A few weeks ago, an older firefighter – the kind with the long mustache and grizzled look – remarked at the kitchen table, "If there is ever a parking lot on fire, we are the best-trained fire department in the world."
The power of this statement is a sublime comment on our most common training modality — pulling lines and flowing water in parking lots.
As the amount of working fire activity goes down, the amount of training needed to maintain basic skill proficiency goes up. Many times, competing priorities emerge but the need to maintain basic proficiencies cannot be denied. Sometimes it is just easier to drive around to the back of the station and pull the lines off to test the probationary firefighter, but does that really accomplish anything?
The real fireground is full of friction, and friction is anything that can possibly interfere with the timely and efficient execution of tasks.