I traveled to Erie County in mid-July to attend Firefighter 1 Boot Camp under the auspices of the White Hatted Wonder. For personal reasons I withdrew after two days of training, but what an experience those two days were!

For anyone interested in completing FF1 in a compressed time frame while testing your limits and endurance, this is the appropriate format to find out just exactly what you’re made of. Upon arrival the first morning, we were split into smaller companies and instruction began immediately, with a quick immersion lesson on setting out gear for inspection which segued right into a PPE donning/doffing drill. They insist that you say out loud what you're putting on while donning...and at first I couldn't figure out why....."Boots!! Pants!!!, Suspenders!! etc etc" ....Until the first time that a.) I forgot to pull my hood up over my SCBA duringa doffing drill and cost myself a precious ten seconds to right the wrong and b.) the first time I got my time including pack and air down below two minutes.

After that the day became a blur of classroom instruction, hands-on evolutions, chugging water and more instruction. Each day was a ten- hour endurance event beginning with equipment inspection and finishing just in time to grab some nourishment, review the chapter materials for the next day, and practice the mental aspects of the hands-on training before getting some shut-eye.

I was placed in "Delta Company" which consisted of Little Nicole, The Other Nicole, and Big Tall Tom. Little Nicole ended up setting some kind of Boot Camp record for air consumption management during Mask Confidence. She had one of those nifty brand new MSA packs, with a 45 minute bottle and she became the Energizer Bunny of Recruits. While the rest of us sat around in our own personal puddles of sweat after breathing our tanks down to nothing....Little Nicole just kept going, and going, and going.....

The following day she and I teamed up for the confined space maze and blazed through that with no problem. She got me around the "S" turn and I lowered her down through the trap, like clockwork. Sometimes you meet one of those people and you can do 90% of your communication with just your eyes.

It's funny, the one aspect of the class that I thought I was going to have trouble with turned out to be no big deal..... Knots. Learn em, love em, practice em. I can do a double eight on a bight with my eyes shut and gloves on, no problemo. In fact, the following week during my own department drill, I dazzled (well, ok, "dazzle" might be a bit strong of a description) my fellow members with my lightning quick Clove Hitch while hauling pike poles up to the roof.


In two days time we participated in SCBA emergency breathing/buddy procedures, confined space awareness, building construction, mask confidence, hot bottle changes, preliminary search and rescue, rope knots and a host of other training modules, interspersed with what felt like 100 donning and doffing drills. Friendships were quickly forged, as we had only our fellow recruits within our own companies to rely on, and to support as needed. The instruction I received during those 48 hours was only a fraction of the material covered in ten rigorous days of physical and mental training at the Academy.

Erie County runs its Boot Camp in a paramilitary fashion. The instruction is top-notch, and I can state with complete confidence that Lead Instructor Mark Butler and Second Instructor Tom Partridge imparted more knowledge in two days of training than I’ve learned in the entirety of my seven months of participation in the fire service.

I won’t lie, Mask Confidence is about as much fun as a root canal without Novocain, but there’s a method to that madness, and I know the difference now between “low air” and “no air” and “mask stuck to my face”. I vaguely recall dropping "F-bombs" by the dozen while cllimbing the Tower stairs for what felt like the 20th time. I hope that I never have to utilize the recognition of those few precious seconds of extra air, but the training might just save my life or someone else’s life some day.

I’d like to thank Tiger Schmittendorf, Deputy Fire Coordinator, Erie County Department of Emergency Services, and NYS Fire Instructors Mark Butler and Tom Partridge for their passion, dedication and professionalism, and I’d like to say “Congratulations” to Delta Company (Nicole, Little Nicole and Tall Tom) and all the other participants for graduating from (surviving) Boot Camp. I knew you could do it!!

I’ll forge ahead and obtain my Firefighter 1 credentials either later this year or in the spring, but in the meantime, stay safe, train often, and don’t forget to buckle up.