Every new firefighter who walks into your station is taking notes. Not on paper. In their head. They are learning what this job really looks like, and most of what they learn won’t come from the training schedule. It comes from watching you.

They learn the culture before they learn the skills

A new firefighter shows up with the basics from the academy. They know how to pull a line, throw a ladder and get on air. What they don’t know yet is how things are really done in your house. So they watch.

They watch how the senior people check the rig in the morning. They watch whether anybody actually reads the policy or just signs the sheet. They watch who wears their gear right on a training evolution and who cuts corners because “it’s just a drill.” They watch how the crew talks about the job, about each other and about the people we serve.

Then they copy it. That isn’t a weakness. That’s how people learn a trade. The problem is they copy the bad habits just as fast as the good ones, and they have no way of telling which is which. If the most experienced person on the crew skips a step, the new person assumes that step doesn’t matter.

I’ve been in this service a long time, and I can tell you that most of the habits I carry, good and bad, I picked up by watching somebody I respected. That’s a lot of responsibility for the people being watched, whether they signed up for it or not.

Mentoring isn’t a title

A lot of departments have formal mentoring programs, and that’s fine. But the real mentoring happens in the small moments nobody writes down. The bay after a call. The kitchen table. The walk back to the truck after a drill that didn’t go well.

Good mentors don’t wait for an assignment. They do a few simple things every shift:

• Explain the why. Don’t just show them how to do it. Tell them why it’s done that way and what goes wrong when it isn’t.
• Let them do the work. Hand over the tool, the nozzle or the panel and coach from beside them, not in front of them.
• Correct it on the spot. Quietly, directly and without making a show of it. Waiting until later teaches nothing.
• Admit what you don’t know. It shows them that learning doesn’t stop when the probation period ends.

None of that takes a special program. It takes somebody with experience deciding that the new person’s development is part of their job.

Don’t haze them, teach them

There’s still a little bit of an old mindset out there that new people need to be broken down before they can be built up. Make them sweat. Make them figure it out alone. Make them earn the right to ask a question.

I don’t buy it. Pressure has its place, and this job demands a lot. A new firefighter needs to learn to work hard, stay humble and take correction. But there’s a difference between holding someone to a high standard and making them afraid to ask. A firefighter who is scared to ask a question is a firefighter who will guess on the fireground instead. That’s a safety problem, not a toughness test.

Set the standard high. Hold them to it. Then give them every tool they need to meet it. That’s what a good crew does.

You are training them even when you aren’t training

This is the part people forget. You don’t stop teaching when the drill ends. Every time you take a shortcut in front of a new firefighter, you just taught a lesson. Every time you do it right when nobody is checking, you taught a better one.

The new person doesn’t know the difference between the senior firefighter’s experience and the senior firefighter’s bad habits. All they see is someone who has been doing this longer than they have. If you want them to train hard, wear their gear right and take the job seriously, they need to see you do it first. Consistently. Not just when the captain is around.

The bottom line

The future of your crew is standing in the bay right now, watching how you do things. You can’t avoid being an example. You only get to choose what kind. Show them the standard, explain the reasons behind it and make it safe for them to ask questions. Ten years from now, they’ll be the ones the next new firefighter is watching.

Stay safe, and train like it matters.

Eric Makowski