By Carl J. Haddon
I am blessed to work with all kinds of rural volunteer fire departments from all over the country. I’ve learned that no two rural fire departments are the same. However, more of them than I want to admit have some things in common that keep me awake at night.
Last week I was contacted by two individuals on different days from different fire departments. What I heard from each of them is the inspiration for this article. I will not name the individuals or their departments, but what I share with you “shared the skit” out of me. My hope is that it frightens you too. If the following is standard operating procedure or similar to how you do things, please know that I mean no disrespect to anyone. I only want to ensure that “everyone goes home.”
My first encounter was from a relatively new volunteer fire chief. We had some business to discuss, however before we talked shop, he was quite proud to tell me of a “milestone” that a number of his members had achieved after having had only their standard two hours of training on one evening each month. He told me that roughly a dozen of his people had just become “Firefighter 1 and Firefighter 2 certified” and that it was the first time in the history of the department that such a level of certification had been reached by members of the department. I sincerely congratulated him on their accomplishment. He went on to tell me that “it was a tough two days, but they all made it through.” Insert the sound of screeching tires and gears grinding here. I tried to hide my astonishment at what I just heard and remain professional, but imagine my surprise when I heard that he thought that his personnel had just been NFPA 1001 and 1002 (Firefighter 1 and Firefighter 2) certified in a 16-hour weekend. In spite of this bombshell that left me speechless (a rarity), the chief and I had a nice balance of our conversation and made some plans for future training opportunities. I had to learn more about this training event that gave the chief the impression that his people were now “certified” firefighters.
What I learned is that these brave souls attended an event that offered four-hour blocks of training. The program was titled “Firefighter 1—Essentials of Firefighting” and included four hours of instruction in the areas of: forcible entry, ground ladders, basics of ventilation, and SCBA donning and doffing with SCBA confidence maze. Allow me to say that I have absolutely no doubt that these basic firefighting modules were well taught by seasoned professionals, and that they were most likely outstanding classes. With that said, (mask up, we’re going down the hall) as great and necessary for new firefighters to learn as these modules probably were, they do NOT constitute an entire curriculum for Firefighter 1 certification, let alone a Firefighter 2 cert. My obvious concern is that this new fire chief and his dedicated cadre of volunteers thinks that they are now ready to perform interior fire attack and VES/VEIS operations after 16 hours of training, which is very much what he told me. This same chief is working very diligently to get new and donated used equipment such as rotary saws and chain-type ventilation saws so that they can put their newly acquired skills to work.
I’ve made mention more than a few times that only two or three hours of training per month doesn’t make skilled firefighters. I’ve caught a lot of flack for those comments, but ask yourself the question: Would you want to be defended by an attorney who had only 24 hours of training each year? Would you consider him or her an attorney? Would you let someone with that amount of training who calls themselves a doctor, do