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What "Qualifies" You To Be A Firefighter?
Absence of certified training, what would qualify you to be a firefighter?
We hear alot about experience, but what should that experience include?
Mere years in the service doesn't automatically qualify you. Many have stood on the peripherals and never really gotten active to the point that they would dress in turnout gear, don SCBAs and initiate an interior attack. "Oh, he can run the pump, so he doesn't have to dress for the fight".
So, the question is: if you do not take state sanctioned firefighter training, what measuring stick do you use to measure competency in your firefighters?
TCSS.
Art
We hear alot about experience, but what should that experience include?
Mere years in the service doesn't automatically qualify you. Many have stood on the peripherals and never really gotten active to the point that they would dress in turnout gear, don SCBAs and initiate an interior attack. "Oh, he can run the pump, so he doesn't have to dress for the fight".
So, the question is: if you do not take state sanctioned firefighter training, what measuring stick do you use to measure competency in your firefighters?
TCSS.
Art
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Greenman on
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Well it is your department and your county, and I can't say you're wrong for doing it the way you do, it just doesn't strike me as the best use of trained Firefighters. If it works for your jurisdiction, though, then stick with it.
GM
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Permalink Reply by anne potter on
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It is alway so funny to read this stuff... It is up to your Dept to provide training to their men.. Interior,
exterior... If the training is not around which I dought.. Then it is up to your dept to provide.... I have see in all honesty well trained memebers do some pretty stupid stuff.. Well trained pump opertatorI will take any day,also a well trained interior... You don't have to be good at both ,but you better be good at the one youare doing.. that my friend is why you have a chief......
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Permalink Reply by Andy Entwistle on
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'Qualified' is a tricky word. I've had the training and have the certificates for national FF II and FO I. Looks like I'm qualified. However in seven years I've had the lead on the attack nozzle exactly once in a structure fire. My small volunteer dept. doesn't get that many structure calls, and we usually go M/A, and just cover down on a mostly-out fire. I had two years as Lieut. on the department's first due pumper and we never got a first due structure call in our district (just some autos). I'm a captain now, and my greatest personal fear is that I will get guys hurt because I don't have the experience. Never been the one to do a 360 walk-around. I know what flashover is, but have never seen one building. I've heard about a spongy floor, but never been on one. I worry about it a lot. Am I a qualified firefighter? I don't know.
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Permalink Reply by FETC on
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You guys need to do some real training then, flashover simulator is real fire, acquire a structure and get some live burn training, set-up evolutions and do size-up, command and accountability.
Bill
FETC Services
www.fetcservices.com
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Permalink Reply by chele on
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Good question! We have some that have been on the department 20 years or more that I wouldn't want to be partnered with because I don't trust their competency. We have one that has completed the FireFighter 1 course that I would not want to be partnered with either, so education is not necessarily key. Common sense will often supercede schooling (note that I did not say training) I guess that must be my measuring stick. If I'm willing to go into the fight with you, you must qualify as a firefighter. I want to know you've "got my back". I want my partner (whether in a structure fire or driving the grass rig I'm on the back of) to be effective. I want my partner to keep me out of trouble by knowing what he is doing in a structure and by not driving off a cliff in a grass fire! Most of all I want my partner to have "heart"; I don't want him to quit me before the job is done. I strive to measure up to my expectations too.
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Permalink Reply by chuck on
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that is correct, and let me just add that I DON'T want an underqualified firefighter with me, or on the RIT team if I go down in a fire. Training saves lives!
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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Okay, I need to clarify:
Ontario County, NY conducts an advanced SCBA class usually referred to as "Smoke Diver" class once a year. To be considered for this class, the member has to have a minimum of 3 years firefighting experience, NYS Firefighter 1 AND approval of his/her Chief. The County Training Officer has the final say as to who attends.
Now - in my department, a member needs to take this class in order to be classified as an interior firefighter. Some other departments also have this stringent requirement while others only require FF1. Some others only give a brief instruction on SCBA and let it go at that.
The last method was employed in my department when I joined in 1982, and my initial "training" actually took place in actual interior fire conditions.
We have come a long, long way.
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Permalink Reply by Don Zimmerman on
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There is no absence for training therefore you are NOT a firefighter until you have some sort of certification indicating you have complete a course of understating and learning that cover all the basics of being a firefighter. Those areas would have to be the following: basic pump operations, basic interior firefighting, basic RIT, basic First Aid, basic hose evolutions, basic fire behavior, & basic wildland FF2. Xchief I think I know where you are headed with this and if is then there are departments and agencies that are hanging their buts out there so far they are about to get horse kicked. Any department that even thinks they could operate that easy needs to be shut down like yesterday morning. What a liability they are to even be on the fire ground. WOW!!!
Zimm
PS: The knee is doing just great. Like feels so good!!!!
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Permalink Reply by Bull on
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Anybody can take that test and pass. Book knowledge and common sense seperate alot. We all know that no 2 fires are alike. Just because you pass the written, doesnt mean your ready to go balls to the walls. They should go interior with experianced FF, and they should show and explain things, color of smoke, how its moving, judging heat, differant materials. You can also take in live-burn exercises to learn such things as well. Hopefully you have a "QAULIFIED" instructor. Go above and beyond to try to learn as much as they can. If there dept doesnt offer such training, find one that does and see if you can train with them. The internet and videos is a very useful tool. Learn from others mistakes. Its what you make of it, not anyone else.
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I am told that the minimum requirement for the County's SCBA class has been changed from three to FIVE years, starting with October's class.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Teel on
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Not exactly. Your working a well involved house fire, you run low on air so you and your partner bail out to change bottles. That exterior guy changes the pack while your still wearing it and by doing so, that just saved time trying to save what's left of the house and property.
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Isn't that like saying a Blocker isn't a good as a Quarterback because isn't the one throwing the ball? If everyone on the team isn't doing their part to the best of their abilities, then the team will never score.
Likewise, if everyone on a Firefighting team isn't doing their part to the best of their abilities, then the team will never safely gain entry, locate and extinguish any kind of fire! Nor will they save lives and go home at the end of the day.
Is a Blocker any less of a football player than the Quarter Back? They are all indispensable parts of the team. Is an "Exterior Guy or the Apparatus/Pump Operator any less of a Firefighter than an "Interior Guy?" As has been pointed out, the "Guys inside" cannot do their job without dedicated, trained and professional "Guys outside" doing their jobs.
GM
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