I would like to start by commending the station for its stellar performance in 2017 and I hope that this will remain the case this year as well. One thing that is clear so far is that building safety regulations have reduced the number of fires that the station handles on an annual basis and even as this helps to preserve life, it has a negative impact on our preparedness to deal with the fires that do arise. However, this also introduces a problem whereby many of our incoming and existing firefighters may not have the actual practice-based experience to deal with constructions of different materials.
Although the station does recruit qualified individuals with the necessary qualifications in fire science, some of these incoming firefighters may find themselves facing a problem that Hutton et al. (2017) note has become increasingly prevalent in the country’s fire departments over the past decade. Desmond (2015) argues that quick decisions by firefighters are essential in saving lives and preserving property, which can be an issue if firefighters find themselves having to operate cautiously due to inexperience with fires in different kinds of buildings. This makes it essential to consider educating the current station staff on some of the issues that they may face when putting out fires in this particular community.
One way to solve this issue is for the new and incoming firefighters to accompany their more experienced compatriots since Davies (2015) argues that this provides practical experience as well as an apprenticeship platform. Moreover, the awareness that such a strategy provides in terms of how to operate in different environments while also acquainting the less experienced firefighters with the communication skills that they need to operate effectively within teams that include members with different levels of proficiency (Righi, et al., 2016). I believe that with this approach, it is possible to ensure that the skills within the station remain relevant to real-world applications as a means of preserving both life and property in the community.
References
Davies, A. (2015). Incident Command Decision-Making: Perception vs Reality. Australasian Policing, 7(1), 32.
Desmond, M. (2015). Making Firefighters. Working in America: Continuity, Conflict, and Change in a New Economic Era, 121.
Hutton, R., Davis, R., Underwood, G., Butler, R. O. H. P., " Cohen-Hatton, S. (2017). Training and Developing Decision Making and Thinking Skills for High Risk Work: A View from the Trenches. NDM, 273.
Righi, A. W., Huber, G. J., Gomes, J. O., " de Carvalho, P. V. (2016). Resilience in Firefighting Emergency Response: Standardization and Resilience in Complex Systems. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49(32), 119-123.
