Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Spencer Tribbick on February 22, 2009 at 1:25pm

Hey Ryan, everybody. Spencer here. I'm Training Officer for Oliver Fire Department in British Columbia. Canada. We're a medium-sized (36 member) volunteer department. I just became T/O in January, and my goal for 2009 is to get more interest in training so I can keep my guys on the ball and safe. Anyway, I've brought into my training cycle a drill that I found surfing around the web. It's called the Pittsburgh Drill. http://www.in.gov/dhs/files/pittsburgh.pdf It has turned into a bit of a competition at my hall, guys teaming up to try to beat each others times, it's great. The part of this drill that I really got a kick out of was the wax paper over the mask. Previously, we'd use newspaper to black out masks to train search techniques, but the wax paper still lets in light, but you cant make out any definition. It really simulates a smoky, foggy mask situation. I just thought I'd pass this along because it was a rel hit at my hall. Good luck, stay safe!
-Spencer

Permalink Reply by Jeff Rollins on December 4, 2009 at 11:27pm

If your have any new houses being built in your response area, go to the contractor and see if they will let your department use one for training. This would need to be done right after the sheet rock is put up and before paint. This will give the firefighters a chance at residential search and the chance to get to see the layout of some of the houses you might someday respond to. Stage a mock response to the address, connect to a hydrant, layout a supply line, relay pump, let your firefighters swap out doing sizeup, being IC. There are a lot of senarios that can be done. It will also give the neighbors a chance to see the firefighters at work. This is makes for an excellent drill.