Firefighter Close Calls

Home of the Secret List

Recruit Firefighter Details Burns, Bullying During Training, 56 Other Related Incidents

 Billy    September 7, 2020    No Comments

NEW ZEALAND: A former professional firefighter recruit received serious burns and blistering to both hands during a live fire training exercise because the trainer failed to identify that his gloves were too small. And in another example, a recruit firefighter stubbed out a cigarette on a female recruit firefighter’s leg

The incidents occurred in February last year at Fire and Emergency New Zealand’ (FENZ) National Training Centre in Rotorua. An official investigation into the accident found 56 other burn injuries have been sustained in a five-year period, partly due to a lack of a clear, written safety briefing to be delivered ahead of the highly risky live fire exercise.

This contrasts with FENZ figures released to Nine to Noon under the Official Information Act showing just 29 recruits have sustained burn injuries during training in the last five years – which FENZ says were mostly minor and treated with basic first aid.

The former recruit said in his intake of 24, half sustained burns, three of them serious, but none were reported for fear of not passing the course.

“If you miss a half a day or a day of this intensive course you put yourself behind the eight-ball and you’re made aware of that from the start of the course.”

He said the accident happened in a live container fire exercise, where temperatures could get up to 600 to 700 degrees Celsius.

“We were doing the exercise, this was the second time I’d had done it. We went in and I could feel the heat in the container was really really high. I mentioned it on a number of a occasions to the trainer that was with me, but he kept on pushing me to continue. The more I continued, the more I felt the heat, to the point it was like I was trying to walk through a pane of very sharp glass – just unbearable pain.

“It got the point where I couldn’t even hold the hose. I was in mortal danger … my whole body was starting to shut down.”

The recruit said he kept going because he was afraid he would be kicked off the course.

“I didn’t have a choice. If I’d put that hose down I would have failed the course there and then.”

The accident report found the trainer failed to identify both that the recruit was wearing the wrong type of gloves and that they were two sizes too small.

The report said the injured recruit initially was left to go to the first aid room alone to dress his wounds, and that many of the staff at the National Training Centre were unaware of the correct emergency medical support policy.

The National Training Centre did not report the accident to National Headquarters, nor did it have a written safety briefing for the highly risky live fire exercise.

The report said the lack of an appropriately trained safety, health and wellbeing representative for the operational staff at the National Training Centre “led to basic and fundamental safety requirements, initiatives, training and reporting lines to be inadequate”.

The former recruit said he returned to the course with his burnt hands and was told he had to complete several assessments in order to pass. He said he asked a trainer if he ought to try to get his medical certificate altered to declare him fit to do so.

“I said to him are you guys telling me to go and change my medical certificate? He looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. He turned around and said to me ‘You need to do whatever you need to do to get through this course’.”

FENZ said each year 100 career recruits and 200 volunteer recruits attended training courses at the National Training Centre.

It said and it took the health, safety and wellbeing of all its people seriously.

In response to the accident, FENZ said it had implemented a uniform dressing chart that showed personnel how to correctly fit PPE correctly and safely, and qualified trainers carry out glove sizing to ensure that recruits have correctly fitting gloves.

“Live fire training provides the recruits with the opportunity to experience real fire behaviour and then learn to safety apply the techniques they are taught in real – but controlled – situations. This takes place in custom built structures and is closely monitored and administered by Fire and Emergency’s specialist instructors,” FENZ said.

Culture of bullying

The former recruit also spoke of a culture of bullying and sexual harassment from trainers to trainees at the National Training Centre.

“There was a lot of sexual stuff. There were very limited female recruits on the course. There was one in particular. You’d be climbing up ladders and … there’d be comments made about sexual positions and stuff like that.”

He also described an incident where recruit stubbed out a cigarette on a female recruit’s leg.

“But such is the environment that you keep stum about everything. You say nothing. You don’t put a single foot wrong, you don’t say anything to upset the training centre staff”

The man said trainers had derogatory nicknames for all the recruits but no one would speak out because they were fearful of not making it through the course.

After his burns healed, he wanted to return to complete the firefighter training but the training centre made it too difficult for him, he said.

After nearly a year on full pay and attempts to get him to resign he was dismissed for getting his medical clearance changed, he said.

The man said the culture within the National Training Centre was a contributor to the wider culture within FENZ.

#firefighter
#firefighters
#firerecruit
#bullying
#firechief

DETAILS FROM:
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/425415/recruit-firefighter-details-burns-bullying-during-training

 MISCELLANEOUS, News, News Firefighter Close Calls, Pass it On, Personal Survival, Safety and Survival, SAFETY, SURVIVAL & TRAINING DOWNLOADS, Training

Also check the most current issue of THE SECRET
LIST
(Click Here)

Sign Up for Secret List

For Email Newsletters you can trust.

Please Visit
Our Sponsor

GordonGraham.com


YOU NEED THIS BOOK!
(Trust Us)

400+ PAGES.
90+ CONTRIBUTORS!
100% of the royalties from the sales of "PASS IT ON" will be donated to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the Chief Ray Downey Scholarship Fund.
CLICK ABOVE TO ORDER YOUR COPIES TODAY!


 

Pass It On: The Second Alarm

BillyG-book-170



Posters

Click to Print

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Apparatus
    • Crashes
    • Struck By
  • Close Calls
  • Contact Us
  • Drills
  • FIRE & EMS CIVIL DISORDER
  • EMS Close Calls
  • Fire Communications
  • Firefighter Cancer
  • Firefighter History
  • Firefighter Staffing
  • Gallery
  • LODD Calendar
  • Modern Fire Behavior
  • NIOSH Lessons Learned
  • NIOSH LODD Reports
  • Pass It On
  • Personal Survival
  • Safety and Survival
  • Secret List
  • SOG’s
Submit Your
CLOSE CALLS /
NEAR MISS

 

LODD STATS

YearTotals
202063
201957
201885
201793
201689
201586
201494
2013101
201283
201181
201087
200993
2008118
2007118
Tweets by @alertpage

Search Site

In Memory Of

fdnyClick this patch

Contact Info

Email BillyG
info@firefighterclosecalls.com

Email Weekly Drill
Suggestions to

Drills@firefighterclosecalls.com

helmet

ragusa

Click Here for The 9/11 Widows’ and Victims’ Families Association

ssc

Click Here: Skyscraper Safety Campaign


Copyright © 2003-2021

Copyright Disclaimer: This non-commercial, non-profit and free use website is for the exclusive purpose of firefighter safety, health and survival. All photographs in these posts are either submitted or from aggregate Google and are used in the postings for the purposes of education, satire, and parody, criticism, news reporting, research, and scholarship consistent with 17 USC §107 and never due to intentional or malicious misuse of a copyright.