BY CRAIG ANDERSON, DR. STAN ANDERSON, AND PAUL SCHROER
Murphy's Law tells us that emergencies will occur at the most inopportune time. Fire personnel may respond to a vehicle fire at 2 a.m. on a stormy night or a structure fire when the temperature is 85°F in the shade. Firefighters will be expected to tap into their physical and mental reserves to bring the emergency situation under control. We operate in a world of split-second decision making. These decisions often must be made when personnel are physically and mentally exhausted. The key to limiting mistakes on the fireground is realistic, repetitive training. We must have the attitude of training like we fight and fighting like we train. Repetitive training will ingrain an evolution into our minds, enabling us to recall the information at any time, under any conditions.
Firefighters want to be challenged with realistic, relevant training. How do we, therefore, keep firefighters' interest while performing repetitive training evolutions that reinforce the basics? How do we provide this training when fire departments across the country continue to deal with shrinking budgets? We must look for new ways to create an interesting, educational, and realistic training environment.
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