BY CHRISTOPHER BRENNAN
Firefighters must master the ability to take a mental snapshot of the situation presented to them and use that to make critical tactical decisions. Our business boils down to making decisions in a high-stress environment with life-and-death consequences. It does not matter if you are talking about a structure fire, a heart attack, or a technical rescue incident. Operating under those circumstances can be overwhelming, especially for a firefighter just starting out. If we want our people to thrive in that kind of chaotic, stressful environment, it is imperative to train them in fireground tactical decision making.
We have all worked with someone who was always cool and collected and seemed to know what the fire was going to do a second or two before the fire did it. Usually, those are the experienced members who have been around the block and have a chest full of war stories to share. There is no question that experience is the best way to master the art and science of sizing up a situation and making tactical decisions. Experience comes with time, though, and we are not responding to the same number of structure fires as we did in the past. How do we develop experience in a firefighter who may respond to only a handful of structure fires a year? We do this through training. Obviously, training is our “answer” for a lot of situations because none of us were born experts at firefighting. Training our members to be skilled in tactical decision making, however, must have a particular focus. If it is going to be successful, it must rest on a solid foundation.
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