Checklist - Training Safety and Live Fire

This program checklist audits Training Safety and Live Fire Program (FSSMS-PRG-08), the training safety clauses of Policy - Training and Competency (FSSMS-POL-11), SWP - Live Fire Training Evolutions, SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection and Form - Training Evolution Risk Assessment and Live Fire Go-No-Go: program governance; risk assessment and the training safety officer; instructor qualification; participants; live fire evolutions; acquired structures; props, towers and burn buildings; driver training grounds; heat, hydration and rehab; training injuries, near misses and drift; records; psychological safety and the accountability loop. The question in every item is whether training is the safest work members do, because it is the one place the department controls every variable.

It is the program team’s instrument for the annual appraisal and for spot-audits. In the annual internal audit it deepens items 5.6.1 to 5.6.8 of Checklist - Training and Competency (category 5); the audit plan states once whether this checklist replaces those items or is scored on the spare row 21 of the roll-up worksheet, so no item is counted twice. Category 5 keeps the system questions (needs analysis, certification floor, orientation, supervisor competency, the records system, volunteer access). Where the department does not burn, sections E and F are marked not applicable with the reason; where its members attend another agency’s burns, items 10, 13 and 16 to 27 are scored on the department’s check of the host’s plan.

The CFAI column crosswalks each item to the 10th edition performance indicator where one applies (CPSE, 2019); core competencies are marked CC. The 10th edition has no discrete training safety indicator, so the program supplies the evidence for the training and safety criteria listed.

1. Score D, I and E for each item 0 to 3, then derive the item score (01 Audit Program section 5).
2. Both-required evidence codes (D+I, D+O, O+I) need each type before I can exceed 1.
3. Weights C3, K2, S1; L items must score at least 2 or the checklist fails its legislated floor.
4. Score = sum(weight x item score) / sum(weight x 3). The effectiveness index uses E.
5. Record a finding, owner and due date for every item below 3, and give each finding its grade and priority (01 Audit Program section 6): a major nonconformity is P1 (Imminent) or P2 (Serious) by risk, a minor nonconformity P3 (Moderate), an opportunity for improvement P4 (Improvement). Every finding enters the Corrective Action Register within five working days (a P1 the day it is found), with the due dates its priority sets.

Loop test. Pick a training defect reported in the last year, such as a tower guardrail that moved under load. Trace it: the floor tagged out that day and the defect logged as a P1 the same day, with the fire chief and JOHSC co-chairs told within 24 hours; facilities as owner with a plan inside two working days; a reply to the reporter within five working days; every guardrail on the structure checked; the repair load-checked and the item closed inside seven days, or inside the one extension to 30 days the fire chief may grant while the floor stays tagged out; a guardrail item added to the annual inspection; a change notice to every instructor; closure verified and reported to the JOHSC at its next meeting.

Answer from observation or interview only; record the evidence.

1. Watch a live fire or high-hazard evolution from briefing to debrief: was the card read aloud and signed, did everyone walk through, did the safety officer do nothing but safety, and was the ratio held?
2. Ask two instructors: “Tell me about the last evolution you stopped, slowed or changed because something did not match the plan. What happened next?”
3. Ask three participants, one of them a volunteer: “If you were struggling in there, what would you do, and what would happen to you?” and “Have you raised a concern about training, and did you hear back?” Record whether each names a person and a response.

1. (Instructor-in-charge) Walk me through your last burn day from arrival to teardown.
2. (Safety officer) What did you watch, and what would have made you stop it?
3. (Instructor) Who decides the fuel load, and what is on the list?
4. (Recruit) What did the walk-through show you, and where was the backup line?
5. (Training officer) Show me the instructor register and the last adjunct you added.
6. (Lead instructor) Show me today’s risk assessment and the pre-use check for this prop.
7. (Facilities) Show me the burn building’s last inspection and the gas fitter’s certificate.
8. (Rehab lead) Who was held out last session, and why?
9. (Observe) The go/no-go card being read and signed.
10. (Observe) A pre-use prop inspection.
11. (Everyone) Which of the drift points are normal here?
12. (Everyone) What one thing about training safety would you fix first?

Report by section, never as one number. Findings go to the Corrective Action Register; the program manager owns them until verified closed.

This chapter relies on the following legal requirements, which differ by province and territory. Check your jurisdiction’s section on each topic page before adopting it.