In this episode, “Training To Perform Under Pressure” instructor, Adam Ritsch encourages firefighters to set up a drill at their stations to train in their own environment.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION:

   Train well with ladders. Don’t just throw to an empty brick wall and be like, yep, we’re good. We covered it for the month. You’ll notice in the fire service is one of the things we don’t always practice a lot, so sometimes it’s been a while since we’ve thrown a a ground ladder, right? Or. Oftentimes the practice that we see is like, Hey fellas, it’s been a few months since we’ve thrown ladders.

Let’s go out and throw some out back. You pull the engine around back or ladder out back, you throw a couple up to a blank brick wall. Hey, we’re good. We threw our ladders. Let’s put ’em back down and put ’em in the truck. What I would do with my crew is I would start them in the truck with the ladders on the truck.

I would set up the windows and they wouldn’t know what the layout’s gonna be. You respond in and they’d have to come around the building. Size up what they’ve got and throw ladders based on what they see. I would also take certain windows and put either one V or two Vs as victims, right? So they seat and go, okay, I’ve got one victim in that window, two victims in that window, and they just draw out some fire with chalk.

So they would know where their wire location is. Now they have to prioritize while I’ve got one mic in there, two victors there. Here’s my fire location. So you keep ramping this up as much as you want to, but it makes them judge their distances and create a plan along looks, except for. Whether it’s firehouse or a local school, you can give them a call, a hospital, some sort of two story, great building that you could put some duct tape or some chalk on and remove it.

At the end of the day, it is really good training. Take this back. Something similar. Doesn’t have to be this, but train well with ladders.

* The training views expressed in this video are those of the training instructors, and not Fire Spotlight. The actions in this video are inherently dangerous and could result in death; should the viewers choose to adopt any views expressed in this video, he/she is doing so at his/her own risk. Fire Spotlight encourages viewers to review his/her department’s Standard Operating Procedures when adopting any new training views.