Training Opportunities

My ninth grade social studies teacher would put a quote of the day up on the chalk board every morning. One of my favorites which would make a recurring appearance was “Excuses are the nails that build the house of failure.” Now I don’t know if it was an original quote or if he borrowed it from someone else but it for sure had an impact on my life and for that I thank him!

“Excuses are the nails that build the house of failure.” Think about that for a moment. Think about how many excuses you have heard today or maybe even how many you’ve given to others today, both in life and at work. “It’s too hot to train today.” “It’s too cold to train today.” It is always too “something” to train everyday if we allow it to be.

We run fewer fires per person today than in generations past and the fire-ground has sometimes become overly complicated. The fire service has taken on a role of being problem solvers. We handle all types of emergencies and many times the training for the High-Risk, Low Frequency events takes priority over the High-Risk, Medium Frequency events. This means we should be training more than ever. But training how?

Sitting at a computer 4 hours a shift droning through PowerPoints or even articles like this are helpful but not the solution. The fire service is still a hands on environment. Which means most of our training should be hands on.

Now I know our whole day cannot be dedicated to training. We have calls to run and life situations to handle. What we can do though is keep our eyes open for the training opportunities that we pass up all the time. When I was a newly appointed volunteer lieutenant I asked my father for some advice. He has spent the last 42 years of his life as a volunteer firefighter, fire-line officer and chief officer. I asked him how he, as a young officer, was able to accomplish his training goals. He told me to keep my goals reachable. He mentioned how he would run short, quick drills on the way back from calls. They were quick and efficient, as simple as finding a building of opportunity and running a line or throwing a ladder. I took this advice and put it to use both at work and at my volunteer house. The beauty of this technique is you won’t have to spend as much time motivating individuals to train because they are already out and riding around.

One other great training opportunity is on actual calls. How many times have you watched crews downplay their actions on a fire call? Not stretching a line on a box because it’s dinner time and it smells like burnt food. Not laddering all windows because it’s just a small contents fire. I was always taught that we play it as a fire until we prove it’s not because as someone once told me, and science has proven, we don’t rise to the occasion we sink to the level of our training. If we don’t practice going all out then when the time comes we won’t be ready to go all out.

What’s the answer? Pull lines on fire alarms, odors, even CO alarms and throw ladders to all sides on contents fires. Why? The residents deserve our best effort and the training value. How many residents in your community would let you roll up on their property for no reason and practice running lines in their yard? Probably not that many. However when they call us they expect us to show up and go to work. So go to work!

It is easy to feel overwhelmed, throw in the towel and save it for another day. It happens. When I start to feel this way I try and remember that quote from my past and make it my attitude for the day. “Excuses are the nails that build the house of failure.”

-Jim