By Ray McCormack
Safety and Health Week ends tomorrow. The theme, which highlights training in a realistic manner, sounds like something we shouldn’t need to do. Why would we need to be reminded to train like we fight? The reason is that many fire departments suffer from mission creep, but not towards fire. Fire departments led or inspired by people who see medical and other non-fire response as the focus need to refocus and understand why they are the only answer when fire strikes.
The possibility of fire is always high; to allow firefighters to believe otherwise also pushes us into mission creep. When the alarm comes in, the risk didn’t just jump to high–it was already there, but now it’s a reality.
Training like you fight should be a progression. Train with your gear on, train with your SCBA on, train on air. Include live fire into your training if possible. Even adding “if possible” is a form of mission creep. Fire departments should have access to live fire at all times. Not only should it be used for training, it can also be formatted for public scrutiny and education. Many departments in the fire service don’t even own their own firing range, much less see the need to train for the occasional fire interruption. So the opportunity to train like you fight is a foreign concept, and it will stay that way until the fire service shifts towards its title.
Training should not have to be highlighted as a national campaign. We should be displaying our photos and video of prior training that went on all year long instead of posing for a photo op this week. You can train like you fight, but if you don’t believe in the fight or shun the fight, most of that training will be hard fought. The fire service is about two items: fire and service. Train like you fight is about getting your fire act together and servicing the public with quality firefighting while perfecting tactical safety.
Keep Fire in Your Life
RAY McCORMACK is a 30-year veteran and a lieutenant with FDNY. He is the publisher and editor of Urban Firefighter Magazine. He delivered the keynote address at FDIC in 2009 and he is on the Editorial Board of Fire Engineering Magazine. For more on Urban Firefighter, visit http://www.fireengineering.com/urbanfirefighter.html.
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