A few years back I was having a conversation with a
firefighter from a neighboring department.
He made the observation that we in the fire service sometimes lose sight
of the basic skills that are important. My
good friend said we need to focus on the “Big 6” if we want to be proficient at
our jobs and provide the correct level of service.
Most of us have a specialty niche of some type. I personally like to don nomex pajamas and do
high speed gardening. We have those who enjoy
donning a Level A suit and deal with the methyl ethyl bad stuff. We even have Firefighters in our region who
work right alongside police swat teams for medical and/or forcible entry
tasks. The one thing that we have to
remember is that we are still the FIRE DEPARTMENT. We are the only group that has the
responsibility to respond to fires in our communities.
What is “The Big 6”?
They are the six major firefighting tasks that we should be knowledgeable,
competent and proficient at:
- Forcible Entry
- Hose (stretching, advancing, fire streams, and water supply)
- Ladder Work
- SCBA
- Search and Rescue
- Ventilation
“The Big 6” encompasses what we as the Fire Service are supposed
to be good at. These are the skills which
perform at almost every structure fire, and have been performing for many, many
years before anyone of us were here.
When is the last time you or your crew threw a 35’ ground
ladder? When did you last force a
door? When is the last time you
stretched a line off your engine? If you
cannot remember then you have some work to do.
Every time we show up for a shift we have a responsibility to
the citizens we swore to protect and our fellow firefighters not just to be
“OK” these skills but to be knowledgeable, competent and proficient. How do we get to this point? My simple answer is Company Level Training. In
the confines of your own station or first due response area, everyone has a way
to perform training on any one of these tasks.
Here are some examples, but the list can be endless with some creativity
and ingenuity:
Forcible Entry
Many of us only get the opportunity to force doors on actual
incidents. We may say it is too hard or
difficult to find opportunities to drill on this subject. With a few dollars and minor ingenuity you
can build yourself a “prop” that will help hone and refine your forcible entry
skills. If your department has a commercially
manufactured prop, use it! If there are
no props available scout areas in your district where buildings are being
renovated or demolished. There is a good
chance you could get permission to some FE work before they get rid of the doors. If hands on is not available to you, tour
your first due and perform some simple size up drills and discuss how you would
approach a FE scenario in a fire.
Hose (stretching, advancing,
fire streams, and water supply)
Put some hose on the ground!
It only takes a few minutes to pick it up. Be creative and work on hose deployment, fire
stream work, and even water supply. A
drill my company often performs is stretching a hoseline, advancing it around
some obstacles and then flowing some water.
It only takes 15 minutes start to finish. This breed’s repetition which we all learned
is the motor of learning.
Ladder Work
We all have ground ladders on our rigs. Ladder the windows at your station. Ladder
the roof to your station, Practice single person ladder carries and throws, and
every once and a while throw the 35’ Ladder.
If you don’t have a 35’ ladder in your station I’m sure your local truck
company could get a permission slip signed to take a field trip to your first
due. Drills like these take only a few
minutes, but again breed repetition.
SCBA/PPE
Does your crew wait on you to get your gear on? Can don your mask with gloves on? Put your self in situations that are
uncomfortable. Again inexpensive props
are easy to put together and utilize in your station. Search the web there are dozens of SCBA drills
you can do in the confines of you fire house.
Search and Rescue
Perform a search of your station. Sure we all know the lay out, but searching
and removing a victim takes teamwork and coordination. It makes us work in our gear with limited or
zero visibility. The last time any of us
practiced our search techniques shouldn’t be that last fire you had 4 months
ago.
Ventilation
With all the recent research we have found ever-growing
importance of methodical coordinated ventilation. Deploy your blowers to station doors and practice
PPV. Ladder the roof to your station and
simulate a vertical vent operation. The
“chalk saw” is a low cost effective tool.
If you have a roof prop available in your area use it.
I have a continuous goal for my crew to become diligent
about focusing on “The Big 6.” I even
went as far as developing a spreadsheet track amount of hose deployed, searches
completed, ladders thrown, and doors forced.
This tool will allow us to track how much or how many times we performed
some of these tasks in either a training environment or on actual
incidents. Share your thoughts and ideas
for “Big 6” training and drills lets all learn together!
We like to call ourselves occupational athletes. Take a look at your favorite sport, favorite
team and see what they focus on. I bet
it is the “Basics” of their sport. “Amateurs train until
they get it right, professional train till they can’t get it wrong.” unknown
author Be Smart and Combat Ready!
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