A few months ago I attended a training workshop for local fire dept's with several classes over a weekend. One of the classes involved primary search and rescue using a TIC.
I have always been comfortable wearing an SCBA in drills as well as actual incidents. Never a problem.
When our team entered the building I immediately realized they had done a VERY good job of blacking out the interior. At the first room to be searched our team leader showed me, with the TIC, the layout of the room and an obstacle to be searched behind in the center of the room. He and another firefighter went across the hall to the next room.
I started out ok but soon realized I had lost my sense of direction. I then just reverted to doing a right hand search. It was a large room with closets.
I completed the search of the room but was totally spent and quite frankly a bit panicked. I was caught by surprise, my adrenaline was sky high and I couldn't control my breathing. Like I imagine an anxiety attack would be. I had to bail out of the search before we were done.
I was totally embarrassed and kicking my self in the butt. Here was a Batt. Chief who wussed out of a drill in front of 30 or so of his peers. We had a newbie in our team who had no problems.
We had a chance to go in again and the second time I was ok and completed the excersize with no problem.
In hindsight I can see how I allowed this to happen. For the past few years I have been the one performing our in-house SCBA drills. While I have donned SCBA's many times for both structure and vehicle fires, It had been a long time since I had done it in an intense drill like this one. At actual incidents you're focused on the task at hand, you don't have time to panic. Drills are different.
I'll call it instructor syndrome. Where a person is knowledgeable enough at a certain task to teach it to others. But by doing that they neglect to actually train on it themselves. Knowing how to do it and being able to do it are 2 different things.
I know, I know, what the heck's a Batt. Chief doing with an SCBA on? Shouldn't he have a notepad and a cup of coffee while sitting in the command vehicle? Sumbich should know better.
We since have started rotating instructors to prevent this from happening again.
Anyone with a similiar experience? Hopefully this may help someone in the future.
I have always been comfortable wearing an SCBA in drills as well as actual incidents. Never a problem.
When our team entered the building I immediately realized they had done a VERY good job of blacking out the interior. At the first room to be searched our team leader showed me, with the TIC, the layout of the room and an obstacle to be searched behind in the center of the room. He and another firefighter went across the hall to the next room.
I started out ok but soon realized I had lost my sense of direction. I then just reverted to doing a right hand search. It was a large room with closets.
I completed the search of the room but was totally spent and quite frankly a bit panicked. I was caught by surprise, my adrenaline was sky high and I couldn't control my breathing. Like I imagine an anxiety attack would be. I had to bail out of the search before we were done.
I was totally embarrassed and kicking my self in the butt. Here was a Batt. Chief who wussed out of a drill in front of 30 or so of his peers. We had a newbie in our team who had no problems.

We had a chance to go in again and the second time I was ok and completed the excersize with no problem.
In hindsight I can see how I allowed this to happen. For the past few years I have been the one performing our in-house SCBA drills. While I have donned SCBA's many times for both structure and vehicle fires, It had been a long time since I had done it in an intense drill like this one. At actual incidents you're focused on the task at hand, you don't have time to panic. Drills are different.
I'll call it instructor syndrome. Where a person is knowledgeable enough at a certain task to teach it to others. But by doing that they neglect to actually train on it themselves. Knowing how to do it and being able to do it are 2 different things.
I know, I know, what the heck's a Batt. Chief doing with an SCBA on? Shouldn't he have a notepad and a cup of coffee while sitting in the command vehicle? Sumbich should know better.

We since have started rotating instructors to prevent this from happening again.
Anyone with a similiar experience? Hopefully this may help someone in the future.
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