We don’t rescue the young and beautiful from the ravages of fire often enough to maintain great satisfaction and inspiration for our work. In fact a lot of our work is routine in nature and sometimes difficult to continue to make important day after day drill after drill. Often it is difficult to see what we have done at the end of the day that we can say job well done. We do however need to be prepared for every emergency if and when it does come. That is why we train.
Remember when we first started down the fire service path? Every thing was a new experience, people told stories about everything. What they used all those tools for, what happened at one fire compared to another, how to protect yourself and do well. We practiced often and redundantly, until we had skills mastered. We didn’t pull a hose line once we pulled it five or eight times trying to improve each time. We raised ladders and secured them until we were hot and tired. Often while practicing one skill we would take on another objective because someone had a “what if”. This kind of day is fun and satisfying. That is why we train.
Emergency operations is an evolving environment everything constantly changing; from the reception of the alarm to the emergency response and on into the emergency itself. Procedures for safe response, arrivals and all the people we interact with on response and scene work all dynamic. The objective is to get ahead of the situation and plan and coordinate a safe solution to a problem based on skills, experience, and knowledge. That is why we train.
Do you realize that everything listed was hard work, drilling and schooling on our craft? It is called TRAINING, when we do it and do it well we are Happy and Content and we look forward to doing it again. There are few things as satisfying as being good at what we do and be able to share that ability with someone else. At the end of the day when you look back at your accomplishments, it is what you worked hard at in training that was good about that day. That is why we train.
Challenge yourselves to find out what you and your crews are capable of. Answer these simple questions. How long does it take for us to set up RIT and all of its equipment? How fast can we safely deploy a hand line and show water? How about ladder a building and put a hand line, 2 axes, a pike pole, and a saw on the roof? What if we hoist every thing? After a few of these how about making the evolution more streamline, can we save steps or trips back and forth from the truck? Can I hand equipment up a ladder faster than carry it or hoist it?
Make a Great Day at the Station. That is why we train.