The crew on C -Shift from Fire/Rescue Station 9 in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, just completed working on four hose coupling training props that will hang in the various classrooms throughout the county. The crew work for the Spotsylvania County Department of Fire, Rescue & Emergency Management. They were asked to make the props by Division Chief of Training Jeff Bailey.
Bailey asked them to make the props because he believes that knowing which way a hose is leading; either further in the building or outside can mean the difference in Everyone Going Home or not. The picture of the coupling and the right way to go should be ingrained in every firefighter’s mind, or, as Gordon Graham refers to it, our hard drive. There is usually very little discretionary time to think about this–it should be part of a firefighter’s muscle memory.
We teach this during the SCBA lecture portion of the Firefighter I program and then have the students practice feeling the coupling with obscured vision while following a hoseline during the skills or practical portion. Bailey said this prop will be hanging in the classrooms so students will not have an opportunity to forget about it. Bailey was very appreciative of the crew from Station 9 that worked on these. They really took their time and put much effort into making sure they would stand out and look good The crew is led by Captain Jeff Foster, along with Firefighter/Medic Dustin Goding, Firefighter Glen Summers, Firefighter William Maddox and Firefighter JT Burruss.
