The Social Network & Community JUST for Firefighters
What does it mean to be a Smoke Diver?
Do you have what it takes to be a Smoke Diver? Many have tried but been denied by thier own limitations. Yep, thats right, your limitations! I know that firefighting is about team work, but here at the Mississippi Fire Academy, we teach you about yourself as well. The Goals Have Been Set, Can You Measure Up?
The man that says; "I can't" and the man that says; "Ican" are both correct, which one are you?
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Charlie on
-
Lutan, I think you are reading too much into what is being said. In Georgia, our motto is "The Elite Few, Strong in Mind and Body". With that being said, no one is saying they are better than anyone else. I have fought fire with a lot of people that are awsome firefighters. They are not Smoke Divers because of whatever reason, they never chose to attempt the program. Our attrition rate for our class is a little over 50%. Some people have never pushed themselves to that point and choose to leave, some people have medical issues that arise and medical out. Whether they complete the course, they learn. It makes people think when they get back to the station about what they need to do for physical training and job training. If you get out of breath just putting on your turnout gear, that's what we call a sign. If you choose to make yourself better each day you show up for work and you show calm, collective leadership, now you're getting to the point. I'm proud to be a Smoke Diver. It made me phenominally better the Friday I graduated than I was the Sunday I showed up for class. It didn't make me better than anyone, it made ME better than I was. I was also told by a wise man, you don't tell people you're a Smoke Diver, you show them with your actions. Our program is open to anyone that meets the minimum requirements and passes the entrance requirements. We even have out of state people that attend our class. I hope this helps.
-
Permalink Reply by lutan1 on
-
either the program should be on offer to ALL members because it's in their best interests, or the minimum stabdards for SCBA use need to be rewritten because they're obviously flawed as they don't teach safety, endurance, etc
I notice you didn't address my last statement compeletely????
As for taking the class- I can't. Im in Australia. We have a national standard for SCBA use and training. It's a level playing field for all operators, and ensures that everyone is at the same level/standard/competency when using it.
Why can't your SCBA training be modified to cover off "smoke diving"- if it's so important and so good, then it shoudl be for everyone.
-
Permalink Reply by roy yoder on
-
happy new year lutan1 and in georgia the smoke diver class is an advanced ba class to which the student is placed to extreme limits of both physical, mental and breathing equipment limits. it is a passable course and was first designed for the firefighter to come to the acadamey learn the ways to survive in these extreme conditions by using all thats avaliable to him. then come back to the station and teach the others so that all may go home. i fear that the thought of i did it and you didn't so you have to go and see if you can do it and i will not teach you because i have the patch so i am better than you and if i teach you than you will be my equal has soured this course. it died for a while in georgia but was revived about a year ago. a freind of mine went to take it and was culled because of not meeting the physical to enter the class. i belive i could have passed it 4 years ago but age has caught up with me now and you know what that does. they push the point that you teach the others but it still don't happen and a lot of smoke divers walk around with their chest out and their mouth shut unless they brag. not good, no training here. i hear it is a good course but the contents are limited to a few and once you have the patch you keep it for life. so when you get old and can't do it no more you can still brag although you are no more a smoke diver than i am, i have the knowledge but no longer the physical.
-
Permalink Reply by AL Smokediver on
-
lutan 1 it would be in your best interest. Do you think yot going to use your minuim standars when your out of air and dragging a brother NO your going to do everying you know to do I would like to know the most i can to save your ass and mine and the more advaced training you have the more to you can but in your back pocket maybe when the fire gets above the so called STANDARD you
can fall back on whta you know and get home the next morning Fire has no STANDARD it does what it wants to
-
Permalink Reply by Tony P on
-
If you are setting up/running this course, I hope that you use grammer and spell checking on your documentation. No, spelling and grammer asren't everything, but they are damned important in anything relating to tuition!
And like Lutan, I think you're contradicting yourself. The two statements quoted by Lutan are mutually exclusive. You also haven't answered my question about your "hardest" statement made earlier.
-
-
I will make one more attempt to clarify a few misconceptions about Smoke Divers, or at least the Georgia program. The program is not designed to see who can do the most push ups, who can run 3 miles the fastest or who can make an SCBA cylinder last the longest. The program has a lot of physical agility in it because our job, when we work, is very physically and mentally demanding. We should always try to be in better physical shape. Now when we are physically drained and mentally tasked, we tend to make poor decisions. In Smoke Divers, we try to put you in comparable situations and challenge your critical decision making skills. And then you have to perform your task correctly, each time. Repetition. You don't give conscious thought as what you do, you respond to the situation based on training. Again, let me refer you to our website, www.georgiasmokediver.com. Hopefully if you look around the site, it will answer questions that you may have.
-
Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
-
Charlie,
My state doesn't have a smoke diver course. We do have Rescuing the Rescuer and RIT classes at the state fire academy, and in some of the local departments. My department has a mandatory Firefighter Survival/RIT class that includes lots of skills, including critical mental skills.
I have to disagree with your statement "Repetition. You don't give conscious thought as what you do, you respond to the situation based on training." In our survival class, we stress THINKING through the problems, because reaction without thinking will often get firefighters in trouble, especially when something has already gone wrong. Training should be oriented building psychomotor skills and muscle memory, but we shouldn't be teaching firefighters to avoid thinking. That training should be teaching how to think under pressure as well. If you can think while under stress instead of merely reacting, you'll give yourself the best chance of getting out of a dangerous situation.
Ben
I'd still like to see a validated skills list for a smoke diver class, too.
-
-
I love it when I discover I've overlooked a spelling mistake! Not too many get through my checking, but this one did...
-
-
From the georgiasmokediver.com web site...
"Today’s firefighters are getting seriously injured and killed because of failures in decision making, because of a lack of situational awareness, or lack of orientation to the environment."
http://www.georgiasmokediver.com/43444/index.html
Actually, 52% of LODDs are from cardiac events and another large percentage are from vehicular accidents, which makes me question the accuracy of the above statement.
-
Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
-
add to that the 25% in MVA's since they seem to be more tuned to fire ground decision making.
-
-
When I say respond without thinking, you respond appropriately. When you are running, playing football with your kids and you fall, you don't pause, hmm, I'm falling, my options are..... You put your hands out to absorb impact, try to position, etc. Likewise, if you read some firefighter LODD reports, the victims removed their facepiece, stood up and ran, etc. These options should never cross your mind as a viable option. We try to teach you to recognize the deteriorating conditions to start with, situational awareness, egress options, etc. If something happens, like a collapse, you check your situation like air, partners, and then you do what you have to do to get out or survive. Experience thinks for you, just very quickly. I guess I should have clarified that statement a little more. As for validated skills, we don't do anything that you shouldn't already do. We do drills, on top of drills, on top of drills. We do them safely. We use utmost accountability, student water and food intake is monitored and mandated, we have been through all skills ourselves, we use very safe instructor to student ratios, etc. Some of the skills we do are Denver drill, firefighter down, above grade fire attack, below grade fire attack, downed firefighter packaging and moving, VES techniques, and on and on. I hope this helps.
© 2024 Created by Firefighter Nation WebChief.
Powered by
