By Ron Menchaca and Glenn Smith
The Post and Courier
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Old fire training tapes that surfaced Thursday stand as a symbol of the division and distance between Charleston officials and the union that represents about half of the city's firefighters.
Union leaders view the 5-year-old tapes as fresh evidence of the department's antiquated tactics and unsafe ways.
City officials see them as a slice of ancient history that say little or nothing about a department moving forward in the wake of last year's deadly Sofa Super Store fire.
The videos from 2003 show new recruits, or "probies," undergoing training at the Fire Department's Milford Street training site.
They practice hooking up hoses, setting up ladders and rescuing dummies from smoke-filled rooms.
Much of the training is overseen by Battalion Chief Ricky Shriver, the department's chief training officer at the time.
Shriver was recently reassigned, and the city has hired a veteran Virginia fire official to serve as director of a revamped and expanded training program.
In one training video, several firefighters without air packs sit inside a room laughing and joking as a sofa is ignited as part of a demonstration.
At one point, Shriver, also not wearing an air pack, sits down on the burning couch, inches from the flames.
Another segment shows Shriver vigorously shaking a ladder as he stands near the top rungs, wearing no protective equipment.
Another video shows firefighters without air packs enveloped in a cloud of black smoke as they practice dousing flames in a burning fire pit. They walk away covered in soot.
Michael Parrotta, president of the union-affiliated South Carolina Professional Firefighters Association, said there is no excuse for firefighters not wearing full protective gear, including air packs, when around a fire, whether it is training or real world. "It looks like a circus act," Parrotta said of the training tapes.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said he had not seen the videos but stressed that the methods don't represent current training methods.
"That is not how training is conducted now, and that will not happen in the future," he said. "That is the past; this is now."
Some critics said they are not convinced the old ways have been abandoned.
Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, cited the tapes during a press conference in Charleston on Thursday.
He said a news photograph in Wednesday's Post and Courier showing firefighters without air packs dousing a car fire illustrates that some in the department still haven't embraced safe practices.
Roger Yow, head the local firefighters union and a former captain with 25 years experience, said a female recruit was recently injured during training performing ladder-raising techniques that the union has complained about.
Mark Ruppel, public information officer for the Fire Department, said the city could not comment on the incident because of personnel privacy issues.
Copyright 2008 The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC)
All Rights Reserved
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Something certainly seems amiss with the safety culture there. 
