Instructors at the armed forces' fire/rescue academy found that the new nfpa 1006 standard and some Canadian colleagues were both very helpful in developing an updated, accredited technical rescue curriculum.

For years, the Rescue Technician course at the Department of Defense Fire Academy, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, emphasized building construction, ventilation, aircraft rescue, structural rescue and a five-station scba emergency operations test, even though these areas were already being taught in the academy's basic apprentice course.

There was no reason for the redundancy other than the fact that no guiding standard existed that would dictate what a rescue technician should be qualified to do. Adoption of the newly established nfpa 1006, Rescue Technician Professional Qualifications, has radically changed the curriculum, however, and as a result, the dod Fire Academy can now produce rescue technicians with mission-capable skills that they will need in the line of duty.

From old to new The dod Fire Academy and a team of fire service instructors from the Manitoba (Canada) Emergency Services College joined forces to create a Rescue Technician course compliant with nfpa 1006. The new course was written over a four-month period shortly after nfpa 1006 was released in January 2000, and the first students entered training in June 2000.

The dod Fire Academy trains future firefighters from all four branches of the armed forces. The academy currently produces approximately 2,700 graduates annually: 1,400 from a basic apprentice course and 1,300 in advanced courses. Of the advanced course students, approximately 450 are trained in the Rescue Technician course each year.

The decision to use nfpa 1006 as the standard for the new Rescue Technician course was an easy one. In 1991, the Air Force adopted the nfpa as its governing regulatory body for all fire protection training issues. Therefore, as soon as the nfpa either updates existing professional qualification standards or releases new ones, the dod Fire Academy is obligated to rewrite its courses to comply with them.

Prior to 1991, each branch of service had its own set of standards for fire training. These training standards were subjective, independently derived and poorly suited to the task of producing mission-ready dod firefighters. In fact, dod fire protection training wasn't even consolidated until a few years ago; each branch had previously maintained separate training facilities. The Air Force and Army moved to Goodfellow afb in 1994, the Marine Corps joined them in 1996, and the Navy came on board (figuratively) in 1998.

Since 1991, implementation of nfpa professional qualification standards to govern fire protection training has been extremely successful. The best explanation why this is so is taken directly from Appendix C of nfpa 1006. "The primary benefit ... is to provide both public and private sectors with a framework of job requirements for the fire service. Other benefits include enhancement of the profession ... organizational growth and development, and standardization of practices."

NFPA, ISD and JPRs Because the dod Fire Academy has no choice in whether to adopt nfpa standards, a logical question to ask is how the nfpa pro-qual standards contribute to the curriculum development process. The answer is that the standards (in this case, 1006) provide the foundation for an Air Force - specific process known as Instructional Systems Development.

isd provides guidance for developing and modifying curricula for both new and existing technical training courses. More specifically, isd provides a mechanism to convert desired standards into specific tasks, which are then broken down into measurable objectives. In this manner, the isd process closely resembles the information provided in Appendix C of nfpa 1006.

Fortunately, in the dod fire protection career field, reliance on nfpa pro-qual standards greatly simplifies the isd process, because the standards are written as Job Performance Requirements. jprs define the minimum proficiency standards required for a given position and are broken down into three primary components:

1) the task to be performed,

2) the equipment needed to successfully complete the task and

3) the performance evaluation standard for that task.

The dod Fire Academy instructors' exposure to the isd process greatly enhances their ability to break down jprs into their components.

The end result is that nfpa 1006 provides broad objectives, which are translated by the isd process into specific lesson material. The information provided in nfpa 1006 significantly improves the curriculum development process for dod fire protection training.

Cross-border help Preparations for the Rescue Technician course rewrite began in January 2000, shortly after nfpa 1006 was published. The dod Fire Academy was in the process of obtaining International Fire Service Accreditation Congress accreditation of its Fire Inspector II and Fire Officer II courses.

The chairman of the ifsac site team was Doug Popowich, the director of the Manitoba Emergency Services College. Hugh Pike, the Chief of Firefighter Certification for the Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency, attended the accreditation visit to observe the proceedings. He also happened to be the chairman of the 1006 Technical Committee.

After the accreditation portion of the visit was completed, Pike initiated an informal discussion on the upcoming rewrite of the Rescue Technician course based on the newly released 1006 standard. Popowich offered the services of his instructors to assist in course development. The Canadian instructors possessed expertise in all aspects of nfpa 1006, Chapter 4 (Rope Rescue), but it was their knowledge of highline operations that proved to be invaluable.

Together, with additional instructors from the U.S. Air Forces, Europe Rescue School, this group forged the first-ever international alliance to create an ifsac-accredited course written to an nfpa professional qualification standard. During the four-month rewrite, the international team developed over 600 computer-based test questions, over 300 presentation slides, and more than 2,500 pages of lesson plans and study materials. ifsac accredited the Fire Academy's Rescue Technician course in May 2000 and classes began in early June.

What to leave in or out The Rescue Technician course now taught at the dod Fire Academy is 15 academic days long and focuses on nfpa 1006 Chapters 3 (jprs), 4 (Rope Rescue), 6 (Vehicle and Machinery Rescue) and 7 (Confined Space Rescue). These chapters were selected based on the needs of the field, resource constraints and the time available for training.

The chapters not currently included in the curriculum are 5 (Surface Water Rescue), 8 (Structural Collapse Rescue) and 9 (Trench Rescue). These chapters aren't taught at the Fire Academy due to the current needs of the field and resource constraints. Plans are in progress to consider adding chapters 8 and 9 as an additional Rescue Technician course.

nfpa pro-qual standards have been important to the development of dod firefighter training. In particular, the relatively recent publication of nfpa 1006 has instituted a level of professionalism and standardization that previously didn't exist in the dod Fire Academy's Rescue Technician course. The guidance contained in nfpa 1006 is more complete and more relevant for today's dod rescue technicians, and it played an integral role in the new training curriculum.

The jprs given in nfpa 1006 form a key foundation for how the Air Force develops its training courses. The exhaustive isd process would have been much more difficult if not for the information in 1006.

Converting these standards into viable training courses isn't an easy task. In the case of nfpa 1006, an international assault was required to meet the challenge of creating a new dod Rescue Technician course. Nonetheless, the dod's decision to abide by nfpa pro-qual standards in training development ensured the highest quality product, and that's what made implementing the standards worthwhile.