SWP - Live Fire Training Evolutions

Planning, setting up, running and closing out any training evolution with real fire: in an acquired structure, a fixed burn building, a container or flashover simulator, a gas-fired prop, or an exterior prop such as a vehicle or dumpster. It applies to career and volunteer members, recruits, instructors and visiting instructors. It also applies to the department’s members at another agency’s burn: the department’s senior officer present withdraws its members if the host’s plan does not meet this procedure. Cold-smoke and simulated-fire training is outside this procedure and uses Part A of Form - Training Evolution Risk Assessment and Live Fire Go-No-Go. The procedure follows the live fire standard (NFPA 1403, 2024), which is being consolidated into the fire service training standard (NFPA 1400, 2026), and the training chapter of the health and safety standard (NFPA 1550, 2024, ch. 7). (S1 wherever the department burns)

• Unplanned fire growth, flashover and rollover, worst with fuels whose burning behaviour nobody has tested: synthetic furnishings, foam, plastics, flammable liquids.
• Burns and steam burns; loss of egress; disorientation in smoke.
• Collapse of an acquired structure; floors, stairs and roofs weakened by earlier burns.
• Heat strain, dehydration and sudden cardiac events. Most training deaths are cardiac, and heat illness is the next cause (USFA, 2025; NIOSH, 2007).
• Low air inside the structure; SCBA or PASS failure.
• Lost accountability, a crew out of radio contact, a rapid intervention crew drawn into the drill.
• Gas leaks and failed ignition at gas-fired props.
• Repeated contaminant exposure for instructors who enter many evolutions in a day.
• Drift: small departures that become normal because nothing has gone wrong yet (Vaughan, 1996). The investigations of live fire training deaths find many small departures from the standard at once rather than one large one; in the reference case, a recruit crew was sent past a fire on the floor below to a fire set above it in an acquired structure (NIOSH, 2008, report F2007-09).

Full ensemble, SCBA with a full cylinder and an armed PASS for every person who enters the hazard zone, instructors included; a portable radio for the instructor-in-charge, the safety officer, every instructor and every crew; accountability tags or a board at entry control; an air horn for the evacuation signal; attack and backup lines sized in the plan; a pump and operator; a primary and, where available, a separate backup water source; a rapid intervention kit with spare air and a universal air connection; an EMS unit; rehab supplies matched to the weather (shade or warmth, water, seating, cooling); a thermal imager for each interior instructor where the department has them; the thermocouple readout in burn buildings; a gas detector at gas props; decon supplies (wipes, bags, water, clean station wear).

1. The instructor-in-charge writes the pre-burn plan in Part C of Form - Training Evolution Risk Assessment and Live Fire Go-No-Go: site plan, fire room, fuel type, quantity and location, egress, apparatus and water supply, communications, accountability, EMS and rehab, weather limits, evacuation signal, roles by position. Lead time: at least seven days for a fixed facility and 30 days for an acquired structure (department choice; record it).
2. Acquired structure: the acquisition checklist (Training Safety and Live Fire Program toolkit T5) is complete and signed, including written owner permission, asbestos clearance and written confirmation that every utility is disconnected.
3. Fixed facility or prop: the annual inspection is current and the pre-use inspection is booked for the morning (SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection).
4. The roster shows every participant’s prerequisites, fit test date and medical status for the exertion, taken from the records system and not from memory; the instructor register confirms every instructor’s qualification.
5. Burn permit, provincial burn restrictions, and notice to dispatch, police, neighbours and utilities as the plan requires.
6. The safety officer reviews and signs the plan. Any change after signature goes back to the safety officer.

7. Decision point: is the weather inside the plan’s limits (heat, wind, lightning, cold)? If not, change the plan or cancel.
8. Set up: apparatus, water supply (primary and backup both flowed), backup line charged, flowed and staffed, rapid intervention crew in position, EMS and rehab ready, entry control running.
9. Pre-burn briefing for everyone: objectives, roles, the evacuation signal (default: three blasts on the air horn and “evacuate” on the radio, then a personnel accountability report), the emergency plan, the hospital route, hydration, and the rule that anyone can stop the burn and anyone can leave it.
10. Walk-through: every participant and instructor walks the structure or prop and sees the fire room, the fuel, every egress route, the backup line and the rapid intervention crew. The instructor asks each crew: “What would make you stop today?”
11. Gear check in pairs: ensemble complete and in service condition, SCBA full, PASS armed, hood on. Nobody in retired or non-compliant gear.
12. Radio check on the assigned channel; tags in; personnel accountability report.
13. The ignition officer places the fuel under the instructor-in-charge’s direction; the safety officer checks type, quantity and location against the plan. Nothing that is not on the fuel list is inside the building.
14. Decision point: go or no-go. The instructor-in-charge and the safety officer read the card in Part D aloud. Every line is yes or the burn does not proceed. Both sign.

15. The ignition officer lights one fire, on the instructor-in-charge’s order, after the safety officer confirms the card. In an acquired structure there is only ever one fire at a time.
16. Each instructor stays with the crew, watches fire conditions, the crew’s air and signs of heat strain, and keeps the ratio.
17. The safety officer watches the structure and the people, not the drill: smoke, heat, the backup line, the clock, the weather.
18. Crews leave with air to spare. A low-air alarm inside ends that crew’s evolution and is reported as a near miss before the end of the session.
19. Decision point: unplanned fire growth, a missing member, an injury, structural signs or lost water? Sound the evacuation signal; everyone out; personnel accountability report; the rapid intervention crew deploys on the instructor-in-charge’s order.

20. Personnel accountability report; every participant and instructor through rehab before re-entry (SWP - Rehabilitation at Incidents and Training). Anyone with symptoms does not go back in.
21. Cool-down, then the structure or prop is reinspected and the result recorded before the next fire. Fuel is restocked only as the plan says.
22. Recount the ratio and the roles. Rotate instructors so nobody exceeds the plan’s maximum interior evolutions per day.

23. Final extinguishment and overhaul on air. An acquired structure is left under a fire watch or demolished as the plan says.
24. Preliminary exposure reduction on site, gear bagged, shower within the hour, and an exposure report for every participant and instructor (SWP - On-Scene Preliminary Exposure Reduction; SWP - Exposure Reporting).
25. Debrief with everyone using the after-action review questions. Record every injury, near miss, stop call and self-removal in Part E of the form, and file the plan, roster, signed card, weather and rehab logs and thermocouple record.

• Mayday: as on the fireground (SWP - Mayday). The rapid intervention crew deploys; everyone else evacuates and reports; EMS stands to.
• Burn or other injury: EMS on site treats; the evolution stops; the member does not return to training that day. Any burn needing treatment is a Tier 2 review (Incident Investigation and Learning Program).
• Collapse or structural failure: evacuate, account for everyone, set an exclusion zone, no re-entry.
• Gas prop leak or failure: emergency stop, isolate the gas supply, evacuate, call the gas fitter. No reuse until the fitter certifies the prop.
• Heat illness or cardiac symptoms: stop, cool or warm, EMS assessment, defibrillator ready. The safety officer may end the day on heat alone.
• Lightning: all outdoor activity stops until the plan’s all-clear interval has passed.

The instructor-in-charge files the completed form (all parts), the roster and the logs in {{Records system}} within five working days. They are kept for the period the program sets; seven years is the default. Injuries, exposures and near misses are reported before the end of the session on Form - Injury and Incident Report or Form - Near-Miss and Good-Catch Report, triaged through the learning system, and reported to the regulator where the law requires (J08 Incident Reporting and Investigation). The training division sends a burn summary to the Training Safety team’s quarterly update.

Instructors-in-charge, live fire instructors and safety officers complete annual recurrency: fire behaviour, flashover recognition, this procedure, the year’s training injuries and the drift list in the program (section 5.10). Participants are briefed on this procedure before their first burn. The Training Safety team reviews the procedure after each burn season and after any injury, stop call or Tier 2 event, starting with a learning-team session with the instructors and recruits involved. Sign-off: the program manager. Consulted: the JOHSC.

• Program: Training Safety and Live Fire Program sections 5.1, 5.4, 5.5 and 5.10; toolkit T2, T3 and T5.
• Policy: Policy - Training and Competency.
• Procedures: SWP - Training Tower and Prop Inspection; SWP - SCBA Donning, Use and Air Management; SWP - Rehabilitation at Incidents and Training; SWP - Mayday; SWP - Accountability and Personnel Accountability Reports.
• Forms and audit: Form - Training Evolution Risk Assessment and Live Fire Go-No-Go; Checklist - Training Safety and Live Fire.

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.