Teamwork is essential to hoseline advancement. It's needed not only between ventilation crews and the hose team, and the search and rescue crew and the hose team, but it is also critical among hose team members.
More and more firefighters succumb to heart-related injuries each year. This week's drill will provide members with an opportunity to evaluate their own physical fitness and create a goal-setting worksheet.
synopsis
This week's drill is the second component of Howard A. Chatterton's two-part SCBA drill found in his Volunteer Training Drills-A Year of Weekly Drills. The drill's objective is to review the procedures for using SCBA and to develop proficiency in its use. Working as a team, members will search a large open area with aisles.
Search proficiency is a big part of safety and survival. This week's drill covers procedures for using SCBA and developing proficiency in its use. To achieve this proficiency, members will be timed as they don their protective gear including SCBA and will search a room in the dark while identifying certain obstacles as they come upon them.
Taking a halligan tool to a door to force entry into a structure may be the speedier method to gain access, but it's not always necessary.
Whether or not ropes and knots are your thing, you should have a basic knowledge of some of the easier knots and their usage and be able to tie them proficiently when needed.
Many companies already have everything in place for a yearly driver proficiency drill, even if they do not conduct such drills on a quarterly or yearly basis. Some of the steps each driver in you company or department goes through to become a qualified driver can be completed in the yearly drill.
Conducting a drill is not as simple as assembling a group of firefighters, giving them a quick rundown of what is to take place, and then telling them to have at it.
If you are not the water supply officer but find your self looking at a pump panel and a lot of hose on either end of your truck, you have as much work ahead of you as the water supply officer.