Olympia Fire DepartmentFire & EMS Master Plan

FIRE TRAINING CENTER

FIRE TRAINING CENTER -----------------------2OVERVIEW-------------------------------2TRAINING VERSUS EXPERIENCE------------2RISK MANAGEMENT---------------------------2PROBLEMS WITH EXISTINGLIVE FIRE TRAINING--------------------------3A NEW TRAINING CENTER--------------------5

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FIRE TRAINING CENTER

OverviewOngoing fire training is essential to the Olympia Fire Department’s successfulexecution of its mission. It is also mandated by Washington State law. An excerptfrom the Master Plan states, “those (Firefighters) who will perform interiorstructural firefighting must have quarterly training...and shall be commensuratewith their duties and responsibilities.”Also, as stated in the Master Plan, there is an increased need for realistic trainingdue to the “Paradox of Firefighter Training.” This says that, as the fire departmentdoes a better job of preventing fires, the less proficient firefighters become andthe more basic skills must be practiced.Training versus ExperienceStructure fires have become a High Risk/Low Frequency (HR/LF) event for ourFirefighters.While the overall number of fire incidents has increased, the percentage ofstructure fires has decreased. Our Members occasionally become involved inthese low frequency events where if not handled properly, there are majorconsequences. Take away frequency and you have taken away experience.Take away experience and all you have left to rely on is training. Everyone winswith highly trained, highly qualified professionals responding to and handling fireincidents.

There is a need to train in a Live-Fire environment.

Risk ManagementIdentifiable risks are manageable risks.Fire training is identifying things that can go wrong, and developing practicedcontrol measures to prevent them from going wrong. We need to train more thanever in a building (training tower) that simulates live fires within the variousstructure types found within Olympia.

Attachment 6

• Single family homes• Multi-family homes• Commercial structuresThese various types of structures can be replicated in a training tower building tosimulate the types of risks that we encounter in Olympia.The greatest vulnerability in Olympia’s current training facility is that it does notallow for live fire training.Our current training tower is unable to facilitate the live fire training atmosphereand is undersized for the needs of live fire training.

Problems with Existing Live Fire Training

Olympia’s live fire training opportunities are limited. The Department conductslive fire training in donated structures, through the Academy at Bates TechnicalCollege, and, on a limited basis, at the Kent Training Center.The problems with this approach include:1. Infrequent Structural Live Fire Training — Under the current system,structural live fire training opportunities are infrequent. The need for morefrequent live fire training was a recurring theme in the Employee OpinionSurvey and in the consultants’ site visits. Some firefighters go more thana year without live fire training. One firefighter reported that he had notparticipated in live fire training since his academy three years prior to theinterview.Live fire training is infrequent for the following reasons:a. Cost. The costs associated with sending companies to anothercommunity’s training facility are significant. Overtime must be called in tobackfill while on-duty companies are training outside the community orovertime must be paid to off-duty personnel sent to participate in live firetraining.Costs associated with utilizing donated structures slated to be razed arealso significant. Personnel must be assigned to inspect the structure forsuitability, tests must be conducted to ensure that hazardous materials,such as asbestos are not present and an agreement between the City andthe property owner must be negotiated prior to the burn.b) Infrequent Acquisition of Donated Structures. While the Departmentutilizes structures slated to be razed, these donations are relatively rare.This problem is compounded by the need to find structures that aresuitable — some structures may not be safe for interior operations or maynot have adequate separation from other buildings.