Firefighters who don't train are really just citizens masquerading as firefighters

Dear Nozzlehead: I am a member of a busy volunteer fire department in the Northeast. Most of the fire stations in our department do a good job of training on a regular basis and keeping our firefighting crews up to date on the latest tactics, including Firefighter I and Firefighter II certifications. We are certified to the rescue tech level, and we require any active firefighter to have hazmat-ops-level certification. One of our stations, however, has not kept up with this training. Over the years, there have been incidents where they have arrived on scene at small fires, like vehicle or dumpster fires, and were challenged just to get water. We've known about the problems for a number of years, but nobody wanted to address it.
 
Recently, we had an incident at a vehicle fire where that station arrived on scene first. It was a minor fire — a small area of grass was burning under a vehicle. The on-call chief arrived on scene to find the firefighters, not wearing any PPE, throwing dirt on the fire under the car. The chief asked them to put an attack line in service, and they pretty much looked at him like he was from another country. The second engine company arrived on scene with a fully geared crew, which used a 2 1⁄2-gallon extinguisher to put out the fire.

Following the incident, the on-call chief wrote a letter to our governing body, asking that it take some kind of action against the station for not being properly geared and for disobeying the department's SOPs.
 
The investigation board met and looked into the situation. It was confirmed that none of the firefighters had gear on, nobody on scene knew how to properly place the pump in gear, and some of the members were not even issued the appropriate protective clothing. Further investigation found that the entire company was significantly lacking in training.

(Our department has very minimal standard training requirements that are very easy, maybe too easy.) During the investigation, it was found that not a single member of that station could produce proof of completing any basic training classes. Some of the firefighters claimed they took an Essentials Class but lost the certificate. Most of them admitted they do not have any hazmat training.
 
Our governing body concluded that the station and its members were unsafe and should not respond to alarms for fear of causing injury, or even a fatality, to someone, including themselves. At our last department-wide meeting, a vote was taken and a unanimous decision was made to suspend the station for a period of at least six months, with the suspension continuing indefinitely until the company can prove it meets the minimum standards.

Our departmental fire officers felt they were acting in the best interest of the department, community and even the firefighters of the station! But now, local residents are starting to get all upset about how they "don't have fire protection now" in that neighborhood. It should also be noted that, prior to the suspension, this station failed to respond to some working structure fires within a few blocks of their firehouse. 
 
What's amazing is how hard the properly trained firefighters in our department have to work to keep the untrained ones from hurting themselves or others. To say that we are frustrated would be an understatement. Any thoughts?
— Proud, Trained and Pissed Off
 
Dear P, T and PO'ed,
Yeah, me too. Proud, trained and pissed off! I recently heard about one eastern Midwestern state where members of the fire service were working on required training standards for volunteer firefighters. Want to know what the required training standards were going to be? NFPA Firefighter 1 within the first year of membership and 12 hours of station training annually — signed off by the local fire chief. Too hard to handle?

Absolutely! Without a doubt, that would put the volunteer fire service out of business, wouldn't it? Yep — passing that would send locusts overwhelmingly throughout that state and have people crying in the streets. Their crops would die and children would starve. It would be the end of life as they know it.  They should be crying in the streets.
 
A basic firefighting class and one hour a month of training? They actually fought that and it didn't pass in that state? This stuff makes me INSANE! Why do some people want to dress like firefighters and talk like firefighters, but then, when it comes to some very basic training, they have no interest in it? Why? Because they are not firefighters — they are civilians who happen to have fire department membership, dress up like firefighters and talk like firefighters. They get to put the stickers on their cars and drive big fire engines pretending to be firefighters. They like to hang around the firehouse and get to do all the "fun" stuff — and that is where it ends.

So how do they get away with it? In most cases, other real firefighters show up and fix the problem, or the "actors" simply get lucky. It happens a lot more than we suspect because in these cases, the foxes are watching the chicken coop. In other words, they are self-regulating as "independent" volunteer firefighters and fire departments. Odds are the public just doesn't get it. And speaking of the public — they are last on the priority list for those kinds of fire departments.
 
Now, before you or any of the readers start thinking that youthful Nozzlehead hates volunteer firefighters, calm down. Unless this is the first time you've read this column, you know I don't. I just can't stand people (volunteer, paid, part-paid, poorly paid, call or whatever) who pretend to be firefighters, as described by your letter.

I personally have encountered several people in our business who are "yard breathers" or "dress-up-and-play firefighters" without the right "stuff," and that "stuff" must include some basic training. Take a look at how firefighters get injured and killed each year. How can most of the deaths be avoided? Training. For example:

• Medical-related LODDs? Training on how to eat right, stay fit and get regular check-ups;
• Vehicular LODDs? Training on how to safely operate the vehicle under all conditions;
• Structural collapse LODDs? Training on fire behavior and building construction;
• Training LODDs? Training on the standards that must be followed in fire training;
• Ejected LODDs? Training on how to wear seatbelts (with or without your gear and SCBA — I couldn't care less). Firefighters who don't buckle in have a death wish. Apparatus makers who don't get that we must wear our equipment when riding in the apparatus need some hard training as well; and
• Road and highway LODDs: Training on how to manage traffic and block the road, along with how to form a positive relationship with the cops.

You name a firefighting problem, injury or firefighter LODD, and in 95 percent of the cases, training could have helped solve that problem.

The solution to your problem already exists: Shut them down until they get trained. Your chief and governing body absolutely did the right thing for everyone: the community, that fire station and the other firefighters who have to respond with its members.
 
People in the community upset? Tell them to shut their mouths and join the fire company ... and then send them to training. When volunteer firefighters (the good ones) tell me they are dedicated, it often means they spend countless hours training in addition to answering calls, attending meetings and roasting barbecue "Porky Pig" in order to raise money for their fire company.
 
Being a volunteer firefighter these days has never been more of a challenge. Between the time commitment required for training and calls and all the other related duties, I'm not sure how some do it, but they do, and they do it well. It isn't easy. But that doesn't matter because it's not about that fire company or its members; it's about the people in the community who need their fire department when they dial 911 on their worst day. And when they're facing what may be the worst crisis of their lives, the last thing they need is a group of civilians masquerading as firefighters arriving and pretending to know what they're doing. These masquerading firefighters endanger everyone, from people just walking or driving on the streets to the citizens at the scene to their fellow firefighters. In this case, the community is better off without them while nearby stations pick up the slack. Some communities may actually be better off with no fire department if the arriving members are not well led, well staffed and well trained. Either be a trained and dedicated firefighter or find something else to do. As Porky Pig would say: abada ... abada ... abada ... that's all folks!