One more last working class hero

Initial-training teaches firefighters about the tools of their job, but once on a watch it is almost inevitable (and
formally and informally accepted) that probationers must turn to experienced firefighters to learn about firefighting:
The Job.
Having prepared such a hypothesis I am going to immediately challenge it and suggest that one way probationers
may avoid the authority of the informal hierarchy would be to learn about firefighting from the wide range of Fire Service
Manuals. Firefighters do not think book learning can do this, as the following answers indicate:
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Fred:
Sinclair:
Don:
Pete:
No instantly, you don’t learn to be a fireman from that.
[My emphasis].
Like, most of the blokes have got experience don’t know what is in the book, when it comes to what’s
on the fireground.
(Brigade one, leading firefighter, 23 years’ service, age 44, in a focus group).
You can read a book, but how much of that is actually useful practically? Em, yeah, I mean you can
read all the manuals till you can’t take anymore information in, but at the end of the day you learn from
the guys around you.
(Brigade one, firefighter, eleven years’ service, age 33).
Books are for the exams I think, ain’t they? The practical side, is from the men, at the jobs or whatever
it may be. You learn from watching and helping them.
(Brigade one, firefighter, 18 years’ service, age 43). [My emphasis].
Firefighters are clear; learning about firefighting is handed down from other firefighters, “the men.” Fred explains where:
Fred:
On the back of the motor [fire appliance] basically. Bum on the seat. That’s where you learn it, out on
the fireground. That’s where you learn your trade. … To extinguish the fire you have got to get-in there
and do it. That’s the thing, it’s no good holding back, it can go up into the roof or spread to another
room.
[My emphasis and insert].
Fred uses some typical fire service language to reiterate what the others have said. He then indicates that to put out the
fire you must get-in: a term so synonymous with firefighting that it led to the naming of this chapter. Fred also explains
that you must get-in as quick as possible otherwise the fire will continue to spread. Alf speaks as if for all firefighters:
Alf:
How to be a fireman? There is no training school on this earth that can teach you how to do that. They
can teach you the basics and then you have to apply those basics to learn how to do your job and the
skills that you need to do The Job. I’m still learning, 25 years’ down the road, I’m still learning.
(Brigade three, firefighter, 25 years’ service, age 46). [My emphasis].
This chapter will develop Alf’s view that learning to be a firefighter is experiential and ongoing to suggest this involves a
reflexive process through which firefighters develop protocols for firefighting. One protocol is that firefighters must
always try to improve their firefighting skills, another is that firefighters must gel as a team and support each other. Jo
explains:
Jo:
I am still learning now. This morning I had a job. Yesterday I had a job. I lay in bed thinking what
could I have done better, what did I do wrong, could I have improved on what I did, should I have been
quicker, slower, lower, higher, faster whatever? Eh, so you come out of training school and you should
be backing someone up. You’re part of a team; you need to be able to gel with anybody on that watch,
be an efficient crew. Whatever you do and as much as I rely on somebody else, they would be relying
on me.
(Female firefighter). [My emphases].
Jo’s answer provides a considerable insight. Jo is reflecting on what she has done almost as if she is still at training centre
and has to pass a test, but Jo has been a firefighter for a long time and should have no test to pass.
It became very clear that firefighters were of a similar view, that after initial-training provides the “basics”, you
mostly learn The Job alongside your peers: “bums on the seat”; “hands-on experience”; “no training school can teach
you”; “part of a team”; “relying” were typical examples to explain how firefighters learn about firefighting. The fact that
Alf is “still learning” underwrites Jo’s approach; firefighting is an ongoing test. Using the data so far reviewed I am able
to develop the earlier version of Hypothesis 1: