Recently, the Thursday Night Duty Crew worked with several Probationary Members to help them complete various objectives of the department's Pre-Essentials Program. The Probies connected to hydrants, stretched hoselines, threw ladders, and set-up scene lights - all under the watchful eye of duty crew members. The Pre-Essentials Program is a recent addition to the department's training of new "fire" members. For those folks who have been around awhile - it is very similar to the old MFRI "pre-basic" program. The goal is to get folks on the rigs while they wait to be accepted into a Fire Fighter I course. The Pre-Essentials Program DOES NOT REPLACE formal fire training. It was simply designed to allow probies to learn some basic skills so that they can ride "extra" on the engines and assist in exterior operations at a fire scene. Each probie is assigned a preceptor to help him or her succeed in the program. Thus far, the Pre-Essentials has been very successful thanks to everyone who has helped out with the training.
Charging the line! Probie has to make the hook-up by himself and get water to the pumper.
