Most departments have somebody with “training” in their title. That person matters, but they aren’t the one who shapes how a crew performs on a bad day. The company officer is. The habits a crew brings to the fireground get built, or broken, one shift at a time, and the officer is the one standing there for every one of them.

The training division can’t be everywhere

A training officer might see a crew a few times a year. A drill day, a recertification, a live burn. Those days are important, but they’re a small slice of the job. The rest of the time, that crew is on shift with their officer, running calls, checking the rig and deciding how to spend the hours in between.

I’ve been in this service a long time, and I can usually tell what kind of officer a crew has within a few minutes of watching them work. How they pull a line. How they talk on the radio. Whether they check each other’s gear without being told. None of that came from a classroom. It came from somebody who expected it every day and didn’t let it slide.

That’s the part a lot of new officers miss. When you put on the badge, you didn’t just take on the paperwork and the radio. You took on the responsibility for how ready your people are.

Training doesn’t need a lesson plan to count

Some officers think training has to be a formal event to be real. Block off two hours, set up props, fill out the roster. That has its place, and it should get documented. But some of the most useful training happens in ten minutes, right after something just happened.

You come back from a call where the hydrant hookup was slow. Talk about it while it’s fresh. Walk out to the rig and run it again. You get a new piece of equipment on the truck. Don’t just put it in the compartment. Pull it out, put it in everybody’s hands and make them use it. A crew that gets small, honest reps every shift will be sharper than a crew that waits for the big drill once a quarter.

A few things I’d want every company officer doing on a regular basis:

• Ask “what if” questions on the way back from calls
• Run a quick skill rep right after a call exposes a weakness
• Make sure every member gets hands on new equipment, not just the senior people
• Talk through the after-action while it’s still fresh, and keep it honest
• Notice who’s struggling and give them extra time, without making a show of it

Set the standard and hold it

Your crew will rise or fall to the standard you accept. If you let a sloppy rig check go because it’s late, the next one will be sloppier. If you don’t say anything when someone skips a step on the drill ground, you just taught the whole crew that step is optional.

The mistake I see most is officers who want to be liked more than they want their people to be ready. I understand it. Nobody wants to be the one always correcting. But correcting someone isn’t the same as tearing them down. Done right, it tells them you think they’re worth the time. Be fair, be consistent and be clear about why it matters. Most firefighters will respect that a lot more than an officer who lets everything go.

And hold yourself to it first. If you won’t throw a ladder, pull the line or put your mask on in the time you expect from them, don’t expect them to take your standard seriously. Credibility starts with the person in the right front seat.

Let your people teach

A good company officer doesn’t do all the teaching. Have a senior firefighter run the next drill. Have the newest member walk the crew through a piece of equipment they just learned. Teaching something is one of the best ways to really learn it, and it builds the next generation of officers and instructors while you’re at it.

It also tells you a lot. When someone teaches, you find out quickly what they understand and what they’ve just been going through the motions on. That’s information you can use.

The bottom line

The training division can set the curriculum, run the burns and keep the records. But readiness is built at the company level, every shift, by the person in charge of that crew. If you’re a company officer, you are a training officer whether it’s on your badge or not. Own it. Your crew is going to perform on the fireground the way you trained them to, and the fire won’t care what your title says.

Stay safe, and train like it matters.

Eric Makowski