As firefighters go through training, it’s crucial to continue going through and relearning the proper knowledge and abilities they’ll need to use while working. Also, other instructional workshops like active shooters and terrorists are topics to consider discussing with your team. Here are some more examples of the essential training topics to discuss with firefighters.
Safety
Safety is a topic that’s important to all emergency services, especially for firefighters. If you want to prevent injuries during an emergency, it’s essential to document how to be safe, especially in the case of injuries related to wildfires. Unfortunately, if we don’t have annual safety guidance sessions, many departments face an overwhelming amount of fatalities.
To help curate a better firefighter safety culture, here are some topics to consider in future firefighter safety preparation.
- Security and safety at the firehouse
- Safety on the highway
- How to detect fires, prevent them, and use suppression systems
- Properly using PPE
- Preventing hydration during fires
Preparation
To safely perform well during a fire emergency, there needs to be a foundation of safely working in an emergency and not face mistakes, injuries, or death. This system is called preparedness, and without it, we won’t know how to prepare for every calamity we face actively.
If you want to start the proper foundation for better preparation practice, consider some of these topics:
- Implementing a proper preparation system
- Developing better foreground routines
- Observing the conditions of buildings and other fire ground areas
- Salving and overhauling
- Understanding different environments, especially wildland
Hazmats and Risks
When a problematic situation arises, we need to have the right equipment before going into the field. Even with hazmat operations not occurring often, they do pose a high-risk problem. When teaching, firefighters need to understand that risks of exposure without hazmat equipment are high, and workers should never challenge those risks.
When going through the importance of hazmat and hazards, consider discussing the following topics with your team.
- Discussing decontamination techniques
- Recognizing and responding to harmful materials
- Using CPE equipment the right way
- The importance of hazmat suits during disasters
- Different types of terrorist attacks
Mental and Physical Well-Being
We need to keep mental and physical well-being in mind when dealing with harsh situations that leave many drained and stressed. As we progress through our workshop, it’s essential to let your team know to communicate any mental or physical stress. Aside from fitness, focus your instruction on areas like nutrition and managing stress and behavior.
Here are some additional topics to include for health and wellness:
- Understanding how mental health affects firefighters
- The necessary parts of firefighter workouts
- Developing better health and well-being
- Understanding firefighter PTSD
- Developing an open conversation on suicide prevention
As we develop our course around the important training topics to discuss with firefighters, we need to understand and respect the issues. Keep making these teaching sessions mandatory; it becomes vital to know on and off the grounds.
