One of the toughest parts of training is keeping the guys interested and excited. So many times (especially on a vol. dept) time constraints limit the amount of time an instructor can devote to planning and developing a new and fresh idea for training, they then fall back and rely on doing the same 'ol same 'ol.

So to keep everyone's interest up, let share some of our favorite training evolutions!

My favorite for the past year was setting up a search & rescue scenario in a vacant upstairs building downtown. We boarded up the windows and hauled some old furniture up to place around the apartment rooms. We used several smoke machines to smoke it up. We used traffic ones and put a light under it to simulate fire (looks awesome when the room is smoked up and you see an orange glow in the corner).

Our teams would gear & pack up outside and then carry a charged hose (we capped the end and filled it with air from an SCBA so no messy water leaks). They would have to search through several apartments stumbling over and around furniture looking for fire or victems.

Throughout the exercise we would stress safety and communication. They would have to give frequent radio reports to the IC outside. The guys would take turns being the IC.

Inside we would supervise them to make sure they are searching properly (and have a little fun putting items in their way).

This exercise was great because we got to do an actual search in an upstairs apartment and none of the guys knew the layout so they were walking (or crawling) in blind. The guys had a great time and we invited a neighboring fire dept to come and train with us so we had about 8-10 guys from their dept working with us that day. It helped develop trust and comaradarie with them and made for a fun evening.

John