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Improving Safety for Firefighter Training

Improving Safety for Firefighter Training

 

The importance of continued on-the-job training is as essential for seasoned firefighters as it is for probies. Keeping up to date on tactics, procedures, and improving responsiveness saves lives. Day in and day out, firefighters perform a dangerous, intense, physically demanding, high-adrenaline job, and they are no strangers to risks and injuries.

But more often than you might think, it’s the training exercises themselves that result in long-term injuries and potentially fatal consequences.

Training-Related Injuries and Fatalities

In the best-case scenarios, training injuries amount to fractures, dislocations, and various sprains and strains—each of which can lead to lost time on the job, but will probably not have lasting consequences. But in the worst-case scenarios, the consequences are much more dire.

From 2001 to 2014, the United States Fire Administration reported that about 11 percent of firefighter deaths in the line of duty were related to training exercises. Heart attacks (55 percent) and traumatic injury (28 percent) were the leading causes of death. Falls, live-fire drills, heat exhaustion, and other cardiovascular events can all contribute to catastrophes.

Even getting to the scene can be dangerous: in 2020 alone, 15,675 fire department vehicles were involved in traffic accidents. Vehicle operation training is essential, but the cost and risks associated with comprehensive behind-the-wheel training too often limits the practice available to apparatus drivers.

Using Simulators to Maximize Training and Minimize Risk

It doesn’t have to be this way. Agencies across the country are rapidly embracing simulation-based training for fire truck driving, incident management, pump operations, petrochemical fire fighting, and more. FAAC now offers a full suite of high-fidelity, advanced fire training simulators, covering all of the most dangerous and logistically challenging areas of training.

Driving Simulators

FAAC’s driving simulator cabs include real components and gauges, and real-feel experiences like vibration, steering, and response. Dual-crew models give geometrically accurate views to both the vehicle driver and officer. On every sim, variables such as extreme weather, traffic, pedestrians, and other hazards can be controlled by instructors, either programmed in advance, or modified on the fly to test driver reactions and performance. All FAAC sims also come outfitted with after-action review tools that give instructors greater flexibility to analyze the session, debrief trainees, and review processes. Most importantly, these simulators allow trainees to work through dangerous and challenging driving scenarios at speed, without risking the safety of trainees, equipment, or the community.

Pump Operations and Fire Fighting Simulators

FAAC simulators can help with live fire training as well. Pump Ops is a combination hardware and software simulator that allows pump operators to train hands-on under all conditions. Built-in scenarios cover hose configuration, managing water sources and flow, friction coefficients, foam concentration, radio communication, cavitation issues, malfunctions, adverse weather, and changing conditions. The Instructor Operator Station allows an instructor to control the simulation at all times, setting conditions and triggering faults, while monitoring the trainees’ performance.

With FAAC’s Pump Ops Simulator, teams can work through evolutions together, honing both communications and firefighting skills under a variety of conditions. With this simulator, firefighting teams benefit from a comprehensive training experience, regardless of weather, and with no risk of accident or injury.

inCommand and the Continuum of Training

With FAAC’s inCommand simulator, users experience an emergency as they would in real life. This interactive, 3D incident management simulator requires trainees to evaluate the scene, determine the best initial response strategy, implement it, then react to the consequences of their decisions. In extended scenarios, they can reevaluate and shift strategies repeatedly, hand off command, and call upon additional emergency response resources.

Improve Safety in Your Training Programs

We know that the safety of your crew and the community come first. That’s why we don’t just sell training simulators; we partner with fire departments and instructors to develop your ideal immersive fire training solution. Ready to learn more? Contact us today to determine the best training plan for your crew.