IAFF Fire Ground Survival & Fire Fighter Rescue TtT
Real Incidents, Proven Survival Techniques, IAFF-Certified Instructors.
The IAFF Fire Ground Survival (FGS) & Fire Fighter Rescue program is the most comprehensive survival skills and Mayday prevention program currently available within the fire service. Incorporating federal regulations, proven incident management best practices and survival techniques from leaders in the field, and real case studies from experienced fire fighters, the FGS program aims to educate all fire fighters to be prepared if the unfortunate happens.
There is no other call more challenging to fire ground operations than a Mayday call – the unthinkable moment when a fire fighter’s personal safety is in imminent danger. Fire fighter fatality data compiled by the United States Fire Administration have shown that fire fighters “becoming trapped and disoriented represent the largest portion of structural fire ground fatalities.” The incidents in which fire fighters have lost their lives, or lived to tell about it, have a consistent theme – inadequate situational awareness put them at risk.
Fire fighters don’t plan to be lost, disoriented, injured, or trapped during a structure fire or emergency incident. But fires are unpredictable, volatile, and ruthless – and they will not go according to your plans. What a fire fighter knows about a fire before entering a blazing building may radically change within minutes once inside the structure. Smoke, low visibility, lack of oxygen, structural instability, and an unpredictable fire ground can cause even the most seasoned fire fighter to be overwhelmed in an instant. It’s not a matter of IF a Mayday happens, it’s WHEN.
The guiding fire service philosophy for decades has been training for success – we teach how to put the fire out or mitigate other hazards and hope everyone goes home. What we have failed to consistently do is drill for when failure does occur; and without such training, fire fighters do not have the practiced skills to rely on IF and WHEN they get into trouble.
Funded by the IAFF and assisted by a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the Assistance to Firefighters (FIRE Act) grant program, our comprehensive FGS training program applies the lessons learned from fire fighter fatality investigations conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and has been developed by a committee of subject matter experts from the IAFF, the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC), and NIOSH.