Survivability Profiling:
Firefighters continue to rush into burning buildings with the perceived notion that there are viable victims to be rescued. The fire service culture promotes a reckless approach to victim assumptions. Survivability Profiling is a tool to help the decision making process safer and more reliable. This reliability leads to a reduced chance at fireground LODDs and injuries.
For decades firefighters have been raised to believe that every fire has a live victim that needs rescued. Through formal training and informal training (TV, movies, magazines) they are taught to rush in to a burning building (mostly without due regard for their own safety) in order to save someone that may not exist. Survivability Profiling will put "rescues" in context with fire behavior and being outplayed on arrival.
Outplayed on Arrival:
Today's fire service is understaffed. Yet, we continue to respond to calls with the expectations of a full crew. This class will show what the reality versus the expectations are on the fireground while continuing to maintain the standard we have set forth--serving the public while sending our firefighters back home in one piece.
Outplayed on Arrival will take the participants through a real-life department that has learned to "Play with what is given" (reality) while continuing to work towards proper staffing and response (expectations). The class will begin with the real life realities of the Instructor's Fire Department and what has been accomplished. The class will end with the class being given the tools to change their Culture in how they train to meet reality without putting firefighters in jeopardy.
Fire Behavior for Incident Commanders:
Fire Behavior is one of the most important aspects of the fire service, but the least updated over a firefighter's career. This class will look at the puzzle pieces all firefighters have been taught but not quite put them together. Toxicity and volatility are highlighted in relation to survivability profiling.
This will be a lecture with class participation. The focus will be the role of Carbon Monoxide in fire behavior, with specifics dealing with flashover, smoke explosions and surviving smoke conditions. Reports from various LODDs and the Station Nightclub Fire will be used to highlight the dangers. The overall theme will be to change the culture of the fire service--preventing additional LODDs.
