Photo By Lori Bultman | Ali Hayes, a lead firefighter at Joint Base San Antonio, assesses the situation as the...... read more read more
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When firefighters respond to a call, good communication is essential. If the personnel responding speak different technical languages, the information could be incorrectly relayed or received. That is why 70 of Joint Base San Antonio’s 212 firefighters will soon begin earning Blue Card Incident Command certifications.
The Blue Card training program provides fire departments with a training and certification system that defines the best standard command practices for common, local, everyday strategic and tactical emergency operations, according to Blue Card.
“The Blue Card certification program is utilized by many of the major fire departments in the local area,” said Master Sgt. Ryan Willoughby, assistant chief of health and safety at JBSA. “It is absolutely critical that when we arrive on scene when called to help these departments on mutual aid calls, that we fit in immediately. Any time lost, or any confusion could have bad consequences.”
Avoiding those bad outcomes is imperative to maintaining a safe community, on and off base.
“Blue Card will help every member who is lucky enough to receive the training in their decision making, which can sometimes mean life or death for a responder or the people of the community they are serving,” Willoughby said.
In addition to improving communication skills, the program also teaches participants to become better incident commanders.
“This certification program is known worldwide and produces much more efficient incident commanders that will make better decisions on scene at any emergency across JBSA and in our nearby communities,” Willoughby said.
Blue Card certifications, when added to the myriad of training JBSA firefighters already receive, will strengthen the overall force.
“We teach several courses to our JBSA firefighters, like wildland fire management, water rescue, auto extrication and various aspects of fire response,” said Matthew Morris, supervisory firefighter at JBSA. “Our incident commanders also have vast training in incident command, but this training will sharpen our skills and teach us to utilize the same terminology and command structure used by our mutual aid partners in the local community.”
Being able to communicate well with other departments could be key to saving lives and structures.
“Me personally, I have been chasing this course my entire 14-year career knowing the impact it will make on not only my own career progression as an incident commander but the entire installation’s safety and well-being,” Willoughby said.
“It is of the utmost importance that we not only train like our mutual aid partners, but we integrate with them from time to time and practice these skills,” he said. “This course will bridge a gap in our involvement with our local community and provide a much more seamless response.”
Completing the training will be no small feat for those selected to participate.
“The first part of the training involves 40 to 50 hours of online coursework,” Morris said. “Then, we will have fire department personnel from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and the Schertz Fire Department, Texas, who are certified train-the-trainers come to Joint Base San Antonio to conduct a three-day course. The three days will be intensive and will include simulation and evaluation sessions to ensure we are all ready to be certified.”
Once certified, participants will still need to participate in continuing education and be re-certified every three years, but there is a plan in place to ensure this occurs.
“Several JBSA members who will become certified this time will go on to complete instructor training so they may help certify our personnel in the future, saving the cost of bringing in outside trainers,” Morris said, who hopes eventually all JBSA firefighters will become certified.
He is not the only one looking forward to JBSA incident commanders completing the certifications.
Luis Valdez, fire chief at the Converse, Texas, Fire Department, is also excited for JBSA personnel to obtain their certifications.
“Blue Card certification is essential in today’s fire service, especially in multiple-company responses involving mutual aid departments,” he said. “It provides a common base language and process for on-scene emergency management.”
While firefighters all over San Antonio train in different ways, Blue Card certifications allow them to work together, as a team.
“It allows us to train independently with a common theme and process, as well as together from the same playbook,” Valdez said. “Blue Card ensures that we are using the same language, including technical jargon that keeps our firefighters safe, and following best practices, and we are very grateful for JBSA to take this step in leadership in obtaining this Blue Card standard.”
| Date Taken: | 05.13.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 05.14.2020 10:07 |
| Story ID: | 369927 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 86 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, JBSA firefighters learning universal incident command skills, by Lori Bultman, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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