Mutual Aid Fire

Recently I had the pleasure of participating in some of the best training, hands down, I’ve been to in some time. If you have not attended the Orlando Fire Conference you need to make plans for 2010.

Within the training packed three days, me and the dudes I went with took part in a RIT drill. Much like typical drills search, locate, remove, ect. but a small detail that I have been not been exposed to (within RIT) was specific seat related assignments(when it comes to operating inside the structure) We here at the FWBFD have “seat assignments” in place already but not for some particular calls. I have heard in many different settings of what we do on the outside preparing for RIT ops (360, throw ladders, pull handlines ect.), but never considered the course of action when we cross the threshhold of the building. I figured the crew I was with would just “talk it over when we get there”. Sometimes there is no time for that “talk” to happen on the scene. We need to know, before we get off that truck, who has what – and what to do!(with limited direction)

It sounds elementary and maybe it is, but I have found that the more planned out you are the better the event will go. Now I know you can’t plan everything, that’s not what I’m saying, just be prepared. At my FD we are devoloping some quick reference type of documents for our members to carry (or have on the truck) to refer to from time to time. This to stay fresh on individual duties on the fire ground, according to the task. We don’t run certain calls regularly, much less RIT operation, and it is good to refer to certain operational tasks every now and then.( I hear some of you you should know what to do if you train!) I don’t know about your FD, but sometimes daily tasks, hydrants, hazmat training, EMS training, fill in the blank training, not to mention call volume takes away from the time to train on fire ground duties.

Needless to say we learned alot about ourselves in that training in Orlando and it has inspired us to consider some of our SOG’s and their content. Within that, considering RIT deployment, Vertical venting, VES, to name a few needs to be planned. These are “get it done and get it done yesterday” tasks. Some things we should slow down…some things we should speed up, when we speed up we don’t need to waist time in “figuring out” what each member is to do at that moment. Just do it-

So click here for some exerpts of future development of revised seat assignments and current seat assignments for our apparatus.