I approach this question from a position of some understanding, in that my father was a firefighter for 25 years, and he is very forthcoming in telling me about his experiences on the job. He has mentioned multiple times about being in situations, mostly medical, where at least one of the individuals involved in the incident was on PCP or some other stimulant drug.
My question is this: Would it be valuable for Firefighters to undergo some degree of self defense training, as per law enforcement? Any individuals with Fire or Police experience please enlighten me. I know that a Firefighter is not the primary responder in terms of subduing dangerous persons, but there are certainly times where such dangerous persons may take it upon themselves to assault a Firefighter who is on scene, especially under the influence of substances.
I think you are greatly over estimating the amount of self defense training a police officer has. Usually nothing after the academy unless he does it on his own time. The best way to take down a violent unarmed 200 lbs man is with 600-800 lbs of police not ninja techniques.
Since 1982 I’ve been required to receive at least 16 hours of refresher DAAT, (RISC, POSC, etc. Some states call it different things) during annual in-service training. While that isn’t a whole lot, it is more than nothing.
Just this last Wednesday I had a 4 hour in-service block of training that dealt with TEMS (Tactical Emergency Medical Service). More and more metro fire departments are training their entire staff in DAAT, and are training a handful of their staff in weaponry, including handguns and rifles. Most of the time those staff will not have weapons directly on them, but will have access to them. We were told that there could be a time in the future when firefighters and police officers will be one in the same.
It’s valuable for anyone to receive self-defense training. Anyone who deals with the public on a regular basis in extreme situations, even more so.
From that link:
“The City of Sunnyvale’s Department of Public Safety is one of the oldest fully-integrated Police, Fire, and Emergency Medical Services public entities in the United States. Every one of the Department’s Officers are fully qualified Police Officers, Firefighters, and EMT(b) professionals.”
I imagine that if there’s one city that does this, then there are others.
I just asked my Firefighter husband this question. He said in those types of situations, there are always police there, and the police will protect them. If it comes down to it, they keep their fire axe in hand. They do not take any self defence training.
That said, he is also on the rescue dive team. They do take a sort of self defence training in aquatic rescue. When a person is in a panic in the water, they often try to push down / climb the rescuer. The guys on the dive team learn how to get out of this situation so they don’t become a victim themselves.
Heck, I had to take 24 hours of Principles of Subject Control training because I work directly with inmates. I hope to rely on the guards if the need arises (it hasn’t in 10.5 years so far) but if I have to, I’m ready! My stethoscope can be weaponized…
It’s so cold it causes instant frostbite?