The Muscatine Fire Department conducted a team building exercise last week incorporating multiple facets of fire ground essentials including working under stressful conditions on dexterity and being able to focus on small muscle movements. Stressful conditions could lead to less muscle oxygenation and often trigger the “fight or flight” scenario in a firefighter’s mind.
Teams were created and worked through five stations during the event.
The first station had firefighters hoist ladders to the second story of the hose tower at Station 1, make entry from the ladder into the tower, and deploy a crosslay to the third floor and spray water. Once completed, the hose, ladder, and all members of the team were brought back to ground level.
The second station was an egg cone to cone relay where all members of the team moved one egg to the next cone in a relay style. For the third station, firefighters were in full gear, including gloves, and charged with screwing nuts on bolts. The first team member would screw the nuts down on four bolts, and the second member would screw the nuts back off. This would be repeated for all members of the team.
Firefighters wore the SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) mask with the voice amplifier on for the fourth station. One team member would draw a card with a type of knot on it and would then instruct their partner on how to tie the knot without stating what the knot is.
For the final station, two members of the team were dispatched to the second-floor dayroom at Station 1 and conducted a search with a Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC) to find a tool that had been heated up. The search had to be methodical and a primary search.
