In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Trevor Steedman, Captain, Ocean City (MD) Fire Department

SCBA Bootcamp: A Firefighters’s Survival School
Thursday, April 21, 1:30 p.m.-3:15 p.m.

A personal near-miss, noted training deficits that contribute to such occurrences, and an obligation to share this information to educate and protect fellow firefighters have prompted me to pursue educating on this topic.

The optimum effect of these efforts is to provide a continual mechanism for regularly evaluating individual and departmental SCBA survival and proficiency levels and to provide the mechanism to assess and make the necessary changes.

I have received positive feedback from firefighters, training officers, and fire officers regarding the improved proficiency and confidence of their firefighters in performing their duties while wearing SCBA. Many people inquire about the full program and the methodologies used.

The most gratifying feedback has been receiving reports of how applying information learned in my class helped to avert a tragic outcome. Ironically, I hope that those attending my class never have to use the methods and actions they learn in the course. However, if firefighters should find themselves in such situations, they will have the tools with which to fight for survival.

In this series, Fire Engineering Senior Editor Mary Jane Dittmar looks at the things that motivated and inspired instructors to present on their topics at FDIC International 2016. Segments will be posted on a regular basis up to and through the conference, April 18-23.

Stefan Svensson, Associate Professor, International Speaker, Lund University, Sweden

There Is No Such Thing as Extreme Fire Behavior!

Thursday, April 21, 3:30 p.m.-5:15 p.m.

By showing firefighters and fire officers how knowledge-based fire science can be used on the street, I want to bring the two communities together. From many years of experience with the fire service and in the fire science community, I find that these are two disconnected worlds that have much more in common than either one imagines. We do what we do for the same reason, but with different tools. I try to do the same at my university. There’s so much research going on, but many scientists don’t always understand the real-life impact and importance of their research.

Attendees have said that my class has helped them to understand certain things on the fireground—things about which they have thought for a long time. It’s fairly simple to use the science to solve practical problems or to create a deeper understanding of things. Also, it’s challenging to explain complex concepts in a simple manner. I often get great questions that really require a dialog with the audience. They appreciate the discussion, which I encourage. Having traveled internationally over the years, it’s always very comforting to learn that we do similar things in similar ways pretty much everywhere. There are more similarities than differences.

It's Day Two of FDIC International 2016, and our live hangout features Jeremy Hurd, Beth Murphy, Chris Willis, and Larry Conley. Use #FETalk on Twitter to ask questions of our hosts.

FDIC International 2016 Hangout, Day 1