As part of MTI’s continuous improvement process, we’re re-evaluating our current Urban Fire/Rescue fitness assessment.
We wanted to develop a revised assessment that more accurately reflects the demands of a first or second due crew to a structure fire. These demands include initial hose pull, forcible entry, moving the charged line to the seat of the fire in a multi-story building, moving in a high-heat/low-vis environment, and the mayday or rescue situation of dragging someone to safety.
However, we know that departments and crews have varying obstacles to conducting fitness assessments, and want to hear your thoughts!
Here’s what we’ve developed:
Equipment: SCBA, Turnout Gear, Sandbag @ 40/60#, Step Up Box or Bench
Complete the following movements as quickly as possible in your SCBA and Turnout Gear:
- 4x 25m Shuttle Run carrying a 40/60# Sandbag. Drop and pick up at each turnaround point
- 10x Sandbag Clean and Press @ 40/60#
- 20x Sandbag Step Ups @ 40/60#
- 25m All Fours Sandbag Forward Drag @ 40/60#
- 25m All Fours Sandbag Reverse Drag @ 40/60#
Potential Issues and Obstacles
- This is essentially a work capacity assessment of fire ground physical demands, which we would expect to be completed within 5-10 minutes. Are we missing important baseline strength or endurance components that should be assessed for a more holistic assessment?
- We originally wanted to assess this while on air, but we’re concerned this would be a non-starter for crews that would need to rapidly conduct a bottle change in the event they received a call in the middle of the assessment.
- If conducted off air, is training in your SCBA/Turnout Gear an issue in being able to respond to a potential call?
- Any other thoughts or recommendations? Please email charlie@mtntactical.com