Drill Ideas

[Remember585 815]

I am a huge fan of the line of thinking that we as firefighters should always be learning. For the past few years I have been a Training Officer and this year I took over as our Lead Training Officer. We generally have at least one classroom and one hands-on drill per month on the Department level, with the Companies generally doing thier own thing each month as well.

I am trying my best to keep up on all the things we are expected to respond to. The reception of our members has been excellent and the enthusiasm is keeping my momentum going.

We are always doing our best to keep our skills sharp and with a fairly low call volume, training is our best way to help ensure we provide the best services.

What are some drills you do or have seen that are worth spending time on? Any feedback is great - and appreciated!

[Guest]

We get some low call volumes up here in Wesern MA too.

Our FD does ALOT of pumping drils. But we have done:

Pumping

Tanker shuttles

MVA

extrication

venting

search and rescue.

One of the best ones i remember, we smoked the upstairs of the firehouse, or try pulling out all your trucks, and seting up a simple, but confuzing maze, and put wax paper in their SCOTT masks, and try to have them do search & rescue.

Hope this helps at all!

[firemoose827 324]

Hey brother, first off I commend you on the efforts your dept are making to improve their skills and keep current, especially keeping the "Got Essentials, good for life" far FAR away from the fire service. Thats going on in my dept WAY too much and now guys are getting elected officer with that attitude, so, I commend you guys very much.

Second, I subscribe to Fire Engineering and used to subscribe to Firehouse magazine, and I know that in both they have a monthly article called "Training Notebook". It describes a drill and its purpose in detail even giving you blue prints and supply lists for any props you may have to build. EXCELLENT ideas!! I myself keep them handy in a binder.

Some advice, if you would accept...Keep it BASIC. I have seen too many die-hard officers get in and their first drill is usually a plane that crashes into a train carrying hydrogen cyanide right in the middle of a village with two school buses full of nuns........Back to basics is what we all should be training on! Like ladder ops, rope work, SCBA emergency ops, stretching the intitial attack line, hitting a hydrant, tanker shuttle ops, engine relay ops, you know, all the stuff that most firefighters think their experts on but when you ask them to do it......?

A good drill is the wall breach, you just need to build a knee wall about 4 foot high with 2x4's 16" on center, and get all the old sheetrock you can find (usually from contractors that are throwing it out) and have them practice breeching walls in full PPE and a covered face mask. Go through the procedure of actually passing through the wall by either the "Dive" method or removing one of the shoulder straps. Good drill and it will make a good critique afterwords.

I ran drills in my old dept as Lieutenant for a year before I ended up moving, so If you want any ideas PM me or e-mail me and I would be happy to help.

Moose

[MoFire390 118]

Remember why dont you try setting something up with one of your neighboring departments? You have a highschool and alot of highway in your district. I know we are going to try and set up a tri-village drill at the local HS and I think they were going to ask for your department to come down and give us a hand. (not sure don't quote me on that) we did a walk through of the HS over the summer and found somethings that are major hazards and we want everyone that is going to be opperating there to know what to expect. If you want more info PM me and I'll get it for you.

JR

Edited September 18, 2007 by MoFire390

[Guest nkfd52]

One we started to do this year is Calling the MAyday and learning the parameters for initiating the call. It takes a lot of practice to become proficient in making the call.

[CPAGE 2]

I ran a drill with my dept. on fire in a taxpayer. Get a row of stores and take the members and do a walk thru with the owners see the basement the back room and the ROOF point out the A/C units on the roof. Show the weak points of the roof and that a collaspe of the unit is very likely if they have a fire under them. Maybe we can learn from the past so we dont loss any more members.

Just my 2 cents

[johnvv 20]

Remember- Stick to the basics-

1) SCBA emergency skills- Set up a makeshift course with tables to allow firefighters to work on A) reduced profile Full escape. Do these skills in real time W/ their vision obscured, and in real time, calling the mayday with radios.

2) Ladders- Use buildings in your response area (which you have recieved prior permission) to practice throwing ladders at for a variety of scenarios. Have the firefighters set up a bangor ladder. You may not need to use this ladder an an emergency incident for many years, but when you do, at least they will have a clue on how to do it.

3) Communications- On those nasty nights when the weather dictates you won't be able to train outside, using Powerpoint, collect photos of structure fires.Using radios, have firefighters give first on scene size-up reports. Also have them identify the different types of building construction, and the hazards they present.

4) EVOC- Set up a vehicle obstacle course at a local parking lot and have your drivers practice emergency vehicle manuvers.

Stick to the basics because the lack of these skills hurt and kill many of our Brother and Sister firefighters. If you want more ideas, take classes at the WCFTC, see the evolutions the instructors do, and use them with your Dept.

I hope your Dept. appreciates your effort to provide quality fire training. I know the fire service and your fellow firefighters do. Training is the only way to reduce the number of LODD's that sadly never seems to go down year after year.

[firecapt32 282]

something easy and simple--have your guys go out and look at a building in the response area or take a few cam shots of buildings---throw them up on a power point and just ask the question "what if" guys get to see the building in the area from a different point of view. you wil be surprised how powerfull this is when they see their own building or house and get some input from others.

you can get pictures of building under construction/ traffic patterns( that gas tanker that is filling at the station/ any rail road cars you get the idea.

[Guest]

This would be a Mask Confidence, Mayday Transmition, and FAST or RIT team practice.

Have a guy do a right hand searh (or left, w/blacked out mask or fogged room). Get some one to get him hooked or tangled with rope. Practice the proper way to call a mayday, clear the air, activate pass alarm etc. The firefighter would have to identify what side of the building hes on, what is problem is, etc etc. Than the FAST or RIT team would go in nd get there practice in w/e. THen send the next group of guys in, nd do it all over lol.

Hopefully no1 will ever have to call a mayday anytime soon...or ever.

Edited September 22, 2007 by NRFDTL11Buff

[maisela 0]

We try to offer two drills a month (typically one fire and one vehicle rescue) and optional Saturday drills. When it gets too cold to play outside, indoor walkthroughs are great, especially for jurisdictions with large businesses and industries. From pre-planning businesses, I've found quite a few are more than happy to host a walkthrough of their facility.

Search drills are great, especially if you have an acquired structure. I proctored a drill with some of our juniors and probationary firefighters focusing on primary search and used it to set benchmark times for use in later drills. Life-sized baby dolls are a good investment for such drills and they're cheaper than Rescue Randy.