training

[KPOLE 1602]

I'm responsible for haz. mat. training in my dept. but I've had problems getting members interested in haz. mat. Most members take haz. mat. awareness and stop because they say it is to boring. I've told them that haz. mat. ops.,LP gas,Foam ops,and tech. classes have alot of hands on and that you need the basic information from awareness to build on. If anyone has any ideas of how to gain interest of my members (drill ideas) or if anyone else has had this problem please let me know.

------------------

[Hammerhead338]

In my old volly dept, if you wanted to gain a higher rank you had to have certian traing, thats how we got people to attend the classes, at my paid dept it is required that we have the ops level, the dept is looking into paying you more if you get trained to a higher level then the ops, but you would have to keep up to date or you would lose the extra pay.

Have a good day and be safe.

Joe
Local 3905

[pokeyfd12]

Like you said, there are some hands on training exercises for haz-mat ops and even just some of the flammable gas training.
I'll never forget the time the local propane company did a demonstration for us involving a 20 propane (BBQ) tank. They placed the tank in a secure area at our training site and placed a ring of flares around it. They remotely opened the valve on the tank and let the gas seek the flares (there was only enough gas in the tank for a couple seconds of flame). The faces of the ops class when the gas floated on the ground and eventually ignited a spectacular fireball changed alot of minds about haz-mat.
Something as simple as testing their common sense or technical abilities can be done by taking a 25 foot aluminum pipe and drilling/sweating a few different type of shut off valves that have to be changed or make holes or tears in the pipe that they have to seal. Then make a garden hose attachment at one end of the pipe and run it off a garden hose, pumper, hydrant whatever. Be creative.

Hope this helps

Rescue Lt. Kevin C.