By Joseph V. Maruca
写作NVFC
我们没有足够的时间。我们没有任何消防教练。我们的培训预算仅为$ 2,500。我们没有道具。我们没有课程，也不知道该怎么办。没有人出现钻探。训练很无聊。
这些只是我在培训中听到的一小部分评论。总的来说，这些评论表明，许多志愿消防部门需要增加培训，尤其是动手引擎company training。
In recent decades I’ve observed a tendency at fire departments to rely more and more on classroom training, canned programs, online training, and check-the-box compliance training. While all of these have their place, the only way to make certain that your fire department is prepared and capable of a smooth, safe, and effective initial attack on a fire is to practice hands-on引擎andtruck companyevolutions.
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我还注意到,许多志愿消防离开ments have not increased their training over these same decades. Departments that trained twice a month 20 years ago are still training twice a month. At the same time, their mission has increased and become more complex, and their emergency call volume has doubled. They try to jam more into the same training hours, and new mission training, compliance, or required training tend to win the competition. Hands-on training (particularly after initial recruit training is complete) gets pushed off and then forgotten.
在2015年对马萨诸塞州小镇消防部门的调查中，马萨诸塞州电话/志愿消防员协会（MCVFA）发现，典型部门的年度培训预算约为2,350美元，没有单个认证的火灾。教练在其等级和演习每年约50小时。典型的部门有18名志愿者或付费的消防员。
Sixty-six percent of these small departments had not conducted a single hands-on training evolution based on National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1410,最初紧急场景操作培训的标准, in the prior year. Only 13 percent conducted a quarterly hands-on engine company training evolution, and none conducted training evolutions monthly or weekly.
If the volunteer fire service is to continue to be successful and provide excellent service to its communities, it needs more and better training.
好消息是，至少有一个解决方案可用，可访问和免费。它是NFPA 1410，用于初始紧急场景操作的培训标准。
NFPA 1410 was first published in 1966. This particular NFPA standard is a roadmap for how to design and implement simple engine and truck company training evolutions. While the standard sets forth dozens of evolutions, measures, and techniques, the standard is designed for each department to modify to meet its own needs.
For a small volunteer fire department, NFPA 1410 is the answer to the barriers they face with their training programs. You don’t need any fire instructors or a training facility to implement it; any members of the department can organize it and run the drill in any parking lot. You don’t need any special props. Although props can be used, simply placing a street cone at one end of your parking lot and calling it “the fire” works. You don’t need to buy any books or curriculums. You can read NFPA 1410 online at the NFPA Web site for free. You don’t need a big training budget because there’s nothing to buy to use these drills and techniques; all you need are firefighters and your engine.
演习将停止无聊，参加演习的消防员的数量不会成为问题，因为您可以使用只有两名消防员进行这些演习。典型的进化只需要10-15分钟即可进行，重新包装和审查，因此这些简单的练习即可添加到您的培训计划中，而不会产生大量的时间负担。
NFPA 1410 has the added benefit of giving you a means to measure the effectiveness of your training program. You do this by setting goals for the drill – such as deliver 250 gpm onto the simulated fire with a 2 ½-inch hose within three minutes of arrival – and then tracking each crew’s performance with a stopwatch and simple score sheet. You can also track such things as compliance with safety procedures, stretching the hose without making spaghetti, and proper PPE use on the score sheet. You can track as much or as little as you like.
The best reason to use NFPA 1410 drills is that your fire department will get better. You will experience a measureable improvement of your first-due firefighting capabilities. You will stop experiencing hoselines that look like spaghetti. Firefighters will stop fumbling with SCBA. You will be getting water on the fire faster and with greater effect. Team spirit will build.
These benefits will all occur because your NFPA 1410 drills will become your de facto playbook. Just as football teams have a playbook and the players all know what to do when the quarterback/coach calls the play, your fire companies will do the same when the first-due officer “calls the play” on arrival. In my department, all the first due officer has to do is call the play and say “blitz attack” to his crew, and they will execute a 300 gpm exterior attack with the blitz gun or a 2 ½-inch hose just as we’ve practiced it over and over again in our parking lot. No detailed instructions are needed.
Adding NFPA 1410 drills to your training program takes willpower. If you are training twice a month, I suggest you add a third drill each month and devote it to engine company evolutions. Another approach is to assign a monthly engine company evolution for each of your shifts, groups, companies, or whatever smaller divisions you have within your department, and let those divisions schedule it and execute on their own schedule.
And yes, there is likely to be some resistance to adding training to your firefighter’s already busy lives. But, if you keep at it, even if only a few members show up the first time, or the first few months, it will catch on because it goes to the core of why we like being firefighters. It becomes engaging and we are using the tools and equipment we like to use.
如果您每月在志愿者消防部门的培训计划中增加一个月的NFPA 1410练习训练，则可能每年将每位消防员的培训增加12小时。每月花费两个小时，您每年增加24小时。起初，这听起来可能并不重要，但是如果您的消防员通常每年训练50个小时，则另外12小时代表培训增长24％。
以我的经验，人们希望成为擅长于其所做的志愿消防部门的一员。他们渴望动手训练，并有机会使用卡车，工具和设备。如果您离开教室并在停车场更好地训练，我向您保证，士气会有所改善，行动改善，安全性提高，您会想知道为什么您几年前不这样做。
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乔·马卢卡（Joe Maruca）is chief of the West Barnstable (MA) Fire Department, a combination fire department on Cape Cod. He served as a volunteer firefighter from 1977 until becoming chief in 2005. He is a director of the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) and represents the NVFC on the NFPA 1917 Technical Committee. Joe is a retired attorney and Of Counsel to the Crowell Law Office in Yarmouthport, concentrating in the area of estate planning.
