Firefighters, medics train to increase their ‘Courage to be Safe’

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  Firefighters and medics from RAF Mildenhall, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Alconbury, along with British firefighters from Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service, joined together March 9, 2016, for the "Courage to be Safe" course held at the 100th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department.

A total of 41 medical and fire emergency responders received the training, taught by Tech. Sgt. Robert Jarvis, 86th Civil Engineer Squadron Fire Department district chief, from Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

While here, Jarvis also taught a Leadership, Accountability, Culture and Knowledge course to firefghters.

The course focused on 16 firefighter life-safety initiatives, some of which included:

· Enhance the personal and organizational accountability for health and safety throughout the fire service.
· All firefighters must be empowered to stop unsafe practices.
· Focus greater attention on the integration of risk management with incident management at all levels, including strategic, tactical, and planning responsibilities.
· Firefighters and their families must have access to counseling and psychological support
· Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers.

Many other safety topics for fire emergency services were covered in the comprehensive training, such as the importance of drivers/operators of emergency vehicles, and the importance of seatbelts and safe driving.

"The need for 'blue light' training has been identified for U.S. Air Force Airmen who drive emergency vehicles which respond off base," explained Jarvis, adding that the RAF Mildenhall Fire Department had invited their Norfolk partners to attend the training so the two could share information, experience and different ways of working.

Through watching videos and instruction, students learned how to avoid preventable line of duty deaths and injuries resulting in lost time or termination of fire emergency services careers.

Jarvis is one of four DoD Fire Emergency Services advocates for the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, and Everyone Goes Home Program. The EGHP produces the Courage to be Safe and Leadership, Accountability, Culture and Knowledge training taught to the fire department here.

He explained that holding the class at RAF Mildenhall and sending an instructor to train students, instead of them going to Germany, provides benefits other than lowering costs and spending less time travelling.

"We can do walk-throughs of the station itself. When you're in their (host firefighters) 'house' you can do site surveys for health and safety, and address any concerns they may have in their own station, versus them coming to my station," he said.

"I hope (the emergency responders) have taken an instrospective look at their own safety practices, strategically and organizationally, as well as personally," the instructor added. "After this class they should be able to make an honest assessment of their practices, ensuring they are the best and safest they can possibly be."

Jarvis described how the class had an extra dynamic to it than those he'd taught before, because it was made up of British firefighters from Norfolk Fire and Rescue; a British assistant chief of operations, and a retired U.S. Air Force chief, both from RAf Alconbury; active duty military, Local National Direct Hire and Defence Fire and Rescue Service firefighters.

"It showed the differences in how American firefighters view safety, accountability and procedural guidelines to responses, and how the British view them - two fundamentally different concepts of how we approach things," he said. "We get to a similar outcome, but there are some differences which we were able to bring up and discuss, which caused them to each look at their own practices from a different perspective."

Fifteen students were also trained to be instructors for the program.

"This will allow them to take the 'Courage to be Safe' program to their own stations and those they PCS or deploy to after this current assignment, to be able to host a class where needed," the instructor said. There are still a vast majority of DoD FES personnel worldwide who haven't received the training, and this will go a long way to changing that, along with the culture within our career field."

The Norfolk firefighters said they found the training extremely beneficial. They became involved when RAF Mildenhall's fire chief and their fire chief had discussions on ways to work more closely together and understand each other's procedures and resources available in the local area.

"Hopefully this is the start of being able to share information and knowledge for both parties, with the ultimate aim of making our communities safer," said Richard Smith, Norfolk Fire and Rescue Service station manager.

"Firefighter safety is the top priority in everything we do, and this has been a very helpful and interesting experience to discus and examine ways, techniques and tactics of firefighting and incident command across the world," Smith explained. "It's good to examine different benchmarks and share experiences, and it's the start of a more improved approach to building relationships."