Beyond the Flames: Warmer Weather Means Outdoor Drills

With warmer weather finally upon us, it’s time once again for fire departments to get out of the comforts of their own stations and do some out-of-house fire ground drills. Drills are an integral part of training, as preached numerous times before in this column.
However, drills can always be a great way for departments to build teamwork and character between its members, as well as a good source of entertainment, enjoyment, and fun for all of those involved. And as I’m sure we all remember from our days in school, anytime that you can have fun while learning something useful is a worth-wild experience.
So below are four quick, easy, and cost-efficient drills that can be performed with existing equipment or very inexpensive materials to build specific skills and traits in firefighters that are ideal for the warmer spring and summertime weather.
1. Bucket Challenge
Using a few pieces of plywood and a few five-gallon buckets, construct a hole in the plywood with a funnel-shaped chute behind it, funneling into the bucket. Enable the plywood to stand, with the five-gallon bucket behind it, and you’ve got your target.The object of the drill, of course, would be for the team to fill the bucket first.
At this point, this is where you have flexibility. Depending on where you’re located in Cape May County, your primary source of water may be a fire hydrant, standing water source, or both. Regardless, this drill can be applied to either by first requiring crews to hook up to a hydrant or obtain a draft with their truck before attempting to fill the bucket. Or, you could practice crews advancing hose lines to a set location and then aiming to fill the bucket. Either way, it’s a great drill to get your firefighters, especially newer members, to become familiar with working together and the equipment that you commonly use.
2. Blind Playground
In this drill, firefighters are presented with the task of traveling through various obstacles with little or no visibility – giving the sense of being in an unfamiliar place and having to navigate around it. For this drill, simply a playground found at most area recreation centers and a lengthy piece of rope are required, in addition to whatever you’d like to use as blindfolds, with that be pieces of cloth to cover firefighter’s eyes or something such as cardboard or wax paper cutouts to fit into SCBA masks.
To conduct the drill, the person running the drill runs a rope through the various aspects of the playground, whether it be up the steps, under pipes, through tunnels, down the slide, and so on. Firefighters, working in pairs, follow the rope through the playground, helping one another around the various obstacles. This drill allows firefighters to become accustomed to relying on their non-sight senses in navigation while providing for a safe environment while practicing such an important technique.
3. Thermal Search
Considered to be one of the most under-utilized tools in the fire service by many fire service experts, the thermal imaging camera is often a great tool to get to work with for a wide variety of emergency responses. In this particular drill, you need nothing more than a large area such as a field or preferably wooded area in the evening and a firefighter willing to play a game of hide-and-seek, if you will.
Have your crew waiting in an enclosed area, or one with blocked visibility of the selected area, while the selected firefighter “hides.” After the missing firefighter is in place, allow your team to search through the area to locate the firefighter using the thermal imaging camera. For an added trick, place several decoys in the area, such as a heated thermos or a packet of activated hand warmers. This is a great way to practice more open, large scale searches and utilize a piece of equipment in a way you might not have thought to.
4. Runaway Hose
In my personal favorite, all you need is a length of old hose line, preferably an 1 ¾’’ line, an engine, and some firefighters willing to get wet. To conduct the drill, cut the coupling off the male end of the hose, so that the open end is just that – an opened piece of cloth. Then, connect the length to another length, then to an engine, and charge the line. Continue to increase the PSI in the line until the hose begins to move wildly on its own – becoming a “runaway hose.”
The object of this drill is for firefighters, either individually or in teams, in full turnout to gain control of the hose and prevent it from getting away. This is a great warm-weather drill simply because it’s nearly impossible to stay dry, as well as teaching members how to gain control of a wild hose if one were to present itself at a fire, through a broken hose line or other situation.
These four drills will help bring some new drills and enthusiasm to your department, and add a little fun along the way. And for those drill nights when the weather prevents you from outdoor drilling, take a ride around your jurisdiction. With a number of campgrounds and hotels in the area, each with their own codes and key entries, it never hurts to pre-plan your incident areas and make sure your contact/access information is up to date.
Teamwork and training save lives, but training doesn’t always equal boring. Stay safe.
Knoll, 20, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at bknolljr4cmcherald@yahoo.com . He is a student at Rowan University.