Where firefighters come to talk training

The Drill I Learned The Most From

OBJECTIVES
Teach the new guy about the rig and equipment
Mentor the new guy
Introduce the crew to the new guy
Build team confidence

BACKGROUND
To explain the impact of this drill, a brief background is necessary. As a rookie firefighter I was assigned to a dual company house. Because it was the Haz Mat station, it was the first time a rookie had been assigned to this particular crew…..needless to say the expectations were high. On my first shift the Captain welcomed me, and in great detail, went over his expectations of me. He was very professional and treated me with more respect than I probably deserved as the newest member of his crew.

THE DRILL
On the second shift, after completing the morning check and breakfast, the Captain called the entire house out onto the floor. The Captain asked me to stand up in front of all, and he asked me a question about the rig. That question was followed by another question from another member of the crew and so on and so on. Each member had the opportunity to ask me any questions they wanted about anything that had to do with my responsibilities as a firefighter. If I did not know or got the answer wrong, we moved on to the next, the Captain did not allow negative comments or smart a** remarks. When the drill was done, we went about our day. As we had down time, various other firefighters would pull me aside and mentor me on the areas that I had trouble with that morning. They would work with me until I understood, often sharing stores about their experiences. This went on for about six weeks, or about the time I was able to answer all of the questions being asked of me, I don’t think we ever missed a morning. On the last shift of this drill, the Captain called all to the floor as usual. This time he had the entire crew stand in front of me and I was allowed to ask anyone, anything about their responsibilities. I can still remember that day very well and the lessons I had learned over the duration of the drill.

RESULTS
I have conducted this drill many times since with very positive results. The goal is to keep it positive and remember the purpose of the drill…..to help the new guy learn his role on the team, the rig and the equipment, and for the crew to learn about the confidence and knowledge of the new guy.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott Thompson on March 31, 2008 at 7:23am

I hope it works as well for you as it has for me. Let me know if you need any additional information. I would like to know how it worked out for you and if you made any changes.

Permalink Reply by Scott Thompson on April 1, 2008 at 8:02pm

Great idea. I hope you try it out. Let me know how it goes.

Permalink Reply by Drew Smith on April 12, 2008 at 6:51pm

I've used a version of this drill with a piece of equipment. For example, let's take the Halligan. I would start with the newest member and ask them to tell us (the company of 8 eng-trk-medic) something about the Halligan. When he was done, I would go to the next newest member working my way up to the most senior member, the company officers, then myself. If I felt there was enough material we might may a second lap. It seemed to work well, let some newer members shine and humble some older know-it-alls who could not come up with something to say but then a less senior member could. I was never out to trip anyone up, just learn, and perhaps build the team by letting everyone know that each of us has knowledge gained from a variety of sources.

Permalink Reply by Jim Saladin on June 5, 2008 at 12:02pm

Great idea, this is just another way for each of us to learn from each other. Similiar to your experience we have a very dedicated Acting Officer within our Department. One of the "games he came up with was "What is contained behind that compartment door". This was done by the crew and they would gather around the rig and quiz each other on what was contained in the compartment, this was especially useful for the Truck since igt carries a lot of equipment.

I took this idea one step further by asking my crew questions like "if you had to force a door what tools would you use"? They select tools until they thought they have eliminated everything. We can usually come with or improvise another way to accomplish this task with the remaining items left on the rig.

Thanks for the post,

Sal

Permalink Reply by Scott Thompson on June 12, 2008 at 10:46am

Jim:
Great stuff, I like your twist on the drill. Keep up the good work.

Scott

Permalink Reply by Richard Michitsch on June 18, 2008 at 5:10am

Brilliant! A simple and powerful training that is the result of teamwork, which includes everyone on the crew. It not only trains the new person, but also allows each member of the crew to utilize their knowledge.
Thanks for sharing the story.

Permalink Reply by William Hersman on June 26, 2008 at 11:09am

I do something like that every couple of months i tell each member to go to the engine, rescue, ladder and get me x piece of equiment and tell me how to use it and the safety about using it. It helps the members know all the loactions of the equiment and the use and safety of each piece. The members like it they ask questions about the equiment and they have a chance of telling me to go get stuff just to show tem we all need training that nobody now everything.

RSS

Welcome to
Fire Engineering Training Community

Sign Up
or Sign In

Or sign in with:

Policy Page

PLEASE NOTE

The login above DOES NOT provide access to Fire Engineering magazine archives. Please go here for our archives.

CONTRIBUTORS NOTE

Our contributors' posts are not vetted by the Fire Engineering technical board, and reflect the views and opinions of the individual authors. Anyone is welcome to participate.

For vetted content, please go to www.fireengineering.com/issues.

We are excited to have you participate in our discussions and interactive forums. Before you begin posting, please take a moment to read our community policy page.

Be Alert for Spam
We actively monitor the community for spam, however some does slip through. Please use common sense and caution when clicking links. If you suspect you've been hit by spam, e-mail peter.prochilo@clarionevents.com.