The process to becoming a firefighter doesn’t always look the same for everybody and varies based on your location, and its not always a job, but more of a calling. One must be passionate about being a firefighter in order to be successful on the job. Throughout this article, and during my session at the Fall Instructor Development Conference, I will provide an overview of how one becomes not just a firefighter, but a successful firefighter in the Netherlands.
Each candidate goes through similar education to become a Firefighter, Captain, or Officer on Duty (OVD). The schooling can range in time depending on the agency – lasting anywhere from one evening a week for a year to five days a week. For the Air-force its five days a week, for a period of six to seven months and then your completely finished with the basic course for a firefighter including pump operator and aircraft fire fighting. Historically, the learning has taken place through traditional methods by the use of textbook, however within the past couple of years there has been shift to an electronic learning environment where every student molds their learning environment with the instructor in control. The electronic learning environment has proved to be very beneficial with working with different agencies through the twenty-five safety regions. Even though each student has a different learning environment, the process is run the same way, starting with fire then moving to extrication and finishing with hazmat material.
For basic fire understanding, we use GRSTV method (building, smoke reading, flow, temperature, flame front) and from that you can make the decision as to what quadrant of the quadrant model you are going to use based on the GRSTV signs. Each crew has six people to one truck; a lieutenant/Captain, pump operator, and two teams: 1/2 and 3/4. Dispatch control rooms are located throughout the Netherlands that provide info to deploy fire, police and medics. When the Captain arrives arrive on scene, he performs a 360 to scale up using the established protocols, then the extra truck and OVD arrive. The use of high pressure hose is still the most prevalent, although some areas are starting to explore the use of low pressure.
For aircraft fire fighting we have two places in the Netherlands that provide the necessary training, the Airforce and Schiphol. Even though the two agencies worked together in building the curriculum for aircraft firefighting training, each entity uses different tactics that have proven to be more successful.
I invite you to join me on September 28, as we dig deeper into the specifics of the training and tactics used in the Netherlands including:
- A greater understanding of the Netherlands fire services
- GRSTV and Door procedures
- Different approaches
- Quadrant model
- Clean working