Every live burn has one instructor nobody hired: the fire itself. It doesn’t follow the lesson plan, it doesn’t care about the objective and it will teach whatever it wants if you let it. Our job is to make sure the fire only teaches the lesson we planned.

The fuel load is a decision, not a pile

I’ve been in this service a long time, and the mistake I see most is treating the fuel package like an afterthought. Somebody throws in a few extra pallets and another flake of straw because “it looked a little small.” That’s not a training decision. That’s a guess.

The amount of fuel you put in a burn room decides how fast the fire grows, how hot the room gets and how long the crew has to work. Add more and you’ve changed every one of those numbers without telling anybody. The crew briefed for one fire and walked into another.

Build the fuel package on purpose. Know what’s in it and why. Use clean Class A material only, and keep out the things that have no business in a training fire: flammable liquids, rubber, plastics, treated lumber, or anything you can’t identify. If you can’t explain to the safety officer exactly what’s burning and how big it should get, it isn’t ready to light.

One fire, one ignition officer, one plan

A training fire should have one person responsible for lighting it. The ignition officer lights it when the crews are in position, the safety officer is ready and the instructor in charge says go. Not before.

That also means one fire at a time in a structure. Two separate fires in the same building can trap a crew between them, and nobody wants to explain how that happened. Keep it simple enough that everyone on the ground knows where the fire is and what it’s going to do next.

Before ignition, the people running the burn should be able to answer a few questions without hesitating:

• What is burning, and how much of it?
• How big should this fire get, and how fast?
• Where is every crew, and what is their way out?
• What is the backup line, and who is on it?
• What is the signal to stop, and does everyone know it?

If any of those answers is “I think so,” you’re not ready.

Watch the fire, not just the students

Instructors are trained to watch students. We watch hand placement on the nozzle, body position, hose management and air consumption. That’s good. But somebody on that training ground has to be watching the fire the whole time.

Smoke color, smoke speed, heat at the door, what the ceiling is doing. A fire that’s growing faster than you planned is telling you something. Maybe the fuel was drier than expected. Maybe the ventilation changed. Maybe a door got opened that shouldn’t have been. Whatever the cause, the plan you briefed may not match the room anymore.

When that happens, the right call is to pull back and reset. No one is going to remember the evolution you stopped early. People will remember the one that got away from you. There’s no shame in shutting a burn down and starting over with a smaller fire and a better plan.

The standard is the starting point

NFPA 1403 exists because people got hurt and killed at training fires that were set up badly. A lot of what’s in it comes back to this one idea: control the fire. Know your fuel, know your structure, have a backup line, have a safety officer and have a plan you can actually execute.

Meeting the standard is the minimum. Instructors who do this well go further. They build fuel packages the same way every time so they know what to expect. They test the prop before students get there. They talk through the burn with the ignition officer and safety officer until all three see the same fire in their heads. That kind of preparation doesn’t look exciting, but it’s why their burns stay boring in the right ways.

The bottom line

Live fire is the best classroom we have, but only if the instructor is in charge of it. Decide on the fuel load. Put one person on ignition. Light one fire, watch it the whole time and be willing to shut it down. The students are there to learn from the fire. Make sure it’s teaching what you planned.

Stay safe, and train like it matters.

Eric Makowski