Training In Local Conditions That Affect Fire Fighting
EDUCATION in firemanship is continuous in the Austin Fire Department. Even though the department does maintain a modern fire service library, it also makes available to each member certain other material, local in nature, that is not available in fire service publications. Textbooks, codes, handbooks, magazines and the like contain countless pages of pertinent data of general interest, but for obvious reasons there is a dearth of “local material.” By local material is meant things that the average fireman must know about his own city or community that will affect his efficiency as a member of the local fire department.
Knowledge that carbon dioxide is a suitable extinguisher for electrical fires is of little value if a fire company is unable to locate the address at which the fire has occurred, hence familiarity with street layout is essential. Similarly, regardless of how well learned in hydraulics the engineer may be, it is all for naught unless he can locate a fire hydrant or a source of water. There are many more illustrations that can be cited to point out that while the more technical aspects of fire fighting are important, they are not necessarily the most important.
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