"The Big 6"

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:

1. Forcible Entry

2. Hose (stretching, advancing, fire streams, and water supply) 

3. Ladder Work

4. SCBA

5. Search and Rescue

6. 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!