Course

Course Reviews

Favorable remarks from students at Redding CA 5/30 - 31, 1995 about CPS 8 hour course.

Smokejumper 17 years experience:

I believe it is imperative that this course should be utilized to the fullest extent possibly as a replacement for other fire behavior courses. This course seems to reduce the impractical and complex information usually presented in IAP's and other fire behavior classes. and cuts it all down to a simplified nuts and bolts user friendly approach to Intelligent fire suppression. It is something we have sorely needed for a very long time. It does require some re-thinking on the part of fire managers / Incident Commanders, however since changes of attitude don't come easy this should not discourage the Campbells and it is important not to dilute the presentation because of hostile responses to the program.

The single greatest beauty of this system is its user friendly simplicity which for some reason my colleges view as being immature or child like. Obviously some of them have never heard of the KISS principle. The more complicated you make something the harder it is to understand and use and in fire suppression complexity can kill you because you tend to focus in on irrelevant details and not on the big picture. I believe it is essential that all fire personal receive the full 40 hour course. We do not get enough tactical fire training. Our learning curve is based 98% on field experience where if we come out of it alive and when we tell ourselves we must have done the right thing and think this attitude is a dangerous form of self deception. Run with this Doug and don't let some peoples emotions hold you back. You might very well save some of us who work for "can-do" attitude fire managers who don't seem to know enough to keep us alive.

Firefighter, 10 years experience:

I felt this was an excellent program that I would highly recommend to all firefighters. I do not believe that the intent of this program is to say the old way of teaching this topic is obsolete it is a new and innovative approach to the same topic. This is an excellent supplement program to the traditional S-290 /S-390 training that I felt was of great usefulness to me. I have learned a lot in just 8 hours and would really like to see this expanded to at least 16 hours. Doug is an excellent speaker that is committed to firefighter safety which is the number 1 priority!!!

Hot Shot Supervisor, 25 years experience:

I think the FS (R-5) should take a serious professional and constructive analysis of this (CPS) concept and where it links/ stands alone in the conventional fire behavior training curriculum. I would like to have the fire behavior trainers, zone level, sit through the 40 hour course and determine the "CPS" application opportunities at the zone level and or squad boss level. This concept compliments existing fire behavior training through reinforcement and simplification. Linked with LCES, fire orders, 18 Situations, this concept gives the firefighter another tool/perspective in determining safe appropriate fire suppression methods. The course/concept really makes you think and validate conventional thought processes. We need to field test this concept on real fires this fire season and in the future. This concept needs to be validated along side conventional methods. If this idea is given an opportunity I think fire management will appreciate and value what this (CPS) concept has to offer towards fireline safety.

Firefighter, 35 years experience:

You need to stress that S-290, 390 ect are theory. You are making observations that can be used on the ground, not in the classroom. Both have a place but theory has been in the forefront of training. I've seen everything you have talked about. You're right, we need the language.

Firefighter, 20 years experience:

Keep stressing that you can minimize some of the factors when predicting fire behavior. The whole concept of the sun heating the fuel and fuel heating the air seems to be hard for some folks to grasp. Maybe you don't have to put much emphasis on that since the end result is still hot and dry. Hope that makes sense.

Firefighter, 4 years experience:

The info. of this session was excellent, very informative. I believe all Hotshot crews should have the opportunity to sit through this class. The Campbell's have done an excellent job!