To Perform in Chaos, We Must Train in Chaos
Like it or not, every fire incident is chaos. The determining factor is whether or not we are able to control or contain the chaos. Fire is an aggressive and destructive force that creates hysteria amongst most humans. To overcome and overwhelm this force, we must be trained in the basics and trained in these environments to become comfortable in chaotic situations. I am sure we have all experienced getting into the zone at incidents when things are moving slowly but you are operating at 100 percent capacity, tasks become easy and your processing is at max efficiency.
How do we get there? Training and drilling are critical to the success of any team. Our individual companies must be cohesive and familiar with each other and they must be in concert with other crews on the shift. This creates a symbiotic flow to the incident. Have you ever been on an incident that this happens? When everything you do is right and the team can’t lose?
To develop this type of flow and performance, training and drills should be the focus. Skill retention of basics is the foundation of every firefighter. If we lose focus on the basics we begin to regress. This can be a result of firefighters not training, loss of focus, or overwhelmed by other responsibilities. If you can set up the stokes basket with a 5 to 1 for victim recovery faster than you can mask-up or stretch a line; our priorities are becoming jaded. I am not saying ropes and tech rescue are not important, but we need to master the basics before we should move to advanced skills.
Once the basics are instilled as second nature, we must then focus on operating as a team. This comes with drilling different situations and overcoming obstacles we may face on the fire ground. Developing a flow and expectations happens when crews train together and become familiar with how everyone operates. Everyone will have different techniques to hoseline movement, strategies and tactics, and communication. Training together allows familiarity and develops the team approach. When crews have been together for a long time, they can begin to predict each other’s next action. With this, we all become supporting roles in the greater act.
The final piece that many miss is operating the environment with and without stress. I assimilate this with is pulling hose. We can pull hose in the parking lot all day and be the greatest firefighters in the world, but I never been to a structure with no walls or obstacles I didn’t have to navigate. We need to learn to operate in our environment by stretching hose in the community and on tough buildings. Another example is mask up time. We see videos of firefighters who can mask up in under 10 seconds. This is great and I commend each of them, but are we doing it with 100% success every time? Is you crew able to mask up this quickly as well or are you waiting? Have you increased your heart rate then mask up? Sitting in the bay training is different than sitting on the alpha side of a house with fire overhead. To add one more level of stress, we need to replicate the stress of the job. We can’t always have fire to train, but we can stress our bodies to replicate the elevated heart rate and physical stress of the job. This is where success not only becomes a possibility but it becomes a certainty. When we can operate at max performance in stressful environments, we will have the tendency to win. Will we always win, probably not. Some fires are beyond control from the start, but it puts our firefighters in the best possible position to be successful.
Col. Thomas Feltey stated on Flashpoint: The Fire Inside Podcast, “Ruthless repetitions in varying conditions”. We perform our duties in numerous situations no matter the time of day, weather conditions, or unusual circumstances. When we are called, winning is all that matters. Because we operate in unpredictable environments, we need to train in various conditions with unforeseen challenges. Our ability to do so will equip us to process information quicker, overcome obstacles, and be predisposed to success.
If you’re looking for high performance, you need to train the basics, conduct high acuity drills, and do it in various conditions.
YOU WANT HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS, THEN TRAIN and TRAIN OFTEN!
