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Injuries During Trainings
TRAINING INJURIES
I keep hearing about people being injured during trainings. And recently I have even heard of a few deaths during training.
What types of injuries have you seen or experienced or know of which happened during trainings?
What types of things could have been done to prevent the injuries?
Here are a few, of the many, injuries that I know happened during trainings:
- a new guy in firefighter school fell down a flight of stairs in a smoke house - with an air pack on - tore his bicep muscle off his bone - could have killed him... FF was in proper gear... there was an officer standing at the top and bottom of the stairs monitoring it during the drill since they were aware the stairs were extremely dangerous... (more extreme safety measure should have been put in place - perhaps the stairs removed and entrance to stairwell permanently boarded off)... this was old bldg in town used as a regular training bldg, shortly after this condemned by the town and deemed unsafe for training even
- a seasoned guy broke his leg during hose testing when a charged line jumped and snapped his leg as it charged when they stepped over the line... FF was in proper gear... the person charging the line did not double check and call to ensure everyone was clear of the line (much like when defibrillating - maybe yell CLEAR)
- 2 officers and 3 new guys got burned on face and neck from a flashover at a training burn - burning down a building as a courtesy to a townsperson - small building, fast burn... FF's were in proper gear... scene evaluation and prep was done, however, when the bldg began to burn to fast, aborting the plan to enter should have been considered more seriously
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Fabulous Heather Days of Summer on
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Thanks for your input.
Something you said rang so true for me: We learn by what we are shown. So True! So True!
I keep thinking other industries maybe take their training slower or more concise or with more pre-training book knowledge before practical works.
I wonder are medical students and nursing students regularly allowed to be contaminated by blood accidents and needle sticks during their educational activities?
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Permalink Reply by Gary Stevenson on
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#1: Don't know if this was the "new guy's" first time but proper safety methods needs to be in place to prevent these instances.
#2: Following NFPA 1962 on hose testing would have prevented this.
#3: While like in the instance of #1, fire training does come with risk but with proper planning and the following of NFPA codes (that are usually there in the first place to protect ourselves from ourselves), following NFPA 1403 could have protected them because it would have contained objectives that would not have had to attempt the control of a run-away fire through interior operations.
Train hard, be safe.
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Permalink Reply by Sune Schønnemann on
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#1 - We where in flashover-training container, and a girl got her breasts burned.. She was wearing a bra with a metal brace...
The instructor DID tell to remove all metals like keys in pockes, piercings and similar.. So it was primarily a brainfart on her side not to think of the bra..
#2 - I burned my own head half off.. We were training the use of a fire-blanket on a pot with oil-fire (simulation a home-deep fryer fire)..
We normally pull the blanket off before the oil has cooled of, so that the next trainee can try it..
I was pulling it off, and at the same time somebody called my name, so I looked away for 2 seconds.. I looked back and pulled again, but the fire blanket had fallen into the oil.. As I pulled it completely off the hot oil self-combusted, thus spewing burning oil all over the place..
No actual injuries besides brown underwear, burned eyebrows and a burning jacket..
- Also a brainfart..
#3 - During a extrication exercise a guy gets wedged between the car and the hydraulic cutter..
Also a brainfart, as he was standing in the small angle between the car and the cutter, and he wasn't intelligent enough to drop the tool when he saw he was being wedged.. Pure luck that he didn't get hurt..
#4 - You guessed it, a brainfart.. It's not from training, but it's so stupid I have to use it as an example anyway.. We had a conscript who had to cut a hole in a roof.. He choose to sit on the part that he was cutting away... We noticed it and stopped him - Thank god..
This is just a part of near-misses I have experienced.. And EACH AND EVERY TIME it is due to people slacking and getting over-confident...
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Thanks for your input.
#1 - search and rescue drill in a smoke filled multi-story house buildling - Trainee FF should have been crawling. I do not know all the details - but I think they were not sounding the floor - which is a great point since it would have prevented the fall. I do know it was not a standard staircase with a proper full top landing which would pass inspection now, it was an old house and this was a back emergency type stairwell - think 8" tread width - more like a narrow and steep stairwell like a fancy, yet sturdy, pull down ladder from the attic.
The issue that flagged for me was the Officers were appointed FOR SAFETY AT THE TOP and BOTTOM of the staircase BECAUSE IT WAS DEEMED OVERLY DANGEROUS. And WHY if you are monitoring for safety would you let someone fall down the stairs that you are solely appointed to watch? What was the officer doing IF NOT ENSURING SAFETY at his appointed post at the top of the steep stairwell !!!
And no - Thermal Imaging was not being used.
I think you should explain more about sounding the floor - since you express it as a lost art - and I agree. So tell us more... and tell us WHY has it become a lost art?
#2 - you said it all
#3 - it was lit properly, the anticipated rate and pattern of burn changed quickly, as did the wind - maybe a wave off and a "whoa doggy" should have been called... tunnel vision training ???
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Jeez Chief Mike - you have had a lot of injury activity in your southern regions...
Glad you are still with us !!!
What caused the explosion and how could it have been prevented?
And yes, I thinking Safety Officers need to TRAINED as to WHAT types of things they are watching for - specifically with how newer / less experienced members can make decisions out of fear or may default to standard logic stepping out of FF logic.
Sometimes I hear Safety / Training Officers & FF's say - I NEVER IMAGINED THAT GUY WOULD DO X-Y- or Z ? Because what they did made NO SENSE !!! When what they meant was it made no sense to them... and it made no sense to a seasoned FF - BUT THEY ARE NOT WORKING ONLY with seasoned FFs and are not ONLY working with people that think like they think.
Yes - STOP and re-evaluate... and train as you go... sometimes means back up and try something different.
I remember one day I showed up at a barn fire - there were 40+/- FF working the fully-involved barn - full of cows... so several million $$$ loss. When I arrived on scene in my POV, I noticed that the house was also on fire and no FFs were putting it out. Everyone was so focused on the barn, that they had missed the progression of the fire to the house - which was fine when they first arrived - and which was hundreds of feet away. But the WHOLE situation needed to be re-evaluated and re-evaluated and re-evaluated...
Thank you for your input.
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so did the guys sliding down the ladder gets scared at the speed and try to slow themselves by grabbing a rung?
practice sliding on a playground slide - feet first and head first - you can better gauge trainees upper body strength and fear factor BEFORE you do it from a ladder
some departments train doing pushups and things of the such so that the trainees have better upper body strength to manage similar tasks
some departments do not even permit the head first bail out - because so many people get hurt
and someone SHOULD be monitoring the rookies for dehydration too, I know at some trainings water is handed out at the beginning of each drill and EVERYONE MUST drink it ALL... since dehydration leads to thinking errors... and thinking errors leads to injury... and some injuries lead to death...
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I do wish departments would be more open about training injuries, all injuries for that matter, that happen so that other departments could learn from them and learn ways to prevent them.
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Permalink Reply by Patti Walz on
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I was the student who got discombobolated during the first interior burn. It was black and nobody was talking so I had no idea where I was. I did find a corner and stood there, my pass was going off, and then I ended up being the practice FF down. It turned out to be a good lesson.
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I agree with you on this. I have heard of departments that will "bury" the incidents.
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Is there anything you would have done differently?
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So WHY are people feeling that "burying" the incidents is useful?
Can you elaborate on your thoughts on that matter?
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Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
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The organisation I'm a member of unfortunately killed a volunteer during a training exercise a few years back.
The members were training for boat operations and were doing their swim assessments.
There was a number of contributing (or potential contributing) factors including inadequate risk assessments, inadequate training, inadequate supervision, inadequate pre-course checks (ie: Can you swim? Yes. But no one actually is checked or verified that they can in fact swim).
The organisation was actually sucesfully investigated, prosecuted and fined by the State safety Regulator, Worksafe (Which I assume as the same or similar as OSHA???) for breaches of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
A bit of info on this incident and subsequant investigation:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-11-26/ses-fined-over-volunteers-dea...
http://www1.worksafe.vic.gov.au/vwa/vwa097-002.nsf/content/LSID161018
http://www.safetyinaustralia.com.au/latest/safety-news/301109-vic-r...
http://www.safetowork.com.au/Content/articles/ses-victoria-ordered-...
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