Level of Training

I see a lot of guys who think they know everything about fire fighting because they have a lot of certifications under there belt. Well that piece of paper you have showing your certifications is not going to put out the fire. A lot of what I know comes from hands on experiences and listening to the senior officers. I wanted to post this to see what kind of responses I would get.

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Permalink Reply by Timothy D. Stone Jr on October 7, 2009 at 2:01pm

Yes sir hands on the is the best its how I learned my fire attacks, truck pumping, ect. Medical side of it, some was hands one some was certification classes. Yes as I said hands on is the best. But certifications cover thy ass if you screw up. Here in Ga. if we get injured in a fire, or kill someone on a medical, the first thing the investergators ask is, Are you/Was he Certified to do what you were doing.

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Permalink Reply by EngineLadder on October 7, 2009 at 2:30pm

I know what you are talking about in fire school we were told we are only teaching you this because by the state we have to a week after graduation most of the stuff got thrown out and we learned city skills. And you are right about senior man. soon as you graduate a fireacademy you can throw half the shit you had to learn out the window and start learning from you senior ff

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Permalink Reply by Rescue601 on October 7, 2009 at 2:45pm

A certification is a verification that you are properly trained to complete said task. After you are certified you learn via hands on training and experience. Everyone should be certified.

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Permalink Reply by R Griffin on October 7, 2009 at 2:50pm

Hands on is great stuff and senior officers are great also as long as the senior officer keeps up with the times. like TJ said it is great that you can prove the training with a cert for legal troubles.It all come down to who can show what they know on a fireground under stress and do a great job for the public, No one will now it all and if they say they do...watch out brothers BE SAFE!!

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Permalink Reply by Art "ChiefReason" Goodrich on October 7, 2009 at 3:32pm

One isn't any good without the other.
Period.
TCSS.
Art

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Permalink Reply by turk182 on October 7, 2009 at 4:02pm

I have also seen some people that just get in and act like they know everything after they have had one class when i first got into it I learned on the job and started getting the classes a little later. My whole family has been in the fire service and I learned alot from my father and brothers, but the certified training classes will help mesh the two together.

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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on October 7, 2009 at 6:51pm

I would agree with Art. They are complimentary to each other. I think this is one of those discussions that can go the c v.v route. Some people are just adamant that 'book learning' (certifications) is worthless. Thing is, experience can only teach you what you just learned. Certs can teach you things you didn't have a clue about. After that it's putting into effect what you learned, on the fireground.
By the way, aren't you 'certified' once you complete firefighter I and II? Or are those certs worthless?

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Permalink Reply by Tony P on October 7, 2009 at 8:59pm

Here's another vote for "they are complimentary' or 'one is no use without the other'. The general view with us? The book learning, with a little practical added to it, provides you with a good basis to start to gain experience. With us, you don't set foot on the fireground in any role until you have attained a certain level of certification. You are then considered able to understand what and WHY you are performing tasks.

I'm an instructor, I wouldn't dream on letting someone with a 'new' certificate do anything without mentoring. I also wouldn't consider letting someone with no 'official' training lose as a mentor. We still have people who say the 'training' is useless, that 'the only way to learn is on the fireground'. That may have been the case in the very VERY old days, when things were much simpler. There is too much that we need to be aware of to trust it solely to some 'experienced' firefighters.

Our method? Without basic wildfire training and certification, you don't set foot on a fire ground. Without basic structural training and certification you don't set foot close to a structure fire. Without full structural training and certification you don't do full internal work. Without Hazmat certification, no Hazmat work. Without a full drivers licence, to a certain truck level standard and without emergency vehicle driver training, you don't drive a fire truck. This is for our volunteers; career FF's do their 16 week full-time training course and are then posted to a 'training' Station to do a further on-the-job 9 months before they are deemed a qualified firefighter - which doesn't include specialty stuff like earial appliances, Hazmat or vehicle extrication.

We follow a national training scheme. Everybody in the country ends up with similar training.

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Permalink Reply by Jack/dt on October 7, 2009 at 9:06pm

the only thing that beats training and experience is more training and more experience.

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Permalink Reply by Firefighter Walther on October 7, 2009 at 9:19pm

i have no experience whatsoever with firefighting/emt, however, a friend of mine who is with the HFD says hands on is alot better experience, however, book knowledge helps you when your a rookie, and as you become more familiar with all that stuff, you more work on hands on than what is written in the books, but thats just me, but im a newbie here, so teach me something, cause i really want to learn more