Im a line officer with a small rural volunteer dept. Recently it was brought to my attention that some of my guys are getting bored with training. Does anyone have any new training ideas that may catch the attention of my dept?
My guy's where complaining of the same old training also, so I found a plastic 55 gallon drum, filled it half with water and divided them into two hose teams, full ppe and scba and played water ball on the ground. Each time you pass the drum past the line you score a point. It taught them how to move a hose line as a team, how to handle the line and also doing work with a scba and finding out just how long one will last while doing work.
Hey I was wondering if you could send me this game. it sounds like a really good idea and I would like to bring it back to my firehouse to keep the guys interested. my email is rlubertazzi@yahoo.com
Here is 3 links for presentations on the Chemical Suicide. I know this is probably an old topic for some but it can become a new situation quick. Not sure year to date how many more of these incidents have been reported, but i do know we have had atleast 2 in the last year in NC. One of those in the small town i live and work for EMS at. So it can happen anywhere. Great refresher training topic.
I suppose you don't have to deal with cold weather too much down in Texas, but during the winter months up here in ND we do a lot of classroom based excercises. An interesting tool somebody forwarded me was a template for a jeopardy style powerpoint game. Great for repetition and something different when you have to sit your responders down.
What are your people bored with specifically? I think every department deals with this issue, especially us small volunteer departments. Its hard to find the extra time to dedicate to an innovative program that still runs as smooth and is as informative as the tried and true training sessions.
Cameron, thank you starting such an informative discussion. I am a probie on a smaller blended FD(almost a month now) and have noticed the lack of people showing up for the few training events I have attended so far. Might just have to bring up some of the ideas from this thread to the higher ups to see if they may want to try them out!!