Twenty-five years ago, a tragedy changed the way firefighters train — or at least it should have. On Jan. 26, 1982, Engineer William J. Duran and Firefighter Scott L. Smith died during a training burn in an acquired structure in Boulder, Colo. The fire service responded with the development of NFPA 1403, Live-Fire Training Evolutions, which mandates a comprehensive and systematic approach to the planning and execution of live-fire training.

Other tragedies led to revisions in national standards, but the fire service has a very short memory when it comes lessons. Many departments have stopped passing down an oral history of the profession and have reverted to unsafe and dangerous practices. Nowhere is this more evident than in firefighter injury and death rates during training. Since the standard was adopted, there have been dozens of firefighters killed during training.

In many instances, a person facing exigent or emergency circumstances is allowed some judgement to do the best under difficult circumstances. For example, the two-in/two-out rule can be relaxed if an immediate life hazard exists and the first-arriving team can make a rescue entry. A fire investigator can execute warrantless search during firefighting operations to protect evidence. The Federal Communications Commission allows life-saving communications on any mode or frequency band even if the user is not licensed to operate on that band.

There are no emergency circumstances during training operations that warrant relaxing or modifying any safety standards. Firefighters aren't permitted to default to using their best judgement without complying to the exact safety processes and procedures. Fire service trainers must go above and beyond the day-to-day safety standards to eliminate all preventable risk, not just take a reasonable approach to minimize it. Fire departments want to approximate real-world conditions in training but they can't inject real risk and uncontrolled hazards at the expense of firefighter safety. Fire departments are treated differently by the courts when something preventable occurs and a trainee is injured or killed.

The live-fire training standard is the minimum acceptable standard. Some state fire training divisions mandate redundancy and backup systems throughout the training environment. Some require two separate pumping engines, dual independent water supplies, a safety plan and safety officer, and a backup entry team with communications, and charged and staffed attack lines for both the attack crews and backup teams before entering the structure.

All glass should be removed from doors and windows to facilitate entry and exit. Any doors or windows that are blocked or boarded up should be “toe nailed” so that they can be rapidly removed without tools.

Multiple fires are never allowed, nor can trainers ignite fires after the trainees have passed an area is not allowed. There should be no surprise or deception written into the scenario. Using live “victims” is prohibited by the standard, as well.

Having an adequate number of trained, certified and qualified personnel at the training site to perform the duties of incident commander, safety officer, water supply officer, rapid-intervention team leader, backup team manager and ignition officer also is required.

If fire trainers haven't been trained on the standard, arrange a class. It's prudent to review this standard with all employees and instructors. In both Lairdsville, N.Y., and Baltimore, fire trainers have been criminally charged, disciplined, demoted and fired for not following the standard. Ignorance of the standard and the “we have always done it this way” defense was and is futile.

Professional trainers will recognize that throwing trainees into unsafe and uncontrolled conditions is no way to train them. Many of the methods the fire service has subjected its recruits to were abusive and archaic. There is a time and place for unwavering obedience from recruits — that is during practical training. There is a place for exhorting them and getting their attention when they violate a principle that could get them killed. There is no reason to continue or condone a “baptism by fire” mentality.

Trainers who praise melted helmets, faceshields and company identifiers as badges of courage propagate dangerous live-fire training sessions. If a department's organizational culture supports these archaic attitudes at the drill tower, maybe it's time for an extreme makeover or personnel shuffle. The attitudes condoned at the training division will infect the entire organization. Are these messages and attitudes positive or negative?

If the fire service truly is committed to reducing firefighter line-of-duty-deaths by 25% by 2010, it needs to foster a positive, safe attitude in its recruits. Trainers need to show trainees respect and should go to great lengths to protect them during training. There is no excuse for any firefighter to die during training. Training is a planned, non-emergency event.

Criminal charges should be filed when trainees die on the training ground. Show me one other profession that kills it's recruits like the fire service does? There isn't another. All fire service leaders need to get a copy of NFPA 1403 and digest it. Make sure that all instructors are compliant and do a spot check of active training sessions. Throw the book at those freelancers who attempt to violate the standard for the sake of realism. Review department SOPs and make sure they comply with the standard.

On very rare occasions, the forces of nature form a perfect fire that catches us blindly and flatfooted and firefighters are killed. If fire protection safety and response systems work, this should occur less than 10 times per year in this vast nation. It should never occur in training.

In several investigations into the death of firefighter trainees during live-fire training, fire instructors were quoted as stating that the boss knew they did it this way, this is part of how they train, and the like. Don't let the evidence point to you when the next preventable death occurs. Better yet, prevent the deaths in the first place. Training and enforcing this one standard is a great first step. The fire service has paid a great price for this standard. Don't ignore the sacrifice of those who went before.

John Linstrom is executive director of The Linco Group LLC, an emergency services consultancy. He served in fire departments in California and Texas for 22 years and retired from career service as an assistant chief in 1999. A member of the Institution of Fire Engineers and the American College of Forensic Examiner's Institute, Linstrom is an adjunct faculty member for Texas A&M University, Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety, Barstow College and the National Fire Academy. Linstrom also serves as commander of a federal Medical Response team and has been involved in the National USAR Program since 1996.