Each year we come to that time when a training officer is tasked with figuring out what in the world your fire department needs to train on for the next year. One would think this should be an easy job. There are a myriad of things that can be used as a basis for training. The real problem for us involves balancing training on what we already do regularly on calls with what we should train on because we don't get a lot of certain types of calls, with what is mandatory training.

For my department we get called to a lot of automobile wrecks; many involving entrapment. Our next highest call volume tends to be grass and farm field fires. We do get called to a fair number of structure fires, but often times they are agricultural out buildings and hog confinements that are already well involved by the time we are paged. So sometimes, convincing our members that training on skills related to interior structure fires is a necessity is difficult. I have heard questions regarding why we need to train on May Day, Search and Rescue, Vertical Ventilation, etc. at times while I have been training officer.

I can to some extent understand these questions considering the limited number of interior attacks we make, but my response is always, we need to train more on those things we don't do as often because our skills are not going to be a sharp.

So with all of this in mind I set about putting together a training schedule. Now here's one other detail. We are required to have at least 24 hours of training per year by Iowa law. I realize all departments, states, districts are different, but in Iowa it's 24 hours. Several of us in my department get well over the 24 by going to fire school, or other out of department training, which I try to encourage all of my firefighters to go to, but many don't. We have 11 training nights a year. Basically one a month except for December. Generally attendees get credit for at least 2 hours and many nights it's 2 - 3 hours. So if our firefighters attend all the training nights they are guaranteed their 24 hours. You would think that it would be easy enough as our training nights rarely change, but with all the other commitments that volunteers have, it can still be hard to get guys there. So we have to make the best of what we do at training with the intent of getting people interested and also getting them skills and knowledge that will benefit the entire department.

Some of the more important areas of training for us is SCBA use and confidence, driving and pumping, extrication, use of the many tools we have. We tend to focus a lot on driving, pumping and tool use. We do a lot of extrication in real situation, so we may have one extrication training a year. We do manage to incorporate at least one big training a year which might include a burn trailer, search and rescue in a house or trainer, and if we are lucky, every once in a while we might get to do a live burn in an acquired structure. Guys love the big training most of the time. The little trainings are often even more of a hit because they are short so we can do several evolutions, or combine two or more skills specifically. That is the reason that as often as possible I try to incorporate the basic skills of firefighting. Sometimes it's necessary to use a PowerPoint presentation, but I try to keep these to a minimum because no one really likes sitting through one of these, and lets face it, few of us are dynamic enough speakers to make these really interesting.

Some areas that are good to consider are:

• Ropes and Knots - Tying and uses
• Ladders - Carry, placement, raise and safety 
• Salvage and Overhaul - Use of covers, efficient ways to do overhaul, ways to limit damage
• Fire Investigation - Cause, Evidence, Chain of Custody
• Equipment Checking - The proper way to effectively check your equipment for damage
• Equipment Use - Safe use, safe carrying, safe raising and lowering of equipment
• Addresses - Finding addresses in your coverage area
• Use of Mutual Aid - What to call for in certain circumstances, how to manage mutual aid
• Pre-Planning - Pre-planning business, schools, larger industries and employers, even pre-planning whole blocks such as your downtown area
• Donning and Doffing - Practicing putting on and taking off PPE (Bunker gear, SCBA, etc.)
• Truck Placement - Truck placement at fire and rescue scenes

These are just a small list of areas to consider working on when you are making up your annual training schedule. My suggestion is to look at what your department does most, what it does best, what it does least and what it might have the most trouble with and use this evaluation as the starting basis for making your annual training schedule. As your firefighters and officers too. If you can add a special training here and there that is out of the ordinary flow of things it can serve to bring some more interest to your annual training flow. 

Here's hoping that your 2016 training is safe, and brings increased skills and maybe some new knowledge to your firefighters.