Live-fire training: Strategies for ensuring it’s safe and realistic
By Keith Lloyd

Live-fire training is a necessary and indispensable tool for the professional fire service instructor. Fire training technology has made great advancements in recent years, but has yet to produce a simulator that can provide the same experience, the feeling of heat and the ability to observe fire behavior that live-fire evolutions provide.

Introducing the firefighter recruit to live fire provides a needed psychological test; a slide presentation can’t duplicate the mental or physical challenges of fighting a fire. Important lessons such as teamwork, accountability, attention to detail and the proper donning of personal protective equipment (PPE) and SCBA usage are emphasized and reinforced.

The drawback: Live-fire training is inherently dangerous. As recruit firefighters are often advised, “The fire doesn’t know it’s a training fire.” From 2000 to 2007, seven firefighters lost their lives during live-fire evolutions in the United States, and many more have been severely injured.(1)

When properly and safely conducted, live-fire training can provide a valuable lesson for recruit classes and enhance the cohesion and operational effectiveness of experienced companies. When performed outside recognized safety parameters, live-fire training can cause organizational embarrassment, internal conflict, legal liabilities, damage to equipment and worse—injury or death of firefighters.

The following is a summary of points to consider for the training officer prior to performing a live-fire training exercise. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list. All live-fire training must be performed in strict conformance to NFPA 1403: Standard on Live-Fire Training Evolutions, as well as state and local jurisdictional policies and procedures. If your fire department does not have a standard operating guideline (SOG) for live-fire training evolutions, I strongly encourage you to adopt one.

Note: In this article, the term “students” applies to recruit firefighters or experienced firefighters participating in the live-training evolution under the direction of the department’s training staff.


Incident Command
The implementation of the incident command system (ICS) is an absolute must during live-fire training. A qualified incident commander (IC) in a stationary command post can provide the proper level of command and control, safety and accountability for a successful evolution.

The IC must have radio contact with every division, group or sector operating on the training ground as well as the communications center. The IC and staff should maintain a tactical worksheet, personnel accountability system and incident action plan (IAP) in the command post. All positions in the ICS should carry a handheld radio.

The IC should meet with all staff, instructors and support personnel to review the IAP prior to conducting the NFPA 1403-required safety briefing. The IAP review should encompass the organization of the ICS, each person’s role and responsibilities within the ICS, the positioning of personnel and apparatus, radio frequencies and call-signs, and emergency procedures.

Safety Officer
The safety officer for the live-fire training evolution should report directly to the IC and have the authority to suspend, alter or terminate the evolution if necessary. Optimally, the safety officer should be dressed in full PPE with SCBA.

Among the safety officer’s duties: inspecting the PPE and SCBA of personnel entering the hot zone, providing reconnaissance information to the IC on the fire building and conditions, and ensuring that support personnel are adequately fulfilling their roles within the IAP.

Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC)
A RIC of at least two firefighters should be on standby to rescue lost or trapped drill participants and suppress the fire if needed. The RIC team should be dressed in PPE and SCBA and have at least one handheld radio as well as an adequate cache of equipment, such as flashlights, a spare SCBA bottle with trans-fill capability and forcible entry tools. The RIC crew should also be provided a thermal imaging camera whenever possible.

The RIC should connect a charged handline to their own, separate pumper, which in turn should be connected to an independent water source. This ensures the fire can be suppressed and personnel rescued in case of failure of the main pumper on the training fireground or the main water supply.

The RIC should be made up of experienced firefighters. Recruit firefighters should never be used for a RIC.

Safety Briefing
All personnel involved in the training exercise—instructors, students, command staff and support personnel—must attend an operations and safety briefing prior to commencing operations. This briefing is best done by the IC or senior instructor.

Talking points for the safety briefing include:
• Emphasize the importance of listening to and obeying the instructions of the training staff.
• Provide an overview of the training ground layout and the ICS (Figure 1). This can be done on a portable whiteboard or flip chart. Participants should know each of the positions in the ICS and the person who is fulfilling that position.
• Provide an overview of the IAP, the plan for making entry into the fire building, the activities to be performed, the strategy for exiting the building, and procedures in the event of an actual emergency. This is also a good time to review the department’s mayday procedures.
• Emphasize that the fire is real, and should not be taken lightly. Participants should guard against complacency with regard to safety procedures, particularly later in the training day when fatigue sets in. Horseplay or freelancing will not be tolerated.
• Explain how the drill is being organized. Students should be organized into teams, and should maintain accountability of one another. A ratio of 4:1 (one instructor for four students) should be maintained.
• Emphasize that wandering around the training ground won’t be tolerated . Student teams should be in the staging area, in the rehabilitation area or performing a specified evolution.

Building Walk-Through
Whether the fire building is the department’s training academy burn building or an acquired structure, all personnel participating in the exercise should be given a guided tour of the building by the senior instructor or IC prior to the start of operations. Particular emphasis should be given to the building’s interior layout, the location of where the fire will be started and the location and operation of available exits.

The layout of the building should not change during the live-fire evolution. Introducing “surprises” or changes in the positioning of interior walls or furnishings could result in a student becoming lost or trapped, and is best used during “black mask” or inert smoke-machine drills when the danger of live fire isn’t present.

Staging Area
When students aren’t participating in the evolution or in rehabilitation, they should remain in the staging area, a designated safe place away from the smoke of the training fire and with shelter from environmental factors such as sun or wind. The staging area is where student teams can rest or await their turn to participate in the drill. Strict accountability should be maintained.

Rehabilitation Area
Also out of the smoke and sheltered from the environment should be the rehabilitation sector, adequately staffed and supplied. Student teams exiting the fire building should be rotated through the rehabilitation area to doff turnout gear, take in fluids and nutrition, replace SCBA cylinders and rest. ALS personnel should be assigned to the rehabilitation area to monitor the welfare of students, supervise the rehydration efforts and record vital signs.

Entry
Once the ICS and support functions are in place, the IC gives the order to begin the operation. The stoker (or ignition) team of firefighters in full PPE and SCBA with a charged hoseline start the training fire and exit the building. It’s now time for the students to experience live fire. The instructor and the student team should meet before the point of entry, where the names of students should be recorded and relayed to the IC. The instructor briefs students on the IAP, and the safety officer checks the team’s protective equipment.

Maintaining a safe ratio of instructors to students, the team enters to observe fire behavior and conduct suppression activities. Prior to doing so, the entry group officer should state their personnel accountability report (PAR) to command. This should also be done upon exiting the building. All personnel must enter under the protection of a hoseline and never alone.

Reap the Benefits
All fire department training staff must promote a culture of safety-mindedness within their organization, and the live-fire evolution provides a great opportunity to do so. Students and support staff alike should be of one mindset: that safety is everyone’s responsibility, and that everyone on the training ground is empowered to speak up to stop unsafe practices.

Further, live-fire training should be promoted as a learning experience, providing an opportunity to observe fire behavior, the affects of ventilation and the application of hose streams and to learn an appreciation for properly worn PPE and SCBA. But just as important, it provides students the ability to watch the ICS at work and to understand the importance the organization places on safety.

What live-fire training should not be is a method of hazing or a rite of passage. Stoking the fire to dangerously hot temperatures, introducing unexpected elements to the drill or having unreasonable expectations given the student’s level of training can lead to disastrous consequences. Just as dangerous: not providing adequate command, communication and support, or not taking into consideration factors such as weather, time of day or student fatigue.

Like all of the fires to which we respond, live-fire training is a hazardous undertaking and performed under the principle of calculated risk. However, with a robust command and support structure and professional instruction with an emphasis on safety, live-fire training can provide your students and fire department with an excellent opportunity to improve its overall operational performance.

Keith Lloyd is a 23-year fire service veteran currently serving as a battalion chief with the Queen Creek (Ariz.) Fire Department. He is an adjunct faculty member with the Fire Science Department of Mesa Community College. Lloyd possesses considerable live-fire training experience gained as a fire academy instructor, in the community college system and through training industrial fire brigades.


REFERENCES
1. Madrzykowski, D. “Fatal Training Fires: Fire Analysis for the Fire Service.” Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology: 2007


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