Again we all deal with what the hell are we going to do to keep everyone from either not showing up or banging there head on the table. Again I have to admit that one of my favorite programs is Simulator 6. And it's free, you go around town and take pictures of places. Want to have fun, go ahead take a picture of the Chief's house, You can do it in a couple of ways, I take pictures as we go for a drive in the fire truck. So this way you can show the pictures as your enroute to the call. Then take pictures from all sides. Simulator 6 allows you to go into stages as showing what the picture will look like in 10 to 15 minutes later. This program helps out in a number of ways, pre-planning in one area as well as incident command. Working as a team and keeps it all good for the cold snowy or rainy nights.
Other way is taking pictures of from the internet or newspapers, showing calls and going through to find out safety issues that can be addressed. My favorite is when you see a picture of a roof over hang for an entrance to a house. And why is there 10 firefighters up there, it's not like college where you want to see how many people you can fit in a VW Bug.
R.I.T. blacking out masks and sending someone in to find a firefighter down. (Using Wax Paper, gives that smoked look inside the mask or wearing your balaclava on backwards. Having a R.I.T. set up and then sending in someone else. We use our fire hall, turn off the lights allow them to carry everything they would normally carry as well they first two firefighters go in with a hose line and the R.I.T. team must follow. Most fire halls have a back door, will have the pass alarms going off and send out another firefighter around the back and bang the hell out of the door. (Will anyone inside investigate that banging on the door or yell out) it could be a closer exit out of the building. Then you start sending in another crew. First time I did it with out air on then the next training you add the air. I set up someone to be in command so they can talk on the radios as well to see if the person in command follows bench marks. Does Command keep tab on the time the crews are in, or you can tag one of your firefighters inside if Command does not and state your out of air. You learn fast that a R.I.T. Team is not just two firefighters it takes a lot of team work to get anyone down.
May-Day May-Day training is another one, where you can have someone follow a hose in your hall with the lights out, take a blanket or if you have some chain-link fence and trap the firefighter. We have made Entanglement Simulator, using telephone and tv cable as well as some electrical cable. Rope anything you can find into a box where the firefighters must try to get through with there packs on. One learns different ways, swimming, keeping your tank to one corner and working. When you get stuck follow with your hand back to where your caught and work your way out of it. As well monitor your air as well when you get down, they should of called in a May-Day.
These are a couple of ideals, to help out... Most are cheap ways to keep those from falling asleep.
Once the weather gets better than everyone can go outside.... Hope this helps you out....
Enjoy....
Randy