.
Wednesday
Residential fire hose stretches.
• Stretch the line, first coupling, and nozzle at the entry point; charge the line; remove kinks; bleed the line (15-30 seconds); take forcible entry tools; go on air. The goal is to perform this in 60 seconds from the time you leave the cab.
• Practice the different positions: nozzle, backup, officer, and door.
• The officer performs a 360° walk-around and determines the entry point.
• The backup position is the workhorse of all the positions. This firefighter must take the backpressure and the nozzle reaction off the nozzleman.
• The nozzle should be far enough in front of the nozzleman so he can move up, down, and side to side. I fully extend my arm and have the bail at my wrist (18 inches).
The reason we devote one shift to training on residential hose stretches is that, according to the U.S. Fire Administration, 86 percent of fire deaths nationwide occur in residential structures.
• The nozzle firefighter removes the first section of a 1¾- or 2½-inch line and drops it approximately 25 feet from the entry point. The firefighter grabs the nozzle and the first coupling and places them at the door (entry point). This will place the hoseline in a “U” pattern perpendicular to the door to allow as smooth a stretch as possible. If it is a larger structure, the next coupling can be brought to the entry point to give 100 feet of hose to assist in the stretch. It also assists in reducing kinks in the hoseline. This method can also be used in stairwells and hallways.
Thursday
Radio report training (on air)/On scene reports/Incident command.
Friday
Big water: deck gun/master stream/2½-inch hose stretches.
• Practice engine hookups with multiple hoselines: two-, three-, and five-inch.
• Use positions for work assignments: Driver, five-inch hookup; Firefighter, three-inch hookup; Officer, three-inch hookup.
• Practice reverse and forward hoselays.
• Get with a truck company and train on hooking up to a hydrant and pumping to the truck. Practice a 2½-inch hose stretch. Use the proper engine pressure and work with it for maximum efficiency.
Saturday
Search/RIC/Mayday/Ventilation drills.
Training notebook
Enter 110 at fireeng.hotims.com
● SID NEWBY is a battalion chief and 32-year veteran of the Wichita (KS) Fire Department, assigned to special operations command. He was an engine company officer for 16 years. He is a Kansas state and nationally certified fire service officer and instructor. He has an associate degree in fire science and a BA degree in education from Wichita State University. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program.
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