All Blog Posts Tagged 'Training' (50)

Many times extrication training consists of popping a door or completing a dash lift on non-damaged vehicles. One method that has really added to the consistency of our success on "real world" entrapments is…

One of the most challenging skills in extrication is the displacement of the various objects that may be "trapping" our patients. If we practice moving these objects (steering wheel in this example) in various directions, it greatly improves our "options" when the entrapment is not typical. Here we are moving a steering wheel/column towards the…

       My wife and I were watching a movie a couple of nights ago (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) where they referenced 'Weapon X'. For anyone that hasn't seen Origins, 'Weapon X' is a clandestine research project that genetically engineers humans and mutants, making them into super weapons. They take the best (or the worst, depending on your perspective) parts of numerous individuals to make one fully, badass…

        For the past handful of years, through ongoing fire dynamics research, we've been deconstructing the fireground. This Fireground Genome Project has undoubtedly led us to a much better understanding of fire dynamics and the fireground. An untoward effect of this research is that the fire service is seemingly devolving into a bipartisan system. We can all sense the division. A schism has formed and too many firefighters are spewing their polarizing rhetoric…

        This job isn't easy, and there's no secret to being good at it. The recipe has only two ingredients: training and sweat. Over the past generation or so our responsibilities have snowballed to the point where the spectrum of our services is near infinite. We are the ones called when someone is trapped following a traffic accident, when grandma passes out, when there's a mudslide, a chemical spill, ice rescue, etc., etc...and I haven't even mentioned fire yet. Even though our duties…

        First of all, a quick correction to Training to Fail, Part 1; it appears I was wrong about Peyton Manning studying his enemy in preparation for the Super Bowl. I apologize, from now on I will do my due diligence...just kidding Bronco fans.

        This short little blog is not meant to cure the fire service of the problems of training to…

Last weekend I was invited to present "Combat Ready Firefighting"to the firefighters of Jefferson County, WV.  After a great class, the more than hospitable members were eager to show me their firehouses and apparatus.  The pride in their departments and history was obvious (good thing!).  …

        If you've read any of my other pieces you've undoubtedly heard me on my soapbox, I've repeated myself over and over again: "Train more!" I've said this so many times it's become my mantra, and pretty much everything I've ever written on here follows that simple theme, but there's more to training that just checking boxes and going through the motions. I've preached about the benefits of training and the dangers of failing to train, but training to fail can be just as…

Is your check engine light on?

      Many times before that annoying orange light on your dash goes off, your vehicle may give you warning signs that something is wrong. Sometimes it just pops up out of nowhere. You drive it to the nearest auto part store to check the code and await the damage, hoping that its something minor. With…

CDC Current Intelligence Bulletin 67: Fire Service Epidemic

        There's an epidemic in the American fire service, and terrifyingly little is known about it. Some estimate that as many as 1% of your brothers and sisters might already be infected, while others claim that number is as high as 10%,…

We…

     We are living in an incredible time in the fire service; the fact that our knowledge of the fireground is evolving at an unparalleled rate, combined with the fact that at no other point in history has information been shared as fast and freely as it is today, this truly is the Firefighter Renaissance. Twenty years ago (pre-digital big bang and infinite internet), I remember searching for hours, even days for the answer to a given question. I would first look in a dictionary, then ask my…

With all the recent fire studies conducted by UL, NIST, ISFSI, etc. the fire service is undergoing a renaissance...or at least that's what I thought. The aforementioned organizations have pumped out volumes of empirical data that we can consume and digest to make our profession smarter, more effective and most importantly, safer. Although over the past couple of months I have heard too many people spout misinformation regarding the findings of these studies. Specifically, I have had…

This phrase has been used countless times in the fire service to describe nearly as many positions: from the chief, the company officer, the senior firefighter, to the guys riding the backstep; although in my experience the most important person on the job is the training officer.



Being a firefighter today is not an easy job; our shareholders (the citizens we serve) expect us to be experts at everything from haz-mat mitigation, to wildland firefighting, to paramedicine, to vehicle…

We are all aware that for the past couple of decades, our enemy has been getting bigger, faster and more deadly. This has hopefully led you to the realization that we now have less time on the fireground to accomplish all of our critical tasks. But before we get into the meat and potatoes of this article, let’s look at the basics of the above premise. The two biggest reasons that the fireground has changed so much in the last generation or so, are that the fuels have changed, and so have the…

“[A] FIREFIGHTER  who is uncertain whether he can SAVE someone, or [a] FIREFIGHTER who for religious or moral reasons knows he will not ENTER A BURNING…

"There Ain't No Slack in Initial Attack!"

After 6 Seasons with Cal-Fire, and 7 Years of College, I finally said it out-loud.

I want to start a company and an NPO to partner with that provides Fitness, Education, Training and Resources to Wildland Firefighters.

We are Here! And - Here is…

The new Firefighter Skills Competency Workbook is now available. This workbook follows NFPA 1001 (2008) edition

www.createspace.com/3690367

This workbook is designed to assist departments with tracking not only initial firefighter training, but continued skills competency as well. Use of this book will also assist…