Useful is only what is accepted
The didactics and development team (DDT) of the International Fire Academy was and still stands in close contact with many tunnel fire services for the (further) development of our UTS Procedure. First, to use their operational experience. Secondly, to ensure a broad acceptance of the Procedure. After all, firefighter training is only useful if it is actually implemented in practice.
For this reason, our core tenet is that we only teach what the course participants are allowed to do in their fire services in compliance with their respective regulations, as well as with regard to their personnel and technical equipment.
It must be practical and simple
We train for the emergency. That is why we are asking ourselves to make the procedures shown practical and simple. That is why, in years of development work, the tactic has been compressed further and further into a few principles, such as the principle of <<extinguish in order to rescue>>. And we consciously work towards being able to handle all operational tasks with the simplest possible techniques. For example, with search sticks, which are very useful and yet easy to use and can be procured with little effort.
Supported by own experiments
Our students need to be able to rely on our Procedure, which is why we support it through experiments, research and constant feedback with the fire services.
For example, during fire tests in a disused construction site access tunnel, we investigated how quickly firefighters can walk in thick smoke. In addition, we support research by others, such as a medical stress study on breathing apparatus users, which was carried out in the Lungern training tunnel.
