Live Fire: Learning to Burn - Instructor Training for the Modern Fire Environment (11TP)
The modern fire environment is more difficult than ever before. Firefighters need live fire training that truly prepares them to meet challenges they will face at modern fires. The ability to create quality live fire training without endangering students and instructors is a skill all on its own. This class will show how to create realistic training fires in fixed facilities while complying with NFPA standards and maintaining student and instructor safety. Join the team from West Coast Fire Training as we demonstrate and discuss fuel package design, ventilation control, instructor and student positioning, common training errors and more under intense live fire conditions.
The class will be set up into three stations. Two stations will have live fire, and one will not. Students will be divided up into three groups. Each group will rotate through each station.
The class can support between 45 and 54 students. Ideally the student count would be a multiple of three (45, 51, 54) for ease of tracking and accountability. A class of 45 would only require 8 instructors, larger classes would require 10 instructors to comply with student to instructor ratios for live fire training.
Non-Live Fire Station:
Instructor Count: 1
The non-live fire station will be outside and consist of the following.
- Demonstrations of various fuel packages and how to build and ignite them. The fuel packages will not be burned.
- Common student and instructor errors and how to deal with them.
- Proper student and instructor positioning.
- Best practices for safety when conducting live fire.
- Recommended training progressions.
o How to increase difficulty and intensity appropriately.
o How to incorporate different skills such as VES and vertical ventilation.
- How to alter ventilation to control fire growth and heat and smoke travel.
- How to guide and teach students under live fire conditions.
- How to maintain student accountability under more intense live fire conditions.
These talking points will be supported by handouts. For the non-live fire station students will be in bunker gear only. Helmets, gloves and jackets can be removed for comfort and weather dependent.
Live Fire Stations:
The live fire stations will have students divided into groups of a maximum of five students per instructor. Students will observe the instructors ignite the fuel package and control ventilation to achieve the desired fire dynamics. Ventilation control, student and instructor positioning and various other topics will be discussed. Once the desired fire dynamics have been reached the student group assigned to the attack line will extinguish the fire. The students and instructors will then exit the building and conduct a quick debrief of lessons learned.
Student groups:
- Interior Observation:
- Interior Safety Line:
- Attack Line:
- Ignition Team:
For classes of 45 or less the ignition team would be combined with the interior observation group.
Live fire station one will take place on floor one of the burn building. Live fire station two will take place on floor two of the burn building. Each station will focus on somewhat different fire dynamics, vent control and other talking points based on the building layout and other factors.
