TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Inspired by the year of competition initiative set by the Tinker Installation Commander, Tinker Fire and Emergency Services are holding monthly training competitions.
The station with the best time receives a commemorative belt named the “Chief’s Award” to take back to their respective station for the month. Each station has an opportunity to compete and build their skills through setup drills as if they are in an emergency incident but in a timed evolution training scenario to strengthen their abilities.
Tinker Fire and Emergency Services is placing greater emphasis on the Mission Command philosophy to empower subordinate decision-making and enable flexibility, initiative, and responsiveness in the accomplishment of commander’s intent. “The reason we are doing this is to centralize command and decentralize execution. Practical evolutions build up trust in our crews through standard incident priorities, life safety, incident stabilization, and property conservation.”, said Nathan Schooling, Installation Fire Chief, “Through repetition they end up building their skills. We made a competition out of it to build enthusiasm.”
Training follows the Mission Ready Airmen framework, from rookie firefighter all the way to fire chief. Firefighters are multi-disciplined in All-Hazards incident response, trained in Emergency Medical Technician basics, hazardous materials, airport firefighting, structural firefighting, technical rescue, incident command, Rescue Task Force, and train daily as a multi-skilled team to meet numerous critical mission requirements.
“As our firefighters progress through the ranks, they are already training for the next position, so once fully trained they are highly adaptable,” said Jeremy Thomas, Tinker Fire and Emergency Services deputy fire chief. “From a fully trained firefighter or even a company officer, they have knowledge and skills of most other positions in the department so we can utilize them in different positions to accomplish the mission of saving lives, property, and the environment.”
June’s scenario uses the Aircraft Rescue Firefighting trucks which specialize in aircraft fires. The exercise consists of a single aircraft on the ground with smoke in the fuselage. Firefighters are “toned out” from dispatch to the incident.
Tinker Fire and Emergency Services have a special aircraft to train on, nicknamed Patches. Patches is a retired KC-135 aircraft that was saved from demolition and allows firefighters to conduct highly realistic training, even to spray water inside the aircraft.
The competition has been a morale building activity and has been beneficial to the members of Tinker Fire and Emergency Services.
The best time for the ARFF Initial Company Operations (Fire Attack) on an Aircraft Fire for the month of June went to Station 4.
Follow Tinker AFB on social media to see who wins next month.