REALISTIC TRAINING Optional Extra or Core Skill?

by

Shan Raffel EngTech MIFireE It is fair to say that on the job training works well for most occupations and trades. However, firefighters often find themselves in hostile environments, or severe crisis situations that are threatening to their lives, and the lives of the community they serve. Realistic training is essential to physically and mentally prepare firefighters for those special challenges. The Armed Forces provide a classic example of a workforce required to operate in a wide range of extremely hostile physical environments. These can vary from jungle, swamp terrain, alpine, desert, and marine, etc. In order to operate effectively in these environments, they must have a sound theoretical understanding of what to expect and how to survive. The military realises that theory alone will not adequately prepare troops for survival and success. Their training requires them to be exposed to the physical environments, while strategically dealing with a hostile human element. They must also learn to deal with the emotional stress generated when making high risk decisions. The end result of this realistic training is not only an increase in mission effectiveness, but a reduction in battle field casualties. There are a number of non-military services that must have realistic training methods to mentally and physically prepare their workers. Firefighters are routinely asked to enter environments that are unlike any normal environment found on Earth. Apart from the extremes found in polar regions, the depths of our oceans, or the stark environment of our upper atmosphere, I doubt if there is a more challenging environment than the interior of a structural fire. Consider entering a compartment that has near zero visibility and searing high temperatures. On entry you will have to move through a mixture of gases that have a percentage of unburnt fuel and carcinogenic toxins. This soup of toxins and fuel is commonly known as smoke. A typical structural fire can change rapidly from what appears to be relatively stable, to an inferno with temperatures over 1000 degrees Celsius at ceiling height and over 300 degrees Celsius at floor level. Often the structure itself poses a hazard and the contents can be even more dangerous. Add to this the fact that there may be victims crying out to be rescued, and you have one of the most hostile environments encounter by any worker in peacetime. These situations of varying danger and distress require the responders to make decisions rapidly and accurately. They must be able to instinctively conduct the the risk assessment, apply techniques and tactics in a calm manner, and maintain situational awareness while continuing with the dynamic risk assessment process. To the inexperienced, confronting these events can be overwhelming and this could result in a loss of situational awareness that can cripple the decision making process. Leading Fire Services in every part of the world have now acknowledged that realistic compartment fire behaviour training is essential to teach firefighters how to recognise the fire behaviour risk indicators. Regular training is required to ensure that the skills are maintained and refined until they can be repeated under stressful situations. Realistic training provides artificial experience by exposing the trainees to key realistic elements in a safe and controlled environment. The key to effective realistic training is to accurately identify the risks that the student is likely to be exposed to, and then to determine the required response behaviours. It is also essential to introduce the hazardous elements in a logical, progressive, safe and controlled manner. If the task is too overwhelming, there is a

chance that the student could lose confidence. Well executed realistic training, introduces the hazardous or stressful elements, in challenging but achievable steps. Thus, competence is created by building confidence.

Some of the greatest dangers faced during structural firefighting are from rapid and unexpected fire development from flashover and backdraft. It has recently been recognised that the most insidious danger is faced from the lesser known phenomena described as fire gas ignition. Swedish Fire Engineer Krister Giselsson and Station Officer Mats Granat were among the first to articulate the risk of accumulated un-burnt fuel that lays in wait disguised as cooler grey smoke. Many firefighters have lost their lives or been seriously injured because they failed to recognise the fire behaviour indicators. Giselsson and Rosander pioneered techniques to train firefghters how to recognise the key fire behaviour indicators in the late 1970s. As a result of their tenacity and courage to challenge the traditional approach, the Swedish Rescue Services Agency revised their training methods and went back to focusing on these core skills in 1985. The return to the fundamentals was to focussing on providing an experience that left firefighters with the ability to recognise and safely deal with all aspects of risk encountered in a compartment fire. Compartment Fire Behaviour Training (CFBT), offers the trainee firefighters an opportunity to experience the development of a fire from the incipient stage, through to the stages just before flashover. This is achieved by lining the back corner of a shipping container with 5 to 8 sheets of particle board. A small crib fire is then lit in the corner and the firefighters are guided through the development phases. The trainees are able to witness the critical changes such as: a) Smoke colour, density, thickness and height of the layer. b) Air flow movement. c) Heat indicators. d) Flame shape colour and form. These first simple steps allow firefighters to witness the effect of various water application methods and they are given the opportunity to practice and perfect these methods. Experience has shown that it takes most students 8 to 12 sessions in a flashover simulator to become competent in their ability to recognise and deal with the basics of fire behaviour and the response techniques. The development of strategic skill is achieved by adding increased levels of fire complexity and tactical decision making elements. This training method has proven to be very successful in reducing the number of fatalities and injuries. Why has this approach been so successful? Because this simple training system allows the firefighters to fully focus on fire behaviour, hazard recognition, and mitigation. By focussing on the very fundamentals of fire behaviour, firefighters become familiar with the physical environment that is commonly encountered in a structure fire. The task of making entry into a burning structure can be very intimidating and overwhelming even for veteran firefighters. Allowing firefighters to experience the key fire development phases without having to deal with any other stressors, provides an opportunity to gain understanding and familiarity with the physical environment. It also builds confidence in PPE and provides an opportunity to practice the various nozzle techniques that can increase safety and efficiency. Repetitive exposure to these elements reduces the intimidation factor. The next logical stage is to conduct the live fire training in a single story structure and to challenge the team to locate and attack a fire. Once this has been successfully completed other elements such as a secondary fire or a rescue can be added. Upon mastery of these elements, the

complexity of the exercise can be increased to the point where the students are operating in larger complex buildings and dealing with multiple challenges. By this stage, the fundamentals of fire behaviour and attack are routine, and the student is able to focus on the more advanced tactical elements such as decision making, communications, command and coordination. Perhaps the best example of excellence in realistic training can be seen in the training provided to Astronauts by NASA. In preparation for the first manned lunar landing, NASA spared no expense to create realistic training environment simulations for the crew of the Apollo 11. The task was all the more daunting as no one had ever actually landed a vessel on the moon and the simulations were based not on real experience, but data and knowledge from previous missions manned and unmanned missions. The success of the realistic training was so outstanding that when questioned about the actual landing, Neil Armstrong had this to say, It was beautiful, just like the drill. When Apollo 12 mission commander Pete Conrad was questioned about his experience on the lunar surface, he went as far as to say it feels like Ive been there many times before. While we would all like to have NASAs training budget, effective realistic training does not always have to be very expensive or high tech. The flashover simulators used by firefighters are actually very low tech and relatively inexpensive. Yet they have proved to be more effective in replicating the key fire behaviour than the larger more expensive burn houses that were common in the sixties and seventies. Providing complex, expensive or high tech simulations is not always the most effective method of training. It is more important to ensure that the training is based on a sound needs analysis and has been designed to develop defined learning outcomes safely. Realistic training exposes the student to a very real physical environment. However, the most important outcome is to produce a team or individual that is familiar and conditioned to the physical elements and therefore able to focus on the mental tasks of diagnosing the hazards and responding in a calm and instinctive manner. By progressively combining realistic elements into scenarios and exercises, we can create artificial experience. While this may never be as good as real experience, it can play a major role in keeping crisis teams safer while they are gaining the real experience. On the job experience can be a hard teacher, because she gives the test first, and the lessons later! The artificial experience created from realistic training, helps to reduce the shock factor in a real crisis and maximises the chances of the responders being able to maintain situational awareness, diagnose the situation accurately and respond in the safest manner. SUMMARY There is no substitute for realistic training for workers engaged in dangerous occupations. How would we react to the suggestion that there is never a need to do refresher training for donning, wearing and doffing BA? The mere suggestion would be laughed at. Yet is seems acceptable to suggest that once you have had a few exercises in a shipping container, you have learnt all you ever need to know about fire behaviour indicators and hazard recognition, and that you never need to do a refresher again, or be given the opportunity to progress to applying the knowledge at a tactical level. There are two basic ways that the logic of this situation will be realised. Pro-active or re-active. I prefer the pro-active approach, because in our occupation, the re-active approach is usually

driven by a coroner. So.Core Skill or Optional Extra? In my opinion, for an operational firefighter, there is no skill more central to the principle of ZEROharm, than the ability to accurately read a fire and assess the risks. It is essential to firefighter safety and forms the foundation for an efficient fire attack plan. Like any other core skill it must be repeated until a high level of proficiency is achieved, and then maintained by regular refresher training. What do you think?

Bibliography
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