Firefighter Basic

I spent the June 21st weekend back in the classroom, doing the Basic Firefighter course with Jack Tyler at the Kootenay Firefighter Training Weekend in Castlegar. I had mixed feelings about the overall experience of the course, mainly because the course was overbooked, which made the practical sections difficult. The classroom portion was very valuable though, so I think overall it was useful.

Most Fire Department work is very practical, hands-on stuff. I like that, because I tend to deal mostly with office protocols and computer programs in my day-to-day work. The classroom portion of this course provided a good conceptual foundation for those practical tasks, getting to the why rather than the how. I find it's easier for me to remember how to do things correctly and safely if I know what I'm trying to do, rather than just trying to recall how I was told to do it.
That doesn't mean you should ignore orders, of course. Jack never said it out loud, but I got the strong impression that there are three commandments for a firefighter: one, keep yourself safe, two, do what you're told and three, tell somebody if you don't know how to accomplish commandments one or two. Which I guess all boils down to one commandment - thou shalt not be an idiot.

Since this was an introduction-level course, a lot of the participants were quite young. That's a good thing, because I get the impression that Fire Departments across the country are hurting for volunteers, but I found their attitude towards risk/reward very interesting. Even more interesting was my reaction to their stated willingness to take "heroic" risks. "That's just stupid," I thought to myself, "we'll just have to save you, too."

I'm not sure exactly at what age the heroic impulse was replaced by the "Ummm, that seems like a bad idea…" impulse. Probably about the same time I got M&M'ed (married and mortgaged), but it might have been earlier. I guess I'll just have to stick with the one commandment, which should make everyone happy - including my chief, the bank and my wife (not necessarily in that order).