Good Training Drills you know!?

[RobinsonG]

My station has become somewhat complacent with drilling. I am trying to bring up new drills and new things to do but I'm still newer so I only know so much. What are some good drills and ways to train you have done or heard of?

stay safe

[RyanK63]

My department is rural so we are always training on water supply and filling tankers. Search and rescue is something simple that can be done right in your fire house. We have also done RIT training at our house.

[LaFireEducator]

My station has become somewhat complacent with drilling. I am trying to bring up new drills and new things to do but I'm still newer so I only know so much. What are some good drills and ways to train you have done or heard of?

stay safe

Depends on the water supply, type of structures, volunteer/career, etc.

A little more in the way of specifics may help.

[tree68]

IFSTA has a book of company drills that can be adapted to your needs. Inside drills, outside drills, all sorts of tasks.

The description says there are 75 drills - more than enough to keep you busy, and by the time you get to #75, it'll be time to go back to #1.

Firehouse.com, Firefighterclosecalls.com, and other sites have plenty of training ideas, too.

Even allowing for duplication between sites (and the book), you shouldn't run out of drills for a while.

The IFSTA book is about $64. Firehouse and FFCC are both free.

Searching for "firefighter training" on the web sure brings up a lot of "pay to play" training sites...

[ChiefKN]

This is going to sound stupid... but it was fun and opened some eyes.

Have a radio/maps/streets/water source/size up drill.

Split your guys up and assign them to the apparatus.

Go to an ops radio channel or if you have a dedicated frequency use that.

Each crew will rotate into the officer riding position. All responses are cold (no lights, no sirens, regular driving).

They will be "dispatched" by the OIC of the drill to a location in your district, the firefighter in the officer seat will have to guide the operator by using the map, street index, whatever to the location, position the apparatus, give a complete sizeup (including nearest water source) over the radio. All of this should be compliant with good radio procedures.

Switch "officers" and repeat.

Bring them all back and critique. Be even better if you have it on tape and then you critique.

We found that our guys had a better respect for knowing the response area, water supplies, and how they talked on the radio.

You'd be shocked at what you see and hear. We had a guy who should have said, "Engine 53 responding" and said "Engine 53 in pursuit". I kid you not. He was serious (and clueless).

[fire49]

Do walk thru of different types of buildings

Id problems, hazards, chemicals, fire protection systems, etc...........

[GTRider245]

The best thing I have found that keeps my volunteers motivated is to keep showing them things that make the job easier. Try some different hose loads. Show them how to correctly handle and control a line. Just keep things interesting and don't waste thier time.

[FyredUp]

We did a fun drill at one of my POC FDs the other night. We hooked to the hydrant in the station with 1 3/4 inch hose and had to advance up and down the apparatus bays in between the fire apparatus. It surely did teach about spacing the crew out on the line, stockpiling hose at the corners, and most of all working together.

[tree68]

We did a fun drill at one of my POC FDs the other night. We hooked to the hydrant in the station with 1 3/4 inch hose and had to advance up and down the apparatus bays in between the fire apparatus. It surely did teach about spacing the crew out on the line, stockpiling hose at the corners, and most of all working together.

The current FF1 class here ran a similar hose drill that simply used cones. Pull the hose from a dummy "hose bed," (you could use the real deal, too - this was just faster than reloading the bed on the truck), out 50' or so to a cone, make a hard right, go another 50-75' to another cone, then a hard left and on to two more cones (another 50') where the nozzle was opened and another cone 50' out was knocked down.

Try not to knock down the intermediate cones, or drag them from their spot.

It was run outside on the grass, with a charged line of course, and 3 or 4 member teams. I was running our engine to charge the lines, and once or twice I almost had to shut the line down after they knocked down the cone because they were nearly too tired to shut the nozzle off.

After the target cone is knocked over, break, drain, and load the hose and do it again, with a different team.

The faux hose bed has two sides, so while one team was advancing hose, others were reloading the hose for the next group out.

The teams learned the same lessons as FyredUp mentions, some better than others.

[GTRider245]

We did a fun drill at one of my POC FDs the other night. We hooked to the hydrant in the station with 1 3/4 inch hose and had to advance up and down the apparatus bays in between the fire apparatus. It surely did teach about spacing the crew out on the line, stockpiling hose at the corners, and most of all working together.

I do this with my guys at least annually right before thier yearly live burn, just to make sure they remember how to advance hose and to keep it from becoming an issue in the burn building.

[FyredUp]

The best part about running that drill was the fact that everyone found it wothwhile, I actually had people thank me for running the drill, and not one person complained about it. If half the drills I run go that smooth I will be a happy camper.

[CaptOldTimer]

My station has become somewhat complacent with drilling. I am trying to bring up new drills and new things to do but I'm still newer so I only know so much. What are some good drills and ways to train you have done or heard of?

stay safe

Back to the Basics.

Big Box Training.

Mayday - Firefighter Down.

Hose layouts - Forward and Reverse.

Ladder Placement.

VES.


Just to name a few.

[RobinsonG]

My department is Volunteer, we are in a 100% hydranted area, commercial/residential buildings with mostly type III houses but an increasing number of type 5

[RFD21C]

Go to a local playground at a nonbusy time. Advance hose lines through the various parts of the playground. Plenty of corners, tight spots, etc. Great for teaching members to work multiple corners when advancing lines.

practice make perfect.