Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christian M Hartley on July 15, 2009 at 8:16pm

What is the objective you are trying to accomplish, or is it just a drill for the sake of practicing ladders? How long do you want the drill to last?

Our department recently did a two-hour drill where the firefighters laddered the roof of a three story building with a 35' extension ladder, secured the ladder, rescued a hose dummy, the second person then went up, ventilated, and came down. The practice was much more about use of the 35' ladder since ours is a three-fly (we do not have a ladder truck in our department) and raising/lowering. It only got dropped once, and it was mostly descended thankfully. But it got the point of the importance of practicing with your tools. Every time the second person came down after ventilating, the ladder was lowered by the same crew that raised it. Then everyone rotated until the drill was done by everyone twice.

At the same time to avoid people standing around, we had people use the 2-fly ladder to ladder a single-story residence and raise/lower some tools.

Hope that helps something.....

Permalink Reply by Russ Griffith on July 15, 2009 at 8:29pm

Here's a team drill I developed for our crew, it's simple, requires little set-up and can be done at the station.
you'll need two extension ladders, one to stay on the truck and one on the ground. set up two ground stations, such as a couple of lengths of hose layed out, but not connected, and a nozzle plus one traffic cone set up about 30 feet from the nozzle. Station two could be a victim retrieval through a short obstacle course.
I take slips of paper and write the ground station on them and secure them to the roof of the fire station with push pins, each team of two, in gear and on air, at the sound of the airhorn, must remove the ladder from the truck and ladder the building, one member climbs to the roof and retrieves one of the tasks, he/she then proceeds across the roof to the second ladder which their team mate has placed,(with the help of another firefighter), in an escape angle,,(45 degrees). The member on the roof performs a bail-out or ladder slide to the ground where their team member is waiting, they then proceed to their ground task. The hose task is that one of the team must make all the connections while blacked out, then call for water and adjust and aim the hose stream at the traffic cone with only their team member giving verbal instructions until the cone is knocked over. The victim retrieval is also done while blacked out with only verbal direction from the other team member.
I time the event from start to finish, I also penalize teams for unsafe acts. On average, each team can complete the course in 4-7 minutes, so you can get alot accomplished in a short time. Develops ground ladder skills, team work, trust and everybody has a good time.
Hope this helps.
Stay Safe

Permalink Reply by Lloyd K. Smith on July 15, 2009 at 9:33pm

WE USED THE BUILDING THAT IS NEXT TO THE STATION TO CONDUCT DOWNED FIRE FIGHTER RESCUE TRAINING UTILIZING LADDERS AND ROPE. THE SITUATION WAS THAT THE FLOOR COLLAPSED UNDER A FIRE FIGHTER AND HE FELL TO THE BASEMENT. THE PROBLEM WAS FOR EACH TEAM TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO RESCUE THE DOWNED FIRE FIGHTER. ONE THAT WAS COMPLETED WE PRACTICED BAILOUT TECHNIQUES AGAIN UTILIZING THE LADDERS. EVERYONE WAS IN FULL TURNOUT TO INCLUDE SCBA AND MASKED UP. IT WAS OUTSTANDING AND DEMANDING TRAINING BUT IT ALSO PROVIDED COMPETIVNESS AND FUN FOR ALL WHO ATTENDED THE TRAINING. HOPE THAT THIS HELPS OUT YOU AND YOUR COMPANY. GOOD LUCK.

Permalink Reply by Norman E. Flanders on July 27, 2009 at 5:06pm

Hi Haven5, I have a few ideas that should help you in your quest for training ideas. I've reported these ideas before on FFN. Have got great comments and requests as a result of the answer to the post.

* I will get training ideas from FIREHOUSE.COM, FIREENGINEERING.COM, FIREFIGHTERCLOSECALLS.COM and other web sites. Great places for information and drill downloads.

* We do inter-department drills with our surrounding mutual aid departments. These have been very successful especially when it comes to RIT. My department hosted a RIT training class and exercise. We used a mobile home for training. Great place to train with confined space. We have also do SCBA training. It's unlimited as to what you can do.

* We have visited our local EMS/Mutual Aid Dept's. for training on their equipment. Covering vehicle layout, compartment contents, and vehicle operation. Great way for PR and interaction. Some day you may be asked to get a widget and you'll know where to find it.

* Each year we tour our local businesses and manufacturing facilities. Great for PR. We have also done simulated fires at some of these businesses. Have put FF in the buildings for search & rescue.
We do prearrange these with the business, go over our goals and plans. We give each business a guide sheet that covers the important stuff, { see below}.You be amazed at the positive responses and how happy they are that we take the time to tour and train at their facility.

* I even have had our surrounding mutual aid departments tour the key facilities in our town. This has been done for two reasons. One is for mutual aid response and the other is for mutual aid coverage. If they are covering my town I want them to be aware of where your going and what they may have to respond to.

* Table Top exercises. I have downloaded many photo's of fires, MVA's, etc. for training purposes. These photos are then assigned an incident type, given a location, what is available for equipment & manpower.....then you are the IC.
To make it more interesting another incident may be added while en route or while trying to control this one.
{ I have these for use if you want some.....see below}.

* Area Familiarization. Nothing is more important than "KNOWING" your own community. This should include street/road names, key points of interest, water sources; winter/summer supplies, local businesses, do you have handicapped residence that need special attention, do they have O2, ask your members to really look at your community and list what they see on the ride to work/home, share what they have listed, etc.

* Ask your local fire investigator to give a class on 'METH LAB AWARENESS or SCENE PRESERVATION" Very important items for the fire service. If you set up the class ask your surrounding departments if they have anyone who'd like to attend. Great for inter-dept. PR.

If you want any of the photos I've downloaded with drills e-mail me at nrs5f@comcast.net and I'll send you out a few along with the check sheet.

Best of luck in your quest to better train. Stay safe, train often and share knowledge. Norm

Permalink Reply by JASON RUNDHAUGEN on January 3, 2010 at 9:58pm

HEY NORM THANKS FOR ALL THE INFO THAT YOU SENT ME IT WAS VERY HELPFUL.