Charlotte firefighters had stretched 108,250 feet of hose by Oct. 26, about 20.5 miles, and fall in-service training wasn't over. Capt. Jason Jefferies, who is helping lead it, expects the total to pass 130,000 feet.
Every company in the department comes through the Charlotte Fire Training Academy. The day opens with company work. Engines stretch attack lines, set up water supply and get additional lines in place, while ladder companies run primary searches and window entries and use portable water extinguishers to find the fire as they search.
The afternoon is live fire in a 1,532-square-foot building laid out as a three-bedroom, two-bath ranch, with furniture, closets, a kitchen and children's toys in the way. Companies start in staging and get dispatched. Nothing is scripted, so company officers make the tactical calls. Each company runs the scenario twice, with the response order reversed the second time, so a crew that came in first due also works the same fire from a later assignment.
"You build mastery through repetition," Jefferies said. He also wants that repetition in bad conditions: "I believe that doing the basics under bad conditions, you know, heat, smoke, low visibility, prepares you for the times you're called to do that when it's the real deal."
The reversed second run is the easiest piece to copy. It costs one more evolution, and every officer works the same building from two different assignments.
