Rapid Reps at the Recruit Academy

摘要

How much repetition do your new fire recruits get from the recruit academy in moving hose into a structure, reading fire conditions, applying water to the fire, and performing searches under live fire conditions? It is a challenge to put all these functions together under live fire conditions and give recruits enough repetition to develop their muscle memory. Most academies build up to a "burn week" where recruits put all of their newfound skills to work collectively over a five-day live burn period. This may seem like a lot to some, but the number of recruits in the class will dictate how many reps each indi-vidual will get to actually put water on the fire. If you are a training officer, you know how much time, effort, and resources it takes to put on a proper live fire day. On average, a 20-per-son recruit academy can accomplish eight actual fires per day-four in the morning and four in the afternoon. If you have five companies made up of four recruits each, each company will get only one or two evolutions on the nozzle, leaving two out of the four recruits to wait until the next day to get nozzle time. This is not enough repetition for soon-to-be firefighters.